Bloody cattle. I went up to the Duchy section of the Pickering Beck to do my regular invert sampling and found the field was now home to a herd of cattle. What was worse was that a big sign on the gate said ‘Beware of the Bull’. Well, that put paid to that. I’m going […]
Up to the top beat of the Seven at Spaunton Moor under intermittent bright sun and in a gentle breeze. As ever I had high hopes and the river didn’t look at all bad – if a tad low and very clear. But it always raises the spirits: I bunged a small foam-headed emerger on […]
Well, that was weird. Six weeks of enforced house arrest does funny things to your head. It was not exactly difficult but nevertheless a minor effort to get my kit together and make my way up to the bottom stretch of the Seven. You get used to the confinement, with the days actually slipping by […]
Fed up with failing on the fly I slunk up to Pickering with half a pint of maggots and a trotting rod. A splendid winter’s afternoon with a watery sun and most of the frost burned off. The river looked in nice nick: I tooled around for an hour without a touch. While I was […]
After eight or nine outings in search of a grayling this winter – probably a total of what, 20 hours’ fishing? 25 maybe? – it happened. I was about to pack up after yet another fruitless session on Pickering Beck when I decided to have a cast into this pool with two weighted nymphs on […]
The slog for a first grayling of the season remains futile. I’ve been out three or maybe four times over the past few weeks and have failed. I’ve picked up a few trout, both on the Seven and on Pickering Beck – some quite good ones – but no grayling. I got fed up with […]
What with the rivers being in flood over the past few weeks and multiple domestic commitments I haven’t managed to get to any water until today. So brimful of pathetic optimism I made my way up to Pickering Beck to have a bash at the grayling. I tackled up the nymphing outfit – 10ft 3wt […]
Well, it was my last outing of the trout season today and I was hoping things might take a turn for the better. I decided to head to the weir pool stretch on the lower beat of the Seven. This has some nice fish in it and I wanted to hoik out one or two […]
First up, I had a couple of hours on the lower beat of the Seven last week. Same old story of the season, only one fish. This was on a tungsten beaded nymph: Well, no blank I suppose. Anyhow, today I repaired to the Derwent down the bottom of the field to see if anything […]
Time to put a stop to this fairly dismal run of form. The season has been pretty dire so far and there’s not much of it left to put things right. So it was up to Pickering Beck to stop the rot and pull out some decent quarry. Right, 7.5ft 3wt Burns, furled leader, short […]