Rain, Rain & More Rain

A familiar sight on the river this year

I obviously tempted providence at the end of my last blog, when I said, "things were looking good as long as the rain stayed away", because ever since then, apart from a short spell of very good fishing, the rain has returned with a vengeance and the river is in the trees yet again, (as you can see from the above picture) something we are encountering more and more here in the UK, especially this year.

Chris from Borderlines on the Pike day

However all was not lost as I was busy again with Borderlines introducing another keen group of youngsters, from one of the schools we are currently working with, to Pike fishing, with some success too, although we did find ourselves having to abandon the day half way through due to more persistent torrential rain (now there's a surprise). Nevertheless the youngsters involved had a great time and managed to catch three Pike in the morning, one of which can be seen here in the picture as Chris helps one youngster hold her quarry up to the camera before returning it to the water.

So not much else to report I'm afraid, but as soon as the water recedes (if it ever does) I will be back out on the river chasing some quality Grayling with the guys who have had to cancel and re-arrange their days due to the present conditions. I will keep you all informed!

More Grayling About

A successful Smile

I was out on the Eden with a group of youngsters last weekend in my role as one of the Borderlines instructor team along with Glyn and Chris, and although we did have a bit of extra water to contend with, it didn't seem to effect us too much at all, as we experienced our fair share of success with the Grayling throughout the day.

Following the weekend I had a session higher up the river with John Dunn who wanted some casting tuition with his new salmon rod and skagit line in preparation for next season, but he also wanted to try his hand at the Grayling fishing too, and why not, as there definitely seems to be an upturn in fish repopulating the areas that fished very well a couple of years ago, and they certainly seem to have found there way back to these areas, "this is excellent news", as we often have to do a bit of searching further afield to find them.

John into yet another fish

John certainly found them ok, and after we wasted a little time trying to tempt them to the spiders, (which have been working recently) we eventually found them in the time served areas you might expect to find Grayling, hugging the bottom, and John then managed to catch a few, not to mention the several near misses he encountered too as some of the Grayling were being very touchy feely, as they often are, lightly investigating the flies as apposed to hitting them with any meaning, however, we had a good day regardless.

Unfortunately, the session I had booked in today had to be cancelled, as the river rose again yesterday, making conditions very difficult, especially as the guys were total beginners to Grayling fishing. Never mind, hopefully we can re-arrange, as it would be a shame to miss out on the good fishing we are presently enjoying.

One of several for John

I am looking forward to getting out on the river again as soon as possible, all the signs for this winters Grayling fishing on the Eden are looking very positive, which is great news. All we need now is the rain to stay away as much as possible and the river to behave itself for a while. "Here's hoping"!