Devil's Bridge

Before I update everyone who reads the blog I have to offer my condolences to Mel and the rest of the family on the death of  Jan Porter.

Unfortunately Jan succumb to that dreaded disease "Cancer " which he fought for over 3 years, a true all round fisherman and a real gent. I had the pleasure of meeting Jan a few times at various shows around the country, I gained a wealth of knowledge from him and he always had time to stand and chat to everyone. RIP mate, gone but never forgotten.

I managed to get out for a couple of hours again this afternoon after spending the morning with my good lady at the local car boot buying plants for the garden and then onto the shops for the weekly groceries, I didn't want to venture far as the weather was changing and I was quite tired after a full week back at work.

I opted to head to a place I dont normally fish this early in the season but its only a 10 minute drive from the house....The devil's Bridge!

Legend has it that after numerous failed attempts of the local villagers in the 12 Century building bridges across the Ure only to have them swept away by winter floods that the devil made a pact with them and told them the next bridge they build would withstand everything but when finished they would have to offer a sacrifice to the him.

The bridge was built but one brick was left out of the bridge making it incomplete so the bridge has never been finished and no sacrifices were ever made.

The bridge has been refurbished a couple of times throughout its lifetime and the single brick still remains to be added, just at the top of the buttress.

The bridge actually sits directly on top of an early Roman paved ford making it one of the best preserved examples in the UK as the bridge uses the ford paving as a foundation.








 Made from large slabs of sandstone very much visible still today in clear water like today.

The fish were rising just above the bridge when I arrived as the sun was still shining and there was a good hatch of Grannom the best I've seen this year, the fish were literally rising everywhere to them, mainly small Grayling but mixed in there were a few trout.

I picked out my first target and once in position the first cast produced a lovely wild trout.

I was standing in water above my midsection and didn't want to move as fish were rising all around so a quick picture in the net then it was slid back to the watery lair where it came from. The next few fish were all small Grayling grabbing the fly as it passed overhead so a move to a fish that I seen rising close to the bridge, just as I was moving the sky went black and the heavens opened....

hopefully not the devil's curse.......the fish continued to rise as the hailstones fell and after 2 passes up it came and took the artificial.

The Grannom's died away as the wind got up and the hail continued to fall but after 20 minutes it passed over and the sun reappeared. The fish continued to rise but nothing as near what was rising when I arrived so a walk up the stretch produced a few more small trout before I seen some blue winged olives floating past so a quick swap over of the flies and the miniature trout kept hitting it as soon as it landed on the water.

Perfection in miniature.

Another bout of hail and wind killed things again for a while so I started heading back downstream towards the bridge, the sun reappeared again and just as I rounded a bend  I came across a duck which wouldn't move no matter how close I got to it.....there must be literally thousands of these things littering rivers all over the UK.

I seen another decent trout rising close by the willows so after taking a bit of time to get into position the first cast and up he came and took the fly as it passed overhead.

Another lovely small wild trout to end the few hours on as the rain was starting to become more persistent and I wanted to get home to get my stuff dried as Im hoping to take the Split cane out for a chuck tomorrow....weather allowing.

As a parting note, please remember you can support Lets Tackle Cancer in a number of ways, from buying a wristband or donating items of fishing tackle it all helps. If you cant afford to spend money, simply adding a link to your website or Facebook page does wonders and it all goes to worthy causes.