Thursday 23 August 2012

Derwent Darley Dale

Trout no.1
 It's been a few weeks since I've had a session with the fly rod so a brief cast on Sutton Brook at the weekend wetted my apetite to get back onto the Derwent. Yesterday afternoon I headed up to Darley, it is a frustrating drive in the afternoon with the traffic heavy no matter which way you attempt. Can't complain too much though as I had netted a few fish whilst Phil was still in the traffic jam on the A6!

Trout no.2
 Upon arrival there wasn't much activity on the surface so I'd set up a little New Zealand rig with a size 18 PTN under a buoyant parachute pattern as the dry. I was very quickly into fish on a favourite run with most coming to the nymph. Prompted by some correspondence after my last trip to Darley there is a bit of a spot the stockie test on this post so comments please on whether you think I've hit the nail on the head.


So here goes, trout no.1 I've got down as a stockie, the markings were indistinct and it felt really lean in the hand. Trout no.2 is a defo wildie for me, beautifully marked with white edges to the fins and a tinge of red in the adipose fin.

Trout no.3
 Trout no.3 has got me a little stuck but I'm going to suggest a wild fish due to the white edge on the fins. Also the picture does not do it justice and it was a lot more 'solid' than it looked.

 The best fishing was in late afternoon with only spioradic rises as evening fell. It dropped quite cool later on and it is now starting to feel distinctly 'back end-ish'.

Saturday 18 August 2012

Sutton Brook


After a walk round Calke at lunchtime with dog 1 and dog 2 (still being carried) we stopped at the Chequers for a well deserved pint. Here I discovered that there were no major duties planned for this afternoon. As the barbel fishing is becoming a tad hard and reasoning that they were least likely to oblige mid afternoon I headed over to Sutton Brook with my fly rod. This is a 'funny' stream as rising fish are usually few and far between as was the case today. So on went a Klink type pattern for my normal prospecting type approach to see what will come up. After fishing through one run that had produced on my last visit I managed to tempt the fella above, he rose confidently and took the fly and was soon brought to the net. I was back to the car in time to listen to the end of the Ram's game, another lead blown but it is, as they say, still early days!
I enjoyed being out on the river with the fly rod and will perhaps go for a few more sessions now and give the heavy gear a rest until the autumn.

Thursday 16 August 2012

Summer Hols


Well not much of a summer to speak of in terms of the weather but yesterday Sam and I ventured out onto the Trent to see what we could sneak out of the margins of the mighty Trent. On Phil's recommendation we had tackled up at a nice hole and first cast Sam was into a nice Perch but an over enthusiastic hoik on the whip let it escape. Many more followed and then they dried up just has his attention span was about done, just about an hour with heavy coaxing from me. Still that is one morning not spent in front of the xbox and one day he might thank me for it. I live in hope!

Friday 10 August 2012

River Dove



Just relaxing with a glass of Rioja so here are the pics from last night. Summer, barbel, rivers, red wine, no work for a fortnight; happy days!!


Wednesday 1 August 2012

Is it the same fish??


Yesterday evening I managed to bag myself another Dove barbel to bring my total for the season to seven fish, making it my best ever barbel season before the end of July. Well I could not believe it when the scales went round to 7lb 14oz. So from the same swim on four separate occasions that is fish of 8.1, 8.1, 7.14, and 7.14!!