Good For The Mind

 It's said that angling is good for mental health. This may be true most of the time but some days can be spectacularly frustrating. Today was one of those days.

I drove the long way round because the council road works map said a road was still closed, I discovered later it was in fact open. Having got set up it was noticeably cold here in the forest than it had been at home, but I was at least sheltered from the wind. I then searched the car for my wading staff but it was nowhere to be seen. Having mentioned in conversation how useful they are when descending or ascending slippy banks I could have done with it as I descended to the beck. The soggy leaves didn't offer much traction and I started heading downhill very quickly. OI managed to grab a tree, but it wasn't a lot of good as it was dead and rotten and snapped. It did slow me enough to dig my heels in though. Only problem then was that I'd thrown the rod out of the way so as not to break it and it was now several feet above me. Eventually I managed to retrieve it with the aid of a handy branch.

Things got a bit better when in the second swim I got a take on a PTN jig. What I hadn't taken into account was that I was a couple of feet or so above the water and only had a little scope net, so I attempted to swing the little beastie in. One bit of aerial acrobatics and it was off. Oh well, at least I know the fly was working. A couple of swims later on I had another, taken as I allowed the nymph to rise in the water at the end of the drift. A quick strike and I hit the tree to my right bumping the fish off. At least the tree had a thick layer of moss on it which stopped the rod being damaged. Over the next few swims I thought i had a couple of takes but wasn't sure. I did snag up on a the odd branch or two and the occasional root but managed to retrieve the fly each time. One of the advantages of fly rod tip rings is that they're not lined and you can use them as a disgorger to retrieve the fly. 

The next section was a bit problematic navigation wise with fallen trees over the beck and hawthorns in the way. I also managed to raise a mallard couple that I hadn't seen which gave me a bit of a start and ruined a rather nice looking swim. I also discovered that there's a leak in the waders at about thigh height. I'm surprised there isn't more given the brambles, briar, and hawthorns about. Luckily the barbed wire fence is a good distance from the beck. Over the next hour I managed to hook and lose three more fish. Don't know why. I changed the fly after the first two just in case.

I fished on for a bit longer with out an success until I arrived at one of the foot bridges. A look at the time showed I'd been fishing for three hours although it didn't seem like it. Despite this I was only fifteen minutes or so along the road from the car. At least I had a nice path up to the road instead of trying to scramble up the soggy steep slope to it.

A rather frustrating session on a cold, damp, overcast day. A warming pot noodle for lunch lifted things a bit but then the drizzle started earlier than expected. One problem with this spot is that there's no phone signal. This means I can't look at the rain radar. One of the better uses of the internet. If you can't see the horizon you don't really know when the rain is going to arrive. As it was the drizzle stopped by the time I'd finished lunch, but if the weather forecast was accurate heavy rain was due around three. I decided to have a cast about on the pond as I'd just got a new line for the ten footer. The new line really suited the rod more than the old one. Maybe it was the shorter head that helped. I did see one fish in the pond and cast a nymph to it a couple of times. On the third cast I'd forgotten I'd taken a couple of steps along the bank and landed the nymph in the tree behind me. So had others judging by the flies up there. I was unable to use the rod as a disgorger as the tippet had wrapped round a few twigs by the look of things. I pulled for a break and left the fly up there to join the others.

The rain proper then started to come down eventually getting very heavy. I got back to the car before the heavens opened. It the eased a bit as I drove out of the forest, but by the time I'd dropped down the valley to the village it was torrential again. The roads were covered with big puddles and on parts of the dual carriageway only one lane was usable as the other was flooded. Having thought about the day when I got home it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I'd hooked five fish. Two I'd lost through my own fault. The others were just one of those things. So really the fly was the right choice and my nymphing technique must have been about right. I be glad when things warm up and they are willing to rise to a dry fly though.

They Should Tidy Up The Fallen Trees

When ever I go through the gate onto the unmade road I have to suppress the urge to go full Stig Blomqvist down the track When I arrived at the parking spot another vehicle was already there. They were fishing the pond, with out a great deal of success at that point. I readied myself and headed to the beck. I didn't pick the best route down through the trees as it was a bit boggy but eventually got to the beck. Where the first thing I did was spook a couple of trout.

There isn't a lot of room for casting in these parts. A lot of it is only accessible by bow-and-arrow casting. The first few swims were rather tight but I managed to get my Elk Hair Caddis into most of the right spots with out getting hung up. Eventually, have spooked a few more fish, I got to a little beach with a bit of casting room and had a couple of nice drifts with the fly. Third drift down a little trout shot up towards the fly. It missed it but leapt clear of the water and disappeared under some tree roots. Another cast to the top of the riffle produced a positive rise and a seven inch wild brown trout was soon in the net.

 

 A Few more spots were tried, but mainly I just seemed to be spooking fish as I tried to spot them while walking. Not a good idea as I either walked into branches or was tripped by brambles. I then spotted a nice slack but the only access was right above it. As I took a bit of a detour to avoid spooking any residents I came across the feathery remains of a a kill that a small bird was picking over. Presumably for nest lining. Round at the slack I lowered the fly into the water. It had nearly reached the fast water when it disappeared. A strike and I was in to something. The line had got caught on a trailing briar. The little trout quickly flipped itself off the hook.

A few more swims were tried with out any action. I then got to a smoothish glide where the fly attracted the attention of a small trout which had a splashy rise at the fly. Next cast the fly had only drifted a couple of inches when if was snaffled. A little spotty of around five inches. I managed to raise another little fish in the next riffle. I was now thirsty and hungry so made my way back up to the road ascending alongside an old moss covered dry stone wall.

After lunch I had a short session on the pond as I'd seen a couple of fish rising. Only one of the anglers was still fishing and he lost is only fish of the day taken on nymph. After they ignored my caddis I tried a small Dynamite Harry. This too was ignored. I then spent a little while using it on the section of beck than runs by the pond to no avail. Clearly not all the fish are looking up yet. Another angler had a couple on nymphs following me.

Clearly there are a fair few trout in this beck as evidenced by my spooking them. I'll have to get my stealth mode practiced some more. As for those big creatures in the pond. I think they're best ignored for now.

What the fishing now needs is some settled weather and less rain as I would like to get up to the Dales as well.

Not As Planned

On Sunday with the one beck up and coloured I headed to the next valley along where it's beck was clear and fishable. It would also be out of the expected strong winds, but not the showers. I'd fished this beck further upstream a long long time ago. With a bit of stealth there are some very eager little browns to be caught. I parked up in the parking spot which is next to one of the club ponds, so decided to have a wander around. There was the occasional rise and plenty of rainbows milling about. Some where quite large.

Back at the car things started to unravel. I thought I'd put a five foot and a seven foot rod in the boot. Instead I had a seven foot and a ten foot rod. Further more the reel bag with the three weight reel only had the spool, but I did have a reel with a four weight line. By the time I'd got my waders on the sunshine had disappeared and the first shower of the day started. I made a cuppa and sat in the car contemplating. I decided to put the four weight on the three weight ten foot rod and have a go for a couple of rainbows in the pond on dry fly.

 

It took a while to get used to this rod being over-lined. In fact I never really got used to it. The rod really didn't like it, except for very short casts. The gusty wind wasn't helping. The first fly on was a retirer sedge. I thought a big fly would have them eager to rise. The big fish weren't eager at all. They just steadfastly ignored the fly swimming along as if nothing had happened. Even a clumsy cast with everything slapping down on the water didn't seem to spoke them. The greylag geese arguing didn't worry them either. Eventually a smaller fish I'd seen rising close to the bank took the fly but I had too much slack in the system and failed to gather it up on the strike.

 

With the fish taking little interest in the retirer I changed to another large fly, a march brown jingler. This seemed to do the trick. I cast it towards one of the large fish, but one of the small ones shot up and grabbed it. This time I connected properly and after a bit of a all-over the place fight it was in the net. Not a pristine fish but good fun on the light rod. I spent some more time flinging the fly about at various fish only to be ignored before the rain started again. I retired back to the car for elevenses.

During elevenses I had a long hard stare at the fly box. I had thought of fishing some sort of emerger but there were none to be seen. Probably because they were in the other box I hadn't brought with me. Instead I put on a small chenille daddy. This gave me an idea. I would try fishing it in the beck in a sort of euro nymphing style with just the leader out of the rod tip. This proved rather more complicated than I'd imagined. The wind was now stronger and the gusts would just lift the fly from the water and deposit it in a briar or similar. Nor was there a great deal of room and I began to fear for the rod tip. On my way back up the bank to the pond I spotted some frog spawn lying on some damp moss. I suppose with all the rain it had managed to keep damp. Even so i gathered up what I could and transferred it to the pond.

 

The gust of wind were now getting stronger and their direction was a tad unpredictable as the wind was buffeted about by the trees. This was shown when I cast down the bank to a fish and the whole lot was dumped on the bank by a gust. A cast towards an island produced a take from the smaller but very brightly coloured fish. Unfortunately it flipped the hook close to the net. really I should have stepped into the lake rather than struggle down the bank with a short handled river net.  A change to a John Storey after the daddy failed to attract anything more. A cast close to the island again produced another fish which after a brief battle was in the net.

The rain then started again and the wind was getting silly so I called it a day. An enjoyable day in the end, despite the dodgy start. It's a long long time since I fished a small trout lake and I've never fished one as clear and shallow as this one. It looks like I may have to have another go some time, but back to running water next.

Life, The Universe, And The Fly Box

 On Friday there was a work party on the beck which was slowly rising. A couple of benches were to be installed. Then a couple of fallen trees removed from across the beck that were inhibiting upstream wading. The benches installed with out a hitch. No tree roots or rocks got in the way. A bit of careful pruning of overhanging briars was carried out along with removing the offending tree trunks. The benches are a nice thing to have as the proved a nice spot to sit and contemplate life, the universe, and your fly box with out having to sit on the currently boggy ground.

By the time we'd finished the beck had risen a couple of inches or so and coloured up a bit. By the time I'd had my lunch it had stopped riding and the colour had dropped out a bit. I headed up to the woods rod in hand, but not before testing a bench out. All OK.

The second bench proved useful for setting up the rod and line, and perusing the fly box. A retirer sedge and a gold head PTN were selected. While I was setting up I thought I saw something rise, or maybe something fell from the trees. Either way there were rings on the water.

 

 

The first couple of takes on the PTN were from twigs, but the third turned out to be a rather skinny looking grayling with precious little fight. It was quickly flicked off the barbless hook. Around the next corner a similar set of events occurred and another skinny apathetic grayling of similar size, about 10", was quickly flick from the hook. A bit further on something took a liking to the dry but I failed to contact. Next cast something livelier grabbed the PTN but managed to slip the hook before I could see it. By now it was starting to rain and was nearly time to depart. I thought I'd best start back as I had no idea how far I'd gone into the woods. As it happens it wasn't far as the crow flies but the beck does wiggle about a lot at this point. With storm Kathleen heading up the country I suspected Saturday would be a washout, and from reports and looking at the gauges my suspicions were well founded. Maybe I'll get out on Sunday.

Day Three And Another New Water

 Wednesday I headed for the club's new beat. The route to it involves a precipitous decent down an unmade road with no passing places. I was wondering what you do when you meet another vehicle ascending the road, or vice-versa. This worry intensified while I was having lunch. A large tractor towing a trailer set off up the hill. I know the vehicle going uphill has priority, as do large tractors, but i really didn't fancy having to reverse back up.

All that been said it was rather nice down at the bottom. First thing i did was have a wander along the path above the beck. When I say above I mean above. You get the sort of views of the beck that one would get with a drone. Access points were limited to where the path dropped as the hillside is steep, very steep in places. Having accessed the beck I set off back upstream along it's banks. This is no mean feat either as the are many fallen trees. I'm not sure this is expensive breathable wader territory. Although mine got through unscathed when I started fishing later. A couple of ladders to help you get out and a bench for a contemplate have been put in by a work party.

After a cuppa I wander part way down with rod in hand. the usual Elk Hair Caddis on the end of the leader. As I approached a ninety degree bend. something had a go at the fly. Several more attempts were made by what appeared to be rather small trout. There seemed to be quite few in the area as no matter where I cast something had ago. They obviously had eyes bigger than their bellies. A bit further round something a tad larger grabbed the fly. A wee spotted beastie of 6" which looked like a monster compared to the ones that had previously attacked the fly.

After some lunch while it rained I headed further down the beck. I'd added a dropper with a small Copper Head Mary nymph. The fallen trees mean you have to get in and out of the beck to get round them. Sometimes doubling back down the beck to where you got in. At one point there was a small hatch of Iron Blues but I didn't see anything rise for them. I continued on with the duo rig. This too was problematic at times when it got snagged. This meant spoiling the swim to retrieve the snagged rig. Better than leaving litter though.

Eventually I got to the riffle where I'd had the fly attacked by little trout. Strangely the seemed to be happy attacking the dry fly but showed no interest in the nymph. Eventually I took one on the nymph but it turned out to be foul-hooked behind the gill plate. Probably four inches long the slippery little beastie was back in the water before I could photograph it. Little fish like that are a good sign even if they're a menace at times.

Despite the size of fish and the lack of numbers it was a fun day out and there's still plenty to explore. In the mean time here's another steam train.

When it was home time I decided to leave by the other side of the valley. This turned out to be a very silly idea. While the first part of the unmade road was OK a section in a dip was very very wet and had eighteen inch deep ruts in it. Even A 4x4 would have trouble. It was a tractor only job. I then had to reverse some hundred and fitly yards back before I could turn and take the route out by which I'd arrived.

Day 2 - 2024 Trout Season

 As I didn't have much time available for my second session of the trout season I headed to the downstream end of the beck. A couple of anglers were euro nymphing up stream from the bridge so I headed downstream of the bridge to work my way back up to it. An elk hair caddis was on the end of the leader. I was using an eight foot rod today rather than the seven foot rod I'd used yesterday as the was a bit more room. Third or fourth cast I managed to land the fly close to the tree roots. The fly had drifted about six inches when I got a take. After a bit of a hectic fight mid river it was on it's way to the net. It then woke up again and dodged the net and dived into the pile of debris to my right where it manage to dislodge the hook. It looked like a good twelve inch fish as well. Oh well, others may be looking up.

 

I worked my way upstream casting into likely looking spots. About halfway back I cast next to some vegetation on my bank as I lifted the fly for a recast a fish swirled at it. Judging by the silveriness I think it may have been a grayling. I was nearly back at the bridge when a fish slashed at the fly the moment it landed. By now it was lunch time. I decided to fish a duo rig after lunch for the short time I had left, but on another stretch upstream of me.

 Sadly this produced nothing in the short time I had but it did allow me to have a look at this section which does look rather fishy. One thing I did see, on the sheep droppings, were dung flies. Not something use see as much these days. I think I may have to tie some up. Despite the sunshine I think the cold wind kept the fish down. That'd my excuse anyway.