Autumn Swims in Summer

Despite monitoring the levels on GaugeMap, I was still surprised as I wandered along the Nidd how the water level is holding up. I was also surprised by a barn owl as it swooped towards me from round the back of a willow. Today's plan of action was to fish the swims I hadn't got to on my previous visits. To this end I chucked a few handfuls of hemp in half a dozen of them and intended to float fish sweetcorn or meat through them I as I headed back.

The intention was to give each swim 30-40 minutes. Despite giving each swim it's allotted time only two produced. The second one produced a couple of tiny chub to corn and the last one a couple of small chub to meat. I must admit I've never done well in these last few swims early season, they always fish better in autumn.

Apart from pin fry and a small shoal of tiny gudgeon, these were the only fish I saw. On the way back to the car I watched the barn owl, through he trees, grab it's self, or maybe it's chicks a meal.