Belated Trout

The season is over now and I've been neglecting updating this blog so will try and do a bit of catch up! This trout was one of the prettiest I've seen and it was taken at Darley Dale in September. I hope to get out for a few grayling sessions now the winter is here and will have to try harder to update here.

Mayfly

 I've had a few trip over the last week or so to the Dove and the Derwent and have been lucky enough to find the conditions OK each time. The fishing has been productive but despite it being the height of the mayfly you've had to work for your fish.

Prospecting has not really raised many fish and it has been important to find fish on the feed and them cover them and a well presented mayfly pattern has usually met with a positive response.

 On my trip to the Dove last Sunday I didn't actually cast for the first hour as there was no sign of rising fish, however as a good hatch developed the fish started to move and the air was soon swarming with drakes as can be seen in one of the pics. Phil joined me on this beat and as he stayed a little later really enjoyed the cream of the fishing.

 The Derwent last Monday afternoon was a similar prospect, with the angler having to first find the fish and then present the fly. This is not the easiest prospect at Darley Dale as the banks are very steep with deep margins so it is extreme wading!! You will also be rewarded for staying low, I took a couple of fish rising close to the bank with a only a few feet of line out of my tip ring but I was nestled nicely into the undergrowth.

 I finised off the week yesterday evening on the middle Dove and despite being in two minds about the river conditions it was spot on, a lovely level and colour with a constant hatch through the two hours or so I was there. This was real duffers fortnight stuff once the sun dropped and in a short period I took high teens of fish on a variety of patterns.

I had a chat with one of the Norbury fly fishers who had celebrated his 40th birthday by taking 40 fish! Not sure how many days we have left of the drake for 2014 as it is now raining heavily and not a brilliant forecast for the rest of the weekend, but I can't complain and have had a good mayfly season this year.

Spring awakens South Derbyshire

 Wow was December really my last update? Not quite sure where the time has gone as it seemed like a busy winter with not much fishing but some good outing with Sam and the air rifles. Spring is now well and truly upon us and I'm just back from the dog walk round the village where we saw the ewes still lambing in one of the paddocks.

Back to fishing last week I managed my first session after tench and even managed to land a few!! The local club pond seems to have given us a surprise of it's own though as it is now full of rudd, I'm not quite sure where they have come from but guess that's nature. Anyway, bread flake is a favourite bait here for the tench but as you can imagine the rudd are all over it.

 

So some tench on bread and a swap to corn also brought a few more to the net as the rudd weren't quite as keen. It certainly expaliained the sail away bite a cast I was getting after the rudd moved in. Hopefully I'll get a few more sessions in now the evenings are drawing out. Tight lines all!!