Wood and Pointon Go for the Grayling In The Highlands of Derbyshire...At Last

This was a day that had been coming for weeks, and well over due. Well, a week overdue. Last week, Leonie and I even booked into the Peacock in Rowsley so I could fish the Wye in and around Bakewell, in the right Royal Highlands of Derbyshire, twinned with Pitlochry don't you know. But it turned out that it was a charity day, so, I wasn't allowed.

And so, once again, I'd been lucky enough to be invited to fish the Wye with none other than my old chum Glen Tarquin Pointon of Haddon. (Formerly Lord Rocher of Oshbonk, previously a member of Leek and District Fly Fishing Association and Derby Railway Angling Club, but now moved on to pastures new)

I'd been looking forward to the day's fishing immensely. I hadn't been able to get out onto the rivers at all over the last couple of weeks through one reason or another and was ready for a laugh with Glen. And so, I was pretty annoyed when, at 5.30 am, I was awoke when, basically, a gale happened in our front garden. Crap. Tarquin and I exchanged a couple of phone calls at around 9am, would we go or wouldn't we, and eventually, we decided that we may as well have a run out and at least have a look at the river.

More often than not, one hears Glen before one sees him and this morning was no exception. I could hear his van and his accent as he drove down the track towards chez Wood. Wisps of B&H smoke rising from the crack in the off side window, "American Idiot" shattering the still, Sunday morning, autumnal air.

We packed up all of our kit into the back of Glen's van and we were all set for the off. All I needed to do was to negotiate my way through the Pointon debris and into the passenger seat, a feat easy than one may first imagine. It's full on advertising for Bensons, MacDonalds, crisps and disposable coffee cups. By his own admission, Glen isn't the most organised of chaps, and on top of this, the heaters were on full bore, "arr lark it worm" he explained. It was a bit like sitting in the middle of a council waste incinerator.

So we sped off up the Buxton road, through Buxton itself and on down the A6 towards Bakewell. Here and there we had a peek at the river and it didn't look promising at all. In places, the river was nearly onto the road, full of foam and colour and looking totally unfishable. However, as we got towards Bakewell, things started to look up. We stopped near Ashford and to our amazement, the river was only slightly up and had a faint milky tinge. Confidence started to grow.

Confidence started to grow even further when we decided that it would be rude not to start off by discussing tactics over an unfeasibly large breakfast, accompanied by the hottest coffee we'd ever, ever tasted (it had a half life of 150 years), and 14 rounds of toast. The waitress looked at us as if we were a bit odd.
Anyway, Glen read me the rules. No wading, barbless hooks, avoid hooking a trout at all costs, and off we went into the town stretch. The water was colouring up more and more as the day went on and I remember thinking that this could make picking out Grayling from the Trout a little on the tricky side.

Anyway, on my first cast, somewhere near to the cricket pavilion, I hooked into my first Grayling of the day, kindly modelled here by Glen Tarquin Pointon himself.

I had rigged up with a duo set up, a balloon caddis on the dropper, with a weighted pink shrimp about 2 1/2 Feet below on the point. I took a risk in the morning and packed my 6ft 6 Streamflex, wondering whether I would not have the length I might need, but it turned out to be perfect and great fun with the smaller fish.

To compare methods, Glen had decided to use his 9ft 5 wt Streamflex as he would be nymphing with a team of bugs.

Throughout the day, we both had success on our methods and we'd exceeded all our expectations. We set out in the morning thinking that a fish a piece would be good and we ended up with about a dozen or so between us.





It was another great day's fishing. Our usual haunts on the Dove further South would surely have been flooded and the Wye had given us a brief, 3 or 4 hour window to get some top quality Grayling fishing in. As well as the fishing, we'd also had a good laugh too as we always do, and we'd had a chance to put the world to rights.




The last fish of the day was this mini-lunker that took the shrimp on the lower reaches of the stretch in Rowsley and was the perfect end to another great angling session.

Cheers Glen for a great day's sport.

David

Wye The Peacock after The Grayling on the Dove

So, the anticipation was over, the day had come, Sunday 25th October was to be a big do. I was all set to fish with Lord Pointon on his beloved stretch of the river Wye in and around England's slightly bigger version of Pitlochry, and without the salmon, the wee toon of Bakewell. I'd also booked Leonie and I into the Peacock for The Wine Shop Christmas party and was looking forwards to collapsing in front of the big log fire with a pint of fine ale and a big dram of Laphroaig after a breezy autumnal day on the banks of the bonny Wye.

"Way conner goo youth", I was dismayed to hear, as apparently the Wild Trout Trust had got it for the day so they had priority. So, that was that.

I headed up to Milldale for the morning. The weather was, fine, bright and a little breezy. I crossed the bridge at Milldale and noticed immediately that there was a fair bit of water and colour in the Dove today after the sporadic rain showers we've had during the last few days. It was clear that Autumn had began to really kick in since my last outing given the amount of leaves on the water. I noticed that the colours were changing everywhere, lush greens giving way to gold, reds and browns.

I decided to pay more attention to the first couple of hundreds of yards of the Leek and District Angling Association stretch, staying longer than I usually would in each pool, given the amount of extra depth there was to explore.

I dropped a couple of fish early on and decided to move down to a pool that I usually find to be quite tricky to get at and cast in given the amount of snags and low branches that are here and about.

I was sure that today, I'd have a bit more chance of catching here though as there was more depth to the pool and I'd bought my shorter, 6ft 6" Streamflex, given me a little more room for casting than usually afforded by my 8ft Snowbee "Pike rod". (As so cruelly christened by Glen). I also find it much easier to flick a fly about with a short rod like my Streamflex. I did, however, still manage to loose a good few flies.

I caught a nice couple of Grayling on the duo and then hooked into the one in the pic, right in mid stream and he gave me a right old scrap. A lovely fish. I decided to quit while the going was good and made my way to check in at the Peacock, where, needless to say, we had fabulous food, lots of drinks, and a very posh bedroom.

Didn't see any fishermen though??

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