For many anglers, the grayling season this year has been very hit and miss.. Or even non-existent! Due to the amount of rain that’s been dumped in our beloved  UK rivers! 

I live in the small town of Sowerby bridge, West Yorkshire, just one of the little towns that was hit with the devastating Boxing Day floods. I’ll never forget seing all the local people coming together to help everyone effected by the floods donating food, drink and cleaning products and working through the night to get their businesses up and running again. Below are some of the pictures from Boxing Day, you can see the cross bar of a football goal post, with the water inches off the top! 

I’m keen to see how the rivers have changed, I imagine that the Boulder that was in the middle of the river on my favourite stretch is no longer there, or maybe it is? Who knows!

I watched the river levels like a hawk until they reached a “normal” level in order to get out and have a fish, I managed an hour one Saturday in January. I set up with a French leader and two weighted hares ear jig nymphs with an added hot spot. Not long after getting back into the swing of things I was into my first fish of the year. I’ve never been so happy to see a grayling in my life. Shortly followed by some hungry out of season trout!

  
So, with the rivers been blown out when ever I’ve had the opportunity to fish them I’ve been tying lots of flies recently, in preperation for the British Fly Fair Internationl that has just passed where I tied on the Partridge Of Redditch stand along side Matthew Pate! It was a great weekend all round and I’m already looking forward to tying at more shows! Thanks again to Mark Hamnett and the Partridge team for the opportunity and looking after me! 

  
  
  
My attention now focuses on the coming trout season and filling my box with juicy flies to tempt them with! Along with fishing new rivers and meeting fellow anglers and meeting new ones

Tight lines!