Saturday 30 January 2016

A Bit Chilly and a half decent pork pie!

Decided to have a couple of hours above the 1 arch bridge today. The river was up about 6 ins. and had a slight colour too, I started off by the marker post fishing from the bank with a large klink with a pink shrimp about 18 ins. below. Within a couple of casts a small grayling had a go at the klink which was encouraging. Another couple of passes over the same spot and a small grayling took the shrimp. I was only fishing at rod length from the bank as the river was barrelling through this bit. The wind was playing havoc with the casting so I resorted to a sort of lob to get the fly out. This did the trick and the link shot away again and a decent grayling came in soon followed by another smaller one. It is good to see the small grayling and know that the cormorants have not had them. I then got into the river to wade upstream but the going was tough so extracted myself with difficulty as I had several layers on and my neoprene waders made bending to get up the bank difficult, michelin man came to mind! I wandered up the bank and flicked the shrimp in here and there and took another grayling before it seemed to lose its appeal so switched to a partridge and orange with a small tungsten bead behind the hackle. This is was the downfall of another 3 grayling taking my tally to 7 for a couple of hours. The weather  by now had started to hail and so I  called it day and retreated to the car for coffee. I also had a decent piece of pork pie from a recommended (Mr Percival) establishment in Bakewell however not as good as Hancock's pork pies from Stoney Middleton, now they are good, but if you are stuck then the Bakewell ones will take a good second best. Controversial Moi?

Sunday 24 January 2016

Sunday 1st Possible Trip

Today I planned to do some grayling fishing and the river was actually fishable! Each time this winter I have had the opportunity to go fishing the river has been up and coloured. Today it was up a few inches but with just a tinge of cold tea. I decided to go above the works as this is always a place where I pickup the odd grayling during the summer. There is also some fast oxygenated water  here. I tackled up with a red tag and got in by the cattle drink. I was fishing close in to my bank as the river was belting through. It wasn't looking promising however within a few minutes I had a grayling splash at the red tag so fish were about. Unfortunately that was all and about half way up the pool I decided to switch to a NZ setup. A large link and a killer bug on the end soon resulted in my 1st grayling. This also picked up a couple more before reaching the top of the pool. I retried my steps to the bottom of the pool and changed the big to a partridge and orange with a tiny tungsten bead behind the hackle, again this picked up a couple of grayling before a large OOS rainbow. Another couple of grayling followed before it seemed to loose its appeal so I switched to a small pink shrimp/bug. This immediately started to pickup more grayling as I worked my way backup the pool. I ended the session with around 15 grayling but as my feet were starting get numb called it a day.