23rd august,on the derwent

fished lower derwent this afternoon ,started off
quite warm but overcast with a good south
easterly keeping the temps a bit more bearable.
nothing happened for the first hour or two then
wallop into a barbel ,good scrap then netted a nice
looking 8.7LB.went quiet again till about 5 oclock
then into another barbelbut the hook pulled out
just as i was getting the net under her nothing
till 8 oclock into another barbel this one felt a bit
bigger than the first two and nearly took my
uptream line with him as i turned him around ,
just as i got the net under him the net collapsed,
with me trying to put it back up with one hand
whilst hanging on to the rod with the other.finally
managed to get him in the net ,he looked a proper
fat un but went 9.2LBwith me thinking it was
gonna go over the 10 pound.pleased with todays
fishing makes a change from blanking.
john

far from the maddening crowds in wolfscote dale

what a great day by the beutiful river dove
with the weather to match .john smith ,mick
and myself had a lovely peaceful days fishing
along this cracking unspoilt valley.on reaching
the checking station we noticed that only 8
anglers had fished this stretch in the last week
and with 2 miles of double bank before us we
knew that it was going to be a corker.

we leisurdly made our way downstream catching
in most pools with me catching a lovely grayling
but the best part was that john was catching
as he usually struggles here,all fish taken on
drys with the klinkhammer being the best for
me and john.

the best thing today was the sun which was quite
warm and which had not shone much of late.
spotted a very large buzzard on the top of the scree
mewing which was quite a sight.

on reaching the lower stretch of our fishing we got
split up with mick blitzing off downstream and john
going back upstream i thought i would rest my
plates of meat.on taking off my boots and socks
the cold river on my feet was sublime ,i had forgot
that all this walking and fishing took out of you.
on getting back out the river there was no signs
of either mick or john so i decided to make my way
back upstream catching john up after a few pools.
mick caught us up after half an hour with his usual pace
of cast and run and a bit miffed that we had left him.
he needs to learn that catching fish is not life and death
but relaxing is more important(maybe my age showing)
we all caught loads of fish and had a cracking day.
if any dcac members out there get out and breathe in
the peace and quiet of wolfscote.

lower derwent,cold for july

lower derwent,back to my roots

have spent the last couple of weeks coarse
fishing (much to the disgust of mick) mainly
on the lower derwent .derby county angling
club have some fabulous stretches of the
derwent with good secure car parking and
well kept banks.

caught the barbel above 30th june also caught
the chub pictured below on the same evening
lost a double figure carpafter a spirited battle
the hook hold let go with the swimfeeder nearly
hitting me in the mush.

below 3lb chub

thursday 2nd july caught the barbel below went
7lb also lost another river carp well into double
figures plus lost another nice barbel.

managed to get mick too come coarse fishing
on sunday 5thjuly.only had one bite all evening
but it was one of them "three yard knocks"
producing this lovely 9.8lb barbel

mick with the mardy lip on
wishing he was fly fishing "somewhere else"

14th june,willersly castle,surfs up dude

11th june ,dovedale,muddy water blue's

arrived at dovedale with high hopes with micks
report the afternoon before only to be greeted
with a muddy coloured dove .a few mayfly still
skittering about but most of them floating on
downstream to do their buisness .the ducks were
having a mayfly feast skewing from bank to bank
in search of the smorgasbord on offer with a few
attracted to my mayfly .

met neil h off the forums who reported catching
a few on nymphs which to say i had been fishing
for a couple of hours with nothing to show for
my hard endeavours impressed me no end.

did spot some well developing blackthorn bushes
which meens the sloe's will be a success this year
after last years poor harvest.
for any fellow forager there is some nice gooseberry's
growing just before the boards.

met victor again who was fishing with a mate
who like myself struggled with the conditions.
hope the dove clears soon giving us one last
dance with the mays.

4th june,dovedale,one more cast

had a lovely afternoon fishing dovedale with
conditions perfect and mayfly still getting a
battering from the trout.

quite a few laddfa chaps out this afternoon
met a nice guy called victor who was taking
pictures whilst fishing.
his set up could not be any different to my own
with a 6 ft 3# rod ,low breaking strain tippet
and a delicate cdc mayfly whereas mine was
more along the vulcan bomber lines with my
trusty sage 5# ,4lb tippet(pull out of most trees)
and a great big hairwing mayfly.
he offered me a few casts with his setup which
i did manage to hook a nice trout with but was very
wary in case me bliztkreig casting damaged his
delicate rod.

caught all afternoon on the mayfly with the
trout still hard on them.

met up with roger bryant off the forums on the
way back downstream and we fished the nursery
pool for a while with the fish becoming very
fussy with several coming under the fly only to
have a butchers hook then turn tail back down.

roger left after a while leaving me to fish into

the twilight in the homeward stretch towards

the footbridge.noticed a couple of rises so cast

and hooked into my best fish of the day which

was beatifully marked ,below

cracking days fishing.

2nd june,willersley castle,derwent tigers

fabulous evenings fishing with some great fighting
trout on the derwent at willersley castle.they
were on the mayfly although the hatch was not
as prolific as the dove recently.

lovely weather spoilt a bit by my choice of thigh
waders which i soon went over depth with
leaving my feet wet all night

a good mixture of stock and wild trout some

pushing 1.5 lb all fighting well

this one below was the fish of the night which i

caught under the trees hence the the light on

the picture not very good.

good night will be back soon.

31st may,darley dale

went to darley dale with mick today and boy
was it hot on arrival my cars thermometer was
showing 25 .
the river was alive with mayfly and midge with
the odd trout hammering into the mays.
did catch on my own tied mayfly which was a
first for me.below the lovely shade of this tree
made a nice picnic site

caught one or two but was not brilliant fishing
until the evening cooled down taking 5 in the
last 20 minutes on balloon caddis and spent
mays.

nice days fishing apart from twisting my
ankle on a rut made by a cows hoof ,maybe
the cows were getting revenge for me eating
corned beef sandwhiches.mick thought it was
funny,not as funny as his late attempt to
hook a fish(see video below)

mayfly fill the air.





mick a bit slow in striking.

26th may,dovedale,mayfly mayhem

Cracking afternoons fishing on the dove from
the dovedale carpark end.the wind was quite
brisk working my way down to the stones with
loads of people milling about i didnt really fish
till the nursery pool.started spotting the odd
mayfly being smashed into which had me reaching
for the flybox .on with a grizzly wulff straight
into action .

fished most pools on my way up to ilam rock
footbridge where i caught a couple before some
kids started chucking in rocks,ahh dumbf**ks.

made my way back downstream with the odd
shower making me hide under canopy.
the boards area was alive with fish all going
at the mayfly like it was their last supper.

worked my way down towards the nursery pool
stopping on route to speak to another mayfly
mullerer who happened to also be on the wullfs.
he reported catching a few in the short time he
had been there.

on reaching the nursery pool the fish where still
going at the odd mayfly as well as the clouds
of midges now present as the wind had died
down.still caught a load more on the wulff
which was my fly of the day.i had fished upstream
on the dove two days before with the odd mayfly
showing but the fish not being switched on to
them .brilliant days fishing with a couple of dozen
brownies wild and stock fish alike hammering the
mays. i will be back soon.