Russell Crowe and I, "Living the Dream" in Dovedale

No two fishing sessions are ever the same. There is always some occurrence, some event that makes each outing unique and my last one was no exception.....I got to fish with a star...well...sort of.

Last night, Russell Crowe and I popped down to Dovedale. Russell arrived by helicopter, and I by LDV Convoy 400. We each had our own agendas, Russell to film part of a new blockbuster film, Robin Hood, and I, more importantly, to catch myself a "Proper Lunker", a big wild Brown Trout.

We had been warned that there would be some filming going on at Dovedale but I never imagined that it would be on such a large scale. I had presumed that it was going to be a camera crew and a few horses....not Russell Crowe and a hundred and sixty strong unit of heavy cavalry.

How many people, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, and Roy Sheider aside, can say that they've fished their way through a film set?

I arrived at the car park at 5.30pm and bumped in to Tony Slade and he joined me to walk up Pointon's Glen towards the filming. I wanted to fish the mid section to keep away from the filming, and to try some new water.

As we got closer to the action, we were stopped by security men and they arranged for the filming to stop for a couple of minutes while we passed through the horses.

Some of the lads on horseback were asking us about the fishing and about what fish we catch but the security men were getting a bit uptight and wanted us to move on....all this under the watchful eye of Mr Crowe who was mounted on a large white horse further up the hill. It was all very impressive and very realistic.

I fished the mid section with Tony but rises were few and far between. I tried many different flies but very little was happening. At about 6.30pm we were joined by Guy, and the three of us fished our way back down towards the Nursery pool.

The weather was a little dreach and it started to go dark quite early. We bumped in to quite a few other Leek and District Fly Fishing Association lads and it was clear that we were all finding the fishing quite slow.

I'd been using a range of different flies but there didn't appear to be a hatch to match to....so I was struggling. I desperately didn't want to blank as this would really knock my confidence and I've been fishing well of late.

I dropped in to the river between the trees in the Nursery Pool, a spot where Glen and I have fished a few times and we've often seen a good few rising, and tonight there were three. I thought about which fly to use and knew that I'd soon put these fish down if I cast to them too many times.

"The sedge youth...use the sedge", I could almost hear, Obi Wan Kenobi style...I selected one of Glen's "Living the Dream" sedges, tied it on and cast to the fish that was rising tight to the bank in front of me....nothing...I cast again, and again and then wollop, he was on.

This Brownie gave me a right scrap, and after a while I managed to land him. I was desperate not to drop him as this was definitely my best fish at Dovedale to date at over 1.5 lbs. I was pleased that I'd managed to land a fish like this in such difficult conditions.

Guy and I made our way back towards the stepping stones and I had a cast to a favourite spot where, if I'm having a tough session and fearing a blank, I can cast and usually hook a fish. Tonight was no exception and I landed another, smaller, Brownie.

We slowly wandered back towards the car park, fishing the pools and the faster sections on the way back. I wonder whether Mr Crowe will be joining us in Dovedale this evening?

Glen says he's "goin av the crack with Crowey", and I don't doubt it for a second.

David


PS....... Hello to those visiting via murphsplace.com, please leave me a comment.