No Insects - No Fish

 I'd have preferred to fish on Friday, but appointments, etc. meant I couldn't, so Thursday it was. Despite the north-east wind on both days Friday at least had some sunshine, whereas Thursday was dull and overcast. Looking from the bridge the lack of life was astonishing. A couple of bees, a butterfly, and few black things were all the insects I could see. A dipper and a few mallard with ducklings were on the river. Three oyster catchers flew over head making a racket. Never understood this as the oysters must be able to hear them coming and have time to go into hiding.

Rather than fish I decide to have a wander along the river and see if anything anywhere was happening. The answer was no. The odd tiny fish could be seen dimpling the surface. Others gave a splashy rise. Nothing of any size showed at all. No of this was surprising given the weather conditions and the state of the river. It was low and weedy with horrible green slimy algae around. The area looked some what desolate apart from the sheep and a flock of gooses. There were a few interesting looking riffles that may hold fish. The deeper sections looked dire and covered in debris and in some places a brown scum. My local canals have more flow. Herbicide had obviously been recently sprayed as well given the wilting thistles. They lack of insects around the sheep shit was also a tad worrying.

After an early tea I set up a spider rig to fish the riffles. Despite the long walk between the ones deep enough to fish I set off with hope. This had faded by the time I got to the top of the stretch with nothing to show for my efforts. On the way back I switch to dry fly. A klinkhammer and a small black beastie were rigged up. The pink post on the klinkhammer allowing in to show up among the bits of debris and also allowing me to have an idea where the little black beastie was. All that happened they they hit the water was for little fish to attack them. Nothing of any size made an attempt, as far as I could tell, to take the flies. I also tried a nymph in the faster riffles but it always ended up stuck in the weed and slime.

I waited nearly to dark hoping something would happen, but no. not a thing. A spot of rain and a change of wind direction would do wonders for the river and the fishing. I now, however, have a lot better idea of the the parking spots and access places for my next visit.

First Day Of The Yorkshire Trout Season 2023

 The 25th, the first day of the trout season in some parts of Yorkshire nearly always disappoints and today was no different. The rivers had been up and down since before the end of the coarse season, the rivers had started to drop here and there. This morning, though, the dales rivers were rising again so I wasn't going to trail up there not sure what state the rivers would be in. The couple of local rivers available to me were a bit on the high side for my liking but I'd been told that they were coloured  but not a muddy colour. So that's where I headed. 

The first river I visited had about a foot or so of visibility. I worked my way along with a spider set up to start with. A Williams favourite on the point, a snipe & purple on the middle dropper and a bloa on the top dropper. This produced nothing in among the showers. I changed to a small jig lure on a euro style set up on the way back up, again nothing showed.

Having failed on the first river I headed to the second. As I sat in the car having lunch a group of people came wandering up the lane with some alpacas. I do hope they got back before the rain turned torrential. I had two setups ready for this slightly larger river. The euro lure setup and a heavier rod with a large single lure on. In between showers I chucked these things about. In one deep hole I did get what I think was a take on the euro setup, but despite changes to the lure couldn't get it to have a second go. Late on, before another downpour arrived. I had what looked like one of the escapee rainbows follow a lure a couple of times. Again changes to the lure didn't get it to take. As I was packing up I saw a barn owl flying along the hedge row. So not the start I always hope for but I tried and there's plenty more of the season to go.