Grayling flies for October 2015 on the Derbyshire Wye

Making the transfer from dry fly fishing to wets and nymphs is made easier by taking out my Tenkara and sort of Czech nymphing it down the river. This little tungsten beaded quill fly, when bounced across to a rise, took a grayling from the surface. Great control on the Tenkara!
Just updated my grayling flies for October on River Diary page

Five go fly fishing on the Derbyshire Wye in sunny October

As the long shadows lie acrosss the river meadow after a very hot day in October the last three fishers return. What a perfect day for trout fishing on the clear water of the Derbyshire Wye.
This blog exists to encourage more women into fly fishing. "Ladies of the stream" (the groups name) are slowly bringing more women into fly fishing.

We started the day with Bernie Maher (figure in the river) doing a kick sample for us - our dapper bearded chap on the bank is Chris, who kindly responded to my request for some help on the day. Thanks again Chris. Thanks also to Bernie who also responded to my call at very short notice! You may recall Bernie featured in an earlier post - it concerned a lawnmower in the lake. Bernie runs Presss Manor fishing lakes and also gives casting tuition.

With the book and the results from the kick sample, Bernie told us what we could see in the tray. Explaining the 'lifestyle' of the different critters. Apart from a bullyhead - which you  may observe in bottom left of the tray, I recall we saw mayfly, blue winged olives, rhyacophila, but not many shrimps. It is always amazing to learn that these tiny creatures may live for up to two years in the river - then the majority of them emerge for a day and die. The River fly partnership has a very good web site for more information. You can also get the app 'Match a hatch' which shows the flies in superb detail, when they are about and what artifical flies you may use to represent them.

Bernie points out what the artificials may represent - fly box courtesy of Chris Worthy.
Fly casting took me quite some time to aquire a - sometimes erratic - ability to cast those tiny flies across the river, but Bernies ability to rationalise the artificial flies down to green things, brown things etc. is a very good point to start at!
We were joined in the afternoon by Peter Arfield of Bakewell fly fishing shop, Who generously gave some fly casting tuition to a new fisher in the group.
We are planning some grayling days for Autumn. If you would like to join us please go to the contact page and send an email. Also have a look regularly at the Women's fishing days on the blog. If you 'Follow by email' you will be informed when I put up a new post.
Tight lines

Grayling Society winter meetings Bakewell, Derbyshire 2015 to 2016

Grayling Fishers programme

Below is the programme for this winters talks.  As usual we will be meeting at the Rutland Hotel in Bakewell, starting at 7.30pm.  The cost remains the same at £3.00.  Everyone welcome, you don't need to be a member.

October 14  Don Stazicker

         A Colorado Flyfishing Roadtrip

Don is traveling to Colorado in September, and he will be brining us some first class video and stills from his trip - he tells me you can get pretty close to the trout in some of the tailwaters there.  Don is a highly-skilled fisherman and a GAIA-certified fly-fishing instructor, and those of you who have seen his work before will know that he is also a first class photographer.

November 4  Alan Henshaw

  Grayling in the UK  plus Fish Rearing.

Alan is the Team Leader at the Environment Agency National Coarse Fish Rearing Unit at Calverton.  Alan will be telling us about fish rearing, and the history of the unit.  He will also talk about the history of Grayling in the UK.  I have been told by those who heard Alan speak last year that this was one of the best talks they had been to - not be missed.

December 2  Jack Perks

Jack is a professional wildlife photographer, with a keen interest in conservation.  

Jack aims to photograph all the freshwater fish species in the UK - over 50 in total, and has studies the lifestyle and behaviour of each species.   He will don his wet suit and snorkel when appropriate to get up close to the fish.

He has worked for the BBC filming for Springwatch and Countryfile, and on angling series such as Mr Crabtree goes Fishing.

January 13  Mike Green

Angling Escapades

Although Mike is a passionate pike fisherman, he is an all-round angler who loves all types of fishing.  He has traveled to many countries in pursuit of all manner of fish - including carp fishing in Ireland and France, to catching Peacock Bass from the Amazon and Rooster fish in Baja, Mexico.

February 10  Stuart Crofts

Stuart needs no introduction, this time he will be doing some fly tying, and importantly talking about how and when to fish the flies, helpful for those who don't make their own flies.

March 9  Dave Southall

        A Fly For All Seasons

Dave is a regular contributor to angling magazines, and well known for his imitative flies.  Dave will be showing us the invertebrates that one might expect to encounter at any season of the year and the imitations that might be used for both trout & grayling.

Updated womens fishing days. Day in October in Derbyshire

Proposing a day on the wonderful Wye in Bakewell on October 4th 2015
Any female anglers wishing to join us? Contact via the blog. Beginner or any level - if you are interested in trying fly fishing, just curious, or keen to get more fly fishing in - contact and come along and enjoy an activity which will see you spending time in the countryside watching the wildlife and learning a little about the river

Updated the River fly diary page

Finally got round to updating the River fly diary page on the blog. Moved on to Windows 10, which seems to be making life a lot easier for moving things about from phone, tablet and computer. Plus we finally have fibre broadband - less time for making a cup of tea whilst everything downloads.
My favourite fly at the moment is the Hackled coachman. Will see how long it persists in catching fish!
Size 18 barbless hook. Peacock herl, red thread, tag of gold tinsel. Hackle brown with a white hackle in front.

Water water everywhere and not a drop to fish

We saw many beautiful rivers on our trip to Italy this month. Unfortunately I was unable to fish any of them as I had not taken fly fishing gear - it was a walking holiday in the Piedmont area. Just to give you a taste of the area I have a couple of pictures and a video

The river above is the Chiusella. Within easy walking distance of where we were staying. A mile or so upriver of this is a swimming spot named 'Devils mouth' (Bocca diablo - in Italian? Or something like that) where we watched Barbel grazing the rocks in the clear water.

I did note that the most accessible spots of the river were in the no fishing zones!

Just to give you a little more feel for the strength of the water here I attach a video. This was in Fondo, a high village - with very small communities (many abandoned) living even higher up. I know because we did the high route then back along the river.

Climbing in Yorkshire and no fly fishing

Expecting the heat of summer to break once the school kids started their summer break, we decided to take a trip to Yorkshire before school finished. Not to fly fish - but to do some walking.
Unfortunately schools finished on the Wednesday not Friday and the weather (of course) broke. We thus found ourselves wandering around Malham Cove in the rain! It was, at this point still reasonably warm, unlike the following two days!
The scenery was still fabulous. We walked from Malham Cove up to Malham Tarn and back via a limestone gorge that was so long I couldn't even get it into a panorama picture.
Continuing along the top edge to the further end, we then found ourselves descending steeply on damp rocks. The rain had lifted but left our descent a little slippy. Part way down we met a young lad and his father coming up. "Were we aware it becomes a bit of a climb down the waterfall further down?" said the dad. Oh, said husband Mike. "Are there plenty of hand holds?" "Yesss, plenty" came the reply. Well his son couldn't have been more than 10 so I thought it should be within my ability and physical stretch. I do not enjoy climbing, but we had already come quite a distance!
Going further down to a plateau formed behind one of the waterfalls we came upon a group of Germans who had just climbed the waterfall. "Oooh, it is DANGEROUS" said a very tall guy. Huh, think I, we have followed German guide books abroad that warned us of precipitous and dangerous drops on walks before - only to find no problem at all. Just exaggerating thinks me.
So on we went, trying to keep to the dryer bits - which soon ran out.... as we were in pools of water picking our way round.
Then we arrived at a sudden view down. Children splashing in the water, people looking up at us. Too late to turn back. I had already had a small scream as I wobbled across one rock. Mike then advised me to face the rock, rather than come down backwards. Amazingly I had realised the same thing at that very point.
Suffice it to say that the very steep bouldery climb down - with almost enough hand and foot holds - made me feel very hot and nervous. Our descent seemed slow - but perhaps terror made time stand still? I found comfort in the fact that the smoothness of the top of the hand holds meant we were choosing the correct route down - which swung this way and that as we traversed and descended.

This painting (actually preliminary sketch) by James Ward in 1811 gives a picture of our descent. I was pleased I had not turned back - but I would not do it again!
My reward came later as our walk continued past a much smaller waterfall. In the pool of which, were many, many trout.

As we watched, there must have been a short hatch - as suddenly four or five trout rose to take something from the surface - then, just as quickly, stopped.
Very pleasant. Even the sun shone strongly for those few minutes we stood there.
And, as the sun has now come out now we are home, I think it is time to head to the river to see if the fish are rising in Derbyshire.
Tight lines