It's great when a fishing trip works out but not always as Kris Kent discovered
John ‘Hannibal’ Smith in the A Team was often heard to say “I love it when a plan comes together”.
John ‘Hannibal’ Smith
And so do I.
I had to be up in Glasgow for work beginning of November. I would be driving home on Paul’s birthday and his flat in Keswick is only a short diversion off the M6. So why not stop off at Paul’s for the night and take him out for dinner and then fish for grayling on the Eden the following day? So I picked up the phone. Paul was up for it so we put it in the diary and I booked a table for dinner. Paul is a member of Penrith Anglers who have some nice stretches of the Eden that hold a good head of grayling so fishing wouldn’t be a problem.
The one thing that can really interfere with your winter grayling fishing is the weather. As a ‘soft southerner’ pouring rain, gales and plummeting temperatures make winter fishing unpleasant but not impossible. The joy of the chalkstreams is that it takes a hell of a lot of rain to effect the river levels. They can colour up a little but they are almost always fishable, last winter being perhaps the exception. But ‘up north’ it’s a whole different kettle of fish.
I arrived in Glasgow to blue skies and a weak late autumn sun. Temperatures were starting to drop after an unseasonably warm October. Frosts were forecast for the first time in ages. The weather would be perfect for Bonfire Night. A few kids were pushing Guys around the back streets as I made my way to the hotel. Haven’t seen kids out Guysing in a long time. My first day at work passed quickly and I retreated to my hotel room for room service and an early night.
The internet and mobile technologies have revolutionised our world. Information on just about anything is a just a few clicks and smart phone apps process and present the key information we are interested in effortlessly. When I awoke on the second day in Glasgow there was an alert on my phone. One of the apps I use on a daily basis is the Met Office Weather application. It provides a forecast for your current location and a number of favourite locations for the next five days which can be broken down by the hour. You can also set it to alert you of any severe weather warnings.
Screen shot of Met Office Weather app
Just such an alert blinked at me from my phone. My heart sank. I pulled open the curtains to find the blue skies replaced by low grey clouds and the weak sun by a persistent drizzle. The weather warning was for that evening. My journey south would coincide with gales and heavy rain. The good news was that it would only affect Scotland. I managed to get to Paul’s without getting blown off the M74, just. As I approached and crossed the border the weather eased so that by the time I reached Keswick you wouldn’t have known there was a problem just a few miles north. I unloaded the car into Paul’s spare room, freshened up and then we headed off to the Kirkstile Inn for a few pints of their Cumbrian Legendary Ales and some dinner.
The Kirkstile Inn
Three courses and several pints of American Invasion IPA later we stumbled out fat and happy into the night. It was raining. After a nightcap we retired to bed. At 0830 I pulled back the curtains. Paul’s spare room looks out over Skiddaw, fourth highest mountain in England, the now defunct Cumberland Pencil Museum and the River Greta. Last night’s rain had obviously been persistent as the Greta was up under the arches of the Greta Bridge, it was running hard and dirty.
The Greta Bridge in calmer circumstances
Now this didn’t mean the Eden would be unfishable. The joy of the Eden catchment is that each major tributary drains a very different part of that catchment. Heavy rains over the Lake District can swell Ullswater and make the Eamont a brown torrent whilst the Lowther, which joins the Eamont just to the southeast of Penrith at Brougham Castle before flowing into the Eden at ‘Watersmeet’ and drains off Shap Fell close by the M6 to the south of Penrith can be a sedate stream. Heavy rains over the Pennines can render the Eden unfishable whilst the Eamont may still be low and clear. So there was hope. Now these days you don’t actually have to go to the river to see what state it is in. Many rivers have webcams that allow you to view the river from the comfort of your armchair. River levels can also be checked thanks to the Environment Agency. The EA has established a network of river monitoring stations on the major rivers of England and Wales. The data from these stations are available through the EA’s website. The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency provides a similar service which can be accessed through the SEPA website. So I booted up the laptop over a coffee to check the river levels. I didn’t need to check the gauge for the Greta as I could see it out the window but I took a look anyway.
Greta river level from the EA website
It is interesting to see how quickly the Greta came up but also how quickly it dropped back. Of course it only shows the level, not the flow or turbidity (the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles).
When I looked at the gauge for the Eden at Appleby things didn’t look too bad but by this point something had come up and Paul had to pop over to Durham. As the forecast wasn’t great for the Eden Valley we decided to head south and try out the River Wharfe the following day. Paul and I have a fondness for Littondale, the River Skirfare and The Falcon at Arncliffe. The Skirfare is a major tributary of the Wharfe but unfortunately it hasn’t had a population of grayling since the 1970s. But we could still stay at The Falcon, enjoy its wonderful beer and fantastic hospitality and then fish on the Wharfe at Bolton Abbey. So Plan B was hatched. Paul would go to Durham and then meet me at Arncliffe. I would drive down to Arncliffe via Appleby and fish the Eden if it was in good enough fettle. We had a proper breakfast and then headed off in our separate directions. As I drove from Keswick to Appleby the weather started to close in and the rain restarted. I parked by the Holme Street Bridge in Appleby and gazed over the railings. The Eden had come up from the level on the EA website and was distinctly mucky. Trotting a worm might have been an option but I only had my fly gear with me.
Eden river level at Appleby from the EA website
I decided to make my way down to Bolton Abbey and do some reconnaissance for the following day and then check in at The Falcon ready for Paul’s arrival. The drive from Appleby to Bolton Abbey is truly beautiful, even in bad weather. The road follows the Eden up to its source at Mallerstang before dropping down into Wensleydale picking up the headwaters of the Ure. Through Hawes and then up and over the hills following the Bishopsdale Beck before dropping into Upper Wharfedale picking up the Wharfe at Buckden. The further south I went the better the weather got with occasional glimpses of blue sky as I dropped down Wharfedale towards Grassington. And the views were spectacular. The overnight rain meant that the becks were all running hard with lots of waterfalls cascading off the hillsides. Unfortunately these becks end up in the Wharfe at some point. I dropped in at the Estate Office in Bolton Abbey to check out arrangements for the following morning and then popped down to the Cavendish Pavilion to check out the river and have some lunch.
River Wharfe by the Cavendish Pavilion
The riverside path that follows the Wharfe through the Bolton Abbey Estate crosses the river by a footbridge opposite the Pavilion so it’s a great spot to view the river. Despite it being a generally dry day the Wharfe was high and coloured. I retreated to the Pavilion for a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate cake to drown my sorrows. Getting any fishing in was looking less and less likely. Still, if the weather continued settled and no more rain fell perhaps the Wharfe would drop and clear sufficiently for us to fish tomorrow. Rejuvenated by the tea and cake I headed back up Wharfedale turning left into Littondale and up to The Falcon at Arncliffe.
The Falcon at Arncliffe
Jo provided the usual warm welcome on this occasion. She and husband Steve are Littondale locals and took over as Landlady and Landlord a year or so back. She brought me up to speed on the recent comings and goings, sorted me out a room and organised me a pint of the wonderful award winning Timothy Taylor’s Boltmaker before I settled into a comfortable armchair in the resident’s sitting room to await Paul’s arrival. Our visit coincided with the monthly quiz so after a wonderful dinner we joined the locals to do battle. Despite our best efforts we only managed second to last place. On one of my visits to the gent’s toilet I noticed the flagstones out the back of the pub were wet. So much for the weather staying settled. When I awoke for breakfast grey clouds hung low over the fells and large puddles stretched out across the road. Whilst I waited for Paul to descend for breakfast I checked the EA website.
Wharfe river level from the EA website
As I feared it was a wash out. No fishing for us on the Wharfe that day. I look after the Facebook pages for The Wild trout Trust and The Grayling Society so I quickly checked to see if anything interesting was being posted. What I discovered was that many other people were in the same situation as we were. The Lancashire and Derbyshire rivers were in a similar state.
So Paul and I abandoned our plan. Paul headed back to Keswick and I made my way south and home. I took the scenic route form Arncliffe back to the M6. Up and over Malham Moor, past Malham Tarn, across Henside before dropping into Ribblesdale and picking up the main roads at Settle. The Ribble was also a raging torrent. Then it was cross country through Rathmell, Wigglesworth and into the Forest of Bowland joining the main road near Sawley. Every beck I crossed on route was the same, high and coloured. I re-crossed the Ribble at Sawley, it was still a raging torrent. As I sped south on the M6 it was the same story over and over. As I neared the M6 Toll just north of Birmingham the River Penk was up and out of its banks spreading out across the floodplain.
The Lambourn is the nearest chalkstream to home. I picked a route home off the A34 that would cross the Lambourn. I slowed as I neared the bridge stretching to catch a glimpse of it. It sedately slipped past, clear as a bell. Why didn’t I just stay at home.
Lambourn river level from the EA website
So whilst a do like it when “a plan comes together”, I also appreciate that those plans “often go awry”.
The Met Office Weather app is available through the various app stores.
More information on the EA and SEPA river level websites can be found at:
http://apps.environment-agency.gov.uk/river-and-sea-levels/
http://www.sepa.org.uk/water/river_levels/river_level_data.aspx
A similar service for England and wales is available from Gauge Map:
http://www.gaugemap.co.uk/
Biography:
Kris Kent has been fly fishing and trotting for brown trout and grayling for over 20 years in the UK, Europe and Scandinavia. He is Chief Guide at Chalk Stream Dreams, Fishing Manager at Orvis in Stockbridge, PR Officer for the Grayling Society and helps out The Wild Trout Trust with their online communications and events.
