By Phil Storey

WHEN fly fishing, while it is not against the rules to stand on the bank, it is far safer in the middle of the river, where there are no trees, bushes or Labradors to get in the way of the cast.

It is also quieter out there, away from people.

There is a downside, though. At the end of March and into April, the water is still winter-cold. With waders, that shouldn’t matter – unless they have holes in them. Having spent the winter hanging up outside the back door – they were banished from the house for smelling “pondy” – the seams of mine had perished. A black plastic bin bag inside each boot seemed a promising solution.

On a bright, blowy day, casting across the current towards rising fish and letting the fly drift downstream and hang in the flow until there was a bite, six grayling took a waterhen bloa in an hour-and-a-half. This impressive strike rate says more about the richness of the River Tees than my abilities as an angler – while six fish were landed, at least that many got away.

At the beginning of the season, with hundreds of flies to choose from, the waterhen bloa is a good place to start. A North Country spider pattern dating back at least to the mid-19th Century, it imitates the dark olive, which is a small member of the mayfly family widespread in the UK. It hatches out in spring and then again towards the end of the summer.

Although there were no trout showing, grayling, a member of the salmon family, are formidable game fish in their own right. Once hooked, they will turn into the current and raise their prominent dorsal fin, which helps even the smallest fish put up a good fight.

There are trout in the Tees at Darlington, but grayling – which rejoice in the romantic sobriquet “The Lady of the Stream” – are the dominant species and will take any trout fly. Unlike trout, they tend to swim in shoals, so where there is one, there are likely to be more. That said, once three or four of their number have been caught and released, the rest will start to become wary.

All of the fish caught were released unharmed and swam away strongly – it would have been illegal to take them for the table at this time of the year. Technically, fishing for grayling between March 15 and June 15 is against the law, because they are classed as “coarse” fish. However, it is not illegal to catch them while fly fishing for trout, which are a “game” fish. After all, the grayling don’t know it is the close season or that the waterhen bloa is intended for trout.

After June 15, anglers can “intentionally” catch grayling without breaking the law. But just to add to the confusion, in the North-East, the trout season ends on October 1, so trout caught accidentally after that date while fly fishing for grayling must similarly be returned.

Small wonder the Environment Agency sticks to prosecuting people who are fishing without a licence.

In spite of its elitist image, fly fishing is not prohibitively expensive. Fishing on the Tees between Broken Scar and Blackwell Grange is free, provided anglers have a basic rod licence, which costs £27. They are valid for a year and available online or from the post office.

There are similar free stretches of the river through Middleton One Row, Croft, Yarm and elsewhere and a rod, reel, line and landing net can be had for the price of a replica football kit. A pair of watertight waders, though, might cost a little more.

Did the bin bags in the leaky boots trick work? Of course not.

The main UK brown trout fly fishing season runs from late-March through to early-October

FACTFILE: The waterhen bloa

Hook: Size 16
Body: Waxed yellow thread very lightly dubbed with mole fur (no more than “a fine mist”).
Hackle: Two or three turns of a bloa (bluish-grey) lesser covert feather from a moorhen’s wing (the second row of feathers from the leading edge on the underside).