Sunday 7 April 2019

River Robbery

With The Northern Fly Fishing Qualifiers happening on my local river today I knew there would have been a stampede of practising anglers on the bank probably since friday so decided to give it a wide berth today, instead I headed slightly north to a favourite river of mine.

I was slightly caught out with the amount of water the river was carrying especially as all the other rivers were quite low, the river was very peaty in colour and was a couple of foot up on normal levels but still very much fishable & actually worked in my favour.

I had purposely left the weighted nymphs at home as Im quite fed up now of trundling tungsten along the bottom of the river in search of fish so during the week I had made my eyes hurt with tying some #18 spiders just to freshen up the spider box, what happened to the days where I could whip up these without my eyes watering...





An old classic & very much a fish taker a
#18 Partridge & Orange.









another classic #18 Snipe & Purple

a few others were tied up last night which I didn't get time to take a photograph of but comprised of a few Greenwells Spiders & a couple of Black Magic Spiders.

My plan was to fish a team of spiders until I started to see any signs of a hatch and swap across to dry fly to see if I could tempt any rising fish.

Starting off heading upstream it wasnt too long until I felt the first fish and soon a Grayling was at my feet being unhooked an sent on its merry way, taken on the partridge & orange.






Continuing to fish upstream it was nice to see that nobody was around as far as my eyes could see, I had the whole river to myself except for the Oyster catchers, Geese & the Dippers which were keeping me company and watching my every move.

I decided to have a short break and reminisce on the last hour or so, another 4 Grayling had come to my spiders since I started and although I love Grayling I wanted to try & keep clear of them whilst they are spawning.

I was sitting leaning against an old log when I heard all the commotion behind me and something had startled a couple of Geese so I went over to investigate and found a mink sniffing around what I found to be a nesting pair of geese.




From what I could see no harm had been done to the nest & she had been sitting on a clutch of 8 large eggs, so I made a retreat to allow her to get back to the nest.

Looking upstream I started to see a couple of olives trickling down but as yet nothing was looking up at them so fished the spiders on upstream away from the geese.



I didn't get far before I was startled by a goose that almost took my head off as she flew out of the top of a log jam on the bank, I hadn't even seen her to the very last minute, I suspect in there another nest so had a quick look  and sure enough propped on top of all the tangled wood and other debris including this bright yellow canoe paddle which I propped up so any passing canoeist can see it as I know these things arent exactly cheap to buy being an ex canoeist in my younger years.





Another nest with a clutch of 3 eggs.



Moving on upstream I left them to it and decided to have a break and sit & observe the shallows to see if anything was making a break for the surface. It was about 30 minutes before I started noticing a hatch starting to form so decided to take the time to swap over to dry fly in preparation for some rising fish.

Then as if by magic a load of March Browns were riding the downstream currents before lifting off.







There wasnt many fish rising so picking my way through the shallows I started to cast to the ones I could see rising and it didn't take long before the line went tight.
I cast to a rising fish slightly upstream of me and the water erupted as a large fish moved the water to get to my artificial and I merely nicked it, it wouldn't be back anytime soon. A few choice words to myself and I moved on upstream.




A further couple of brownies came to my artificial before the hatch died off as quickly as it had appeared, roughly 20 minutes in total from start to finish.


Deciding to sit for a few moments and see if anything else would come on, after 20 minutes of nothing  I swapped over from my March Brown artificial to an Olive Jingler pattern as a searching pattern on my way back downstream.

I had gone about 100 metres and was fishing the tail end of a pool when another big trout took a liking to my artificial and the line went tight, it was soon making off at speed on its way upstream and I had to follow the best I could.




I was starting to get the better of it when all of a sudden the line went slack, it had slipped the hook, The air turned blue for a few moments then when I seen the state of the hook I could see why it had slipped.


Deciding not to bother re tying a new artificial I headed back downstream towards the car, I had just got my waders off & into the boot of the car when the heavens opened and a torrential downpour started which lasted for the next 2 hours, so the trout even though it had got off had saved me from a soaking & there is always next time. 

A great relaxing day on the river which I had completely to myself and some lovely fish as a bonus, you cannot get much better than that even though I was robbed of 2 large brownies, there is always next time.

9 comments:

  1. George the files are awesome. What hook are you using?
    More and more I find myself tying on one of those sparse classics as the first fly I fish.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Alan, The hooks I primarily use are Fulling Mill Czech nymph hooks, they just suit my style of spider fishing well and I really like the profile, I cant for love of me find anymore #18, it looks like they only go down to #16 now.

      Delete
  2. Cracking story and pictures (as usual) George. What is the blue spot behind the eye of the first trout? Is it a stocked fish?

    Regards

    Dave

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dave, I would say its just a colouration I've seen it a few times on trout from various rivers, I personally dont think it was a stock fish , too small & I know they dont stock this particular stretch & upstream stock with a larger sized fish.
      cheers George

      Delete
  3. Almost a perfect day, well it was perfect and that looked like the Tees too. I love the flies too. We're up to Wetherby to collect Sue's mum after Easter Monday so I'll have a river snoop while I am there walking the two Jack Russells! All the best, John

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I never reveal where I fish John, too many idiots just looking for where to go locations. I wish you well over easter if you get out, plenty of good water around wetherby, if I wasnt otherwise engaged I could have met up with you. Regards George.

      Delete
    2. Thanks George, one day then. People ask me where I fish for pike and the big perch but I never tell them. The farmers wouldn't thank me and the peace would be gone in a flash. All best, regards, John

      Delete
  4. Spent Sunday evening after reading your latest adventure at the vise for couple hours tieing some size 16 Snipe and Purple. After cleaning up and earning brownie pionts did I realise I tied up the wrong fly, I needed to tye Waterhen Bloa as theres only three in my box and 30 odd Snipe Purple.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Neil, I always have my spiders box open when Im tying & simply fill in the gaps with the amount needed, I used to tie thousands up & in the end never used half of them.

      Delete

Your comments will be added after verification by the moderator.