Up to Thornton Beck, just this side of the North York Moors. It’s a small, sinuous, jungly stream packed with feisty little wild browns but they don’t come easily. In the past I’ve tended to have a go with dries, but to be honest the fish here don’t rise that freely so today I decided […]
Two ambitions today: to try out my new wading boots and to catch a big brown. Wading boots are overpriced in my view, so last time I wanted some I made my own, following instructions I found on Henry Gilbey’s blog. I bought a pair of cheap Dunlop workboots and fitted them with tungsten carbide […]
Fly fishing for wild brown trout can be a funny old game and things rarely go exactly to plan. The water’s not right, the wind is in your face, the fish aren’t cooperating, your casting is all to pot, you lose your glasses, fall in the river, etc, etc. For such an apparently sedate pastime […]
To the fast water of the Seven up at Spaunton Moor. The day was cool-ish with little sun but also little wind and the river looked in very good nick: I had a brief internal debate about whether to go for the standard set-up of 7.5ft 3 weight and dry fly, or chance it with […]
Where the hell did the summer go? As I motored up to Pickering the gauge on the car said it was 9C! Oh well, you take what you’re given I suppose. Anyway, first stop was to do the invert sampling on the Duchy stretch – aborted last time because a herd of cattle, including a […]
To the lower beat of the Seven on a hot, bright day, with the water low and clear. Mayfly were coming off sporadically and the odd fish was rising. I knew it would be tough and I wasn’t wrong. I chopped and changed the fly, but reckon that the fish could see the leader easily […]
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 […]