Sunday 25 June 2017

Summer Grayling

The first trip out after our holiday and the river season now fully open for every species.
It wasnt hard to choose what species I was looking out for, as being the Grayling fanatic that I am.

I can honestly put my hand on my heart & say that there is no finer a fish for acrobatics and strength than a large summer grayling, fully recovered after spring spawning. Brown trout are merely a stand in for me until the Grayling come back on the list after 16th June, in England.

The whole weekend has been blighted by heavy winds but today was meant to ease slightly so I headed up the Dale in my quest to seek out some summer Grayling.

The river was still carrying some colour which suited me but the wind was making the hatch almost none existent so it only meant one thing, subsurface flies.




The first thing to get my attention was this small trout, and a couple more came to the point nymph before my first Grayling invited itself to the party. Nothing of any size and some damage to its gill cover but things could only get bigger.











Walking down the river I noticed the erosion had become a lot worse since my last visit and I imagine it wont take many winter floods to knock it back even further. It was nice to be back on the river again with the kingfishers whizzing past and the oyster catchers making their presence known with their constant calling.




The wind was making things so difficult that it was hard to get away from it and the casting accuracy took a sever bashing, but I finally found what I had came for, summer grayling.


2 fish in quick succession from almost the same spot.
















I then stumbled across a flower I have never seen on this river before,  and its not for the lack of looking as the monkey flower is probably my most favourite wild flower and I've only ever found them one one other river but here they were a small single clump of them tucked away from the wind.





They dont have the vivid colour array as the one's on the other river a plain yellow in this case but they are the same species.








The array of summer wild flowers never fail to amaze me with all the colours.





















With nature taking full advantage of them, the bees especially.









It was time for the trout to show again and this one had been sitting in some slack water as you can see it had lice attached and after brushing a few off, it happily posed for a photograph.


The wind was a real pain in the butt, at times I had to hold onto my hat it was gusting so hard and the surface  water was just in constant turmoil.

Thankfully though my target species came back on the feed and I found them sitting in the well oxygenated parts of the river.

















I decided that a couple more cast would suffice and then I would head back to the car as the wind was really making things barely tolerable, The same fast run where the 2 Grayling above came from I swore I could see a dark silhouette in the mid stream, so cast to it to see if it was a fish or just my imagine and to my amazement it moved straight to the nymph I had presented. A lovely scrap broke out on the 3# and I soon slipped the net under a lovely summer Grayling, the biggest of the day.

















a couple of quick photographs and she was released to fight another day, I was a very happy angler despite the wind and decided to end on a high, so headed home delighted how the few hours had panned out with my first outing for the Summer Grayling.

2 comments:

  1. George great post.
    I love wild flowers, they symbolize the best of nature.
    Beautiful fish.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Alan, Yep have to agree the wild flowers spread across the Dale as far as the eye can see are like a patchwork quilt on the landscape, I never tire from seeing them.

      Delete

Your comments will be added after verification by the moderator.