Sunday 25 April 2010

The Glorious River Dove

This morning I fished the DRAC water at Eaton Dovedale on the famous River Dove. It was a cracking start to the day which was fortunate as the river was a little reluctant to give up her treasures. The fishing was pretty tough to start with and I must admit to being on the verge of packing up for some tea when the fish below grabbed my pheasant tail nymph.

The duo had been my method of choice to start off the day but as there were little signs of a rise I soon changed to GRHE on the dropper and a PTN on the point.

This fish was taken just below the island that is about a third of the way down the section. A swan is nesting here so it will be a brave angler who dares to fish close by the island. This will also make wading up to fish above the island tricky and this is sometimes a productive spot.

When I set off this morning it was turn left for Darley Dale or right for Eaton. As I did not fancy the drive to Darley I plumped for the Dove. We forget though how lucky some of us local anglers are to have these glorious rivers not too far away. I spoke for a while this morning with an angler who drives up from Evesham for his fishing, that is a tidy step and makes you appreciate what we have in the county of Derbyshire. Interestingly, the angler suggested that a trip to Darley was not a good choice at the weekend as he had been plagued by canoeists. I only fish this stretch a handful of times each season and normally midweek so have not been particularly troubled by these trespassers. He recountered one incident that had irked him when one club had claimed they had permission when challenged. Fat chance.
This week I again may have missed the best part of the day as I departed just after noon. Either that or the car park stretch may be turning into one of the hotspots as I took a couple of fish from here before I called it a day. Many a time though I have not fished the last of the water and a number of people have mentioned to me that it is always worth a few casts.


6 comments:

  1. Dave
    Nice write up mate, i am loving the camera work to, them pictures are sweet, i take it your still using the fugi finepix then?
    I have just purchased the Canon G11 this week which i have been pondering on getting for months, a wicked cam so get ready for some beautys !!
    That bottom pic looks like a Salmon parr...

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  2. Glen, yes I am still on the Fuji and when that packs up will get another one off the bay, it is a brilliant camera and I don't mind it kicking around in my fishing bag.
    I thought that was a parr at first but I have another pic of it and it definitely has red spots! I'll post it up.
    Cheers,
    Dave.

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  3. Good write up Dave. On the DRAC stretch, I've also found the car park stretch to be most productive....lots of anglers tend to get right in the middle of the run and wade up towards the bridge. I've taken most of my fish by staying close to the Derbyshire bank and casting to within a few feet of the bank to fish in only a foot or so of water. I had a couple of really small Brownies / Parr there too last week.....We'll have to meet up soon...was going to go down there today but I think the Churnet will have b*ggered it up.

    Woody

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  4. That's a lovely fish Mr Cross; well done. On the subject of canoeists, one of the chaps I spoke to at Darley last week encoutered 20+ one weekend. Some of them started rolling when they got to where he was fishing. Hangings too good for' em!

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  5. Andy, bet that was the same guy I spoke to, he was having a right rant. I've put some info on their activities on the DRAC forum

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  6. Ay up. Have read your comments on the DRAC forum and added some of my own. Looking at the Midland canoe club's site it looks that even a mid-week trip won't be without it's problems.
    Should be back at the glue factory on Thursday.

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