December was a very wet month, until a spell of dry weather at Christmas allowed the river levels to drop, making a River Calder fishing trip possible (River Calder level Whalley Weir gauge 0.53m).
t was forecast to be a sunny Christmas Eve, and when I pulled into the car park near the The Aspinall Arms at 10 a.m., the sun was starting to burn off the morning mist. My car thermometer was reading 8°C, but outside in the cold south-easterly wind, it felt more like 3°C.
My plan for the day was to start by fishing the River Ribble at the junction with the River Hodder, before walking to the end of the Mitton Beat to fish the Calder foot.
However, as I approached the Ribble the water was very dirty and smelt like someone had dumped farm slurry into the river.
After reporting the pollution incident to the Environmental Agency, I walked down to fish the River Calder. Fortunately, the Calder hadn’t been affected by the pollution.
River Calder Fishing with Nymphs.
On my journey downriver to the River Calder, I hadn’t seen any surface fly-life activity, and with the river slightly coloured, I chose to fish a team of nymphs on a tight line.
Fly fishing the pool below the upper limit
I set up my Vision Nymphamaniac 11ft 3# rod to fish two of nymphs spaced 18” apart on 4 lb fluorocarbon (point fly: size 14 pink shrimp with a 3mm white tungsten bead; dropper: size 14, purple collared black pheasant tail nymph with a 3mm silver TB).
I started nymphing up through the faster water near the top of the pool below the upper boundary. After a couple of drifts, my line darted sideways and the rod bent round as grayling dashed for the deep water close to the far bank.
Carefully, I got my first grayling under control and guided it safely to the net. It had fallen for the black pheasant tail nymph on the point.
After returning my first grayling, I fished towards the fast water at the head of the pool and this produced several grayling on the pink shrimp and PTN.
The highlights from fishing the River Calder are captured in the following video…
Fishing the pool opposite the farm down to the Ribble Junction
After sandwich break, I headed downriver to the pool opposite the farm on the far bank in search of more grayling. The sky had clouded up and the breeze had strengthened which hindered bite detection.
Fishing up through the pool with the pink shrimp and PTN produced a few nice grayling.
Towards the end of the day the temperature dropped and takes dried up. Therefore, I changed the nymphs for a heavier set that would fish closer to the riverbed in the faster water (point fly #12 tungsten olive jig-back nymph, middle dropper #14 pink squirmy worm with a 3mm pink TB, top dropper #16 hares ear with a 2mm gold TB).
This proved to be a good move because the pick squirmy added a bonus grayling to my tally. Shortly afterwards, the temperature started to drop as the light faded and I called it a day at about 3pm.
Overall, after the initial upset of being confronted with a polluted Ribble, I had a great day grayling fishing in Lancashire on the River Calder. In the absence hatching flies, Euro nymphing proved to be the most effective method, and I walked away with a tally of five fine River Calder grayling, along with quite a few smaller grayling.