Redmire falls

Its been a gusty start to the weekend with long spells of swirling rain interspersed with the brightest of autumn sun. The beech and ash trees are vivid yellows and deep coppers. You can follow the track of the wind as it passes and moves down the river bank by the falling leaves. In the strongest gusts it feels as though someone has picked up this pocket of the world and given it a good shaking. One moment the air is empty the next tumbling, spinning, leaves fill it up. The copper leaves twist and turn catching the sun so that they flash like polished bronze.

The river is slowly rising. Ive tried to cross it four times and each time its overtopped my wellies. I get halfway, even further, but am forced to turn back all four times. I got to the tight cataract of water where the river Ure is forced by an upward tilting ledge of limestone down into a bottleneck. This is where the fish will navigate upstream. Here I'm nearly at the far bank and can see that the beech trees are tapped directly into massive beds of grey limestone. Its hard to believe but their roots will force these rocks open, prise them apart so that they tumble into the river. It wont happen here for sometime I think but it will happen.

I have sat and waited here on numerous occasions but still not seen a fish jumping. Today this doesn't bother me because I'm fascinated by the movement of the leaves in the water as they get caught in the current or in eddies. The water by my feet is moving fast and right next to my foot a scour hole holds masses of leaves, they spin in tight circles caught by a twisting current. Its easy to see how pebbles caught in the same place would scrape out a circular pit. In other places leaves are caught against rocks or tangled in mosses. Below the ledge the deep pool is smothered in them. They are massing in rafts in the slower waters of the surface and underneath they move faster caught in the quickest part of the river. It looks like they are sliding beneath the surface leaves.

I sit and wait for an hour or so but nothing happens so I return to the bank and then wade through the shallow edges of the river watching a dipper drop from rocks into the water. It appears to be whirring round, its back causing a rise in the surface so that I can follow its tracks. Everything is spinning and twisting today.

There is a little stream that joins the river on the north bank. I follow it upstream and watch two more dippers, their wings blur as they fly rapidly upstream. Some of the gravel seems to be newly turned and I suspect Ive found a redd. It seems the perfect place, just enough current to replenish the oxygen levels, the gravel is the right size and this spot would only dry out in the deepest, hottest of droughts. I walk round it not wanting to compress the gravel. I think I'll see if I can electro-fish here next spring to see if I'm right.