First Day Of The Yorkshire Trout Season

The twenty-fifth, the first day of the trout season here in Yorkshire. I don't often fish the first day, normally I wait until April as the rivers I fish just don't fish well early. The weather is often lousy as well. Today, though, was a glorious day. Chilly to start with but T-shirt weather by ten o'clock. Not really conducive to trout fishing to trout fishing either. I nearly missed the parking spot as it it's marked by a large oak. Said oak had been brought down in the earlier storms apparently and all that's left is a stump and some debris. A few areas of bank were also denuded of trees for the same reason. They looked to be mainly willow, which had been coppiced, so should grow back soon enough.

After an hours wander about I'd seen no insect life at all. Much as expected, so opted for a euro nymph setup with a PTN on point and a red tag on the dropper. The red tag proved very popular with the small grayling so was soon removed and replaced with a small GRHE which did a sterling job attracting dace. By now there was the odd splashy rise, but from the silvery flash it looked like they were small dace or grayling.

 

After a spot of lunch I moved to a different section. I continued on with the euro nymph setup. The were considerably less grayling and dace on this section. By mid afternoon things were beginning to look a bit desperate when I finally latched onto a small trout on the dropper.  Unfortunately the point fly snagged and the trout shook itself free. This gave me some renewed optimism. 

 

As I wandered up to the next swim there was a bit of a commotion, as several small fish scattered near the bank. I suspected it was either a pike or maybe an otter. As I got to the swim the same thing happened again, but this time I could see a large silver flash and just a hint of pink. It looked like one of the large feral rainbows was hunting. I put on a small white jig streamer and tried every know retrieve but could elicit a strike. I stuck with the lure as I headed back towards the car. By now a chill breeze had got up and it wasn't quite T-shirt weather any more. I was soon warmed up again when a little jack took the jig streamer. After a brief dash about the river, though the hook came adrift.

 

I hadn't really expected much from the day so hooking a trout was a bonus. From what I've been told the dace and grayling were noticeable for their absence over winter so why they've turned up now I don't know. I probably should have taken the 6 weight with me and fished some larger heavier streamers. Something I'll try next time. One thing that is going to be a problem later in the year is the fileds of rape seed which play havoc with my hay fever.