The End Is Near

 The end of the trout season is fast approaching here in Yorkshire and as often seems the case the weather is trying to ruin the last few days. The salmon & sea trout anglers  are over the moon with the prospect of the rivers being given a bit of a lift. I on the other hand have a limited time to extract a few brown trout from one of the becks for some scale samples. 

Tuesday I ventured forth to said beck in an attempt to catch a couple of browns. Having had a bit of a wander around, noting the fallen trees that will need to be moved so as they're parallel to the bank, I decided nymphing or streamers would probably be the best choice with no obvious fly life about.

 

First fly on the end of a sort of Euro style nymphing rig was a small PTN Jig. After battling my way through somewhat excessive vegetation and fallen trees I arrived at a deep, three foot, pool. First drift through with the nymph produced a take which I missed. A couple more drifts and a chublet took firm hold of the nymph. This was quickly followed by a second. A drift around the far side of the pool produced a small perch which had engulfed the nymph. The little horror managed to spike me as I unhooked it and returned to the depths with out a photo. A few more drifts produced nothing other than a few leafs.

I continued up the stretch to the top. dropping the nymph into any likely looking hole. Nothing seemed to be hungry in these spots. Mostly I seemed to be snagging twigs and leaves. At the top of the stretch I partook of lunch. A change of fly was called for. A small white jig come Woolly Bugger thing was put on. Bouncing it about in a deepish hole at the top of the length produced a a tentative tug which turned into a 15" Rainbow trout. Not what I was after but  another escapee is removed.

I continued dropping the lure into the deeper holes with very little to show. I did get a vicious take in one spot that only succeeded in ripping a lot of the tail from the lure. A change to n olive version didn't fair any better. Nor did a black one. Oh well a few more days to go before the end of the season which is surely enough to capture a couple of the browns. I did, however, add to my species tally from this section of beck. I now have Brown & Rainbow trout, Dace, Chub, Minnow, and Perch on rod and line. Along with Bullhead, and Lamprey during river fly sampling. The damned Himalayan Balsam doesn't seem to be going away either, with more plants popping up here and there.

Nice But Nuisance Grayling

 Thursday started a bit chilly but came out bright and sunny. A typical Autumn day really. While bright and sunny is rather nice for a spot of River Fly Monitoring it isn't really great for trout fishing. No shortage of Baetis and Gammerus. A surprise Stonefly nymph was found. A first for the beck.

Site 3 19 Sept 2024, 10 am	Count	ARMI   2 Bullheads
Cased Caddis	25	2
Caseless Caddis	2	1
Baetis	600	3
Stonefly	1	1
Blue Winged Olive	1	1
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	0	0
Gammerus	500	3
Trigger level = 6	ARMI score total =	11

Site 4  11:00 am	Count	ARMI   Bloodworm
Cased Caddis	8	1
Caseless Caddis	9	1
Baetis	105	3
Stonefly	0	0
Blue Winged Olive	5	1
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	0	0
Gammerus	120	3
Trigger level = 7	ARMI score total =	9

After lunch we participated in a spot of angling. I had a wander upstream while the others had a wander downstream. As expected it was tough going in the bright sunshine. It was nice to see the pods of grayling up and down the length. These though would become a nuisance later.

 

A the only fish rising were the little grayling I avoided dry flies a stuck with nymphs drifting them next to the weed beds euro style. The only tout I saw were escapee rainbows. Thy did a great job of ignoring my offerings most of the time. When they did show interest a grayling would usually dive in before them. I was interesting watching the grayling's reaction to the small nymphs. The silver bead one was generally ignored. They seemed to prefer the copper bead, along with the killer bug and a black spider.

 I took several of the little grayling despite me trying to avoid them. Apart from one, for a photo, the rest were shaken from the barbless hook in the water. The others had given up earlier than me and moved on to a more productive water. I did do a spot of balsam bashing though. A pleasant day by a beck even so.

RFM & Hunting Aliens

 Thursday started with a spot of River Fly Monitoring. Four of us kicked sampled a couple of sites above and below a sewerage outlet. The results were much as expected with no alarms apart from a large increase in blood worm below the outfall.

Site 3 11 July 2024, 10:00	Count	ARMI
Cased Caddis	46	2
Caseless Caddis	1	1
Baetis	500	3
Stonefly	0	0
Blue Winged Olive	14	2
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	0	0
Gammerus	300	3
Trigger level = 6	ARMI score total =	11

Site 4 11 July 2024, 11:00	Count	ARMI
Cased Caddis	22	2
Caseless Caddis	8	1
Baetis	200	3
Stonefly	0	0
Blue Winged Olive	31	2
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	1	1
Gammerus	300	3
Trigger level = 7	ARMI score total =	12

A few Bullheads and a solitary Stickleback put in and appearance as well. The Bullheads are far more tolerant of pollution than was previously thought. 

After a spot of lunch it was time to try and capture some of the escapee rainbows. There were a couple of hotspots for them. One chap fished fly larva under a float in one spot. While another fished nymphs on a French style leader in the other. I had a wander downstream with a euro nymphing setup. Euro style nymphing is not something I do very often, which is probably why I'm not very good at it. A couple of runs down between the weeds and the indicator showed a bite. It felt like something of a decent size but didn't feel like a trout. Through the clear water I could see an eel which plunged into the weed and snaffled my fly.

A couple of swims later I managed to hook a reasonable brown trout which I managed lose with the classic poking the rod tip into the over hanging hawthorn technique. In the next swim I spotted a couple of good sized grayling. They were over the other side of a weed bed and to reach them I'd have to wade. The beck though was quite a way up following the rain earlier in the week. While it was three foot deep next to the bank it was a bit deeper further out. The bottom was also softer and after stating to sink I decided better of it. The kerfuffle of me get back to the bank spooked the grayling. A few more swims were tried as I continued upstream, along with changes to fly. Eventually I managed a couple of the escapee rainbows.

I didn't catch any more by the time I'd reached the others. My couple of fish looked a bit pathetic to the numbers they'd caught. As they pointed out though, they had been in the hotspots.

After another go a couple of us had another go but the rainbows were happy to follow the flies but not take. Only one more was caught. I had ago from below the hotspot with spiders but this was the same. I could see the fish following them turn away. We'll be back to remove some more.