Looking North...

Another summer, another holiday fishing trip! Discussions surrounding potential destinations always start early season - a ritualistic shaking off of the winter cobwebs (blues) - an agitation or rather excitement at the anticipation of the coming season after the long dark haul that is the British winter. The likely choice of venue for any persons foolish enough to go camping for a prolonged period of time in the British Isles, would be to point your car in a southerly direction and drive until you reach the Atlantic Ocean hereby increasing your chances of reasonable weather (note the word "reasonable"). Injudiciously, we pointed the car northwards for our 2016 foray into the great outdoors - the Yorkshire Dales being the venue for this years outing.

Fly fishing in this neck of the woods requires deeper pockets than previous excursions to the likes of Wales, Devon or even the Lake District. An opportunity to cast a line in such picturesque countryside makes it all the worthwhile however. The River Wharfe which, for the majority of its length acts as county boundary between West and North Yorkshire. The name Wharfe derives from the Old English weorf or the Old Norse hverfr meaning winding river (thanks Wikipedia) which I can attest to most certainly is the case after having walked, fished sections.

Unfortunately due to me starting a new job and inclement weather (did I mention the weather in England tends to be better the further south you are !?) I only managed a single days fishing on the Wharfe at Bolton Abbey. If you could only have one day's fishing up here - this is where I'd most definitely do it.

Stepping stones at Bolton Abbey

Bolton Abbey

Cavendish Memorial Fountain

Local butterfly - seemed very prolific in the area - not sure of the species...

The Yorkshire Dales - Wharfedale

First few casts resulted in the first few misses - as it turned out this was not going to be an "easy pickings" type of day... the trout up here are by no means opportunistic and were very particular as to what they deemed to be a meal...

First trout of the day - after almost an hour of tying on different patterns (both dries and nymphs) the key was a) increase leader length to about 12 feet b) reduce tippets down to 6x c) add to this Size 26 CDC emergers before any interest was shown.

Biggest river brownie I've caught to date - I'm guessing a touch under 2lbs...

All in I had five fighting fit trout out on that single day - not a lot but definitely a very satisfactory outing. One of the locals I got speaking to said, "You'll certainly enjoy your beer tonight" - he was right except for the use of the singular "beer" ! Hopefully another foray up there again in October when the grayling season comes into play. Watch this space ...