Sex!

Ha!  That got you looking...  It's fantastic to look at your river bed as closely as you can at this time of year.  I've just come in from a wander around and everywhere you look on the Derbyshire Wye at the moment there seems to be a lot of wonderful sex going on.  The Wye's unique wild rainbow trout are still spawning, the grayling have just started, the brook lampreys have just started too...

A bit like a Jackson Pollocks painting but you can just make out the shadowy figure of a female grayling over her redd

Two whoppers!

Back in the 1960's we were not allowed to be on the river until all this was over.  We used to miss all the trout breeding activities.  No watching the brown trout as we were off the river from November 15th and so missed their Christmas parties.  The rainbow trout, grayling and brook lampreys we never saw on the redds because the river didn't open until May 15th.  Now things are different.  The trout season, these days, starts on April 1st (All-Fools' Day) and although trout are out of season from October 7th we are now allowed to fish for the grayling until January 7th.  What a boon!  We need miss nothing.  We can watch and take great comfort that all is well on this river, which hereabouts relies entirely on wild fish for its wonderful dry fly fishing.

Such freedom, permitted by the extended fishing season, could be dangerous to the fish if we were to wade about when all this vital spawning activity is taking place.  Fortunately wading is not allowed on here and this has been the way for over 150 years!  We have to be very cautious if we need to paddle a tiny bit to release a fish safely.  We might not tread on a trout or grayling redd in so doing as they keep away from the banks and all their attendant dangers, but the lampreys are a different matter.  They are small creatures that usually dwell in the silt but at this time of the year come out to make their own redds and spawn in gravel where they can find it, preferably away from the toothy trout who would find their protein very handy.  So if you are going to get in the edge, take a good look first, making sure you won't be a home wrecker!  Better to try and release your fish whilst you stay on dry land, at least for the next 6 or 7 weeks...

Regular Rod