Like it or Loathe it, lets go fishing.

With all the Dales rivers taking a bit of a pounding from the recent rain at the end of last week and river levels rising to unfishable levels on Saturday, although they would be fishable today but heavily coloured, I decided that I would go to an old haunt I've not been to in a few weeks and see how things are shaping up.
There has been a lot of talk recently to a new piece of art that has been placed in a site of natural beauty so on route to today's fishing I decided to go have a look see myself.

The 6ft cast iron feather, is in its own way unique and a nice piece of art but in my honest opinion has been placed in the wrong spot as it blocks the view up the Dale, all being if you step 6ft to the side of it you can still see the Dale, just better suited maybe facing down the Dale instead of up. Each to their own though.







I approached the river and knew that it would be coloured but not as bad as I had expected which made me feel a bit more happier. I sat on the bank for a few moments observing the river to see what was going on and the constant flash of blue up and down the river from the passing kingfishers was as always a lovely sight.

With nothing moving on the surface I opted  for a couple of nymphs I had good success with in Finland and had scaled them down to a smaller size for the Dales rivers.

It didn't take too long for the indicator to stop and the first fish of the day was hooked, a lovely Grayling which I managed to release at distance!

Ah well I knew they worked here too so got on with the job in hand and soon afterwards was rewarded with another fish, this time a lovely small Par.

As I moved down the run I encountered another Grayling and this time there was no long range release as I slipped the net under her.

released to give sport another day as always.

Walking down the river amongst the recent flood debris I spotted what I can only describe as overkill for this part of the country, obviously blown over the dam sluices where I suspect its been used for the stocked trout. The last time I found a float of this magnitude I gifted it to a friend, guess what Martin you can have another!

This part of the river has changed dramatically since last winter, there used to be a few deeper runs which always contained good fish, now just a mere trickle as the riverbed has moved so much and filled the runs in. In the shallows I stumbled across the remnants of a crayfish which the birds or otters have devoured.

Thankfully I haven't seen too many in this part of the river and the small fish & invertebrate seem to be in good numbers, the ones I have seen have been eaten, long may that continue.

On the way upstream I made a small detour to visit another place where I collect the sloes from and like the bushes last week seem to be dripping this year so it looks like its going to be a bumper year for the fruit.









Back to the fishing and a few moments later I was rod bent again to another small Grayling, perfection in miniature.

The next dozen or so casts produced 4 more similar sized fish before the rod bent a bit more with a better sized fish.

Still constantly scanning the surface for any fly movement and seeing only a couple of small olives hatching but nothing moving to them, I decided to fish back downstream with the nymphs.

Taking a few steps downstream produced a few more fish before I moved out the runs I was in.

I walked back downstream heading back towards the car where I saw the last few monkey flowers clinging on to their flowers amongst the wild mint.

Fishing a couple of runs more which produced no fish I headed back to the car via the back route where I observed the old farm gable end and a chimney that hasn't seen a fire or smoke in many a year, contented for another week.