Jorvik Angler: Hedgepigs at Dusk

One of the problems when you live some distance from a river you want to fish, and have no contacts in the are, is knowing what state it's in. I can look at GaugeMap and see that the river has fallen quite considerably after the recent rain. There's even a web cam, but it's a lot farther down stream. What I don't really know what colour the river is and as it many years since I fished it regularly I don't know if it's at a suitable level for fishing. My local rivers I know from the levels whether they’re fishable or what a sections are fishable at what levels. One river doesn't fish well above 0.5m on the gauge. An other is OK up to 1m after which only certain sections are fishable. At 2m different sections are fishable. Once it gets above 3m you'll have problems finding the bank.

As it looked to be about 6-7" up on when I'd last visited and with se trout been caught down stream I decided to venture up there and attempt to catch one on fly. In the distant past I'd caught them on worm and spinner, which if the experts are to be believed is the only way you'll get them.

On arrival the river didn't look too bad, coloured, but not heavily. There was a noticeable amount of debris dangling from trees high above the river and worse, the long bankside vegetation was all flattened in a down stream direction making waking upstream hard work.

I'd opted for a sink tip and light fly as I thought this might not snag as much as a weighted fly. For couple of hours I wandered upstream with out sight or sound of a fish when I arrived at one of the larger pools. After a few casts another angler appeared from the upstream section. He'd been fishing spinner and had similar results to me. Just as we were questioning whether the sea trout had got this far one leapt over the shallow riffle at the top of the pool. As I'd just poured a cuppa and stared a sandwich just before his arrival I invited him to have a chuck with the spinner. The only thing he managed to catch were a couple of twigs.

We decided there was little point thrashing this one pool and both set off back the way we came but on the opposite bank. After a while I came to a rather nice looking stretch that was unfishable, and nearly invisible, due to the trees from the other bank. At the end of the second cast there was there unmistakable silver flash of fish turning away just as I lifted the fly from the water. Next cast I was in. The fish quickly kitted across the river into the large eddy and using the back current shot towards me at speed as I frantically gathered line to try and keep contact. Much as I suspected would happen it was solid in the tree roots. I maintained a steady pressure as I entered the water, but it quickly became apparent that it was too deep for wading across. Suddenly everything went slack. Retrieving my fly I was quite pleased I'd manage to hook one even if it wasn't landed.

Further on I came across a hedgehog snuffling about. As I tried to get a decent picture of it with my phone there seemed to be an invisible line I couldn't cross with out it curling up in to a ball. One step back and it would unfurl it's self and carry on it's hunt for food.

After a few more casts in various likely looking holes it started raining and was now starting to get dark. Rather than struggle along the river bank I took to the road and made my way back to the car just in time for a rainbow to appear.