River Wharfe · fly box
A dales river where the grayling season covers the winter and the trout season does not.
| Pattern | Imitates | Size | Technique |
|---|---|---|---|
| Czech Nymph | Grayling cased caddis | #12-14 | Tight-line, tungsten bead, upstream; the standard grayling method on the Wharfe. |
| Klinkhamer Special | Emerging olive | #14-16 | Hang it in the surface film in the riffle; grayling take it as it swings under. |
| Pink Shrimp | Gammarus shrimp | #14 | Winter grayling fly; fish it deep in the slow pool tails. |
| Waterhen Bloa | Olive nymph | #16 | North-country spider; swing it through the riffle on a short line. |
| Griffith's Gnat | Midge cluster | #20-22 | January midge fishing when nothing else is moving. |
The dressing plate
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.