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Eden Trip


Rusty

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River Eden, Cumbria, weekend of 16th & 17th October 2010.

 

A change of scenery for me with a long arranged trip to Cumbria to meet Tigger (Ian) and to fish the River Eden at Wawrick-on-Eden. I’d read Ian’s previous posts on his expeditions and fancied broadening my horizons a little so with B&B booked for Friday, Saturday and Sunday the long haul ooop north started Friday morning, all 285 miles of it! The slog up the M6 was straightforward enough, counting up the junctions and passing all of those towns you used to see on the Saturday afternoon rugby league results. Junction 43 finally arrived and from there it was a short distance to my B&B, the route passed over the river so I stopped to take a first look;

 

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Holy cr*p, this wasn’t the narrow picturesque chalk stream that I’m used to, rather a wide expanse of water with no immediate indication of where the fish might be. In its current state it looked quite benign but it was obvious that any heavy rainfall would change its character significantly, luckily the forecast was dry and mild. The water was gin clear and the river bed seemed to be made up of mainly rocks and pebbles with little in the way of vegetation being visible, good for wading I thought. Onwards to Brampton where a quiet evening was spent exploring the town (didn’t take long) enjoying the local beer and a fish’n’chips supper.

 

Saturday morning breakfast was wolfed down and the short journey to the water saw me arriving at 8:30 with Ian and Ste (pronounced ‘Stee’, probably short for Steven) already there. My hosts Ian;

 

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And Ste;

 

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Greetings were exchanged, centrepin & rod talk ensued and half an hour later we were ready to fish. Ste had pitched up with a quiver tip and would be feeder fishing slack water, Ian kindly offered to show me some good trotting spots but as a token gesture of independence I found a swim which sort of resembled something I was used to and started there;

 

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Third trot and my first Eden grayling was on the bank;

 

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Having proved that I could find the fish (in an admittedly unspectacular fashion) I gave it another half hour or so before wandering off to find Ian. He was mid-stream further down on a wide but shallow part of the river, easy to get to I thought. I’ve always wondered why felt soled waders are available and now I know, the river bed was firm but the stones were very slippery and uneven, what looked like a simple paddle out in cleated soled waders needed care if a dunking was to be avoided. Getting into the river made the changing profile of the river bed much more obvious and it soon became apparent that the better sized fish were to be found in the deeper glides. That really set the wading pattern for the rest of the day, identify the deeper sections from the bank and then wade in as far as you needed (usually up to your bits) to be within casting range. Some places you could just dob the float in, others you had to wade and cast, this fell into the latter category;

 

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This pic from the same spot indicates how low the water was, Ste reckoned that heavy rain in the days leading up to our trip could’ve seen it five feet higher than this.

 

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The geology of the surrounding landscape doesn’t lend itself to soaking up rainfall, any rain just runs straight into the rivers and in the case of the Eden will have a marked effect on levels in a short space of time. Something to remember if you’ve just waded out to that gravel bar that was only just accessible. It was possible to fish from the bank, Ian had a great mini session without getting his feet wet it’s just that wading opens up more of the river.

 

Back to the fish, from that spot I started to catch grayling of a decent size. There aren’t many photos for two reasons, firstly the blighters wouldn’t stay still resulting in photos like this;

 

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And secondly a lot of my fish were caught mid-water so they were unhooked and released straight away. It was brilliant being able to see the grayling so easliy as they twisted and turned in an attempt to shed the hook (a lot of them did) and then watch them get their bearings for a second as they were released, with fins flared and all their colours showing they are a beautiful species. This was generally the size of fish being ‘landed’;

 

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This was probably my largest being a fat chested and broad 2lb 1oz example;

 

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During the Saturday I explored a lot of the river and the tactics were pretty similar all day, find the deeper glides and feed heavily, if the grayling weren’t there initially they soon would be and the average size was pretty consistent, between 1½ and 2 pounds with a few tiddlers and a couple bigger. Trout also put in an appearance but they were in the minority which was a nice change. Salmon put in a much bigger appearance with their constant leaping, quite a shock if one leapt close to you, none were tempted by red maggots though. When the grayling stopped biting I just found another swim and after some feeding they’d be back again.

 

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Ian & Ste both did well (better than me), the feeder tactics bringing more trout that grayling but when the ladies did appear they were a good size. Ian found a couple of swims where the bait only had to touch the water for it to be taken so action was pretty constant.

 

At the end of a great day we all retired back to the B&B to drop the gear and then headed off into Brampton for some beer and dinner. Ian & Ste have been friends since school and the banter between them was very entertaining, not too sure they were model pupils but the tales of their antics were all the better for that. Another fish’n’chip supper with the addition of gravy (Ian) and a battered cheeseburger (me) was taken back to the accommodation before an empty wine bottle (Ste & me) signified it was time to get some kip.

 

Sunday dawned with me not feeling particularly good, I’d like to blame the cheeseburger but I was generally tired from the two days travelling and fishing. I didn’t sleep very well and judging from the snoring coming from the other occupied room one of the others didn’t either! A hearty breakfast buoyed me somewhat and we headed back to the river for an 8:30 start. I didn’t feel like wandering too far so stayed in a spot which had two potential swims, one a deep section this side of a far bank gravel bar and the other a near bank glide flowing in the opposite direction to the main river. It was on the inside of a bend and the flow was turned around by the underwater contours, it was quite strange being able to trot in different directions from the same place, it was like a big slow whirlpool.

 

A short paddle, maggots catapulted out and my best wallis casting got me to the far bank swim into the main flow. It was easy to tell how long the maggots took to get to the fish depth because all bites came from the same spot. And come they did, I lost count of how many grayling succumbed and when they stopped biting I trotted the near bank swim with the same result. The river must be packed with grayling and there were very few tiddlers this time, everything put a decent bend in the rod. Enjoyable as this was the time came when I started to flag, I was knackered and wasn’t looking forward to another night in Brampton and a Monday morning drive along the M6. At 2 o’clock I decided to head back home so went to find Ian & Ste to bid them farewell.

 

I can’t thank these two guys enough, rather than let me find my own swims they put me in good spots so that I enjoyed success, the 600 mile round trip was worth every M6 junction. Top blokes and great company both of them, they’d be welcome to come and try the Kennet with me anytime. It was by far the best grayling fishing I’ve experienced and without doubt there was a PB in there somewhere. It seemed like constant success but in truth I suppose I caught 15-20 decent sized fish each day with some tiddlers and trout thrown in. A great result for me but much better returns are probable when the colder weather arrives apparently!

 

I settled up at the B&B and left at 3:00pm, at 8:30pm I arrived home shattered.

3 Comments


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Chris, what a great write up on the weekends events ! I have to say it was an absolute pleasure to meet you at long last .....a true gent indeed.

I'm glad you enjoyed yourself and hopefully we'll do some more fishing in future.

 

Tight Lines

cheers Ian.

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Thanks for making me feel welcome Ian, it was great to meet you & Ste as well. It was well worth the trip, faces were put to names and a totally different fishing experience for me was thoroughly enjoyed. We'll have to tempt you down this way for some chalk stream angling, can't guarantee that fish will come in such numbers but the Kennet does have some wonderful stretches.

 

All the best.

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It won't take too much tempting to get me down your neck of the woods for a spot of trotting Chris....I look forward to it ! :)

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