Monday 15 May 2017

Nature's Medicine

After a hard week at work and a health issue that has been plaguing me this week I was really looking forward to a few hours on the river,  just to recharge my batteries if nothing else.

I was hit with the dilemma of very low water in most most of our Dales rivers, so opted to head a but further afield knowing that the water levels would be a bit better.

I arrived on the river just after 1030am and the first thing I noticed was the brisk upstream wind and at times causing whitecaps to blow back upstream, but I was determined to have a good day no matter what the results were.

I spotted a tell tale sign that there was a hatch coming off the water, as the birds were making a big fuss over the hatching insects so headed up to see what all the fuss was about, and sure enough quite a few olives were hatching on this particular part of the river with some yellow sally's thrown in for good measure. There wasnt many fish looking up even though the hatch was a good one and the fish that were rising were very sporadic.



Opting to take the dry fly approach I tackled up and cast to where a fish had just risen and almost immediately was slam dunked by a lovely fish which disappeared with my fly.
1 fly down, 2 left in the box, I soon re tackled and was casting again at another sporadic riser and again it took the fly almost immediately but this time it wasnt as big as the first and soon after the first trout was in the net.





It felt nice to be back into a trout and am sure some of my aches and pains disappeared back into the river when I let the fish go.

A few moments later another fierce take and Number 2 fly disappeared into the depths, I could understand if I was doing something wrong or using underweight tippet but in each case I wasnt it was the sheer ferocity of the take that was parting the tippet. Tackling up for a 3rd time with the last fly of that particular size from my box it wasnt long before I was connected with another fish and it safely made the net.


What happened next made me laugh... An angler approached me from upstream and came and sat about 50 metres from me on the bank just watching what I was up to, no words uttered & as he watched I managed to hook & land a couple of smaller trout.
On the hatch dying off I backed out the water and started to walk towards him, he got to his feet and started walking at a pace back in the direction he came from. I knew exactly what he was up to as there is a pool further upstream and he was wanting to get back to the pool before I did, I let him carry on I had no interest in fishing the pool in question as I dont rate it that well, he obviously had other thoughts. Sure enough he dropped into the pool and started to peel out line almost immediately. I simply walked past him saying good morning as I went and walked about 100 metres upstream to some slower moving water where I knew if any hatches were happening it would be in the shallower water above the pool, and sure enough a few olives were hatching with one fish rising. I cast, it rose, fish on and the look on the guys face was priceless.
















I took another couple of smaller fish from the same piece of water, smaller in size but he saw me net them so I simply dropped my net into the water and released the small fish but he had no way of knowing what size they were, I walked further upstream and as I looked back, yep the angler in question was moving onto the piece of water I had just came off.....Some folk just amaze me.




I decided to drop onto a little piece of water I frequent when up this way and as always the the shelter of the trees always produce's a good hatch, I walked via the goose nest I had found a few weeks earlier and sure enough by the look of all the down around the empty nest the birds have fledged and are away with their parents on the river somewhere.





The water looked lovely although deprived of a little water.


view upstream
















Downstream view

It does hold some big fish but today it was plenty of small fish that came to the net.

















I actually lost count after 10 of them so decided to stop and have some lunch.




As I sat and had something to eat and drink I was amazed at the abundance of wild flowers which surrounded me in such a short space, deep blues, pink's purples and yellow's and across the other side was a mass of cascading white  flowers hanging from a bush, which looked stunning in the light. The picture does not give it all the justice it truly deserves.






With the fragrance of fresh mint heavy in the air.


Who needs prescribed medicine's when nature does a better job.

I decided to start heading back towards the car and managed to loose a further 2 fish, but I want caring as I was quite happy on how the day had went and the fish were just added bonus's to me.


I managed to land another fish from a fast turbulent run which gave a terrific account of itself in the fast water.











This picture was an accident as I was preparing the camera for the above fish picture but when I seen it on downloading the pictures from the camera the glint in my eye sums up the day I had.


It was also nice to bump into a couple of friends I see from time to time on the river and have a chat.


Since the last blog entry I've received a couple of parcels from very generous friends around the world, the first being from Austria and a friend who religiously sends me smoked meat every year that he cures himself.

Klaus is an angler himself and through the powers of float making we have become great friends over the years.






The second one if from someone I've never met but admired his work on various traditional fishing forums and after a couple of email between the two of us this card arrived on my doorstep with the contents of some copper wire for ribbing flies and some wool to make up some bugs, which he dyes himself with an added extra of a couple of nymphs to try out in Yorkshire.






The card alone is something close to my heart being a veteran and a worthy cause.









Leszek you are a true gentleman, thank you very much for your generous gift.

4 comments:

  1. George,
    What lovely gifts. Those food items look awesome.
    Nice browns and on dries.
    Well done all around.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Alan, I have to agree lovely gifts indeed, It amazes me the generosity of people around the world.

    ReplyDelete
  3. George.

    I always think if you catch one fish, it could be a fluke. Two and you at least doing something right. After you catch enough to forget the amount, your on fire. Well done buddy.
    Richard.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Richard, It was a great day indeed even though most rivers were bare bones this one had some water in it
      best regards
      George

      Delete

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