The Complete Fisher Forum

[Whistlekiller]

I was lucky enough to be invited for a day's fishing up near Pickering (North Yorkshire) yesterday by a customer of ours called Dave Rowe, an enthusiastic and cheerful chap keen to show what the (link) Pickering Fishery Association, of which he is a member, had to offer. Whilst not far from me as the crow flies, the roads are winding and slow (even for the way I drive) so to get there for 8.30am I set off from home at around 6.30am to make sure I wasn't late.

I met Dave at Pickering Station and we headed the short distance to the Pickering Beck to kick the day off:



The water is easily wade-able here although care is required when negotiating some of the deeper pools. I chose to tackle up with my new 8ft Issui Tenkara rod due to the low tree canopy. The 12ft Iwana would have struggled here.



To the tip braid (lilian) of the Issui I connected around 9ft of furled mono leader tapered to a small loop to which was attached three feet of 4lb nylon and a black Klinkhammer. Two feet of extra nylon was tied NZ style to the hook bend of the Klinkhammer with a small scruffy nymph on the point. In this case, the nymph (The Hairy Hound) was provided courtesy of Grey Hackle from the December 2012 Bug Swap.

Here it is:


This whole arrangement is easy to cast and gave me a reach of around 20ft upstream. Although quite a few fish were rising I started getting knocks on the nymph almost immediately which was a bit odd seeing as most seemed to be taking emerging insects. In the couple of hours I spent on this stretch I caught 6 fish and dropped a few into the bargain. Here's a typical example of the fish caught, this brownie being around 12" long. Sorry for the slightly blurred picture. It's not easy balancing a rod, net, camera and fish while the bloody thing insists on wriggling about.



Dave had provided the Kelly Kettle, pies and crisps for lunch so we sat and ate while talking to a couple of characters who were doing an aquatic bug hunt. It was interesting to see what they had fished out of the river - mainly small nymphs (which may explain the success of Grey Hackle's effort). They were particularly proud of the two different cased caddis species they had in the tray which I never got to photograph unfortunately.

We headed off for the second venue north of Pickering and into the Dalby Forest. It involved crossing the single track of the (link) North Yorkshire Moors Railway, a heritage line that still runs steam trains in daily passenger service.

You can hear them coming a mile off but I still felt a sense of trepidation crossing the track on foot!



This was taken near the first pool we came to:


And the pool itself:


As you can see, there was a very inviting bend and also, several fish rising freely. I decided that a change to a more modern fly fishing approach (than the T-Rod provided) was called for in order to cover these fish, so out came the 6'6" 3# Streamflex with Bill's old Vosseler reel attached. On the point was a single olive Klinkhammer.



The first cast resulted in a hook-up which I contrived to bump off, a trout of similar stamp to the morning's catches. "This is going to be great" I thought to myself..........kiss of death!





In these smashing surroundings we fished on for around three hours but try as I might I couldn't get another bite. The sun came out, my waders developed a leak, rises ceased, Grey Hackle's little nymph went to the great gods in the trees, and I went through about a mile of tippet material with not a sausage to show for it! . Dave, further upstream did much better, mainly on black flies of varying descriptions.

Anyway, we called it a day at 4.30pm as I had to be elsewhere but I shall return as it's a lovely part of the country and well worth a visit for any of us in the area. As an aside, Dave informs me that there are still 15 places available at the club and he would welcome applications (use the link earlier on in this post). He's also project managing some of the tree work on the river banks in the second area mentioned above. He would value volunteers who fancy a bit of hard graft to help secure the river's future.

So many thanks Dave! See you again soon, hopefully in a tube!


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[fossil-fish]

Great report and lovely pictures. That was a really interesting method.

BTW, 2 hours the way you drive. You could have been here quicker.

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[MarkS]

Great read WK.
Mark

[Bovver]

lovely looking spot, thanks for sharing

[springwell]

Very nice.

Plenty of Tenkara within walking distance of the camp in September, and it's free
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