25th and 26th March  –  Season Starters

Well at last 25th March opening day arrived and as working parties had done a great job below the A19 I decided to start down there. It is quite a walk down to the little copse but I was fishing by 11:15 and catching the first trout before 11:17. A great start to what I hope will be a bumper season.

A few minutes later I was pleasantly surprised to see our Honorary Secretary appear on the bank above me and after a brief chat he went off upstream a couple of hundred yards and we agreed to leapfrog each other as we made our way back to the A19 bridge.

Actually by the time I caught up he had already landed two and was about to start on a good pool so I left him in peace and moved up. I soon caught a second trout and then Bob passed me having caught “a real clonker” from the pool where I left him. I stopped to have an early lunch and to give Bob a chance to get well ahead.

I only managed one more trout albeit the best of my day and by the time I got back to the Bridge Bob had left. (I later found out he had managed 5 trout and a grayling so that was a good start.)

The next day I decided to have a look at Thirkleby hoping for a better catch rate. I was disappointed to find more trees down both below the Mill and above it and between the Mill and the footbridge near Balk Grange Farm a lot of rubbish and blockages.

Above the footbridge there is just the same blockage but it has got bigger overwinter but is passable.

I was struggling to catch anything but eventually a goldhead fished in the deep water at the top of the “Pylon length” produced a take and I was very glad to get a 9 inch trout safely on the net.

Moving up I saw a very large and clearly well fed dog fox run off up stream, and then a few minutes later a black mink ran off into the bankside undergrowth.

It was starting to get cool so I skipped a couple of runs to have some time to fish the weir pool at the top of our beat, but again I didn’t get a touch.

I was actually very glad I had managed not to blank and while only 4 trout over the 2 days doesn’t seem much it is still very early in the season and things should start to pick up in the next 10 days.

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