A Pheasant Tale

With my own little company not having to furlough myself and my only other employee (MrsB) during the last few weeks of lockdown, it was nice at least to take a sly day off today. That today was simultaneously the first day many staff were back at work, and also the first day since the 6-month river fly fishing season opened in March, that it was actually permissible to go fishing at all this year, made it doubly sweet. I bunked-off as soon as I woke and went to fish one of my club waters on the River Aire near Gargrave.

As it happened, the fishing (or my fishing) this day was not brilliant. A big blank was my net result. Still it was nice to be out in the fresh air and on the riverside - and I still did around 5 miles of walking. No sitting around watching floats when fly fishing. Other than a farmer out spraying weeds from his buggy and chatted-to on the other side of the river, I saw and spoke to no one else all day. Perfect social distancing and fishing for that matter.

My thinking had been to maybe photo my ‘Sharpes Scottie Eighty Eight’ antique 8’ 8” split cane fly rod. I have only just bought it on Ebay, and was given it a first outing today. I did have an identical one years ago, but stupidly sold to generate some cash and regretted it ever since. It feels good to have another one back at last.

Whilst stood mid-river, I took some photos of the rod with a backdrop of some agitated cows on the river bank. They must have seen me as a threat for some reason, but it was a nice shot with them looming over me.

In the end, I had to cross the river and climb up the other bank to avoid them. Then, suddenly, whilst wading through some deep nettles, a female pheasant flew out from right under my feet. It nearly gave me a heart attack it was that sudden. Anyway, I looked down to see a clutch of nine pristine eggs just beneath my feet. Only then did I spot an entire ‘rack’ of plucked feathers left behind in her flight. Clearly she had been laying low until I stood on her tail, poor thing.

Well call me a Pheasant Plucker if you like, but waste not want not: They were saved and brought back home to add to my fly tying materials collection. Pheasant Tail feathers are an important material in the fly dressers armoury. The Sawyers Pheasant Tail Nymph (PTN) has a provenance going back to the 1920’s and was created by river keeper Frank Sawyer. They are an excellent imitation of "agile darters" or the ‘Olive’ nymphs - in case you were interested!