A Trip To The Dales (Rishishire)

 I had chance of a couple of hours fishing up the valley of cheese. As I got to the river in the glorious sunshine Swifts and Martins were grabbing insects from the surface. They were so quick I couldn't see what the birds were taking. They then moved away. With no sign of what had been hatching I put on a Elk Hair Caddis for want of a better idea.

I had few speculative casts here and there as I wandered along the river with out any luck. The Oyster catchers were up and down with their sirens going. Again I saw Swifts and Martins going after insects but by the time I got there they'd moved along. As I wandered back upstream I spotted a couple of fish rising in a shallow riffle by an island. First cast produced a nice little WBT.

I sat and waited to see if there would be any more rises. After a few minutes two or three fish appeared to be rising, but for what I couldn't tell. After a couple of casts a small chub of similar size to the trout took the fly. As I brought it in a couple of dozen other chub scattered. Some upstream and some past me. After dealing with the chub I waited again but no fish returned. I continued upstream. The occasional speculative cast again failed.

At the top of the stretch I spotted a couple fish rising in the fast riffle. After wandering back downstream and crossing the river I was able to get up to a position to cast at them. It took several casts to get a drag free drift. A very splashy rise resulted in something a bit bigger. A nice 10" Grayling. Time was running out but nothing else rose. A few more speculative casts produced nothing.

The couple of hours had flown past, but it had been quite enjoyable. Two more species caught add to the list.