THE rivers have been blessed with rain again this summer and our fears of prolonged dry weather were confined to May and early June. While fishermen have complained about not being able to fish the swollen waters, the spates and heavy flows have at least protected fish and other wildlife by diluting the agricultural pollutants. 

Every time the waters drop to fishable level and clarity, the trout and grayling on Eden, for example, have been breathtaking and I know from friends that similar news from other river systems is also positive.

The threat at this time of year is drought, which is considerably more destructive to river wildlife than floods.

Any river changes enormously as the waters rise and colour, particularly the rain fed rivers typical of the north and west of England. Many trout fly fishers despair at this and might revert to spinning or bait fishing, or head off to still waters which are less affected by persistent rainfall. 

This is odd because up to a point a river in spate is often much easier to fish, or more productive, than one showing its bare bones in drought conditions. Trout in thin, clear water are much more difficult to approach at the range in which we have good control over presentation of a fly, which on rivers is a maximum of ten metres, while in fuller, darker flows the angler can approach much closer, even down to the ideal control range of six metres.  

In coloured water, fish are much less visible to predators than in clear water and with increasing depth and turbulence the security factor increases. In such conditions they are drawn out of their shadowy bolt holes among weeds and riverbed crevices.

The angler has to adapt the approach to fish in high water. An ability to read waters is the prime need for success, as in all fishing really. One has to be able to interpret from the signs and indications the river offers where fish may be. 

You also have to think much more in terms of wet fly and nymph rather than dry fly because high flow rates tend to suppress surface insect activity. Sub-surface food forms, however, are likely to be abundant during the late summer and early autumn, often approaching the super-abundance of spring. 

Trout must feed heavily at this time of year, packing in energy reserves for the leaner months ahead. Grayling might not feed so heavily, however, during rising and colouring waters. This species seems to feed with less urgency as the cooler, darker months approach but then they are much more active than trout during the winter, often feeding on the coldest days of the year. 

This being noted, as a river in spate begins to ‘fine down’ and lose a little of its flood colour can be the best period of all for grayling at this time of year.  As the water begins to fall is also the time when we might expect a hatch and dry fly activity.

The observant angler looks for areas where the water is slightly ‘held up’ relative to the main flow - eddies and pockets in the turbulence and rush, seams between fast and slower water and the lovely runs beneath foam lanes that develop behind substantial obstructions such as pool heads and large boulders. 

In any such place we might expect target fish to lurk, either sheltering from the main flow or, better, actively feeding on invertebrates washed off the stones and weed beds upstream.

In either case these fish are catchable. It is mostly a matter of presenting an appropriate fly at an appropriate depth.  This is the trick. Not easy perhaps but actually generally easier than the more ‘finesse’ presentation to the ultra-cautious fish of low, clear waters.

While many anglers revert to sinking or sink tip lines, weighted nymphs presented on floating give us generally a better means of reaching these fish.  The reason for this is that though a sinking line will present flies deeper, the control over these flies is lost because of the interaction between the current and the sunk fly line. 

This loss of control considerably increases at longer range and is at its worst beyond ten metres, particularly in the typically complex currents of rain fed rivers rather than on still waters or the sedate flows of the lower reaches of river systems. 

A nymph presented beneath a floating line, however, can be controlled or, rather, allowed to ‘dead drift’ at the pace of the current which means allowing it to drift to our target fish in a way similar to the invertebrates naturally caught in the flow.  This is largely what we mean when we refer to control over our flies.  

Trout and grayling are more likely to accept nymphs presented in this way than those swept past them by an uncontrolled sinking line. The exception, of course, is when presenting bait fish imitations such as minnows, which are certainly better fished on sinking lines deep through the pools and runs.

Eden was just beginning to lose the opacity of silt and take on that lovely sand-stone colour, like tea. A foam lane was kicked off mid-river towards the bank where I stood, holding up the water in a run almost ten metres long.

I mused that most anglers would do no more than hesitate here and perhaps think of pulling a streamer through the depths, frustrated by the weeks of spate we have endured.  But what occurred to me was that the fish must be hungry now and the foam lane and slightly slower water was absolutely certain to hold food forms and bandit trout, possibly even a shoal of grayling. 

I tied on a pair of lightly weighted nymphs – a hare’s fur on point with a Sawyer pheasant tail on a dropper 20 inches up the leader. I greased the tip of the fly line and cast at the tail of the foam lane.

As I worked upstream I took two trout and then a magical grayling of 35cm, each take coming as an unmissable stab against the line tip. Right at the top of the lane I had another take which I hit, hooking the largest trout of the day. But it sprang the hook after a few seconds. 

I was a little angry because I knew it had been a good fish and I thought I had run out of room on this particularly productive run of river. The very next cast, however, the fly line drew away again and I set the hook into something extraordinary.

For a while I thought it was a very large grayling, then a salmon, but soon saw one of the biggest trout I have ever seen on the Eden system. It fought ferociously, even running downstream, challenging the hook-hold in the powerful flow. 

Finally, I eased it into the shallows and beached it - 20 inches of wild trout perfection from a river of which most would despair. I was shaking with the thrill of it, quite unable to do more than take a few rapid photos and slip the monster back into the dark waters. 

I packed up and took my euphoria away home with me. Give me the choice of shrunken waters or fining down spate and you know which I will choose, every time.