Thats why we call it fishing.....

With a day off booked today I decided to have my weekly fishing day today and spent yesterday with the wife doing other things, and Im glad I did.
I had planned on heading up another Dale in search of the Grayling but after a quick chat with a friend last night thought better of it as he was out for the full day yesterday and never touched a fish at all, so I decided to change my plans and head up the Dale instead.
I was going to give it a few hours and no more as I knew it was going to be hard as the river has been up and down so much the fish are spread all over the place and not in the places you would expect them to be.
The stretch I was planning on fishing  isn't well known for its Grayling but there are a couple so even locating them would be hard but I do like a challenge and it fishes better with a bit of water in it, which right now it hasn't got.

Just after 9am I parked the car and walked the short distance to my starting point, the river was low, gin clear and quite a few salmon carcasses spread the length of it which have been beached as the water has receded, I just hope that they were successful before they died in bringing future life to the river.

The first 40 minutes or so went with nothing felt on the nymphs so deciding to head upstream to my next pool, I passed a shallow run which I knew had a slightly deeper channel running on the far side, & when I mean deeper I only mean 14" or so but with the Grayling not being where you would expect I dropped the nymphs in at the top of the run, they hadn't even covered 2 foot of the run and I felt a fish & lifted into a small Grayling.

I was relieved that I had managed a fish and no matter what the size it saved the day so far from being a blank.







Moving up to the next pool I fished through it hard with no reward, and then I spotted a lone Goose floating down the river, obviously unable to fly for some reason as even when I moved it wouldn't take to the wing but swam off past me as fast as it could.

As I moved upstream I came across some fungi protruding from the trunk on a tree.

I have to admit I do enjoy taking close up shots of fungi, they just seem so intricate the closer you get to them.

As I approached my next chosen spot I sat and watched for movement up the length of the pool as I always do and the first thing that caught my eye was the wagtail on the shingle bar just in front of me looking for insects 

Coming almost up to me before it took to the wing.

also at the rear of the pool a salmon was floundering around in the shallow water, its deed done and what looked like growth on its head, I dont think it will be too much longer before it joins the other carcasses along the river's edge.

I fished on up through the pool but alas nothing to show for my efforts, but although only one small fish saved the day I still very much enjoyed taking the rod for a walk, for its not all just about the fish but everything else that is happening along the riverbank and the 3 hours out on the river although not filled with fish it certainly filled me with pleasure looking at everything that was going on.

Like the old saying goes, If we were meant to catch every time they would call it catching and not fishing!