A fish For Every Week of the Year

A lot of water has flowed down the Dale since my last trip out at the start of October and here we are in the final few days of the month, The rivers have all been up and down like a yoyo, predominantly fishable during the week when we are all at work and totally in flood at the weekends. Definitely not a good month to start the Grayling season but I was hoping today would change that.

I was intending to head farther afield today but after I seen the forecast of a not too bad day, I decided to stay close to home and head up the Dale for a few hours hoping the hit the river at the right height which I enjoy the most. 

Last night I dug out my neoprene waders from the attic and decided to see what state they were in today as it's been some years since I last wore them but my knee has been giving me a lot of gip recently so I didn't fancy my lightweights even though I still wear thick insulated trousers below them.

After remembering a trick another old angler taught me of shoving a couple of thin plastic bags on my feet which makes it easier to slide my feet deep into the neoprene waders,  I was soon peering over the edge of the flood bank which runs the length of this part of the river and was met with a good height & colour to the river and the odd small fish rising to a hatch, that was mentally locked away for later on as I fancied a bit of nymphing to try out some new patterns I had been made up and a couple I had been sent by a good mate in Scotland.

It wasnt long until the first Grayling of the day took the point nymph.

Nothing big but the bread & butter size for this river.











As I fished my way downstream the Grayling kept coming to both nymphs I had on.

Normal run of the mill size and although nothing of any weight or size, excellent sport and kept me interested in the light touches on the nymph set up.









I was fishing one particular run when I looked up and a spotted woodpecker was sat on a branch high above me singing its heart out.

I was nearing a hole which I knew often contained slightly better Grayling and after a couple of casts through the line stopped and I lifted into a better stamp of Grayling.

It amazes me that the full length which has deep glides and runs contains all small fish and yet one or two spots tucked away always contain a better quality of fish, I have to say you have to work for them as they dont come easy like other rivers I know where large fish are always the norm.

The view back upstream which in the next couple of weeks will have salmon thrashing around doing their business as its almost closed season for them here and what I've heard from various sources has been a fruitful season on the river this year. with some large fish being caught on fly & lure.

The blackbirds were picking at the last remaining rosehips along the riverbank as the blue tits played in the trees above them.







And as I fished the tail end of the pool the line went tight again and I lifted into another slightly better fish., quickly followed by its mate.

I was now almost at the bottom of the stretch and time to turn around and head back the way I had come, I decided to sit and have a chill for 10 minutes and watch the geese in the field, well over 300 strong spread all along the full length of it.






Between watching the birds and everything else that was going on around me I seen a couple of small fish rising to a hatch which had appeared again so I sat and watched and more and more small fish were rising so I decided to strip down the nymphs and tackle up with a dry fly set up.

Going with my go to fly of a supa pupa I cast over the rising fish and almost immediately had a take.

No matter what anyone says, taking a Grayling on a dry fly gives me so much of a buzz, certainly beats trundling nymphs along a river bed all day thats for sure.

And they kept coming.

I seen an angler off in the distance coming towards me and recognised him as an old friend so went and spent sometime chatting & putting the world to rights before finally calling it a day and when he asked me how many I caught I simply said one for every week of the year, 52 fish in total, slightly more to the dry fly than the nymphs which made my day.