Out n About

I was delighted when I seen the water had risen midweek although we had no significant rain so to speak of I was just hoping that it would not all disappear before I could get a chance to get out with the rod.

This weekend was split between a walk around Swinton Estate with the camera and fishing today, the sun on both days was out & it felt more like an early summers day than the last week in February.

Yesterday seen me drive the 11 miles from my home to Swinton after a friend had visited recently & recommended it as an ok place to take the camera for a walk, so thats exactly what I did, however on route I stumbled over this lovely little stream which am sure in the summer months will see wild fish rising in the pools.

Looking upstream I can just picture small wild brown trout rising on the insects falling from the overhanging trees above.

Driving over the few inches of water in the ford, I definitely wouldn't want to see it at 6 foot, thats for sure.

Finally I managed to drag myself away from the stream and looking up through the woods, the light was casting long shadows through it.





My walk to the Druids temple on the Swinton estate was a pleasant one and a few families out enjoying the warm afternoon sunshine.

One of the rock stacks surrounding the collection of stones.

 Looking down on the Druids temple itself 

And finally a 5 minutes walk through the woods and you were given the view over Leighton Reservoir & beyond.

Today seen me head up onto the river just after 10am, the sun wasnt quite out yet but you could tell it was going to be another good day so with that in mind I was hoping to be able to get some dry fly action so headed to a place where I thought my chances were good. 

Starting off on the spider set up I had last week it wasnt long until I had connected with my first fish of the day, a small Grayling, we were off the mark.

Soon afterwards the 2nd Grayling of the day, a better fish than the first graced the net, it had been through the wars by the look of the tear in its dorsal fin and the damage to its gill cover.

The next hour or so produced no further fish and I noticed a few other anglers appearing on the bank upstream of me, so decided to wander up and have a chat, only to find it was a guy I know & regularly see on the river at various times throughout the year, Jonathan Barnes the england fly fishing angler & river guide.

We started chatting and soon an hour or so had passed and we had been joined by another 2 anglers all out for the same thing, a Grayling on the dry fly. But alas none of us had seen any surface movement of fish and very little insect life hatching apart from the occasional olive. From the conversation between all of us I was the only one who had managed to catch any fish, even Jonathan was on the back foot until he managed to hook a very small grayling which dragged him out of the blanking books. We said our goodbyes and headed in opposite directions.

Jonathan was heading to another part of the river but I opted to stay where I was and another hour of fishing produced a small out of season trout but alas not on the dry fly either.

Walking down the bank back towards the car, I couldn't help but notice the crocus out on the river bank in beautiful purple colours.

With  a final view upstream at an angler continuing to try & raise a fish, I headed back to the car.

Contented as always.