Some welcome company…

Our daughter is studying Art at GCSE and one of the modules requires building a landscape portfolio, initially with photographs. She decides that rivers might be a good subject. I concur and casually suggest she joins me on the river to get some practice.

I’m half expecting the teenage grimace followed by a perfectly plausible excuse, but she says yes. I’m surprised and pleased as we don’t get a lot of dad and daughter time.

It’s warm and a little overcast when we arrive and as its past lunchtime, the first thing we do is devour all our measly provisions.

She has borrowed a camera and is super enthusiastic. I’m not sure how much of this is the photography project and how much the idea of wet wading on a nice July afternoon. I ask her to stay reasonably close and stay down stream, but she seems as enthusiastic to take some shots of me as the landscape. Maybe I’m just in the way.

As we move slowly upstream, I fish a few of the faster pools and we chat non stop. She takes over 300 pictures from close ups of trees and insects, to fish, me and the river. She is deleting and editing as she goes and I’m pleased she’s having such a good time.

At her age, I would have a roll of 24 and be waiting a week for the packet to arrive from the chemist to see if there were any pictures without my thumb in them.

After a fun few hours we head home and she drops a few not so subtle hints that her own digital SLR might make all the difference. Smart girl.

Oh yes, I almost forget. I catch a few trout and grayling too.

Mr Notherone

Not the day I expect…

This evening I’m travelling with the family, taking my daughter to compete in an athletics meet over the weekend. Surprisingly I’m given an afternoon pass without request (why they want me out of the way is still a mystery) but I take it.

I realise that an afternoon on the river in this weather is not ideal. I’d rather fish the evening rise but as that’s not an option, I’ll take what I can.

It’s warm. The sort of July day we remember we had as kids, when our memory plays tricks and tells us every summer day then was warm.

The river is low and reasonably clear. I can see some trout in the shallows. I decide to fish a single nymph on a longish leader – I can switch to a dry if I get lucky. I’ll fish the faster more oxygenated water and maybe sight fish some of those trout.

I fish up the beat and start to catch a few, all small grayling up to about 12″. I lose one better fish, but I see enough to know it’s another grayling. It’s good sport, although I’m hoping for trout. On other days the exact same lies produce brown trout, but today the grayling have moved in.

It’s a good stretch of river and I’m surprised that I find the same pattern in each run. One or two grayling greedily snatching the nymph. No trout. I arrive at the top of the beat with about a dozen grayling.

Realising I’ve not eaten the apple in my pack, I sit down for a while. I can see the car from here. As I watch a dipper grubbing around in the shallows, I think I see a rise just off the food seam where the current swings around a 90 degree turn. It’s 4.30pm, my cut off time for leaving.

I’m in two minds. I should head off but predictably the temptation is too great and I tie on a small Adams. A few minutes won’t harm.

It’s not my best cast but the 11″ trout is forgiving and grabs the Adams with a noisy swirl. Not a big fish and a sluggish fight. Perhaps he’s been caught recently or is not well. No obvious visual signs of distress though and he swims off well enough.

A lovely but slightly odd afternoon.

It has the feel of being a really good evening in the making. I notice another car parked up alongside mine. Perhaps the angler has headed upstream and is able to fish that evening rise which looks promised. I hope the trout turn on for him, or her.

I arrive home expecting to quickly pack the car and head off towards Oxford. My mood sinks as I notice one of the rear tyres partially deflated and on examination, what look like a 6″nail is the culprit. I spend the next forty minutes changing the wheel whilst my daughter offers unhelpful advice from the safety of the open kitchen window. She’s in a mischievous frame of mind and I suspect the upcoming drive will feel longer than it should.

Mr Notherone

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