End of October

Two days left of the salmon fishing season on my home rivers here in NW England. Today we have had light rain, plus a few bursts of heavy rain, and the rivers are.....at summer level!

Little hope of heavy prolonged rain and so I have little hope of a salmon by the 31st of October. Thus, on Friday I go grayling fishing instead of salmon fishing. This ending makes this the worst salmon season here that I have ever known. Last year, for instance, we had enough water to make the last couple of days outstanding, even though September (which I spent in Brazil) was very dry. I can recall the summers of 1975 and 1976....we caught salmon when the rains fell in September and October. 1983 wasa dry summer: I still managed 13 salmon from the Hodder in October, and I went out to work in those days! 1993 had a fairly hot summer, but then rains fell in September and in six days in the first fortnight of October I had six salmon all in the 10-15lbs class; the last two weeks of that season we were frozen off the river. But 2003...... Still we do have the grayling and the rivers seem stuffed with them.