Many ups and downs

Date fished 29/12/2020

8am until 1.30pm 

Christmas brought lots of things, including heavy rain during storm Bella! The presents had barely been put away and the wind started and rain came down.  The rivers rose up, swelled and in some cases burst their banks. Further down South there was quite a bit of flooding, but up North we didn't have it as bad, although the graphs make for some amusing up and down viewing!

The Tees peaking at over 4.5 metres!! 

I arranged to meet Ellis on the bank. I was going to trot maggots using the centre pin, but also with a bamboo rod that my nan (Munchkin) bought me for my 18th or 21st birthday! Let's just say, I have had it some years! 

I left the house with no snow, but by Junction 60 on the A1 it was all white. The outside lane was even quite covered, so I plowed my way through. Within a few miles the snow had gone,  it was clearly quite localised in a band across Durham. I arrived at Broken Scar just outside Darlington and there was none of the white stuff. It was not too cold either, even though the car said 0 degrees. I tackled up and walked to the spot I would fish first. There was a snag here, that has alot (alot) of my tackle! 5 or 6 hooklinks today, but there is always Grayling there too. I trotted a few times, the going was tough. The short rod plus my own crap skills on the centre pin made for difficult fishing. I will persevere though and am sure I will get better. 

Downstream

Upstream

Eventually (after two snags) I found the right line and a blank saver was swung in....

Out of nowhere the heavens opened and I got a cold soaking from the downpour. I think Ellis brought the rain with him as it was just as he got out the car. Ellis had trotting gear, his nymphing rod, meat, worms, cheese paste and maggots! Maybe that's why I can always fish so light!?

Soon we were both fishing in our banker swim. The river was about 6 inches up on usual fishing levels, but it really did look good for a fish or twenty! My float bobbed down and I struck. There was a splash and a foul hooked Grayling came in. It must have been going for the bait, and missed it. I count that as a capture, especially on days that are 0 degrees!?!? Haha 

We fished on but sadly no more Grayling. It was time for a walk, so we upped sticks and went to plonk our gear down somewhere new. We moved downstream to a glide just before an island. We had caught here too and again it looked perfect for a fish. Ellis trotted over and over but his float stayed up, or to put another way wouldn't go down! 

We walked further downstream and settled on a large bend. Ellis waded out and with difficulty due to the Sun, watched his float go all the way down to 70 metres worth of line! Still no fish. It was going to be one of those days. 

As I watched Ellis and ate some lunch / the last mince pie, some people approached.

"Are you Adam from Fishin Impossible?", they asked.

Confident they were not lawyers from Fishing Impossible, I said yes. They were fellow members of big elbow and Ellis had met one before and talked about fly fishing. It was great to meet people on the bank. 

Down the hatch

A few more swims and a few more lost hooklinks. I gave up for a while and watched Ellis upstream by the barrels. His float still wouldn't go down so we decided it was back to the banker swim to finish. When we got there we noticed that brown water was coming in from a side stream. It was heavily coloured and ran all the way along our bank. Not thinking the fish would feed in that, we tried to fish away from it. I failed miserably and packed up to go and sit with Ellis and have a chat. 

The float came off, on went ledger rigs of meat and then cheese paste. All fell foul of snags and with a final snap and crack of the line, it was time to call it a day. 

There were many ups and downs today, did you count them all?? I didn't keep track, so don't know which there were more of. Let's just say the day had more ups than downs!