The first day I fished the Swale above Richmond. I've only fished it once before and had little success. There is a popular walkway along the river for most of it, and one spot is very popular for throwing sticks in rivers for dogs to retrieve. Obviously puts a dampener on the fishing so I avoid that place. There were a few fish rising so I tried my luck with a jingler, klinkhåmer and quill dry fly with no luck. Once the risers stopped I switched to a quill bead head which brought a single trout to the net. Nothing special, small 10'-er. Moved to a favourite pool below Richmond and managed two more brownies, one around the 1lb mark which jumped 3ft clean out of the water, was not expecting that response!
The next day was spent on two streams in Huddersfield. I'd fished one before after work down there and managed a decent grayling and nice trout. Fished a mixture of czech nymphing, upstream nymphing and dry fly and managed around 40 fish, which is easily the most I've ever caught in a day! Best fish of the day was a grayling around 1lb on a ryac czech nymph. Picture below is a different grayling, thought still a nice size.
Brownie on a brown czech nymph
Ryac larva
One of the better Graylings
Then the third day came. Back on the Swale it was obviously the river had risen a little, with a bit of colour and lot of extra power. Wading was very difficult so I had to keep to the tail of a long pool where the flow subsided. Fish were rising semi regularly but there was no obviously fly life coming of the surface. I tried a number of dry flies and emergers covering general upwind/caddis/gnat patterns but only had a few unsuccessful nips. Finally managed one grayling on a Klink, at this point my legs were numb from standing still in the water for a few hours without moving, so I called it a day.
I've now join a club with some beck fishing very close to home, so I'll be trying that out this week, if the levels are good!
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