River Wharfe

The river

The Wharfe rises on Cam Fell and runs 97 km through the Yorkshire Dales to join the Ouse near Cawood. In the upper dale it is a fast, clean limestone river with riffles and small falls; lower down it broadens through pasture. The attraction for a fly angler is grayling: the Wharfe holds a strong population of the European grayling, and because the grayling season runs through the winter, this is one of the few rivers in England where January is a fishing month.

On this river

Winter grayling on the bottom

From November the grayling shoal up in the slower, deeper water and feed almost entirely on the bottom. Fish a two-nymph Czech rig with tungsten beads, keep the rod tip within 20 cm of the water, and let the flies bump the bottom. In cold water the take is a single hesitation, so strike on any change in the fly's rhythm.

Reading spate water

A spate on the Wharfe is a two-day event: unfishable during, excellent on the second day as it drops and clears. Fish the edges of the current where the river is still slightly coloured, because in a chalk-and-limestone river the fish move out of the main flow into these margins as soon as the water starts to rise.

The north-country spider swing

Traditional Wharfe fishing uses two or three soft-hackled wets on a short line, cast across and allowed to swing round with a slow hand-twist retrieve. It is unfashionable and it still catches fish when nothing is hatching, particularly in June evenings when sedge are active but not yet on the surface.