River Fly Monitoring and Stuff

Saturday there was to be a work party on the new section of beck, so I got there early to have a bit of a fish before hand. A simple nymph rig was used with a single weighty hare's ear bug. Fished in the traditional upstream style rather than the more modern euro-nymph style. It wasn't long before I latched on to a fish which I bumped off when a pheasant shot up from behind a tree squawking like fury and frighten the crap out of me. I know they taste nice and have some useful feathers for fly tying, but the really are an annoying bird. Anyway I made my way upstream chucking the nymph into likely looking spots eventually latching on to another fish. With out any drama a 7" WBT was landed. No picture as I'd left my phone in the car. Rather stupidly I'd left it on the dashboard in full view of the world.

The section of beck we worked on is to be left 'wild', but there were several fallen trees that had got hung up and these were to be removed as they're damn dangerous. While they didn't come down easily it'll be Sod's Law that they'll come down in the slightest breeze when you try to pass under one when fishing.

Sunday was River Fly Monitoring day on a different beck. Again I arrived early to have a bit of a fish on the bottom stretch before things started. While I didn't catch using a simple klink-n-dink rig I did mange to spook a decent trout and also saw a dozen or so small dace/chub in a shoal.

As I was having a cuppa the troops gathered. There are two monitoring sites on this beck. One above a sewage outfall and one below. We started on the the upper one first with the following results.

The results were very much as expected apparently. At the site below the outfall I did the sampling. The first thing I did was get stuck on the soft sand at the side of the beck as I got in. A V-weir has been placed just above the site and is scouring the bed out nicely but the sand is being deposited on the sides and the vegetation hasn't taken hold on it yet. It's the same where wiggles have been reintroduced the sand is still soft as the vegetation starts to take hold. The results where as follows. Again much as expected. Although it was pointed out there were enough shrimp for a paella. There was also a fair bit of toilet paper debris. Hands were thoroughly sanitised afterwards.

After a spot of lunch I had a fling about with the klink-n-dink rig on this upper end of the stretch. I managed to spook a couple of fish when retrieving flies from overhanging bankside vegetation. Eventually I got to the lower monitoring spot where I knew there was a deep hole beside a tree. Second cast and something powerful took the nymph. After the initial run upstream it came back quietly before kicking off again at the net. A rather pale trout of 11". Something went a bit wonky with the phone when taking the photo. Not only did it end up in a low resolution mode, but it looks like the flash went off as well. Wet hands and touch screens aren't the best combination.

 

Near the top of the stretch, where there's a bit more streamer weed, I spotted two or three smaller fish. I tried to cover them but the nymph kept snagging the bottom. Rather than shorten the tippet I put on a black spider instead. First cast and I was in. A small, and again, silvery coloured 5" trout. As I brought it in several others, of a similar size, shot off.

By now it was time to go. We know there aren't many trout in this stretch at the moment but there does seem to be more moving in. While I was there I didn't see anything rise or any hatching insects. I will, however, have to tie up some shrimp patterns as I don't seem to have any for some reason.

Good For The Mind

 It's said that angling is good for mental health. This may be true most of the time but some days can be spectacularly frustrating. Today was one of those days.

I drove the long way round because the council road works map said a road was still closed, I discovered later it was in fact open. Having got set up it was noticeably cold here in the forest than it had been at home, but I was at least sheltered from the wind. I then searched the car for my wading staff but it was nowhere to be seen. Having mentioned in conversation how useful they are when descending or ascending slippy banks I could have done with it as I descended to the beck. The soggy leaves didn't offer much traction and I started heading downhill very quickly. OI managed to grab a tree, but it wasn't a lot of good as it was dead and rotten and snapped. It did slow me enough to dig my heels in though. Only problem then was that I'd thrown the rod out of the way so as not to break it and it was now several feet above me. Eventually I managed to retrieve it with the aid of a handy branch.

Things got a bit better when in the second swim I got a take on a PTN jig. What I hadn't taken into account was that I was a couple of feet or so above the water and only had a little scope net, so I attempted to swing the little beastie in. One bit of aerial acrobatics and it was off. Oh well, at least I know the fly was working. A couple of swims later on I had another, taken as I allowed the nymph to rise in the water at the end of the drift. A quick strike and I hit the tree to my right bumping the fish off. At least the tree had a thick layer of moss on it which stopped the rod being damaged. Over the next few swims I thought i had a couple of takes but wasn't sure. I did snag up on a the odd branch or two and the occasional root but managed to retrieve the fly each time. One of the advantages of fly rod tip rings is that they're not lined and you can use them as a disgorger to retrieve the fly. 

The next section was a bit problematic navigation wise with fallen trees over the beck and hawthorns in the way. I also managed to raise a mallard couple that I hadn't seen which gave me a bit of a start and ruined a rather nice looking swim. I also discovered that there's a leak in the waders at about thigh height. I'm surprised there isn't more given the brambles, briar, and hawthorns about. Luckily the barbed wire fence is a good distance from the beck. Over the next hour I managed to hook and lose three more fish. Don't know why. I changed the fly after the first two just in case.

I fished on for a bit longer with out an success until I arrived at one of the foot bridges. A look at the time showed I'd been fishing for three hours although it didn't seem like it. Despite this I was only fifteen minutes or so along the road from the car. At least I had a nice path up to the road instead of trying to scramble up the soggy steep slope to it.

A rather frustrating session on a cold, damp, overcast day. A warming pot noodle for lunch lifted things a bit but then the drizzle started earlier than expected. One problem with this spot is that there's no phone signal. This means I can't look at the rain radar. One of the better uses of the internet. If you can't see the horizon you don't really know when the rain is going to arrive. As it was the drizzle stopped by the time I'd finished lunch, but if the weather forecast was accurate heavy rain was due around three. I decided to have a cast about on the pond as I'd just got a new line for the ten footer. The new line really suited the rod more than the old one. Maybe it was the shorter head that helped. I did see one fish in the pond and cast a nymph to it a couple of times. On the third cast I'd forgotten I'd taken a couple of steps along the bank and landed the nymph in the tree behind me. So had others judging by the flies up there. I was unable to use the rod as a disgorger as the tippet had wrapped round a few twigs by the look of things. I pulled for a break and left the fly up there to join the others.

The rain proper then started to come down eventually getting very heavy. I got back to the car before the heavens opened. It the eased a bit as I drove out of the forest, but by the time I'd dropped down the valley to the village it was torrential again. The roads were covered with big puddles and on parts of the dual carriageway only one lane was usable as the other was flooded. Having thought about the day when I got home it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I'd hooked five fish. Two I'd lost through my own fault. The others were just one of those things. So really the fly was the right choice and my nymphing technique must have been about right. I be glad when things warm up and they are willing to rise to a dry fly though.

They Should Tidy Up The Fallen Trees

When ever I go through the gate onto the unmade road I have to suppress the urge to go full Stig Blomqvist down the track When I arrived at the parking spot another vehicle was already there. They were fishing the pond, with out a great deal of success at that point. I readied myself and headed to the beck. I didn't pick the best route down through the trees as it was a bit boggy but eventually got to the beck. Where the first thing I did was spook a couple of trout.

There isn't a lot of room for casting in these parts. A lot of it is only accessible by bow-and-arrow casting. The first few swims were rather tight but I managed to get my Elk Hair Caddis into most of the right spots with out getting hung up. Eventually, have spooked a few more fish, I got to a little beach with a bit of casting room and had a couple of nice drifts with the fly. Third drift down a little trout shot up towards the fly. It missed it but leapt clear of the water and disappeared under some tree roots. Another cast to the top of the riffle produced a positive rise and a seven inch wild brown trout was soon in the net.

 

 A Few more spots were tried, but mainly I just seemed to be spooking fish as I tried to spot them while walking. Not a good idea as I either walked into branches or was tripped by brambles. I then spotted a nice slack but the only access was right above it. As I took a bit of a detour to avoid spooking any residents I came across the feathery remains of a a kill that a small bird was picking over. Presumably for nest lining. Round at the slack I lowered the fly into the water. It had nearly reached the fast water when it disappeared. A strike and I was in to something. The line had got caught on a trailing briar. The little trout quickly flipped itself off the hook.

A few more swims were tried with out any action. I then got to a smoothish glide where the fly attracted the attention of a small trout which had a splashy rise at the fly. Next cast the fly had only drifted a couple of inches when if was snaffled. A little spotty of around five inches. I managed to raise another little fish in the next riffle. I was now thirsty and hungry so made my way back up to the road ascending alongside an old moss covered dry stone wall.

After lunch I had a short session on the pond as I'd seen a couple of fish rising. Only one of the anglers was still fishing and he lost is only fish of the day taken on nymph. After they ignored my caddis I tried a small Dynamite Harry. This too was ignored. I then spent a little while using it on the section of beck than runs by the pond to no avail. Clearly not all the fish are looking up yet. Another angler had a couple on nymphs following me.

Clearly there are a fair few trout in this beck as evidenced by my spooking them. I'll have to get my stealth mode practiced some more. As for those big creatures in the pond. I think they're best ignored for now.

What the fishing now needs is some settled weather and less rain as I would like to get up to the Dales as well.

Not As Planned

On Sunday with the one beck up and coloured I headed to the next valley along where it's beck was clear and fishable. It would also be out of the expected strong winds, but not the showers. I'd fished this beck further upstream a long long time ago. With a bit of stealth there are some very eager little browns to be caught. I parked up in the parking spot which is next to one of the club ponds, so decided to have a wander around. There was the occasional rise and plenty of rainbows milling about. Some where quite large.

Back at the car things started to unravel. I thought I'd put a five foot and a seven foot rod in the boot. Instead I had a seven foot and a ten foot rod. Further more the reel bag with the three weight reel only had the spool, but I did have a reel with a four weight line. By the time I'd got my waders on the sunshine had disappeared and the first shower of the day started. I made a cuppa and sat in the car contemplating. I decided to put the four weight on the three weight ten foot rod and have a go for a couple of rainbows in the pond on dry fly.

 

It took a while to get used to this rod being over-lined. In fact I never really got used to it. The rod really didn't like it, except for very short casts. The gusty wind wasn't helping. The first fly on was a retirer sedge. I thought a big fly would have them eager to rise. The big fish weren't eager at all. They just steadfastly ignored the fly swimming along as if nothing had happened. Even a clumsy cast with everything slapping down on the water didn't seem to spoke them. The greylag geese arguing didn't worry them either. Eventually a smaller fish I'd seen rising close to the bank took the fly but I had too much slack in the system and failed to gather it up on the strike.

 

With the fish taking little interest in the retirer I changed to another large fly, a march brown jingler. This seemed to do the trick. I cast it towards one of the large fish, but one of the small ones shot up and grabbed it. This time I connected properly and after a bit of a all-over the place fight it was in the net. Not a pristine fish but good fun on the light rod. I spent some more time flinging the fly about at various fish only to be ignored before the rain started again. I retired back to the car for elevenses.

During elevenses I had a long hard stare at the fly box. I had thought of fishing some sort of emerger but there were none to be seen. Probably because they were in the other box I hadn't brought with me. Instead I put on a small chenille daddy. This gave me an idea. I would try fishing it in the beck in a sort of euro nymphing style with just the leader out of the rod tip. This proved rather more complicated than I'd imagined. The wind was now stronger and the gusts would just lift the fly from the water and deposit it in a briar or similar. Nor was there a great deal of room and I began to fear for the rod tip. On my way back up the bank to the pond I spotted some frog spawn lying on some damp moss. I suppose with all the rain it had managed to keep damp. Even so i gathered up what I could and transferred it to the pond.

 

The gust of wind were now getting stronger and their direction was a tad unpredictable as the wind was buffeted about by the trees. This was shown when I cast down the bank to a fish and the whole lot was dumped on the bank by a gust. A cast towards an island produced a take from the smaller but very brightly coloured fish. Unfortunately it flipped the hook close to the net. really I should have stepped into the lake rather than struggle down the bank with a short handled river net.  A change to a John Storey after the daddy failed to attract anything more. A cast close to the island again produced another fish which after a brief battle was in the net.

The rain then started again and the wind was getting silly so I called it a day. An enjoyable day in the end, despite the dodgy start. It's a long long time since I fished a small trout lake and I've never fished one as clear and shallow as this one. It looks like I may have to have another go some time, but back to running water next.

Life, The Universe, And The Fly Box

 On Friday there was a work party on the beck which was slowly rising. A couple of benches were to be installed. Then a couple of fallen trees removed from across the beck that were inhibiting upstream wading. The benches installed with out a hitch. No tree roots or rocks got in the way. A bit of careful pruning of overhanging briars was carried out along with removing the offending tree trunks. The benches are a nice thing to have as the proved a nice spot to sit and contemplate life, the universe, and your fly box with out having to sit on the currently boggy ground.

By the time we'd finished the beck had risen a couple of inches or so and coloured up a bit. By the time I'd had my lunch it had stopped riding and the colour had dropped out a bit. I headed up to the woods rod in hand, but not before testing a bench out. All OK.

The second bench proved useful for setting up the rod and line, and perusing the fly box. A retirer sedge and a gold head PTN were selected. While I was setting up I thought I saw something rise, or maybe something fell from the trees. Either way there were rings on the water.

 

 

The first couple of takes on the PTN were from twigs, but the third turned out to be a rather skinny looking grayling with precious little fight. It was quickly flicked off the barbless hook. Around the next corner a similar set of events occurred and another skinny apathetic grayling of similar size, about 10", was quickly flick from the hook. A bit further on something took a liking to the dry but I failed to contact. Next cast something livelier grabbed the PTN but managed to slip the hook before I could see it. By now it was starting to rain and was nearly time to depart. I thought I'd best start back as I had no idea how far I'd gone into the woods. As it happens it wasn't far as the crow flies but the beck does wiggle about a lot at this point. With storm Kathleen heading up the country I suspected Saturday would be a washout, and from reports and looking at the gauges my suspicions were well founded. Maybe I'll get out on Sunday.