Nature Amazes Me Again.

After all the rain we have had during the week the rivers in the Dales are still looking bleak as the land soaked most of the water up and what water did make it to the river was soon gone and they are back to where they were last weekend.

I decided to just go for a couple of hours and see what I could tempt so I timed it that I would be on the water when the hatches came out last week.

I arrived and the first thing I saw was an upstream wind putting a dampener on things, so decided to head to a part of the river which was a bit more sheltered with some woods and almost instantly I seen hatching flies, large dark olives if my entomology is up to speed, but not only large dark olives hatching yellow sally's were also coming off in good numbers but after sitting for 10 minutes observing not many fish were feeding on them.




I started working my way down the side of the faster water and almost instantly par were intercepting my flies

What happened next I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, The Swifts and Sand Martins were taking full advantage of the hatching flies and plucking flies from the surface of the water just as they were hatching and thats exactly what happened to my artificials not once but twice, a Sand Martin came down and plucked my artificial from the surface of the water, lifted them about 5 foot into the air and when it felt the resistance of the line dropped the fly again, something that has never happened to me in all my years of fishing and was quite a sight to watch. You know you have your fly choice correct if the birds are plucking the artificials from the surface. Im constantly being amazed by nature and the antics which happen.

Continuing on the side of the faster runs the par kept coming and gave great sport seeing as not much else was taking advantage of the hatch, I stopped taking pictures as they just kept coming and if I had continually taken the camera out I would have spent more time putting the thing in & out of my waistcoat than fishing, I walked upstream to another part of the river with over 20 par coming to my hand on that small stretch.





As I walked I caught a glimpse of the Geese and its 6 goslings in the area where I had discovered the nest so it was great to see that they all had hatched and were doing good, Also catching my eye were the first monkey flowers of the year on the river, my favourite wild flower by far.

I spotted a trout which had come right out the water when it rose so  a few casts in its direction before it rose and took my artificial, the fish were getting bigger as I walked upstream and more stunning in colours too.







A few more casts into some faster water and another trout surrendered to my artificial, the best of the day so far.

A few more fish were rising now and it was good to see that a few fish were now starting to take advantage of the hatch. A couple more small par and a single small grayling before this small but very solid fish took my fly.








The hatch was beginning to die off again as the wind had now reached this particular part of the river and the fish were very sporadic in rising but I did manage another one which was rising hard against some overhanging willows and after a few duff casts I managed to drop the fly exactly where I wanted it and it obliged me.

I hung around for a few minutes but didn't see another fish rise and the wind was putting the hatch down so I decided to call it for another week, a few hours snatched which turned out again excellent, If I had to count all the fish that came to hand & net today it would easily be in excess of 30 fish, you cant get any better than that for a few hours and Im very thankful of the sport.