Where’s That River?

[John Bailey]

My recent river walk attracted attention largely because I didn’t name the river! We know it has been done before, but considering it is the holiday season, let’s forget Covid, and let’s look at UK rivers and guess which/where they are.

First time round, we’ll give a few clues and a couple of harder pictures. Then we’ll give you a couple more pictures a day or two later that are easier. Finally, we’ll give you the answer, and a story perhaps, to complete the puzzle. We are hoping this sounds harder in theory than in practice and many, but not all, the rivers have featured in Gone Fishing episodes. So this is a good excuse to rewatch the videos if nothing else. Let’s get cracking with River One!

River One, Part One

This river is seventy four miles long and its valley is associated with a cheese. There is a famous abbey on its banks, and the river would have been known to the original cast members of All Creatures Great and Small. Can you name the river AND the beat??

 

[Mark Wintle]

It's the Wharfe; no idea what beat.

 

[sam vimes]

it's the River Ure, somewhere in the vicinity of Middleham. (The bridge upstream of the River Cover confluence at a guess)

The cheese gives the game away, provided you know that the Ure Valley is known as Wensleydale. The Abbey is Jervaux and the vet of All Creatures Great And Small is Alf Wight aka James Herriot.

 

[John Aston]

Lords Bridge Wensley . Next .

 

[John Bailey]

River One, Part Two

You probably have the river right, now can you name the beat? Paul and Bob filmed there in Autumn 2018!

 

[John Aston]

Err, I just did .

 

[sam vimes]

I've no idea what they call various beats. Naming beats is a fluff flingers thing. I've been fishing places for decades that the coarse anglers call one thing and the infrequent trout types call "XXXXX Beat".

However, I suspect it will be the Bolton Hall Beat, not that I'll ever fish it. Was special permission required for the use of maggots?

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Just a beautiful part of the country - the Dales are one of my favourite places.

 

[John Aston]

SV - Ah well there you have it .... I guess we fly guys have beats because the style of fishing nearly always involves covering a longer length of river than most bait chaps . I only fish one with named beats , of 0.5 to about a mile long . The good thing is that we book them , so can arrive for an evening's fishing , knowing the water hasn't been fished all day already.

But being an all rounder , and also trotting for grayling on the same water the funny thing is that because I am then fishing downstream and not upstream , what was a pool in June becomes a swim in December.

 

[sam vimes]

SV - Ah well there you have it .... I guess we fly guys have beats because the style of fishing nearly always involves covering a longer length of river than most bait chaps .

I always thought they used the term so that they could add another £10 (minimum) to the day ticket price.
If a fishery has named beats, I make two assumptions. One is that bait anglers will generally be about as welcome as vomit in a respirator. The other is that, if bait is tolerated, the fishing will not be inexpensive.

 

[nottskev]

When I fished around Chester, some club doc's used to refer to stretches of the Welsh Dee as Beat this or Beat that. Always unhelpful, compared to locating things by names of villages, bridges, farms etc, as you could at least trace these on your OS map.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Throop Fishery on the Dorset Stour was, until the late 60s, a productive salmon water and had five beats, But the salmon are very rare now and the water is almost complete coarse fishing with just three beats which reflect slightly different rules - all on the same dayticket though.

 

[John Aston]

I always thought they used the term so that they could add another £10 (minimum) to the day ticket price.
If a fishery has named beats, I make two assumptions. One is that bait anglers will generally be about as welcome as vomit in a respirator. The other is that, if bait is tolerated, the fishing will not be inexpensive.

DAY tickets ? No riff raff please ....

 

[John Bailey]

River One, Part Three... The Reveal

Of course, as many have realised, this is the Ure at the Bolton estate where we fished with Gone Fishing in November 2018. Brian Towers was a gem, showing me the river and all the grayling glides, when I pitched up a couple of days early. I had a great chub, and picked up a couple of grand grayling from a stretch I felt was photogenic as well as a great grayling bet.

Not so. Paul and Bob really fished it well for no reward APART from dropping a serious grayling at the net on just about the last cast of the shoot. Paul obviously began nymphing, but as the pressure mounted, joined Bob on a float, but to no avail. I meanwhile was tearing out my hair and doing a headless chicken act, fishing every run I could in the hope of finding a group of fish. Looking back, a little more calm would have served me well but in the heat of the moment... in truth, I was going in for a hernia operation the day after I returned home, and the pain was frequently intense, so I have a ghost of an excuse.

But far worse, of course, was that it was here on the Ure that news of John Wilson’s passing reached us. I did a couple of TV and radio interviews, but really was in shock and don’t think I did the old boy justice. JW and I did have have rocky times, but I loved him when I was in my twenties, and fishing has never been quite the same without him... and never will be either for very many of us.

PS... that last photo is of Paul playing the lost grayling! (I think!)

 

[John Bailey]

River Two, Part One

Well, River One apparently was guessed at with ease, so we’ll go a tad harder this time. It occurs to me that with the internet it is so much easier to pick up on any clues these days, so I’ll let the pictures do all the talking.

The top shot shows the river’s valley and shots two, four and five are down on the bank.

The third shot is taken in the neighbouring grave yard...

I guess extreme locals will get this... it might be harder for those from away...?

Part Two will follow soon.

 

[sam vimes]

Based on little more than the list of venues featured in the series and the gravestone, I reckon it might be the Usk.

 

[steve57]

River Ithon?

 

[flightliner]

No idea which river but I think the church spire in the first picture is similar to a "BROACH" spire in reverse, there's one in Bolsover Derbyshire very much like it.
Wonderful bit of carpentry!

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Penybont and Radnor mentioned on the gravestone. Never fished it but seen it rallying in that area. Think Steve has it!

 

[steve57]

I think the church is St Michael's, Cefnllys.