Eaton dovedale,29th may

Fished at eaton dovedale this afternoon,conditions were
warm no breeze overcast with the water discoloured
from the rain which as been falling for the last week
or so.spotted a few rising fish some grayling taking the
smaller midges and the odd trout chasing the mayfly.
Decided to stick with the mayfly so went through
different patterns till the winner today seemed to be
the yellow drake even thogh the mayfly coming off
were of a creamy colour.

fished four different swims catching in all of them with
the mayfly .After about three hours i made my way back
upto the car park stretch which i allways seem to do
well on .The tally for the day was into double figures
without any grayling just trout so quite a good day all
in all.

Their were a lot of mayflies about but the
rising fish were sporadic due mainly to the
clarity of the water being not crystal which
it as been lately.Once the river is running
clear again with the amount of mayfly about
it will be fill your boots time.

Eaton dovedale,river dove 22nd may

Fished the drac eaton dovedale stretch of the river dove
today.This was my first visit to this mixed fishery but i
was pleasantly surprised by first by the number of fish
and secondly by the peaceful surroundings ,only spotted
one other angler all afternoon.Started off at the top of
the carpark with a F-fly resulting in a nice grayling.
Moved on around the first bend still with a F-fly on
spotted a rising fish that i cast to and caught first cast
which turned out to be a roach (first roach on the fly)

Carried on downstream till i reached the island and with

some carefull wading managed to fish the other side.

with nothing rising i put on a pink glister nymph which i

ran through the riffle on the far side of the island which

after seven or eight casts produced a thump which i

struck into a decent trout.

Made my way back upstream to be greeted with the odd

mayfly skittering the surface with fish rising up now and

again.Tried several different mayfly with all being ignored

whilst watching the trout chasing and some jumping clear

of the water in pursuit of the main course.

Tried loads of flies but they were all ignored until i found

a yellow humpy in my dry fly box that i put on without

much enthusiasm .I cast to a rising fish with a instant take

which was followed by some frantic sport casting to rising

fish all played carefully as this was the only fly i had of this

type and i didn't want the sport to come to a end.

Made my way back towards the car park stretch as the

sky became more threatening and decided to have a brew

from my recently purchsed kelly kettle.Watched fish still

after the mayfly while i chilled out with a nice cuppa and

a sandwhich.After the break i preceeded to cast to rising

fish catching and missing some.Switched to a F-fly only to

start catching grayling which seemed to be ignoring the

mayfly.

This is a nice peaceful place to spend the day and i shall

be back.

Allestree,derwent ,21st may

Had a couple of hours off this afternoon so decided to
try somewhere not to far from home .
Fished the derby county angling clubs ,allestree stretch
on the derwent .Was encouraged to see fish rising as i
parked up the car.Watched the water for a few minutes
and as before elsewhere there was a few mayfly coming
off but the fish were not taking them.

started off with a balloon caddis but no takers.did
try a yellow drake mayfly as they were coming down
steadily but still no action .Put on old faithfull a tan
coloured F-fly with takes coming straight away.
After about half a dozen takes i managed to connect
with a grayling pictured below.

carried on for a while catching but missing
more grayling ,no signs of trout at all.
I was taken by surprise when my F-fly was
sucked under i struck into something that
shot up stream taking all the line that i had
out,it pulled the rod tip over and i felt a lump
on the end without any effort at all the fish
just carried on and pinged me off.
barbel ,chub ,decent grayling i will never
know i might give this place another go
when grayling are in season.

Mayfield,river dove 19th may

Had the afternoon at mayfield today.
On arrival in cloudy conditions with a temp
of around 15 degrees we spotted from the
off that the trout seemed to be taking from
the surface.We watched for a while seeing
one or two mayfly(french partridge i think)
getting gobbled off the top.we tried a few mays
that looked similar but to no avail.I switched
to a tan balloon caddis with instant success a
rather plump little brownie.john smith who
i was fishing with continued with the mayfly
for a while but even though the trout were
taking them he could not get a take .Spoke
to a old chap fishing above the weir who
had three fish on mays but said that it was
a bit hit or miss but his catch included 2
rainbows of about 6oz(intresting)
we tried the top of the beatbut i only tempted
one brownie(picture below)
with lots of grayling mulling around we decided
to return to the bottom end near the bridge.
on our way back down it was hard to get past
the herd of cows and bulls as they were drinking
below the weir. on reaching the bridge we lit up
the kelly kettle and had a nice cuppa plus pot
noodle before getting back in the river.
john put on a balloon caddis and preceeded to
catch 3 and losing another 2 good sized trout
and missing loads of takes.around eight oclock
the temparture started to drop so we got out
and headed off home.

Ecclesbourne,Hazelwood,14th may

Fished the ecclesbourne this afternoon .
Started on the dcac stretch near cowers lane
the fishing was quite hard in the shallow clear
water .Did see a few fish but they were very
shy and even with a stealthy approach they
soon skitted off upstream.this will be a good
venue when the improvments are finished.

Later i visited the drac stretch just above hazelwood near
duffield.After a bit of a trek across a field i found the start
of the stretch.I began with a danger baby nymph as
their were some nice looking pools but i didnt see nothing
rising.worked my way down this stream with no takes
or signs of fish then after a while in the pool pictured
above my fly line stabbed upstream i struck and
played this hard fighting trout to the net after scrambling
down to the stream side amongst the nettles (sting strong)
Met another angler who was working downstream
whilst i was going upstream he turned out to be the
chaiman (i think)of the club he was very helpful and
supplied me with one of his flies which after 4 or 5 casts
i lost.this is quite a challenging place but quite a good
workout ,i shall be back soon.

Carsington,12th may

What a scorcher it was today.

The fishing for me was not fab today but

sometimes it goes like that.

caught a few perch on lures as you can

see in the picture the water was very clear

i think giving the choice i would have sooner

done some snorkelling the water is as clear

as many a mediteraen beach.

Had a stinker today getting my line

caught in the electric motor and mullering

my line and rod( hope to get a new tip section)

the line wasn't cheap either being a airflo Di 3.

my boat partner john smith(smoothe he ain't)

captured and dispatched a rainbow whilst i

was eating my snap only to be splatted in blood

with his gollum like fish whacking technique.

managed only a couple of trout with mr smoothe

catching a bagfull.not my day but every dawg

as his day.as diana ross said"i'am still waiting".

Ellastone,dove 8th may

Had the afternoon at ellastone on the dove today .
Nice weather lovely place but the fish didnt want
to play ball.Went through different flies ,dry/nymphs
managed a few on a danger baby nymph ,very small
fish but wild .

Plenty of grayling about but not so many trout.

Maybe the weather as been too hot for them.

The river looked in good nick but probably needs a bit

more weed growth to give the fish more cover.

The only trees that are not in leaf are the broad

leafs and maybe this will also give more shade

and cover when they finally come into leaf.

Carsington water 5th may

Had a marvelous day at carsington today arriving around
9 am finding flat calm and misty conditions. Decided to
start around the tower bank area using nymphs
(buzzers and diawl bachs) The fishing was steady with
quite a few half hearted takes(perch me thinks).
Set up the spare rod with a slime line and my favourite
lure at carsington a two tone orange/sunburst yellow
blob (top bling).caught one or two on both methods
steadily throughout the day.

John's fish of the day (lol).
Got a phone call mid afternoon that my granddaughter
and grandson were also at carsington.
Fishing rods down and back to the lodge to spend some
time with them.on showing paige the near four pound
rainbow in the bass bag she totally was not intrested
more so in the bar of choclate.

Went back out after the break to find the wind had got up
a bit so got the bling out on a Di 3 .We had to search quite
a while to locate the fish.When found the sport was frantic
with fish jumping up to three feet clear of the water
shaking their heads to try and throw the hooks
(quite a few succeeded)
good day with over 30 fish to the boat ,best 3.14 lbs
only one brown caught all day.
be back soon.

Hoon hay (hilton,derby)1st may 2008

Had the afternoon off so decided to go fishing .with the
rivers being mainly in flood went to one of derby county
anglers club small lakes hoon hay near hilton.
the fishing was quite hard but did manage a few mainly
on buzzers but got a few takes on dries too.


caught this fellow on a olive buzzer.not many fish
caught by anglers according to the log book.
should fish better when the weather picks up.