A New January Species

Knowing rain had swept across the dales earlier in the week I'd been keeping an eye on the river levels. The problems was the spot I'd hoped to fish was midway between two gauges and I'd not fished it for some years so the information from the gauges wasn't overly meaningful. The other problem is that the levels are only given every twelve hours and a lot can happen in that time. When I looked this morning the river hadn't risen much and nor had it at the gauges further upstream. The other thing the gauges don't tell you is what colour the river has turned. As it tuned out the colour wasn't bad, but the river was now rising fast. In fact it peaked just after lunch nearly a metre up from the early morning level according to the graphs. Which matched my observations on the bank. I'd have probably been better barbel fishing than attempting to trot for grayling. The fact it was still rising meant it was un-wadable as well. In fact I'd never wade a rinsing river, especially the  Wharfe. This limited the swims I could fish. Still there were plenty of Snowdrops to admire as I wandered upstream looking for fishable swims.

I was astonished when the first trot through, intended to check the depth, produced a fish. A MINNOW, in January, a bloody minnow, and it wasn't a fluke, a couple of trots later and I'd got another one. In fact it was as bad as summer for them, it seemed no matter where I fished a minnow would eventually turn up. I spent the rest of the day trying to avoid them. In the swims I did avoid them I also avoided any other fish as well. Deep, shallow, fast, slow, and various combinations there of, they still seemed to turn up. If I put three or four maggots on they just chewed them, but didn't hook themselves. Nor did anything else mind you.

Half way back down the length I spotted a rather large pile of earth on a bank, behind which was what looked like a badger hole. They had obviously been busy get ready for the forth coming cubs.

Despite only catching minnows it hadn't been a bad day. I'd been sheltered from the strong winds and learnt a bit about the levels at this point compared to the levels at the gauges either side. So all was not lost as I'd got a new January species. I can't remember ever catching minnows in January before. There again I can't remember a January this warm either.