A Perfect Autumn Day with a Lunker in Dovedale

It seems a lifetime since those warm and late summer evenings, Kelly Kettle bubbling in the background, tall tales being exchanged, stalking lunkers, proper lunkers, clunkers, and all manner of classes of large, wild Brown Trout. Russell Crowe charging up and down Dovedale with his merry men is a distant memory, an event that now seems so surreal that I question myself as to whether it really happened. It seems that Crowey and his mates filmed at just the right time as, visiting Pointon's Glen yesterday, I noticed that the main area that was used for the set has now been dissected by a sturdy new fence.

It was a classic November morning. Thick mist shrouded Highfield and Leek but the sun was just peeking through. I wondered whether it would be worth a run up to Dovedale, whether the levels would have come down, and whether the Ladies would be on the feed given the heavy frost we'd had during the early hours.

I grabbed a bacon, egg and black pudding bap and sped of in the Wine Shop van, armed to the teeth with my Greys Streamflex 6ft 6, waders and other essential angling accessories.

I arrived and made my way up to the footbridge, my first impression being that, after seeing how much water was pushing over the measurement weir, today may turn into more of a pleasant Autumnal walk rather than an angling session. How wrong I was.

All was quiet at first until I had fished up to the mid section of Pointon's Glen. At one point, I caught myself looking around to see who was chucking stones at me, having heard a couple of splashes in the pools that I fished, but it soon became apparent that these were Trout on the feed. I made my way to the pool where recently, I hooked into, and landed the biggest Grayling I've ever seen never mind caught, and made a few casts. As usual, I'd rigged up a duo set up, weighted Pheasant Tail Nymph on the point with a Klinkhammer on the dropper.

The water was running through quickly and I had to really concentrate so as not to loose sight of the klink. After a couple of casts, the klink darted under and I struck. A big fish was on and I was desperate not to loose it. I could tell straight away that it was a Grayling by the way it was twisting and turning like an eel. Eventually, I landed this beautiful fish. I'm convinced that it wasn't the same fish that I caught a few weeks ago, this one being slightly smaller. Chuffed to bits, I'd exceeded all my expectations, having caught, and not only that, having caught a cracking fish. I wondered whether to pack in there and then, or whether to have a few more casts upstream.

As I walked up past the nursery pool I was surprised at just how many rises there were given the time of year. There were Olive hatches everywhere and the trout were on the feed. I had a few more casts, managing a couple of smaller Grayling and an accidental, but very beautiful and quite large Brownie.

All in all, a great angling session, in a stunning location, which I consider myself incredibly lucky to live so near to.

There are a couple more pics in the right hand panel of this page.

David