Now where are those Grayling...

With it being Remembrance Sunday this weekend and myself being a veteran I always turn out to honour the fallen so no fishing then.  With this is mind and the fact that I start a new job on Monday I decided to leave the household chores I've been doing for the last week and head out today up the Dale in search of her ladyship...the Grayling.

The water is still very low despite the 5" of snow most of the Dale has had which is now melting and starting to enter the system, the river does need a good flush through and a top up.

I can certainly think of worse views to look at on a Thursday morning.








I arrived on the river just before 0930hrs  and set up a couple of nymphs with the indicator which I had been using the last outing which martin had made for me, I wanted to try it on a larger river where there was no solid structures behind to hide the glare of the river, first 20 minutes or so was quite apart from the odd broad leaf which is populating the river at present.

I moved into a pool where I've had a few Grayling from in the past and the first pass hooked a fish, and released a fish all in a matter of a few seconds...I did take that as a positive sign though that there was fish there and the nymphs I had on were indeed working so continued on, The same thing happened a further 3 times!
I just couldn't not keep the fish on the hook and in the space of 10 minutes had lost 4 fish.

After a few chosen words to myself I finally connected and landed a fish, unfortunately not the species I was after, a nice conditioned Brown Trout which  slipped straight back whilst grabbing a snap of in the process.





Shortly afterwards I finally seen the first grayling of the day slip into the net.

I had achieved what I had set out to do so was contented now.

Just at that moment a dog on the loose on the opposite bank started chasing one of the geese which had been feeding in the fields opposite and yep, you guessed it the goose which wasnt for flying and dog ended up in the river next to me, and then finally a woman appears over the top of the far bank, politely I asked her if she knew that dogs were meant to be on a leash on this stretch which she started denying so with a pointer to the close by gate with a sign mounted on it, I told her to go read the sign, which she duly did returning with apologies, but that was this stretch ruined for now.

Moving upstream I connected with another fingerling Grayling before finally getting its bigger sister a few moments later.








I gazed over the pool to the opposite bank and saw a gorse bush in full colour, a strange sight at this time of the year.

Also above in the sky in between the low flying jets which use the Dale for flying practise from time to time, a couple of Curlews flying over and calling to each other, Normally these are gone from the Dale by late October, is the mild autumn weather keeping them longer, who knows but a nice sight to see.




I moved back downstream to where the dog & goose had disturbed the water 20 minutes earlier and took another Grayling, this time with a few battle scars on it.

with nothing much more happening over the next 30 minutes I decided to call it a day and head home, back in time to make myself a late lunch just before 2pm but a nice couple of hours confirming indicators etc and ways to improve things, and a couple of Grayling to show too.