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

2009. The Best Trout Fishing Season I've Ever Had

What a season. I've just counted up how many times I've fished this season, and it appears that I have fished on 65 different days since it started...thank you Mrs Wood.

It's certainly been the best trout season I've ever had. It's been the best for a number of reasons, the new clubs that I've joined are brilliant, the people I've met have been great, the fish I've caught have been stunning, the scenery I've fished in has been breathtaking, and, we've had many a laugh along the way.

At the start of the trout season, I was a member of one club, Leek and Moorlands Fishing Club. For my £40 ticket (reduced to £30 the following year), I had access to one piece of water between the bridge at Eaton Dovedale Farm and the point at which the river Churnet joins the river Dove. This water was very good for me during the early part of the season. Although it is often in poor condition for a good few days after rainy periods, and it is a stretch of only a couple of hundred yards, I have had some fantastic fishing there, plus, I managed to catch one of my best fish of the season, on a corixa, a beautiful 2lb plus over-wintered wild Brownie.

I wanted to be able to fish a bigger stretch at Eaton Dovedale so I joined Derby Railway Angling Club. This also gave me access to the lovely stretch of the Dove at Ellastone which can be in good condition when Eaton Dovedale isn't, and, it's stuffed with fish, Brownies, Grayling and one or two decent sized rainbows.

Joining DRAC also meant that I instantly met many more trout fisherman, of a similar age to me, all dead keen, and all willing to lend a hand to a new trout angler, sharing tips, giving help and tying up a few patterns for him. It also helped that I'd now got access to the fly forums website, again, loads of info, and great for a laugh. I also met, the larger than life, certifiable, Mr Glen (expletive) Pointon, who has been director of the comedy department ever since.

Glen invited me to use a guest ticket up at Dovedale. "Angling Paradise" is how he described it to me, and he was right. I was taken with the place immediately, especially given the fact that I caught a lovely wild Brownie on my first cast into the pool just upstream of the footbridge.

That session on the Dove was enough for me, I had to join Leek and District Fly Fishing Association, and I soon found out they had many other great stretches of river too, all within 20 minutes of home.

Soon after, I was off to Scotland for a week or so with work and I was dying to get back to fish at Dovedale. I loved the place and couldn't wait to explore all the way up to Milldale. It's just a beautiful place to be, when the visitors have left and the quiet reigns supreme.

I'll never forget my fishing trip with Tony Slade, Russell Crowe and a hundred or so Medieval knights on horseback, what a bizarre night, and one that I will never forget. (See top pic and the post Russell Crowe and I: Living the Dream in Dovedale)

I've got Gary to thank for passing on loads of tips, particularly about fishing small rivers with "The Duo". This pic was taken only a few days ago on the Churnet at Eastwall, which is a cracking LADFFA venue, seemingly, stuffed with big Grayling and Brownies like this one that Gary caught on the Duo, and had a head like a Salmon! A beautiful fish.

I had a couple of very enjoyable angling sessions on the River Wye at Rowsley. The first time I day ticketed there was with Glen, Mick and Johnny. Again, I picked up loads of tips and caught some nice fish. Mick landed his famous 9lb wild Brownie from the town stretch in Bakewell, and Glen told us about his bowel problems and stories about Spongebob Squarepants at a car wash at the bottom of Larm Kiln Bonk in Stoke.

Glen was so taken by the river Wye, and so determined to bag a couple of those "Hoora-Lunkers" in the town centre stretch that he just had to join the Peacock Fishing Club, and on his first outing last week, he went and bagged this huge 10lb monster Brownie, wait for it, on his very own design, LTD (Living the Dream!) Sedge! In terms of size, easily the best fish I've seen caught all season. Well done mar mate! Click here to find out how it all happened!

I was lucky enough to fish with our Bri from Stoke. He was kind enough to tie loads of flies for me, particularly the famous LTD Sedge, which I have to say, was definitely my top fish catching fly of the season, and upon which, I reckon Glen is placing all of his trust for his pension fund.

Bri is a top bloke, and a again, another easy going, non-pretentious bloke, eager to help a newcomer to trout fishing.

Way back at the beginning of the season, I'd also purchased myself an Islay House Estates permit so that I could fish whenever I was on the Isle of Islay on work trips. During the Islay Festival of Malt and Music (Feis Ile 2009), I managed to get loads of fishing in and caught plentiful wee troots. I got to fish with my mate David Morris and even entered a competition, catching a good few fish. David was the champion of the competition bagging 37 fish in 4 hours.

I had 4 trips to Islay during the season, the last one being by far the most memorable. I was joined by a fly forum member, Peter Dracup, and also, Mr Pointon joined us for what would be a great few days of fun and fishing.

We fished on Jura for Salmon and Sea Trout, and on many of the lochs on Islay for wee wild Brownies.

Please click on the links for posts about the trip..

Islay Trip 1

Islay Trip 2

Islay according to Glen 1

Islay according to Glen 2

Among my best fish of the season were the two 2lb plus Brownies I caught on the very last day at my favourite spot at Dovedale. Here we have enjoyed many a late evening Kelly Kettle, discussing the day's fishing and devising plots to catch those elusive Lunkers in the depths of the dark pools.

This pic that I took with Mr Pointon's camera, speaks for itself...and is a fair reflection of the mood of the fishing this year. It's been enjoyable, a great laugh, exciting and very rewarding.

Tonight I'll have a dram to celebrate the end of my first full trout season, and the beginning of my first full Grayling season....it seems fitting that that dram come from Islay, and more specifically from Bunnahabhain where we spent an ace week whilst fishing.

Bring on the Grayling.

Slainte

David

The Troots are in Feeding Frenzy. On the Dove again at Ellastone

Since Sunday, Autumn has really began to set in. Leaves are falling from trees, the wind is up and the air is cooling rapidly. Leonie has been away at tastings in London all week so Friday would be the only chance I would get for a weekday fishing session...and that would have to be squeezed in to a 2 and a half hour slot. Gary and I exchanged texts as to what local venue to fish, and, to be honest, I was in two minds whether to go at all. I'd be leaving Leek at 11am and need to pack up to return for the school run no later than 2pm, and the weather prospects looked a little grim too.

But I did go....to Ellastone, and how glad am I that I did....It was one of the best fishing sessions of the season.

I tackled up at the van and had a quick look over the bridge. The water was lower than I had seen it before and quite clear, though nowhere near as clear as I have been used to further upstream at my favourite Dovedale.

As I walked upstream, I couldn't believe how many rises I was seeing, definitely the most I have ever seen at Ellastone, they were everywhere. I started to wonder whether I had doubted the conditions too much.

I dropped in half way up the DRAC stretch. I'd rigged up with the Duo pattern, a Balloon Caddis on the dropper and a tiny black beadheaded nymph on the point, a good two feet below.

On the third cast, the Caddis disappeared almost immediately and I struck into a good fish. It was fighting like stink and I was doing my very best to keep my rod lifted high, a couple of times he neared the surface and I got a glimpse of a sizable silver flank. He must have seen me because he made one of those final, and definite lunges towards the deep, I ran out of rod, and he was off.....gutted....again. I lost what could have been my biggest ever Grayling.

I made a few more casts in the same spot and took two or three average sized Grayling, casting towards the bank and drifting the nymph slowly downstream. I turned round and faced up stream and made a cast right up the middle, dropping my flies towards the foam, midstream. The second they hit the drink there was a huge splash and an immediate wollop on the rod. He didn't like what was happening and fired upstream, I was desperate to keep him on given my mishap with the Grayling, so remained calm and kept him under pressure until I finally brought him to the net. He'd taken the dry Balloon Caddis and was a good pound and a half in weight. I was delighted....but gutted as I had forgotten my camera again! (The pics on this post have been very kindly donated by one Mr G Fishcake of Cheddleton, who arrived a little later!)

I made my way slowly upstream, a step or two then cast, another step then cast. The rises became fewer just after midday but they were still plentiful as Gary arrived and dropped into the river where I had began earlier in the day. Gary is one of the best anglers I've ever met, and as usual, he started to take fish immediately, from a swim that another large fisherman had just waltzed through with all the elegance of a Sherman Tank.

As I finished off in the fast water at the top of the DRAC section, I managed a couple more good sized wild Brownies and a couple more Grayling. I'd had 6 or 7 fish in 2 or 3 hours, the Brownies in particular, being some of the best fish that I've caught all season, and all looked in perfect condition.

Some times before a fishing session, for one reason or another, the angler, whilst full of confidence, doesn't feel particularly optimistic about an impending fishing session, maybe because of weather conditions, too much light, not enough light, too windy, not enough ripple, water levels too high, not enough water, etc, etc...sometimes, these turn out to be the best, expectations having been kept to a reasonable level.

A great speed fishing session, and picked up a load more tips from Gary.

Watch out monster Grayling, here I come.

David