Artistic Flair vs Reality.

Without doubt the age old tall tales by some anglers rumbles on, they have a new phrase in these modern times though they seem to call it artistic flair, Myself I just chuckle at what people will actually come out and try & pass off as being genuine.

I decided yesterday afternoon with a bit of time on my hands to slip on my wellies, grab my SLR camera and have a look at the water to see what it was going to be like for today's outing.

Whilst out the first angler I bumped into was a guy who I see frequently on this particular stretch & he is a decent guy who I know fishes hard and has the experience to back his claims up. So as not to disturb him  I sat on the bank behind him and watched as he finished off in the swim before he turned and came & sat on the bank beside me. We started chatting and he was saying it was extremely hard going, he had been out for almost 5 hours now & only had one small Grayling to show for it, the river was up but looked ideal for nymphs but he had tried all his go to styles with no joy, I said I knew how he felt as the last couple of trips for me and all the anglers I associate with have felt the same, it's been hard going.

We chatted about a few things in general & he was just finishing off so decided to accompany me upstream as that was where his car was parked anyway, we had gone about 300 metres when we saw an angler stood at the side of the river tying on a new fly.

We exchanged greetings and as always we asked if he had caught anything, which his reply was about 40 fish the biggest over 3lbs!

I'd love to see a photograph of that fish I said as I had never seen a 3lbs fish out of this particular river so was genuinely interested in what it would have looked like, Oh I dont have a camera was his reply, ah well no worries, so what did it weigh on the scales? Oh I don't have a set of them either I just knew it was over 3lbs was his reply, at that both myself & the other angler just walked off, that must be artistic flair we both said as we chuckled once we were out of earshot of the angler, there is a lot of anglers in the Dales with this artistic flair, for I heard another today but wont go into any great details so as not to embarrass the particular person.

Well I can honestly say there won't be any Artistic Flair on this blog, what you see is what you get no matter what happens on a days fishing trip. 

After seeing what height the river was yesterday I decided to head a bit further up the Dales in hope of better water & hopefully a few fish, After a bit of a lie in & a decent breakfast I headed out. The day was overcast & dull and I hoped that would be in my favour when it came to the fishing. 

I  arrived at my chosen spot after a short time and as soon as I got out the car I felt the icy easterly wind hit me immediately, not good!

As I wandered down to the river I was taken back at the amount of sloe berries still on the hawthorn bush right at the side of the Path.

Being where these are located I would have thought they would have been picked by now, or people are just not engaging in the sloe gin / whisky making in these parts.

I have sufficient for this year so left them where they are for somebody else or for the wildlife to enjoy when things get hard.

On arriving at the river I found it to be carrying a bit of extra water too, but sometimes not a bad thing, it just meant some of the places would not be reachable due to this but plenty of water to have a go at anyway.

I was soon feeling my way downstream in search of the Grayling and nearly 40 minutes later I got what I had come for.

No record breaker, no figment of my imagination, what you see is what I caught, a lovely small Grayling which I was very thankful for.








It wasnt going to be an easy day, like my friend yesterday I was working hard covering all the water where I thought fish would be lying with not much showing but thats fishing, and I was just so glad to be out, watching the dippers hop from stone to stone, the flash of turquoise head upstream as a kingfisher flies by and listen to the cock pheasants try to outcry each other.

There was plenty to look at as I headed downstream in search of the fish.

The view back upstream wasnt too shabby.

Golden wax cap mushrooms spreading along the ground & up onto the tree branch.

An hour had passed since the first fish of the day when I felt a bite and lifted into my second fish.

A better fish and she was showing proud her beautiful dorsal fin for the camera.








I was hoping that I might get another fish or two from this particular pool as it had always been good to me over the years, but after fishing it to the bottom I was only rewarded with a small OOS Brown Trout which was released back in the water immediately, it looked thin and felt very empty inside.

Stopping for a coffee and a warm up as the easterly wind was biting cold,  I spied these wax caps amongst the undergrowth beside me.








Feeling a bit warmer inside I decided to go back to the head of the pool and fish through it again, It wasnt too long till I got interest but I bumped off the fish, I was halfway down the pool when I felt the next fish take my nymphs and I slipped the net under another Grayling soon afterwards.

Another reasonable fish which I was grateful for.









Fishing back on until the bottom of the pool I felt no further fish so opted to try one more spot before calling it a day.

On my way downstream I saw a little wren disappear into a hole in a tree, am 100% sure the wren wasnt the original owner of the hole.









Fishing through my next spot I never touched a fish so decided to call it a day, 4 hours hard fishing, 3 Grayling, 1 OOS Trout and a bumped off fish, better than my friend had done yesterday who gave me an honest answer but nowhere near as good as Mr Artistic Flair.....lol

My parting view upstream as I made my way to the bank & headed back to the car.