More Yoredale Trout

 The number of times I'd passed over the little river in Yoredale and thought it may be a good idea to give it a ago, but then forgot is rather silly. Thursday I remembered, prompted by a video I'd watched. The last time I'd fished it was last century when a day ticket was £6, Thursday it was £12. Wandering along it's banks it was very much, and nothing like, I remembered it. While it's general appearance through the wooded valley had very much remained the same, the boulder strewn river bed had obviously been shifted about.

Rod choice is always a problem on rivers like this. The overhanging trees dictate a short rod. While the more open areas a longer rod has it's advantages. I compromised at eight foot which turned out to be two foot too long or two foot too short depending where I was. I wandered along the path intent on getting away from the area near the entrance as I thought it would have been heavily fished. I didn't get as far as intended before I spotted three or four trout cruising about and rising to something. Apart for the black stuff the only other fly life were some small sedge. After a few cast with a small deer hair sedge it became apparent this wasn't what the were eating. A change to a deer hair emerger had the desired effect but the takes were very fast and I had trouble hitting them. Eventually I made contact with a fish that didn't seem to want to remain in the river and splashed about all over before managing to release it's self. This put the rest of the fish down. While I was playing it a few mayfly fluttered past.

I wandered a lot further up eventually spotting some more trout bellow a fast riffle, The showed very little interest in the DHE so on went a Dynamite Harry type fly. These are quite buoyant and would handle the riffled water well. This proved to be the case when, after a few casts, I was in again. A lovely little fish around the eight inch mark. A larger fish then started to rise to the left of the riffle. On the first cast I didn't mend the line fast enough and the fly got dragged away very quickly. The next couple of casts ended up in two different trees. One behind me and one above the trout. Both were low enough to retrieve the fly but this put pay to the swim.

I tried various spots as I moved upstream managing to hook a couple of smaller fish that came adrift when I grabbed the leader. A bit further up I spotted a couple more trout in the tail of a riffle. The first cast snagged the tree behind me. The second fell a bit short, but the smaller of the two tout turned and grabbed it. Another nice fish of eleven inches or so. The other, larger, trout shot past me as I played the first. By now it was getting rather dark under the trees and the fly was getting hard to see. Also I wasn't sure how far I'd wandered, so I headed back to towards the car. I sat above a long smooth glide for a while watching some small trout moving about. As it was a bit brighter here I had a go for them They didn't like the Dynamite Harry  and as they were only just breaking the surface I put on a plume fly. This resulted in a couple of minnows, so I put on the larger DHE which the trout came up and inspected before drifting away. A change to a size 22 IOBO resulted in more minnows. As the light was now fading I made my way back to the car. By the time I had changed it was lighting up time dark.

 

I think it may be worth another go down there. Now I've remembered where the paths are I should be able to get further upstream bit quicker. We'll have to see what the rain and thunder do this weekend.