Shifting

Those rivers that are not visited much in the winter always offer a suprise in April, following the usual winter heavier water and floods. Often pools have changed in character and the currents have altered, changing the holding positions for the fish and areas for future weed growth. Usually this is due to months of higher water, scouring the bottom and shifting debris around the river. This 'flush' is essential for the river's health, not to mention the cleaning of gravel, so important for the redds and the future stocks of fish.

Another hard frost upon saturated ground

After last week's unprecidented rain fall, the flood waters have ripped through the rivers near me. Having cancelled trips further afield, I headed to my nearest river to dust off the 10' #2 rod in search of grayling. Havinf only been there a few weeks before, what greeted me was suprising. Visiting today gave me a strange, somewhat empty, feeling in my stomach. A week of floods have changed areas of the river hugely. Huge (scary) amounts of shifting gravel and sediment is evident, and clearly a lot more has been dragged into the river from the fields during the water's retreat. The usual flood debris was present, but this time some 15 feet in the trsse and deposited tree branches were replaced by deposited trees trunks. It's a firm reminder of the respect all waterways demand ~ this is not even a big river.

Tree trunks deposited on the banks

 It was a crisp morning and the river was still high. The further upstream I walked the clearer the river became. However there was a noted 'silence' about the river today: the feeling that it had really taken a pounding - as I am sure many of its inhabitants also did.

A huge, new bar of gravel deposited

Another changed pool. Note the scoured banks.

No grayling showed today. Instead, out-of-season brown trout were the only fish willing to snatch my deelpy fished nymphs.

More rain is falling tonight, but I am trusting the forecasters when they say we shouldn't get another deluge in the near future. Certainly the colder weather suggests we're on for a cold winter.

Fingers crossed for some more settled, cold weather. I am running some grayling days over the next couple of months and it would be great to think the river will be in tip-top condition.

~Dave