Monday 7 May 2018

Evening on the Bank

With temperatures reaching 24 degrees Celsius in the Dale I wasnt heading out in bright sunshine, with the river so low & clear, so after doing some work in the garden for most of day that required my attention and a slap up meal, which I had been saving myself for all day and you can see why!







A 2kg tomahawk steak bought for me as a present, this was certainly the biggest steak I have ever tackled.










Cooked to perfection and so tender the meat just disintegrated in my mouth, it was so good but Im so glad I didn't eat anything up till that point or I couldn't have achieved it, certainly worth waiting for.








After a meal like that I knew what was needed, a good walk up the river so thats exactly what I did, leaving home just before 6pm, I arrived on the river and found I had the stretch to myself. Standing and watching for movement I seen one solitary fish rise but apart from that the river was quiet. Sitting on the bank for almost half an hour observing for any fish movement it was the one solitary fish that was moving and nothing else.







My nostrils were full of the aromas of the wild garlic which was now well into flower.







I decided to try for the fish that was rising but I had my suspicions that it might be a Grayling which were soon confirmed as it rose for my size 18 fly I had presented over its head.


With no further movement around me I headed up the river in search of rising fish, I wasnt overly bothered as it was a nice evening for a walk and I knew sooner or later I would come across a fish.


I walked upstream for almost 40 minutes before seeing another fish rise, so getting into position it took a few casts before it to took my fly that I had presented to it. A nice small wild brown.










I sat on the bank watching a hatch start to form and before I knew it the hatch turned into a swarm, literally, Grannom in their millions!


This picture does not show the truth justification of the swarm, literally millions of Grannom hatching as the evening air started to cool.

A couple of sheep with lambs on the far bank came down to watch me and as you can see from all the brown speckles in the air, it was so thick with flies hatching and taking to the wing. 







and yet not one single fish was making a move for them, the river was flat calm apart from the speckles of disturbed water that the flies were making as they broke through the surface.







The hatch went on for well over an hour and in all that time I only saw one fish rise for any surface movement of flies and it was this small trout which on the 2nd cast it too took my artificial I had presented.



With no further fish moving I sat on the bank until the sun had dipped below the horizon and saw no fish movement but was honoured with the sight of a barn owl hunting in the fields behind me, too far for the zoom on my small pocket camera.



10 comments:

  1. I’m surprised you could move after that half a cow George, were they Grannom hatching, we had similar on Saturday evening. Blizzards going on for two hours or more. Some small brownies were leaping out at them.
    Feels strange fishing in warm temps doesn’t it?

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    1. lol, It was a one of treat which I thoroughly enjoyed, I had starved all day to facilitate that thing...I had to get out for a walk though. Yes mate they were Grannom, literally millions of them, and only one fish rising which really surprised me! It will be nice when it starts to cool, its just too hot at present.

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  2. George - sounds like a lovely evening, too bad the fish weren't interested in the hatch, from the pictures it looks like it was really going! Wonder if the fish were gorging on something subsurface?

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  3. there were millions of grannom hatching mark, certainly the best hatch I've seen in a few years, it was all quiet on the surface for sure, Subsurface may have pulled a few more trout, I had only minimal kit and was really only out for a walk with camera.

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  4. George what is a tomahawk steak?
    Very interesting.

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    1. Hi Alan, Good question, well presented I hope this answers your question:

      What is a Tomahawk Steak you ask? You probably think a Tomahawk Steak is a steak you’ve heard of but haven’t actually eaten? There is no need to second guess your self, few people have tried a Tomahawk Steak, and if you had you certainly wouldn’t have forgotten, as it is the ultimate ‘wow-factor’ steak. Named because it allegedly resembles the Tomahawk axe, Tomahawk Steak is becoming more common here in the UK, and although it isn’t very common on restaurant menus, (mainly because of price) you can usually get one at an upmarket steakhouse these days. It is popping up in more places for the home cook and you meat fans to get hold of, with even Marks and Sparks jumping on the bandwagon.

      The Tomahawk Steak is an on-the bone Rib Steak, cut from the Fore-rib with the entire rib bone left. The long bone is french-trimmed, leaving an amazing presentation, and dinner table discussion point. As it is bone-in Rib Steak, it has quite a large amount of inter-muscular fat, which gives it a load of flavour when cooked, as flavours are released from both the huge bone, and inter-muscular fat during roasting to give a sweet gelatinous flavour.

      The Tomahawk is cut based on the thickness of the rib bone and is usually 5cm/2 inches thick, weighing approx 1.2kg. A Tomahawk makes an ideal sharing steak for a special occasion or romantic meal, as it can easily feed two people. If you like bone-in steaks such as T-bone or Porterhouse, you’ll love the Tomahawk Steak as the primary muscle is the longissimus dorsi (back muscle), which is also the main muscle on the T-bone and Porterhouse.

      Although technically a steak, at 1.2kg the Tomahawk many people oven roast this, because it can be awkward for frying as it is so large. If choosing to oven roast, you’re best off searing it all over in a large frying pan first (you might not need any oil/fat just a pretty how pan), before transferring to a hot oven (200ºC) for 15 minutes. Arguably the best method for a Tomahawk Steak is to grill on a barbecue, and using an internal meat thermometer cooking until the optimum temperature for Medium-rare is achieved (58ºC).

      Because of it’s size it needs to be properly rested after cooking, for at least 10-15 minutes, to allow the heat from the bone to redistribute across the meat to give a lovely succulent juicy steak.

      When cooked and rested, hold the bone in one hand and cut along the bone lengthways to separate the meat from the bone. Slice the meat across the grain into slices as thick as you need them and serve. It's certainly not an everyday steak, but then again it's not everyday you get to eat like The Flintstones.

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  5. Nice write up as usual- enjoyed reading it. Drooling over the steak......

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    1. cheers buddy & the steak is long gone....lol

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  6. That won't have been a hatch of grannom, it will have been the swarming of pre ovi-positing females getting ready to crawl beneath the surface via part submerged stones/twigs etc, to lay. That's why you didn't see any rising fish. Folk make that mistake with grannom all the time so you're defo not the first!

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    1. cheers for dropping by Matt, I captured a few at the time of the hatch and had a look through a reference book I use and that's where I got my match for the Grannom from.

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