Tales of the river bank

Over the weekend I treated myself to a new fishing rod, and while I was waiting for the opportunity to put it to use I made a few flies. Because the trout season is almost at an end for 2010, the flies that I tied are some that I understand to be useful for tempting grayling. Today, we changed location, to a site in Staffordshire with a very small but pleasant river running through it. I have caught grayling here before, all I had to do now was to find them. The river bank was very overgrown and access to the water was difficult but with care not impossible. Despite the recent rainfall the river level was low, add to that the amount of vegetation which invaded the water and the river in places was not much more than a trickle. It took only half an hour or so to find signs of fish feeding and so I made my way into the flow and began fishing. A kingfisher flashed under my rod, skimming the water with wings whirring quietly and banking sharply round an upstream bend. My attention back on my fly and a fish jumped noisily, close to my fly. Within seconds another splosh as it snatched my fly below the surface. The line tightened and my rod bent into a tight curve as the fish headed off downstream. It was a good fish, my tackle was light so I played it slowly and cautiously so as not to break the fine line that was tied to the fly. I soon saw that the fish was a chub, clean bright silver with bright orange fins. I have never landed a chub before, I released it as quickly as possible and watched it swim away. While my heart settled, I rolled and smoked a cigarette as I changed the fly for another that I had made. The kingfisher, flashed by, in the opposite direction and distracted me momentarily. I fished on and it wasn't many minutes before my fly was attacked with a vicious attack by a grayling. Carefully again, I brought it to the net, but this time it took a little longer. I was impressed with the performance of the rod and also with my concoction of fur and feather. For me, a rewarding hour or two and I returned to the truck quite satisfied, for the time being.