No Tungsten Required.

It was a coin toss this morning as to which river I was going to fish as all the rivers were thinning down after high water during the week, so after I prepared all my kit & loaded the car in what I have to say was a chilly morning with a definite nip in the air, the coin got tossed a couple of times and with the river chosen I headed off, even as I got to the junction where it was last chance of turning one way or another, I decided to stay with the result of the coin toss.

It has been a longtime since I last fished this stretch and I knew after the last few weekends it was going to have to produce something good to beat them.

As I walked from the car down to the river I was literally on the bank when I remembered I had left the wading stick in the back seat, dilemma go back for it or go forward without it! Being tired from a bad week at work I decided I couldn't be bothered going back for it so would just have to be more careful when wading.

I had anticipated that it would need to be a nymph set up with the chill in the air although the sun was peeking over the Dale and it was meant to be a good day, early signs on the weather front were spot on, but  how very wrong I was on my setup as my first glimpse of the river seen fish rising, albeit it small fish but my mind was made up instantly......... Dry Fly!






After choosing an all time favourite fly of mine for Grayling, as I was really aiming my day at the Grayling I started off casting upstream and sure enough almost immediately I got interest from the fish.
Grayling being predominately sub surface feeders with the make up of their mouths but will take dry flies freely I find this more of a challenge as you have to be spot on with them for dry fly and I get a greater feeling of achievement with this set up than rolling a piece of tungsten along the riverbed in search of them.

It didn't take long until the first couple of smaller Grayling were in the net, falling for my fly, although again I seen very little surface movement in the way of terrestrial insects. I continued on missing a few and catching a few  all around this size, It was about 20 minutes later that I got the first sign of a decent Grayling as I seen it shoot up from the depths and roll on my fly, I missed!

It was a sign that I was doing something right & that my pattern was pulling the larger fish as well as the smaller fish which gave me a boost.
After missing the first bit of interest I continued on and I dont know if it was the same fish or not but soon I got interest again & this time my timing was spot on.

The next 2 hours was pretty much more of the above, loosing fish, grabbing some smaller fish & then some better fish making an appearance.

In all I had only covered about 300m of river 

and had over 15 fish in the bag, so to speak all released safely again.

The day was turning out to be a classic dry fly day with some lost, some caught and small to medium fish making an appearance, I couldn't ask for anything else & before I knew it, it was time to think about heading home as I promised I would be back for a specific time to help the wife with a task in the house.




there was always the one last cast...

and another last cast....

It was really time to go home or Id be in trouble with the wife so with that I left the river and headed home, another weekend session to remember with over 30 fish all to Dry Fly, I couldn't have asked for anything better & my earlier apprehensions about fishing the stretch had been long forgotten about.