Grayling Society Fishing Day

Sunday 20/11/11.


Sunday saw me up early again and heading off in thick fog over to the Bridge Inn at Calver in Derbyshire, where I met 20 members of the local group for a day's grayling fishing. On arriving a little early I joined a few of the guys on the bridge to look over the river, and heard about the prospects on offer.  As we watched we were treated to a rising fish and the antics of no less than 3 Dippers.


Over coffee the area secretary Brian ran through the rules (fly-only, barbless hooks, catch & return etc), handed out the beats, and introduced our guides, members of the clubs who had donated the fishing.  I drew a beat of some 3 to 400 yds of the R Derwent at Grindleford, from the road bridge up. Our guide Roger advised wading up the middle of the river and casting to the sides.


The river and conditions looked nigh on perfect and gave me that all important confidence.

Again I went with the 10' Streamflex and the leader to hand set up, with 2 nymphs, a czech nymph on the point and an JT Endrick spider on the dropper. The temperature was still very cool but the day brightened with some sunny spells as the day went on.  First cast resulted in a hook-up but the fish disengaged itself moments later.


The Endrick spider didn't feel right so I changed to a copper bead PTN, which was immediately effective, picking up a couple brown trout and a couple grayling.

Working up the run I came to the head of a pool fed by a fast, turbulent riffle with a distinct seam, which screamed grayling. Casting the nymphs up the seam resulted in almost a grayling per cast! from about 6" up to 14+".

10 grayling and 4 brown trout later, I need a break, a coffee and a sandwich!
Without changing flies I carried on up to the beat eventually reaching a tally of 13 grayling, 9 brown trout and 1 rainbow, all safely returned.

All too soon the sun disappeared behind the hills and the temperature dropped, at times it was difficult to keep the rod steady as I was shivering so much.  Note to self: next time out remember to wear 2 pairs of thermal sock as well as fleece pants over the thermal long-johns.


Having filled my boots with fish, the warmth of the pub and a good hot buffet was most welcome as was the chance to compare nots with my fellow anglers.


A red letter day indeed. A thought though, whilst I caught a high number of out of season brown trout I caught as many grayling on the same fly so its difficult to see how I could have avoided them!

That trip to Newcastle!

I'm sure you'll know what I mean when I say that I can't get enough of the grayling fishing, especially as the weather has remained remarkably mild.  Last weekend whilst on a visit to see my daughter at university in Newcastle I took the opportunity for a first time visit to fish the River Derwent.


Monday 14th November
Using the Tyne River Trust passport scheme I decided to fish the Rowlands Gill beat of the lower Derwent between the Nine Arches bridge an Derwent Park. After a hearty full-English breakfast I headed off in the gloom and parked at Thornley Woodlands Centre. The weather was cool, as I kitted up and grabbed my 10' Streamflex, and set off through the woods and down to the Nine Arches viaduct.  I hadn't realised what a hike it would be down to the riverside, something like a two hundred and fifty feet! More on that later.
By now the weather had warmed up with the occasional glimpse of sunshine and the water looked good and fishy, though still relatively low.

I had decided to have a go with Jeremy Lucas' leader to hand technique, so I had constructed a leader using 12m of 28lb copolymer, a short tapered leader, a 8" piece of braided backing, and then level tippet, incorporating 1 dropper using Stroft. I set up with a weighted Czech nymph on the point and a copper-bead PTN on the dropper.  Casting was not as difficult as I first thought, provided I could partially load the rod with the line tensioned by the water.  I'm sure you'll agree that casting technique is not all, you have to find the fish, and that took a while.  Eventually I did locate an out of season brownie, but there was no sign of any grayling, either in the faster runs or deeper pools!

A couple more browns came to hand, but where were the grayling?
The river had suffered a pollution incident in 2009 upstream, I wonder if this has effected the population?

The Autumn colours along the bankside where quite lovely, and created a lovely backdrop to the a beautiful little white bib-fronted Dipper that kept me amused for a long while, whirring about, bobbing and swimming.  I also saw squirrels busy stocking up for the winter and a red kite circling overhead, sigh ..., and folk wonder why we do it.

Dipper was too far away to photograph properly

That viaduct!

As I was so distracted and trying to cast into a deeper faster run, I was alerted to a splashing behind me, I turned abruptly, stumbled on seeing a dog coming at me, and fell sideways soaking my left arm up to my shoulder. The owner called the dog away and I was left trying to wring-out my sleeve!

Just before I broke for lunch, I spotted a movement, not exactly a rise, under the trees on the far bank.  Casting ahead of it I felt a strong pull, but my slow reactions produced nothing.  Waiting a short while, and thinking that possibly another fish may have moved up to take the other's place, I cast again and, this time, with a faster reaction, I was playing a decent sized fish, which transpired to be a beautiful large brown trout.

I broke for lunch on a convenient bench oalongside a a long glide with a wood opposite, giving me an opportunity to strip down and wring out the 3 sleeves I was wearing!

Incidentally I couldn't figure what had created the hole in front of the bench!

I managed a couple more brown trout and 2 tiny grayling all on nymphs, in the afternoon before the light went.  Mind you I was near Derwent Park by this time, and boy it goes dark quick.

Well I opted to try a more direct route back to the car which took me across a field by a sewage works and up the hill.  Crossing a bridge over the defunct railway line (that cross the viaduct),I headed along a path up hill, in the woods, and in the dark!! Owls hooted and screeched, as I first went up hill, then back down to the railway line again, then back up the hill to the Woodland centre and my car. After an hours walk I was knackered, exacerbated by the effort of wading on boulders, and slippy rocks.

I shall go back in February and try further up stream.  Until next time, tight lines.

A sign of things to come? Dry, so dry.

See Dry Fly Expert's piece on the Lathkill  and the BBC report with the EA man.  Is this really a sign of times to come. I hope not. If the trout lose spawning areas, we lose the trout to catch and biodiversity takes a further nose-dive!

Bit late with this

Saturday, 3rd Sept

Went down to an upper beat of the Witham at Ponton in the afternoon, my gosh, first time on the river in about a month, what with holiday, kids hither and thither and what not. Any way weather seemed kind, sun & cloud and fairly gusty wind (could have done without that), but it wouldn't have mattered either way.  Set up with a home tied orange post klink with a ptn under and walked down stream.

 

 Well you could tell I lacked practice, spent the first hour scaring fish away, that's when I could see them.
Wasn't until much later, on the wider slower stretch above the weir, that I saw any rises, but trying to interest them in my offerings took a long while.

Eventually an obviously less educated brownie of about 10" took the klink and came blinking to hand.  Before I could take its picture it spat the fly, jumped out of the net and was away.  That was that.

 However the wildlife kept me company!

Sunday 4th Sept

For a change after lunch I drove down to Stamford, near Uffington actually, to fish a stretch of the Lower Welland belonging to the Guash Fly Club.  Its a pretty bit of river that looks and can be very fishy, (it is stocked in the early season) before you get to the canal like section towards Tallington.  Another chap arrived more or less at the same time, so I went well down stream, only after pausing to cast to the numerous fish who feed on God knows what below the raging treatment works outfall. That's the second time I seen that but I can't figure what they want.

It seemed a very hard day, in fact apart from at the outfall section I didn't see a fish move at all.  Eventually all I had to show for my efforts was a small 6" chub!  It was a lovely evening though and I wasn't alone in my failings, the other chap blanked, and only reported one little pull.

Failed C&R

Friday evening, an early tea and down at Barkston by 6.45pm.  Lovely evening but very little rising?

The water was very very clear!

Yep that is through the water, without a polarising filter!
To fishing, my usual klink put down a couple of fish that I could see, mainly due to my poor casting as well as the frequency of casts. Noticed a lot of small caddis above the water and realised they were hatching, ....dur!  Changed to an F fly, too much weed for a nymph, and anyway I wanted to use a dry.  That drew more interest but my strike rate was appalling.  Until I spotted the sporadic rise of a brown trout under an overhanging branch at the other end of a deepish, weed-filled pool from me.  This required a very flat side cast into the 12" gap below the branch.  Well bug&*r me if it didn't take it, head, tail and all - a right splasher, which charged all over the pool collecting about a 1lb of weed with it.  I eventually slipped the net under it all, and pulled out the weed.  That's tricky while holding rod & net!

A right little corker, but where was the fly?  On further investigation it had deep hooked itself way down and I really struggled with forceps to remove the barbless hook (which I hadn't crimped down as well as it should have been).

The poor thing was pretty much done in so unfortunately I felt that it would be better to tap it on the head and take it for the pot, something I very rarely do with the river caught fish.

Missed a few more takes after that but my heart wasn't in it any more.  Anyway I was only wearing a teeshirt and I was getting pretty cold so jacked it in and watched the sunset on the way home.

POSTSCRIPT:
The said fishy, seasoned with salt & pepper and fried in lots of butter was absolutely delicious.

A lesson learned - check that tippet!

Some views of the River Witham at Barkston

 Ventured out last night, can't believe its been a week since I last fished the fly.  Arrived at Barkston to lovely peace & quiet, not a soul around, just a few rising fish and the occasional late mayfly to welcome me.

 Noticed again the huge amount of balsam on the banks, this really needs a determined effort to tackle.  The early warm weather and low water really seems to have brought on the vegetation, making casting even more challenging.  Trying to combine accuracy and delicacy often defeats me!

 However I did manage to catch nearly as many as I put down.

 Difficult to see the subtle rises on this one, little sips generally, suggesting spinners, and emergers?

 A cheerful and pretty little grayling.

 Jungle casting skills required!

 A few small mayflies were dipping on the water, but the fish seemed to ignore them, perhaps because they don't expect them?

 Eventually my perseverance paid off when this clonker (for this stream) took my klinkhammer in a flat calm pool amongst the reeds, as dusk crept in.

 15" of very solid fish who had me all over the pool, before slipping over rim of my net.

After that lovely fish a lesson was to be learned.  I didn't check my tippet after retreiving the fly and in my enthusiasm to cast to a rising fish I hung up in a hawthorn tree.  Managing to free the fly with some judicious waggling of the rod tip, I again omitted to check the tippet  for damage.  Another cast to a very subtle rise and my string was well and truly pulled, but only briefly as my tippet parted, leaving me wondering what I'd lost, apart from my fly that is.  Another klink tied on produced a couple more brownies in the 12" range before I headed home in the gloaming.