7th March by Jon Ogboune
Beautiful sunshine but a sharp frost with the temp dipping below freezing. Fished the Damery beat starting at the concrete wall run. After not very long the line began to loose it’s zip through the rings as they iced up. While freeing them up, disaster struck on the tip ring which broke away from my beloved Nick Strang 6’er! Having only been fishing for 10 mins I determined to fish on and managed three grayling altogether, biggest 10”, all to a gold head red tag. Rod was duly fixed that evening and the lost section was only a few mm so the rod lives to fish another day. River in lovely condition albeit still a little deep to wade some pools.
A tough cookie is Jon!
14th February by Bernie Price
It was nice to get on the LRA today with the temperature above freezing for once and the level and clarity just about as good as it's been for a while. Lots of wildlife showed up too, including the odd kingfisher and several dippers as well as the usual buzzards. The clearer water and reduced flow meant that we could dispense with the tungsten nymphs in favour of our regular brass ones supended under a klink. This proved to be a good choice. Matt took three Grayling from the first pool on beat one and dropped a couple more in quick succession. My first fish, a Grayling, came from around the bend and was the only take I managed from the pool - all our fish fell to the hares ear nymph.On to beat two and unfortunately I missed our only offer of the morning on the dry but then watched Matt cover the same spot and extract yet another nice Grayling on the nymph. Two more Grayling followed to Matt's rod then I took another two of my own from separate pools up near the weir. A quick couple of casts up under the bridge at Avening Green just before we called it a day produced a very fit and almost sea trout like Brown that was equally as silver as the Grayling we had taken earlier - makes you wonder... or perhaps it had just adapted it's camouflage to suit the change in conditions at this time of year. Nice to see Jon out with the youngsters too - I wonder how they faired?
'Nice Winter Grayling for Matt'
'Fish on in the mist'
31st January by Bernie Price
Matt and I visited the LRA with minus 3 showing on the thermometer and a blanket of thick frost covering pretty much everything when we arrived at Avening Green - beautiful. As we crossed the bridge the river was clearly up and pushing through and the water held that grey tint that seems to be quite common at this time of year. Anyway, we started at beat one and worked hard with no reward. With the water feeling desperately cold it crossed our minds that this might be a day for enjoying the scenery rather angling success... but eventually, and true to form, a little Lady put in an appearance in the straight, then another from the white water by the small weir. Three more came from the tail of the pool at the stone weir and so this turned what had looked like being a 'chalk this one up to experience' morning into a 'more than happy with that' morning, given the circumstances. All our fish fell to a size 12 pink tungsten bead hares ear nymph suspended eighteen inches under a large fluoro post indicator klink.
3rd January 2010 by Bernie Price
Jon Hall and I decided to brave the conditions and take a look at the LRA this morning as I had passed yesterday and noticed the colour dropping out nicely following the latest spate (and a passing chat with one of the BEFS members confirmed he had caught at Damery). So we met as agreed at 07:30 at the Scout Hut. Having put up the rods we walked, or rather crunched, our way through the frosty fields downstream from the stone bridge to the bend by the wooden fence. The river was pushing through a fair bit but clear enough for the fly. We started here and slowly fished our way up through to the metal footbridge, taking care to note any changes in depth, of which there are many, that the spates have left as their legacy. Jon fished a weighted shrimp and I put a pink tungsten bead hares ear nymph through it's paces. We both caught steadily throughout the beats, including a surprising number of very fit and I'm sure wild Browns, although the Grayling were most numerous overall. Reflecting on the morning over a very welcome coffee back at the cars revealed that we'd taken over twenty fish between us, all on the fly and all in excellent condition. A brief and interesting chat with the bee keeper just before we left capped what has been a fine start to 2010 - Happy New Year and Tight Lines all.
'Jon Hall - absolute concentration!'
21st December by Peter Coleman-Smith
Great little trip on Saturday with Jon Ogborne. A hard frost was gripping the valley when we got to the river (7.30am) and it hadn't let go when we left a couple of hours later. The ice we'd broken on puddles along the track to the stone bridge had refrozen on our return to the car.
We both trotted sweetcorn, between us accounting for a wild brownie and a couple of fine grayling (12/13"), with another similar grayling lost at the surface and other bites missed.
Hard fishing. Rod rings were repeatedly blocked with ice and several times my reel froze solid. Nice though. The water and sky and trees were beautiful and I saw at various times a muntjac, snipe, tawny owl and stoat (busy hunting).
Happy Christmas all.
8th November by Jon Ogbourne
First frost of the year at LRA this Saturday. It was a beautiful morning (picture) and the low temp didn’t put off the odd hardy sedge from hatching and a few fish from rising.
I entered the stream just before the riffle in the top corner of the first field at Damery. As I greased my dry and degreased my leader and generally soaked in the glorious day, I was treated to firstly a deer (picture) then a fox crossing the riffle head of me. I failed dismally to capture either adequately on my camera, but their silhouettes against the mist and sunshine will stay with me.
My first fish, a brownie, came to the ‘sombrero’ (see this months T&S!) I was using as an indicator fly. The goldhead below it then took over and gave me another 5 bt and 6 grayling from that pool and then the run up to the concrete wall before it was time to go home.
The condition and quantity of the browns was really encouraging. All were wild, beautifully marked and full of vigour. The grayling too were in excellent condition.
Despite the rain (in Bristol anyway), the river was still on the low side and very clear.
17th October by Jon Ogbourne
Travelled up to LRA early on Sat morning with Peter Coleman-Smith to begin out grayling campaign in earnest! I put up both fly and trotting rods and made my way up to the electrical sign to ditch the coarse gear and fish the run up to that place on the fly. It was a beautiful sunny autumn morning but the river was painfully low, as low as I’ve seen it. The only upside was that, unlike August lows, where the water seems warm and tired and the river bed is often coated with algae, the water on Sat was clear, cold and clean.
Managed a couple of tiny but eager grayling to grhe (there was loads of fry about). The bigger fish would have required a level of stealth and technical ability that I’m afraid escapes me! Swapped to the trotting gear and found a nice deep hole to swim some corn through and was rewarded 1st cast with a beautifully conditioned chub of 2lbs. Half a dozen grayling to 14” followed before I switched back to the fly and fished upstream again for one more grayling. A very enjoyable morning on a pristine day.