Miniature World

It was a lazy slow morning after a night of  interrupted sleep with a few things rattling around in my head, so just before 10am I set off up the Dale for a few hours on the river.

The river looked crystal clear and was at a good height so I had high hopes of a few grayling, making my way to the bottom of the stretch a couple of heron lifted from the water.

Sitting on the bank and tying a couple of nymphs on I heard a commotion on the opposite side of the river and looking across seen a stoat having a go at a rat, the rat was trying to escape and the stoat was on its side being dragged along as it gripped the side of the rats neck.







This continued for a few moments in & out of view before finally the rat succumb to the stoats determination and it was dragged into the roots out of sight.

(Picture for Graphics Only)








From time to time its great to see a snap shot of nature and I feel privileged to have viewed it.

The fishing was slow and after around nearly an hour of feeling nothing I finally hooked into what thankfully turned out to be a Grayling.







I was confident that the nymphs I had on were doing the job and it was just the fish that were not in a taking mood and around 20 minutes later I felt a small tug and lifted into a beautiful Grayling in miniature.

Fishing on up the stretch it became very evident that the fish were not in a taking mood and also that the river bed had shifted immensely in the last big flood with one part in particular taking the full force of the flood and the bank having receded over 5ft back into the field.

Looking upstream onto the next flat I saw a bit of movement close to the bank on my side and thought that a fish was rising, as it was very mild and a few very small midges were hatching, but the movement became more clear when I finally reached the spot where I had seen it.

The first casualties of spawning for these salmon, with the first one quite dead and up on the shingle,  a wild fish as the stocked fish that the hatchery introduce have their adipose fin clipped and this one was intact.








By the looks of the 2nd fish it wouldnt be too long until it would be joining the first.

covered in fungi and clinging on for life it hardly moved when I came close to it to get a photograph.

I have not seen as many fish on redds this year as I did last year and can count this years redds on one hand compared to the several I came across last year.

I sat and watched the fish struggling for another 10 minutes before heading upstream and stopping for a coffee saw this little fungi this time out the water and not clinging to a fish.

 Fishing on up the stretch I got a few small fish from here and there as I went.

Both these showing off how beautiful these fish are in all their miniature glory.

None of the larger Grayling were making an appearance at all, but it was very nice to find some sport on what was turning out to be a very hard day indeed with stealth tactics having to take precedence to get the fish.






I thought I had initially hooked into a larger Grayling in some faster water but it soon transpired to be a trout, so a quick snap and it was gone again.

Fishing back downstream for a little way and grabbing another small Grayling before finally calling it a day.

A few hours out in the mild weather was a great antidote and cleared the head a little bit and some stunning sights all be it in miniature.