More experience on the Nidd

I am slowly getting to grips with this new stretch of river that I am fishing. I hope to start invertebrate sampling of this part of the river soon as part of the Riverfly Partnership initiative. So I killed two birds with one stone and took my rod along whilst looking for suitable sampling sites. I waded into the water at a new spot and was surprised to find the water deepening up quite quickly. I was soon into 3 ft of water. It was bitterly cold again with a strong downstream wind - which has been the default conditions on my last couple of trips to the river. I decided to fish a single nymph under an indicator. Almost straight away the grayling took an interest in my size 14 black and purple nymph with a silver tungsten bead head. I brought the first one to hand and it was so cold. Using a barbless hook meant I could quickly release the fish without any fuss. In spite of such awkward conditions I managed 3 more grayling and an out of season wild trout. This is definitely a spot I will be returning to. I think next time I will put two heavy nymphs on and ditch the indicator. The nymphs I have tied up are on jig hooks so they should trip over the bottom o.k. Hopefully then I will be able to connect with the larger ladies of the stream.