Yorkshire Fly Fishing

It’s months since I last went fishing, and watching everyone go nuts catching prolific amounts of enormous brown trout once the lockdown restrictions were eased has been frustrating. As mentioned in my last post a combination of commitments and principals kept me off the river…until last night!

There had been a reasonable amount of rain over the weekend which led me to believe the Wharfe would have freshened up a little, and the weather looked ok for fishing and yet maybe not inspiring enough to bring fellow anglers out in their droves. Through the afternoon I assembled my fishing tackle that had been squirrelled away for months gathering dust and put together a riverside evening picnic of 2 x Ginsters pasties, 2 x Scotch eggs, a small supply of brown sauce, a toffee crisp and a flask of tea to ensure hunger would not send me home early. As soon as I logged off at 5:30 I was whoosh-gone.

When I got to the river I was disappointed to see just how low it was despite the rain. On its ass low. Never mind, time to consume some pasty and watch what’s happening on the water.In fact, as I sat down I discovered a little upwing at my feet. Still not sure what exactly it was…pale watery maybe?

This seemed like a nudge from above so I tied on a pale yellowy Klinkhammer that could maybe pass muster as a pale watery or a yellow May. I fished with this for a few minutes but there was nothing rising for me to cast at so I resorted to my comfort blanket of down and across with a small bead fly on point and a little olive wet on the dropper. This did at least catch me a little wild brownie. Nothing doing after that so I retired to the bank for a brew, and a quick catch up with Martin who had also come down for a couple of hours (sporting an impressive lockdown beard).

He headed off to join a few others further upstream, yes – more anglers. Clearly we had all had similar ideas of sloping off for a quiet evening on the Wharfe! I happily abandoned my plan of it just my own company and wandered up to join them all and tap them up for intel as I’d not fished this beat before. Martin pointed out some slow stretches that were worth having a chuck on if there were rising fish and eventually one of these bits of water gave me enough of the fizz to plot up and have a go.

Sure enough, a fish rose out towards the far bank. And again. Right, I’m having a crack at you! Every now and again it all just comes together perfectly doesn’t it, if you ever watch 30 Rock staunch Republican Jack calls it ‘Reagan-ing‘. I was momentarily Reaganing! My first cast at the fish sailed out straight and true, the line landed with barely a splash and my leader deposited the Klink with a firm kiss about a foot above the last rise. Bloop! Strike, YEESSS We’re in!! as Wilson would say. The fish fought very well and barely fit in my little scoop net when he was done. Quick photo then back he went

Another fish rose in the same area and I delivered another good cast which resulted in a solid take but that was as long as it lasted, we parted company immediately after that. No more offers were experienced..or needed.

Just as I was packing up I discovered some random plastic litter that seemed worthy of a photo for sheer randomness. Stu later commented that it looked like “Woody’s arm” which actually deserves to be a euphemism if you ask me.

“Just exactly why can’t you come up and write the equation on the blackboard?”

“‘Cos he’s got a Woody’s Arm on Miss!”