had a  afternoon off  so headed down

 the derwent for a bit of fishing.after about

 an hour  nice bite produced this smallish barbel 6 lb

                                                                                                                                                                               

had to set up the shelter for blue

who was shivering.

caught this barbel as well which was smaller than the first

at around 4lb.



our new dog

just took delivery of  a new puppy,
whippet named "blue"

Lower Derwent,fathers day

First outing of the coarse season this afternoon
down on  the lower derwent ,borrowash.
arrived just after lunchtime to be met with a rather
high feirce looking river.no other cars in car park
so i had the choice of the pegs.
got as far as the pipe with the realisation that their
was no perfect peg ,so decided to fish near pipe.
set up rods with  halibut pellet on both.
lovely afternoon to just watch the wildlife float by
firstly a family of meganzers ,nine in total .
then the black death(cormorant) working up and down
the river.loads of sedges on the river with the odd
fish rising up to gulp em down.
in the first three hours i only had two little chubby
type knocks.
then about 4 oclock my downstream rod roared off
bouncing up and down like you know what.
struck into a solid feeling fish ,which could not be a
chub,fought like a really fit fish pulling line off the reel
three times as i thought it was beat,it was hard to  slide
down the  bank to finally get it into the net.
rested it for a while before lifting it out to weigh and take
a picture of the lovely season opener of 12lb 8oz.
it had quite a few marks i beleave from spawning.
but what a great start.

the unhooking mat below measures 37 inches
just to give some scale

Mayfly magic

Managed a few sessions on the river manifold plus
the dove,before the deluge as topped up the rivers .
The fish on the manifold even hard on the mayfly
were very wary.one cast in some pools was one
to many.The mayfly hatches on the manifold were
some of the best i have witnessed in recent years.
with olives winning the battle on the dove.
spent a nice week camped at side of the manifold
near Hulme end but by the end of the week the weather
won and i retreated home to dry off.



derbyshire wye,grayling fishing

Took advantage of a days grayling fishing on
the lovely river wye around bakewell with
my brother mick yesterday.the weather was
brilliant ,more spring like than autumn with
hatches most of the afternoon.
caught this nice grayling in a hatch of olives
with one of my own tied flys which was the
icing on mi cake.

they were not all of a decent size as this one
pictured below is testament too.

saw the virgin balloon over bakewell
someone had chosen a brill day for it

mick saved his best till last knockings
in the town stretch with this lovely
looking grayling.

anyone intrested in giving the grayling
or trout fishing(in season) a go on the wye
please get in touch as my brother is available
for guiding on this wonderful river.

river wye ,herefordshire

had a great short break near the river wye
between hereford and ross on wye.
managed a few sessions on the wye
which is a river full of fish and bristling
with wildlife and canoeist(most polite)

lost count of the buzzards flying over the river
and the kingfishers zooming up and down

not fishing related but a few pictures for

me to remember a great trip.

had a great little break with some great weather

the largest barbel went just under nine pounds

with the smallest about a pound.

i will return to this great river soon.

a very weedy derwent,7th july 2011

was quite gloomy down on the derwent
this afternoon with clouds rolling over
giving the odd sharp shower.

got the first barbel on my new bait
which went 8lb



had to wait a good while for the next
barbel but had so much weed on my
lead that i had to handline it in to clear
the weed off.



this one weighed 9.8lb caught on the
same bait as the previous barbel.
if anyone is thinking of fishing borrowash
there is a load of weed coming down
so be prepared.

another corker.derwent 28th june

had a evening down on the derwent.caught this
one below after 5 minutes which took me a bit
by surprise it went 8.6lb

nothing for awhile then at 7pm another twitch
soon as i picked up the rod i thought this is a
good fish after a couple of seconds the line went
limp with me snapped off on a snag "doh"
at about 8.30pm another wrap around take
this one went straight over to the far bank
and was a epic fight which lasted several minutes
until the net was under her.


this one took the scales round to 12.2lb

The longest day,river derwent

Had a great evening's fishing on the
lower derwent after barbel.having
been twice allready with no fish caught
i was hoping it was gonna be third time
lucky and thankfully it was.



got down fishing around 5.30pm,got my
first bite after 6pm turning out to be my first
barbel of the season,pictured below didnt
weigh but estimate around 6lb

happy to get the monkey off mi back.
fished on until after 7pm when my rod
looped over again,this one seemed very fit
making several runs before i got her in the
net,this one weighed 7.11 lb(below)

carried on with little twitches on both
rods until 8.30pm when the downstream
rod was going crazy with what seemed
a very powerful fish,thought at first it was a
carp but after several minutes brought it
into the net another barbel but bigger than
the previous two.weighed in at 12.12 lb (below)
equalling my personal best barbel.

well happy carried on till 9.30pm and yet
another barbel this one went about 5 lb.
four barbel in one short session ,great action
cant wait to go again.strangely i could not
get a touch on halibut pellets but caught all
on a first time bait for me from small sample
pack.i will be ordering some more today!

slow draw on the manifold and dove

Enjoyed a short break up derbyshire
at hulme end near hartington and
managed a few sessions on the dove
(wolfscote)and manifold.


suffering from tennis elbow so my
casting was and striking were off with
long breaks inbetween to recover.

The mayfly were about but not in great
numbers.it was nice to catch on my own
tied flys the best patterns for me being
detached body mays and double badger.

due to my painful elbow i think my

conversion rate was below ten percent.

"too slow on the draw"

didnt manage any fish of great size,

but it was a great break in peaceful

surroundings.

hope to have a tribal gathering in the

summer camping with about 30 or

so family members so wont be as peaceful

but i hope to escape fishing in wolfscote dale.