Guest blog post from Bob Walker | Yorkshire Fly Fishing

Let’s get one thing perfectly clear – despite banging away at it for years I am rubbish at river fishing. I do a lot of ‘down and across’ with wet flies, but also try upstream dry, upstream nymph, Czech nymph and even a bit of ‘Klink n’ dink’ and yet if I’m stood fishing a river and get a bite I’m genuinely surprised. Everytime I fish a river I start off full of enthusiasm but end the session convinced I somehow transfer a fish repelling odour from my hands onto my flies. Seriously, I have considered this possibility.

With this in mind, I was glad to finally get round to spending a day on the river with Steve Rhodes of Go Fly Fishing UK to see if he could knock some river-sense into me! Some of you may recall I’ve been out with Steve once before on a mission to Malham Tarn which resulted in me catching my biggest ever wild brown trout so I knew that his services could prove valuable. The first hurdle was getting myself and fellow Yorkshire flyfisher Stu up to our rendezvous with Steve out in the Dales for 9:30 am on a Saturday morning! This we managed, just…

We plotted up next to our ‘Dales river’ (names have been omitted to protect the innocent!) on a surprisingly glorious October day wrapped up in a blue sky and some fine autumnal sunshine. After a prolonged period of rain the water had now come back down to a good level and we seemed to have timed it right. We tackled up a different method on each rod then put our weapons to one side as Steve proceeded to get cracking with the first, and in many respects, most important part of the day. He began by asking us to indicate which bits of water we thought might be likely fish holding spots. There were obvious creases which we correctly identified but Steve proceeded to make us think harder about the dynamics of the river, how to spot the ‘funnels’ where a fish’s prey might be more prevalent and where the fish itself might be waiting to pick off these items. The signs are obvious when you know how to spot them!

We spent quite a bit of time ‘in the classroom’ but by the time Steve set us loose on the river I felt my confidence had already increased substantially – I hadn’t realised just how little thought I’d been putting into finding fish in the past. Stu was first in, fishing the increasingly popular ‘Klink ‘n dink’ method whilst I took some pictures.

Immediately apparent to me was something else – fishing a shorter line gives you so much more control! The majority of my angling is stillwater and this clearly affects how I fish rivers, filtering through with that ‘distance is key’ mindset. As Stu worked his way up Steve was constantly directing him where to place his flies and to keep moving. Few casts, move on, don’t get anchored down like you’re waiting your a shoal of rainbow trout to turn up! Within a very short session Stu had landed 2 small grayling and nice ‘only just out of season’ brown trout.

I followed Stu in and fished the same method in the same stretch and landed 2 little grayling – good start!

We then walked further downstream (having fish pointed out to us on the way that neither of us would’ve spotted) where Steve gave me some help with the technique I use most of all which is the ubiquitous ‘down and across’ wet fly style. Again, he showed the benefits of keeping a short line and also how to track the flies round correctly although I suspect his patience wore thin as I repeatedly lapsed into my numerous bad habits. Not keeping my rod up was top of that list! To Steve’s surprise I managed to not catch any fish in this nice little run but it wasn’t a problem as we had plenty more river to go at.

The next bit of river we stopped at had a lovely glide with several rising fish so Stu was given some coaching on fishing dry fly whilst I was set onto a stretch of water more suitable for wet fly.

I then proceeded to lose most of my cast along with 2 of Steve’s flies on the bank and then have some kind of low-level mental breakdown whilst attempting to set up a new 3 fly cast. I fished out the rest of this ‘swim’ without getting a single offer, so it was onto the next stretch.

I instantly got a good feeling about the water here, it simply screamed fish! I even formulated in my head where I thought a fish would like to reside here and promptly saw a fish rise in the exact spot! Patiently I fished my way down to that spot. On the second ‘swing’ through the vicinity of the rise I felt a good thump and because I was working a nice short line the fish was straight onto the reel pulling off line (thankfully I’d dialled in a sensible drag setting beforehand). Dialled in. I’m still not sure I’m comfortable with that phrase, I hear it used across many arenas including fishing, photography and mountain biking. I kinda like it but simultaneously find it a bit twattish. Anyway I digress. “Let it run, it’s a good fish!”advised Steve. Other than a peek at a ladies unfettered ankle or a shapely piano leg, few sights can provide more excitement than that first glimpse of a good sized fish showing its flanks just below the surface of the water. I played it carefully but confidently as Steve reminded me to get it out of the faster current to make life easier for myself and Steve slid his net under my biggest ever river trout! Ok, it’s not big by most people’s standards and yes, it was a few days out of season but I was over the moon!

Smoke, brew, next bit of river, bring it on! Again, I was directed to a stretch of water that lent itself to wet fly although this was tricky as it as only really fishable from the bank and had fast water between angler and the slacker water known to hold fish. With some awkward mending and a bit of luck I proceeded to catch a small grayling (hooked at location marked nearest to camera) and 2 brownies (marked furthest away), as well as miss a couple of offers.

Time was knocking on now and with the temperature dropping we decided to call it a day and indulge in a swift pint of real ale to round off the session in style!

Why on earth didn’t I do this sooner? Going on the river with Steve as a guide has changed how I fish a river, in one session! I’ve removed a good chunk of the guesswork, learned how to fish in ways that dramatically improve my chances of success and perhaps most importantly gained confidence. The proof is in the pudding though isn’t it? Well a week later I was still inspired and decided to hit the Wharfe on my club stretch where if I go home having caught a solitary fish or even just had a couple of offers on here I consider it a resounding success. This time I landed 3 grayling, lost another couple and had numerous offers during about one and a half hours of fishing.