Last night my son was camping with the Scouts for their 'Chilly Challenge' and as I had to collect him late morning there was to be no fishing through the morning. Also a good enough excuse for me to skive the working party at Triangle which I'll probably get some stick about from the lads!! Anyway, by the time we had walked Barney, collected be-draggled scouts, and had some lunch the day was nearly gone. I decided to have a drive over to the Dove just in case it was fishable for the last couple of hours. I knew from the EA gauge at 0.39m this morning that it would be pushing through a bit much for bugging so I broke out the float rod. The lower stretch at Eaton was carrying a bit too much colour from the Churnet I suspect so I pushed on to Ellastone, here the conditions looked just about OK to wet a line.My Bruce and Walker was paired with an ABU501 and a 5BB Avon float. Initially I had a few bites in the riffles at the top but could not get the fish to stick so moved further downstream.
Fish then started to come and they put up a great fight in the current, no real lunker grayling but the one above was a lovely fish. I really enjoy this method but it does attract a few too many trout at Ellastone, perhaps 3 or 4 to 1 grayling. (Where were they in the season!). Afterwards I spoke to some gents who had been fishing the Norbury water on the fly and they had found it all going but had persevered all day. There did seem to be some spring in the air today so lets see what the next few weeks brings.
Beautiful fish Dave, and nice rod.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gurn, the rod was a snip off Ebay and Grayling truly are the lady of the stream.
ReplyDeleteSkiver! ;-)
ReplyDeleteDelightful!
ReplyDeleteRegular Rod
Lovely fish mate, I really should make the effort to catch some this year
ReplyDeleteA bit late noticng this Dave but is that really a B&W Flyer you're using there?
ReplyDeleteThat was my second proper rod after an Edgar Sealey (model escapes me), and sadly long since gone, replaced hastily by a B&W carbon match rod in black with green whipping which I think was called CFR XLS or something like that (I think there may have ben an XLT with red whipping too, much like the Flyer models). Big mistake! 'Couldn't cast a float with it, very odd tippy action and no give in the middle whatsoever.
Should have kept the Flyer!!
Things have moved on a bit now of course but I admire you for sticking with what you like
Oddly mine was also used with a 501. Dad told me they were lighter than a 506 (but I suspect the truth was that they were a bit cheaper, and he was paying!). Just invested in a 506 from eBay to have another go with as I get back into it
Keep up the good work it all makes very interesting reading
George