Early September Angling on the Rivers of Staffordshire and Derbyshire

What a mixed bag of fishing the last week or so have been. I've been out and about nearly every evening and yesterday, for a full day on the Derbyshire Wye.

Earlier last week I had a walk down to the upper Churnet upstream of Leek, only a field or two away from where I live. Whilst I did see quite a few fish, rises were few and far between. Cattle are grazing nearer to the river than I've seen then before and there are quite a few sections where I usually do quite well, that the cattle now use to wade in and drink so I wonder whether this has moved the fish about a bit. I still managed to catch a few on the dry though and can't help noticing that they seem to be growing rather quickly which is great news for the seasons to come. In the next month or so,  after the end of the trout season, I'll enjoy walking the dog down there and keeping my eye out for the odd, much larger silver fish that may make it there...and don't tell me there's no chance as that's what folk said when I asked if it were possible for these large silver fish to make it to the upper Dove, or if sea trout could be running in the Dove, which they of course are...I know, I've caught one.

Anglers of Derbyshire and Staffordshire will recognise the fisherman in the pic above, and he and I visited Ellastone and Eaton Dovedale last week too. Many anglers have found it tough on the Dove this last few weeks, largely due to lack of water. We tried Ellastone together and other than dropping quite a large Grayling in the fast water at the top of the DRAC stretch, we had no luck at all.

On a couple of occasions, I headed down to Eaton Dovedale and had more success on the nymph for the Grayling than on the dry and the trout do seem to be hiding away

I bumped into Brian on Saturday night, he'd had quite a bit of success on tiny dry flies during the daytime but he noted that rises began to disappear during the late afternoon period. Light conditions do seem to be changing and Autumn is definitely on it's way and fishing, especially late on in the day just seems to have gone a bit weird.


















Yesterday I had the last minute opportunity to meet up with Glen and JT at the Peacock Hotel in Rowsley in preparation for a full day's fishing on the Derbyshire Wye.

John took me to a couple of places I hadn't visited before, where, because of the tricky swims and bank vegetation, we took it in turns to cover the grayling and brown and rainbow trout that were abundant there. We had some great sport on the LTD sedge and other sedgy flies. Among others, I had a cracking grayling of about 1lb 1/2 and JT had a huge brownie. Cheers for the help JT..

Again, late on in the afternoon rises were few and far between, but wherever we saw them, we'd creep up and carefully present our tiny dries to them, hoping to induce a splash or two.

Late on in the day, Glen had great fun on a run where fish were switched on to a spinner fall and he managed about half a dozen fish in 10 minutes or so.....

Next Sunday, there's quite a few of us on the Wye and a couple of weeks after that, 7 of us head up to the Isle of Islay for trout, salmon and sea fishing.

Slainte

David

John Tyzack Masterclass Re-unites Pointon and Peter "Pollock"

Sunday 28th March 2010. Glen Pointon and John Tyzack had got their heads together to organise the first JT Masterclass of the Trout Season. We'd had plenty of rain over the previous days but the river Dove had settled back into good conditions, slightly up with the slightest hint of colour. I was to join the boys for lunch at the boards and transport them back to their cars at Dovedale at the end of the day. And so, at about 12 noon, I found the lads in fine form, I could here the laughter, swearing and potteries slang not long after leaving the lovely little village of Milldale.

Glen had got in touch with our old friend Peter "Pollock". Peter had joined us on our trip to Islay in September 2009, where he'd treated us to his culinary delights and also showed us a thing or two about angling. We discovered early on that he was very good at rock fishing for Pollock...and so we thought we were quite original by giving him the affectionate nickname of "Pollock". Anyway, it was clear that they were over the moon about being reunited, Glen not being able to conceal his feelings!

Glen was ready to provide the humourous anecdotes while all enjoyed their coffee. The story of the day was "Pointon's Peephole" much to the merriment of rest of the group. Please contact Glen if you have any questions about it as I am not prepared to repeat it's contents here.

The Masterclass 

(From Left to right)

Ads Booth, Guy (Orvisfan), Peter Pollock, Pointon, Wesser, and Tyzack. Brian was elsewhere at the time.

I can't remember  taking this pic but the content is, nevertheless, quite funny. I think Pointon had been responsible for the first round of coffees and bacon. You only need to look at what he appears to be doing at the back of the pic, and Brian's body language, to understand that something hadn't been cooked properly! I think he may have been "looking for Hughy".

Pointon had other problems too. He'd managed to loose both his wading belt and his shoulder straps for his waders. Consequently, they were being held up by his gut alone. This, many remarked, gave him the appearance of a small child with a very full nappy.

During the morning session, Tyzack had been giving the lads group tuition and all were talking about the great amount of benefit they had gained from this. All were eager to put their new skills into practice and between them, they had managed a few fish. Brian, unfortunately, had an accident with his Sage rod, and so, we had a quick swap around of rods and I decided to confine my fishing for the day to an evening session at Dovedale.

The afternoon was enjoyed at quite a leasurely pace. John spent a while with each member of the group, guiding, advising and consolodating their learning from the morning sessions.

Brian showed us how to keep cool whilst angling under extreme pressure, whilst being watched closely by 5 or 6 fellow fisherman, one of which, quite literally, fishes for England.

Pointon, usually famed for looking at the fish and not the camera, looks at the camera and not at the fish.
Over the last 3 or 4 months, every other word he has spoken has been "Grayling". He even looks a bit odd holding a trout!

David

Hard Day on The Severn Produces Pointon's PB

It had been 3 weeks since my last fishing outing, 3 weeks since one of my best fish producing sessions since I decided to take up fly fishing a couple of years ago. I was looking forward to getting out and Glen and I had arranged to meet up with John Tyzack and Roger Bryant for a return visit to the fantastic Upper Severn....and what a day of contrasts it would turn out to be.



I'd set my alarm for 6am with the responsibility of providing Mr Pointon with his alarm call. On the 5th call, I'd managed to awake him from his slumber and by 6.40am, he'd picked me up and the van was pointing towards Wales, well, sort of once Glen had negotiated a dubious detour around Stoke. After a huge breakfast (as ever) we arrived at the bridge pool on the river where we'd fared so well on our previous visit, the colour of the water being the first obvious difference, it was green.

There were no fish to be seen, and after a fruitless half hour, we decided to make our way upstream, having been given a little more info by local anglers as to where we might find a lunker lady or two.

The fishing was incredibly hard but Glen managed to find a good fish in some fast, shallow water.


This lovely Grayling of 2lb 4oz gave our well spoken angler friend a right scrap, and we shouted encouragement and abuse at him as he tried to land it. All of us green with envy at his success...Roger and I steadily closing in on him, desperate to poach his swim.

Within minutes though Glen had found the big Grayling's partner, and so he landed another, slightly smaller but beautiful fish of just under the 2lb mark.

Both John and Roger landed a few, smaller fish between them, but all agreed that the fishing was incredibly tough, especially me, given the fact that I was coming to terms with the fact that it was looking incredibly likely that today, I'd be on a dreaded blank.

Tyzack, determined as ever, skillfully endeavoured to reach the parts that other anglers cannot reach with fantastic technique, exploring rarely fished swims that must have held fish, but still, there were very few takes.


We spoke to a few of the local anglers about the tough conditions and the common theme seemed to be that freezing cold water had been released from Llyn Clywedog Reservoir, further upstream, and this had killed the fishing, the previous days angling also proving to be relatively tough.

We'd walked miles and taken very few fish, but it was great to be out with the lads and encouraging to see the first tell tale signs of spring being just around the corner, you could smell it in the air.

As ever, Pointon provided the laughter, reeling off, new, unrepeatable stories that had us all in tears. The fishing had tested us to the limit and we were even reduced to having a stone skimming competition, Pointon clearly embarrassed by the skill shown by myself and Tyzack, both of us producing skims of 10 bounces or more to his pathetic 2 or 3 bounces.

But...he caught a couple of lovely lunkers, and I blanked.

Well done Pointon....you ****

David

Tyzack, Teviot and Tweed: A Good Combination for Lunking Grayling

5.45am Friday 15th January. Peering from the condensated bedroom window, I eventually see a pair of lights shining down the lane and I know that the time has come. Pointon and I are about to embark on our first angling expedition of 2010.

The weather websites had promised various conditions ahead of us, everything from still, bright, sunny days, to full on, 4omph winds and drifting, freezing snow. We'd been in touch with our guide, none other than England Rivers Champion Mr John Tyzack, and between us we decided to go for it, pack plenty of warm clothing, plenty of tackle and plenty of beer tokens. Lets face it, we thought, with Tyzack's talent, and TV's rising star Pointon as part of our team, we were sure to land some lunkers and have a laugh along the way....we weren't to be disappointed.

So Glen and I headed up the M6, and stopped for a 10 part breakfast in a small cafe in Tebay. What would the conditions be like, we thought, how would we cope with the icebergs, the slippery banks, the freezing weather, the driving sleet and snow? Who would catch, would we catch, would Woody down too much scotch and have to bow out on the Saturday morning session?


We would rendez-vous with Tyzack and his friends, Andy and Rich just outside Langholm. It was obvious we were all keen on getting tackled up and into the river as soon as possible, all knowing that, whilst we had at least two full day's fishing ahead of us, we had a lot of big water to cover.

We made our way North to Denholm where we purchased our Hawick rivers day tickets which would allow us to fish the Teviot. John had explained to us that the fish would be hard to find given the size of the river, but when we did find them, they could be of record breaking size.

Arriving at the car park, we donned our waders, neoprene for me today, fearing the cold, and went to have a look over the bridge at the large, and powerful river below. Pointon immediately became rather animated, jumping up and down in a broad potteries accent, expletives pouring out of his face, occasionally interjected with the odd, "Salmon", "massive", and "fag". We'd seen a large fish downstream of the bridge, and above it we'd seen a huge Salmon flashing on it's side with another large male fish just upstream from it and we presumed that these would be spawning. They were huge fish and it gave us that feeling electric feeling that every take could be a connection with a monster fish. We were clearly about to enter a watery world much different than our comparatively smaller streams of the Dove, Wye and Churnet.

Upstream from the bridge, Tyzack and I got into the river. I was quite nervous at first given the power of the river but John was building my confidence, making sure that I was well within my comfort zone at all times. I'd borrowed a 10ft 4wt Streamflex and JT showed me how to rig up for a 3 fly, Czech nymphing set up and the principles of how to fish it and I quickly started to become comfortable with it. He's an excellent tutor with amazing attention to detail, frequently offering correcting advice and observing every aspect of your technique, without making you feel nervous or under pressure. John had a take early on and landed a Grayling of about a pound, about ten minutes later, I hooked into a similar sized fish and faster, shallower water.

We were a little surprised to be finding fish in faster water and we worked our way upstream and fished a new swim. Things were quite tough and takes were few and far between especially given the surprisingly good conditions of the river, running a few inches up and very clear.

A few minutes later there came a shout and JT was into a good sized fish from shallow, fast, water. Glen and I congratulated as he landed this superb 2lb Scottish Lady. "Come on Woody, let's get you a fish son", said John, and he explained where he'd seen the take, on the far bank on a sharp bend on this large, Scottish river.

I'd made 2 or 3 passes with my flys and I'd got that electric feeling that any second now, my indicator line would dive under water and I would be into the fight of my life time...and with that, all I could see was ivory Grey's Platinum and she was on. Shy at first but then the fish had realised that all was not as it should be, and it was lunging head down for the gravel.

John walked to the bank and put down his rod and waded back through the water to guide me through landing this lovely fish. "That's a good fish Woody!", he shouted as he got nearer to me, giving me more and more encouragement all the while , he new it was crucial for all of us that I landed this fish to grow my confidence and to beef up the team spirit. He grabbed my arm so that all I needed to think about was landing that fish, worrying about wading and playing at the same time would decrease my chances of landing this beautiful lunking Lady.

"Well done Woooooddddyyyyyyyy!!! You ****!" Shouted you know who, and I was chuffed to bits. Pointon got his video camera out and made me wear one of those Scottish hats with red hair attached and set me up good and proper, much to the amusement of the rest of the team over beers later on that evening in the bar.

Glen's weighing net came in handy and we soon discovered that the fish was 2lb 2oz, a personal best for me.

We fished the same swim for a little while longer but it began to look like JT had found a pair of fish in that swim and we'd landed both of them so it was time to move on.

Andy had taken 6 or 8 further upstream and Rich had managed a couple but we all agreed that it was tough so we decided to jump in the cars and to move on to another stretch of the Teviot.


It was getting late but we had time to try out a few more swims, and we fanned out along a large stretch. There were many places that you'd put money on striking into fish but it was just not happening and I started to wonder whether, as JT had told us, that snow melt and road salt may be affecting the fishing. However, even though conditions were hard, the combination of JT's excellent guiding and the amazing surroundings made it all worth while.

We called it a day at about 4.30pm, made our way back to the digs in Kelso and headed for the pub. We had a right good natter, a few games of killer, and it wasn't long before the ale started to have the desired affect on Pointon and his legendary social etiquette started to kick in. He was rubbered and had us all in fits of laughter with his reminiscences of incidents involving everything from a meeting with Spongebob Squarepants, an instruction to pass wind, how to rewire a brothel and I don't think any of the group, myself included, will ever, ever forget Glen's description of his new passion of playing the trombone, please email him for more details.

That night was sleepless for a number of reasons. Snoring, farting in a Potteries accent, farting in a Manc accent, Pointon snoring, Pointon talking in his sleep about Tyzack's style of fishing, Pointon snoring, Pointon's alarm clock at 4.30am, Pointon Snoring, Tyzack beating pointon with pillows trying to stop him snoring, and Pointon snoring.

Yesterday the big thaw happened and we headed home, every river in the Borders of Scotland being near enough over the bank and unfishable, but we'd had a great time, some lovely lunking Scottish Grayling and a really good laugh along the way.

Please don't laugh too much at the video of me that Pointon will inevitably post on his blog.

David