Determined to make the best of the early season this year, I pulled the trigger on a 3 day adventure on the upper reaches of the River Ribble. There was good dose of rain on the 15th of April which lifted the river and the plan was to fish hard as the river fined back down to a normal level.
Day 1 – Settle (ish)
Today’s adventure began on a farm with a trip and a stumble into a slurry filled pothole. I saved my fancy fishing rod but ended up covered in cow shit, including a decent splattering of slurry to the face. A bad omen?
In a word, maybe, but what a stunning bit of river. Why has it taken me so long to venture upstream on the Ribble? Its almost as if I just couldn’t picture it being so nice so I never bothered with the tiny bit of additional friction arranging exchange tickets with other fishing clubs. I’ve learnt my lesson.
The fishing was tough going today but I managed a few small brownies and a decent Grayling. With reference to the river level I was perhaps one day early on this beat, the river was a little bit coloured and pushing through hard. I’ll return to fish this beat when the conditions are perfect.
River Ribble near Settle
Day 2 – Gisburn (ish)
Speaking of perfect, I was back down to the river for 10am today. The river level was perfect, clarity perfect, fishing hut perfect and rising fish? perfect. Those that recognise this beat from the pictures will know what a treat it is to fish there. A lot of this stretch is fairly shallow with lots of streamer weed so dry flies and very lightly dressed spiders were the order of the day.
The bad luck kicked in again today, snapped the tip of my rod after a wayward backcast. Its the second time I’ve done it with this rod (10ft Greys Streamflex 3wt) very annoying.
Cheered myself up with a couple of real crackers on my spare rod. The second fish was super satisfying, I marked a fish rising earlier in the day and went back later in the day to try for it. The fish was lying in typically awkward spot under some trees but my second cast was (for once) perfect and he sipped a size 18 emerger with confidence. A wild fight ensued, with riffles upstream and downstream I had to hold on tight and yank him ungracefully to the net. The fish looked like it was silvering up so perhaps a small sea trout getting ready to head downstream.
Day 3 – Clitheroe (ish)
Attended a working party this morning, fixing up some steps on one of my favourite beats on the Ribble. We finished up before lunch and seeing as I had my gear in car it seemed rude not to have a cast. What followed was probably my best day on the Ribble thus far with 5 or 6 decent brownies to the net, all on olive dries. Fishing slowed right down around 3pm so headed home for a celebratory beer.
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