First day of A/L

Date fished 21/12/2022

8am until 12pm

After nearly three years I finally succumbed to the Covid, there was me thinking I must be superhuman!? That meant fishing was off for a while. I stayed within my 4 walls and played with my tackle. 

On this shortest day of the year, I didn't know where to go or what I wanted to do. So, after an evening listening to the kids playing music at the school winter concert, I bit the bullet and decided to head to the Tees.

I had maggots in the freezer, am sure the grayling wouldn't mind frozen food, afterall the river has been frozen and was likely filling with snow melt. I checked the levels last night and it was steadily dropping. 0.91m at broken scar, we class that as fishable! 

The alarm was set earlier than a working day, I didn't need it though as I was already awake. Thermals on and a quick trip over the A68 and I was there. 

I parked up and tackled up just as the dawn was breaking. I was in the river by 8am and had cast in. The river was up a bit since our last visit, but I was hoping for some luck. The always lucky island swim didn't look quite right, the water was choppy. I gave it a foot chilling 40 minutes and then headed down stream. I walked all the way to the bottom part I would fish, this gave me chance to warm up and contemplate.

It felt better down here. The river had a steady pace and I said to myself "this is the best chance of a fish".

I actually was speaking out loud, it is fine to talk to yourself, especially when there is no one else around! Just then, the float buried and a fish was on. A most welcome little grayling taking me off the dreaded blank.

Only about 30 mins or so in here and the feets were cold. This area is exposed and the bitter wind chilled me right down. It also was blowing upstream so the trotting was difficult. I took some time out the water to warm up but was soon back in fishing. Two quick bites resulted in an out of season Trout (returned straight away) and a much better sized grayling. At first i thought it must of been a good trout but was amazed when I saw the fin break the surface. 

It was time for some serious warming up, and this was achieved with soup! 

I thrashed the water here some more  but the wind got too strong. I decided to head back upstream to a sheltered area by the bridge.  The extra water made it difficult to fish my usual spot by the bridge so I fished a bit further down. A few trots was enough and the float buried. My third grayling, caught, unhooked, smiled at and released. All in a few seconds. 

As the wind picked up, I had quenched my fishing fix. One last go in the island swim I thought, then home to warm up. 

The river level had dropped 2cm ( according to the online gauge, my 20/20 vision is not that good) in the few hours I was fishing. This was enough for the island swim to look better. I fed as best I could, I had forgotten the catapult today, and was soon fishing on the right line. The float dipped and I struck into something solid. It stayed deep and then jumped clear out the water twice. Trout, I thought. But as I played it to the net, I saw it was a good sized grayling. Bigger than what I had caught recently. Carefully, I played it to the net and was relieved when it went in at the first time of asking. 

At a pound at least, it was a great fish and with quite numb feet now, was a good one to end on! 

I walked to the car and packed away my kit. Four grayling and the trout, not a bad mornings work. Certainly beats being at work!