The Harrogate Fly Fishers’ water covers around four miles of the River Nidd centred on the village of Darley. Darley is approximately half way down the length with roughly an equal amount of fishing upstream and downstream. Most of the fishing is double bank with only a few short stretches where the club holds the fishing rights on the right bank only. Access and car parking is good.
There is a great variety of excellent fly fishing water consisting of a mixture of pools, runs, riffles and flats. One big advantage is that due to the nature and size of the river and the fact that the majority of the water is wadeable you’ve never very far to walk to the next pool. Waders, (ideally chest waders), are needed and a wading staff is essential as wading can be quite tricky in some places. Care needs to be taken in getting in and out of the water although most access points are fairly obvious.
The River Nidd is a spate or freestone river, rising after heavy rain and falling in dry conditions in common with all the other Yorkshire Dales rivers. The River Nidd level is influenced by the three reservoirs in its headwaters so often when all the other Dales are in flood the Nidd is fishable. Conversely even in very low water and even in drought conditions there are still plenty of places with enough flow to fish effectively.
There is an excellent head of wild brown trout and grayling. Since ceasing stocking numbers of trout in the 5” – 8” range have increased substantially, grayling numbers are also increasing. The river is now producing much bigger brown trout than it used to do; 2 lb plus fish are caught fairly regularly and recently a fish of 20 inches was reported.
Overall the aquatic fly life is pretty healthy with good numbers of mayflies, stoneflies and caddis. From around early/mid June to early July the large Danica mayflies start to hatch, sometimes in large numbers providing some really exciting fishing. The river is well treed and vegetated along the whole length therefore providing plenty of terrestrial insects in addition to cover for the trout. Falls of black gnats, hawthorn flies and greenfly can be especially prolific.
Rods of between 7 and 9 feet are the norm casting 3 to 5 weight floating lines. Side casting is essential to avoid overhanging branches etc.
All the usual fly fishing methods and techniques, both traditional and modern work well although a simple single dry fly is probably the most effective approach overall, assuming, of course, the fish are looking up. Classic nymphing techniques and the modern “tight line” nymphing techniques are very effective when the fish prefer a sub surface offering. Oh and don’t forget North Country spiders, after all the fish haven’t changed!
If you would like to read an article written by Chris McCully, and published in Trout and Salmon magazine, that describes a day fishing on our waters click here.
