Fog Covered Dales

The rivers over the last few days has been up and down with the torrential rain we have had here in the Dales,  the chart from the gauge looks like the engineering report for the wave machine at the local swimming pool.

It was looking as though on Saturday morning there wasn't going to be a Sunday outing to the river but the weather forecast was optimistic so hopefully no more water would come off the Dales.








Sunday morning seen me awaken to not being able to see more than 25 metres out the window due to the thick fog which had engulfed us, but the river had held during the night so within 30 minutes or so the wormery had seen me grab enough for a days trotting and I was in the car heading to the river.

The drive was different to say the least, I was lucky if I could see all of two car lengths in front of me but when I arrived at the river it was beginning to lift and the walk downstream wasn't too bad, the river was up on normal levels and again dark in colour which I have come to accept at this time of year.

It wasn't long until the worms had worked their magic and the first fish of the day was on.

A nice fish to start off the day.

I bumped into another angler shortly afterwards who was heading downstream, like me he hadn't been confident about the fishing but had turned up to see what it would be like, we parted company.

Moving down through the runs brought the obligatory trout par and a few slightly bigger trout still very much full of energy with the acrobatic displays once hooked.

A few smaller Grayling also graced the net, before I seen the angler walking back upstream along the bank and he looked rather wet!








Yep, he had been for a swim, I wont go into the reasons why as I've added a bit to the video which accompanies this blog entry which will reveal all, but his day was over.

Another nice Grayling was found, and as I was playing the fish I was amazed to see a large salmon head and tail out the water right behind where the Grayling was.

Just at that I heard a commotion on the opposite bank above me and it was two cock pheasants having a right old fight together, tails were up and  feathers were flying, I took some video footage of it but when I got it to the editing suite it was too distorted as I had tried to zoom the camera in for a closer shot...lesson learned!

Next trot through of the same run the float dipped away and the reel screamed off , I thought to myself, "Dont say I've hooked a salmon, but thankfully after a few strong runs the fish started to give and a well conditioned large trout came to the net, a quick photograph in the net and off it swam to carry on its business.

The trees all around this part of the river looked stunning in the light with the golds and bronzes shining through the leaves.







The fish were obliging more than I had thought with the amount of feed that most probably had been washed down in the high water, they took a bit of time to find but as I roved around they were coming to the net.

Nothing really big but a normal size for around this part of the river.








I stumbled across some driftwood which had been washed down with fungi still attached, probably will continue to thrive until the next high water sends it further downstream.

A better Grayling from the  next set of runs.

I was amazed at how hot & sunny it had become the sweat was running down my back with a thermal vest, a fleece and my gortex wading jacket on, a big change from earlier.

The next fish came as a bit of surprise, not in the size of the fish but the condition of it, It had clearly been attached by a predator, and not too many guesses at what with a clear spear mark right through its upper body.

You can clearly see the damage to the fish on both sides, and although it looks bad I have seen fish like this recover fully and the wounds scar over, so the fish was released and swam away healthy hopefully to fully recover and allow scar tissue to cover the wounds.

Another couple of smaller Grayling came to the net just as the sun started to dip over the Dale and I called it a day to head home and doing so encountered the fog as I got half way home, where people were actually stopping to take pictures as it rolled down the sides of the hills like a blanket being pulled down, quite stunning to see but with no proper stopping places I kept driving.




The short video covers some of today's fish being released but also an important message if your intending to extend your trout season and stay out on the river for the Grayling...Fog Covered Dales