09/12/2022 - Post COVID pick-me-up

My first (and hopefully last) experience with COVID was thankfully a bearable one, the boosters doing their job and minimising any effects, with just a bit of a sniffle and a phlegmy throat to remind me of its presence. It also seems that there are lot worse things about at the moment as a colleague at work has been off for nearly three weeks now with a nasty chest infection.

Tried to minimise any social contact anyway and spent the last week keeping out of the way of the kids, so hopefully I've not passed it onto them - the daughter particularly has got far too much going on before Christmas and my life simply would not be worth living if that was cutrtailed! Had been keeping an eye on the weather forecast whilst sat on my arse as I had a good half pint of maggors in the fridge and was itching to have another go at the grayling.

The current conditions looked spot on - freezing cold, bright and sunny and no wind. Had a window of a few hours this morning, so headed off in the van to the River Derwent again. Arrived just after first light, the moon and sun having a brief battle for supremacy before the latter burst over the horizon and flooded the frost-covered landscape. Wasn't in a rush so made myself a coffee and waited for the sun to get a bit higher in the sky before donning the neoprenes and making my way over the footbridge and across the field, leaving dirty great footprints on the otherwise pristine, white canvas. Had just over three hours before I had to leave in order to give me time to get home to dial into a meeting.

I therefore walked straight upstream to the first swim I'd fished last week in the the hope that the grayling were still in residence. The river had visibly dropped since my previous session. However, the newly exposed mud indicated that the only visitors in the interim had been those of the furred and feathered kind. The water clarity had also improved and my only doubt about the temperature was dispelled when the float disappeared on the very first trot down resulting in the first grayling of the morning. Wasn't massive, but was nice start particularly when another one followed next cast. Blank avoided I settled down to catch a few more despite it still being cold enough for ice to form in the rod rings and requiring me to periodically dunk the rod tip in the river to free the line.

Eventually the sun rose high enough to warm my back and I got into a rythmn of trotting and feeding. When it came time to leave I'd had 21 grayling and could have quite happily stayed and caught more if it wasn't for that inopportune meeting.

Bumped into the bailiff when I got back to the van, so gave him a catch report. Seems very few people bother with the river when the barbel fishing tails off and few venture very far from the  carpark, which suits me fine. However, think even I need to leave my comfort zone and  travel a bit further afield if I'm going to catch a "two" this winter.