Hail and Parr

The weather forecast for Thursday was all rather British. Cloudy with showers, occasionally heavy, some sunshine. All was well as I travelled up to the Ure after lunch and even better as the sun came out as I set up. There was plenty of fly life on the river so for want of anything better on went a small parachute grey duster. The rises were clearly from rather small fish as they were rather splashy and the couple I did contact with soon fell off. Wandering up the river I spotted a couple of better fish loitering under an overhanging tree. The first cast was straight into the branches. Thankfully a steady pull had the fly loose and on the water next to the two fish. One of them dropped back and then rose to the fly. I nearly struck before it got to the fly, and really should have done as it turned out to be a rather manky chub that came in like a bit of weed. As I wander further upstream the sun disappeared and the rain started, slowly at first then getting heavier and heavier, and colder and colder. In a bout of optimism I'd left the waterproof in the car. As I traversed the river, as this was the shortest route back, I discovered that there was a  little hole in the waders at thigh height. Only a pin prick hole, but another annoyance non the less.

I got back to the car just in time, as the rain turned to hail. I sat eating a sandwich, pondering whether to give give it up as a lost cause. Eventually the hail tuned back to rain, then to drizzle. It was now rather chilly and warranted a fleece possibly even gloves, but who brings gloves with them in June. If we'd had this weather through May maybe people wouldn't have gone out and torched the moors. As it was now just fine drizzle I decide to give it another go. A change of tactics was called for, though, as nothing was rising and nothing fluttering about.

A bit of Klink & Dink seemed to be the best idea except the Klink would be a black Hopelessly’s ‘Magic’ emerger with a small gold head PTN on the dropper.. I also changed from my 8' Steamflex to a 10' Shakespeare Agility. The Magic emerger proved o be a wise choice as the rain got heavier again as it is nice and buoyant. Hitting the takes proved to be another matter. At first I thought the PTN was snagging, but occasionally I'd feel a small fish for a moment. Eventually a little parr was hooked and landed. Even though my phone is waterproof taking a photo in the rain proved to be a royal pain in the arse. Cold wet hands, a wet phone and a touch screen are not a great combination. I'd forgotten to put the waterproof case for the action cam in the car which would have been ideal for this. This tactic brought several more parr and a couple of similar sized trout. I attempted to photograph the trout, but the now heavy rain made it impassible as the screen wouldn't detect my finger. When I got home I discovered 38 out of focus images of something on the camera, not sure what had happened.

As the rain was getting heavier and more persistent along with the light fading and my left leg getting cold an wet from the leaky waders I called it a day. I think I'd of landed more fish if I'd stuck with the Streamflex as it's reasonably soft. The Agility is a nice enough rod, for the price, but just too stiff for wee beasties like that. The weather forecast for the next few days is basically more of the same. I may have to go bream fishing where I can sit under a brolly.