This month Peter Anderson heads home to Yorkshire, does some mountaineering and has to pay a little extra to get to go fishing. Was it worth it? Read on:
Early September, high in the Yorkshire Dales. So high, in fact, that it was practically Lancashire. It was a nice day and I decide on a couple of post-prandial hours on the river. I had walked this valley previously and it revealed a busy little Pennine stream – all rushing water and rocks with some spectacular waterfalls. The question I never quite answered was “Which river am I fishing?” There are two rivers which meet at Ingleton to form the River Greta, these are the Twiss and the Doe. On the OS map, the Twiss is to the west and the Doe is to the east. According to Ingleton Angling Association, this is the wrong way round, the Twiss is to the east. Whatever, I am inclined to take the OS map as gospel. Anyway, I fished the river to the west which is the Twiss as far as I am concerned.
I bought my ticket from the newsagent in town, £12….it was good to be back up north! I studied the map and although there were access points for each river further up the valley, the map suggested that the fishing here was reserved for season members only and that the day ticket water was at the bottom end. I crossed over the Doe and walked up the Twiss to the entrance to the Watefalls Walk – there are spectacular falls hereabouts and the land is privately owned. They do a good tourist trade at £6 a head including parking. The problem was that the bloke on the gate wouldn’t let me in! I showed him the ticket and the map and pointed out that this was an access point but he was having none of it. “Private land, mate, you can’t come in without paying, and anyway there are loads of trees so you won’t be able to fly fish so you’re wasting your time”, he said. I only had a couple of hours so I told him he was wrong but I would pay the £6 because I didn’t have time to argue. In I went.
The river was actually carrying too much water. What I had seen before as a delightful busy stream was now quite a formidable torrent. Access wasn’t easy either. Still, I hadn’t fished for a week and against my better judgement, I climbed down into the river. There were a lot of trees but that was hardly a problem, tree lined streams are part of my life. I fished short, 7’ 3 weight rod, three feet of stroft to a parachute adams and a size 16 hare’s ear nymph tied with a 2.5mm tungsten bead three feet below that. A pretty standard set up. And off I went, short cast, short drift, fighting upstream under branches and over boulders. Hard work, good fun despite the odd hairy moment, but the para adams stayed very much in view. There was indeed a lot of water coming down. The whole rig was only on the water for five seconds or so and the dry was pushed along so quickly that I decided that the nymph was probably not getting down far enough. So a change of tactics. Off came the dry and the hare’s ear and on went a size 12 copper headed nymph tied with a 3mm tungsten bead and a lead underbody. This was fished short Czech nymph style. I very quickly had a take and a trout of half a pound or so gave a spirited fight for a few seconds before leaping out of the water and spitting out the hook. Encouraging.
I pressed on but in all honesty it was getting difficult. The water got deeper, the boulders bigger and the current faster. I reached a point where safety dictated that I needed to get out. That wasn’t easy either. I climbed up some big rocks hanging onto branches uncomfortably aware that a slip would send me 10 feet down to crash into the boulders in the river – that concentrates the mind! Thankfully I made it, thinking that I was definitely getting too old for this lark.
One of the advantages of the Waterfalls Walk is that the river has a well made path running close by. I followed this and after a hundred yards or so the river quietened down a bit and access was much easier. In went the copperhead and out came a couple of fish….they were not big! A push a bit further up and the gradient of the river flattened and here was some lovely water. Quite deep and quite fast with plenty of underwater obstructions but very fishable with the duo, so back to that. A couple more small fish came to hand. Then the river got lively again as I approached the waterfalls!
After a couple of hours fighting the river I decided that enough was enough and walked back down the path. At the exit I was given my £6 back! The bloke on the gate had phoned the agent who had told him that Ingleton AA did, indeed, rent the fishing and I had a right of access. We got chatting and I said I was surprised at the amount of water coming down given that we had not seen any rain. Ah, he said, he could hear thunder further up the valley this morning so he reckoned that a localised storm had pushed the river up. He also said that although Doe and Twiss are generally no more than a mile or so apart, the weather patterns of the area meant that one could be in flood as a result of a localised storm, whilst the other was perfectly fishable. Useful information to be tucked away for the future.
So was it worth the effort in an area that is not short of good day ticket fishing? Unquestionably! I will visit again when the river level is a bit lower (I hope), it was great fun.
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