Dawson's Olives from Farlow's of Pall Mall

Well, its a long way to go to try to 'match the minnow' but I've visited my fave London fly fishing shop and armed myself to the teeth with horrible looking Dawson's Olives, determined to crack the Errwood code tomorrow with Brian.......
David Wood, The Wine Shop and The Queen of the Moorlands Whisky Co. 01538 382408. Mob 07875 405 980. www.wineshopclub.blogspot.com

On the look out for Her Majesty's Royal Carp, St James's Park SW1

Oh, if only Pointon was here with his Streamflex and his chum flys. This looks a likely spot for some city centre angling. I'm just off to one of my fave angling shops, Farlows of Pall Mall.

Te Te

David
David Wood, The Wine Shop and The Queen of the Moorlands Whisky Co. 01538 382408. Mob 07875 405 980. www.wineshopclub.blogspot.com

An Afternoon at Errwood Reservoir

Errwood Reservoir in the stunning Goyt Valley

I was delighted to have the opportunity to fish at Errwood Reservoir yesterday, just a couple of miles outside Buxton amidst the beautiful scenery of Derbyshire's Goyt Valley. I'd arranged to meet up with Commo and Mick (aka Bonehead) at around 10am in Leek from where we'd make our way, in our dodgy vans to the picturesque venue.

A few months ago I was contacted by Ian Gould, secretary of the Errwood Fly Fishing Club. He asked me if I would be interested in selling day tickets for the 85 acre reservoir, through The Wine Shop in Leek. I agreed straight away. Not only would I get new faces through the door of our shop in Leek, it would also give me extra opportunities to blether about fishing.

Other than the lochs of Islay, it's rare that I get to enjoy a little still water fishing as I've been keen to explore the rivers on my DRAC and LADFFA tickets, and so, I had a job to decide what to pack in terms of tackle for the outing. On Islay, I enjoy fishing the lochs with my 8ft 6" 4wt Hardy Demon, much to the amusement of David Morris who always gives me grief about my choice of light tackle. It's great catching the wild brownies of up to 1.5lb and there's usually a stiff breeze to aid the casting. And so I thought that I'd get away with it on Errwood too....

King Commo of the Reservoirs into his first Errwood Rainbow











Earlier in the morning the weather was quite dreach and we'd driven over the roaches in a blanket of cloud and drizzle, but as we arrived at Errwood, conditions were much drier, warmer and overcast, all in all looking good for the fishing ahead, and there were plenty of rises too. There was an angler coming off as we arrived and he advised that the fish were near the surface and he'd been taking them on red diawl bachs.

I was able to do a little preparation before I attempted to fish at Errwood. The fishing club has an excellent website containing an array of useful information for the angler, whether a member of the club or the occasional visitor on a day ticket. There's all the information you need for a good days fishing from how to get there, to where to park, what methods to use and a map (see below) that's linked to specific information about all the various locations on the reservoir. www.effc.co.uk

The club also hosts it's very own forum, and I'd used this to get information from members about how and where to fish and I found this to be very helpful. Without this info, we could well have spent an hour wondering about where to start. I'd also arranged to meet up with Ian and he found us later on at Duffer's Bank...the perfect spot for Commo, Bonehead and I! http://effc.myfreeforum.org/

Please click on the map below to expand.

Initially, I thought I'd be clever and set up like I would at a loch with a team of 3 flies. An LTD sedge on the first dropper, then a black bibio with a red flash, followed by a weighted pink tailed hare's ear nymph on the point. I had little success on this, although I did have a couple of large rainbow's chasing the nymph right into the bank and creating huge boils and bow waves as they did so. Commo was enjoying most success, he gave up quite early on nymphs and the like preferring a huge bushy daddy, which did the trick almost immediately. Well done Commo!

I pinched his idea early on and did have a couple of takes but it wasn't until I tried a static cdc emerger that I had any real success in the form of a rainbow trout. We'd noticed that the fish did seem to patrol the banks, appearing in our swims at regular intervals. Most fish were topping and tailing but I took my first fish when there wasn't any visible surface activity and the 2 1/2 lb fish came from the depths like a missile, battering my small cdc fly, and actually hitting it that hard that it will never be used again.

Commo does it again on the daddy












Commo stuck to his daddy patterns and quickly took another great looking rainbow on a black daddy, basically the biggest in his fly box. By this time, Bonehead was following suit with his fly selection and he too was beginning to land fish.

Before long we were joined by Ian Gould who offered me some great advice. He was a little perplexed by my choice of rod and particularly the length of my leader, which was about 5ft. I asked him how long my leader should be and he said he never fishes with a leader if less than 16ft! He kindly gave me a couple of the biggest flies I have ever seen...big hairy green things with huge black eyes, this would do the trick he assured me, as I couldn't help imagining the flies squaring up with the rainbows their enormity being so vast.

Anyway, he was of course correct, and I'd managed to "match the minnow" and it wasn't long before I was into a good sized fish that bent the rod right over as I'd quickly retrieved my aesthetically challenged imitation through the murky depths of Errwood Reservoir.

By 4pm, Commo and Bonehead had 3 decent trout each in their tackle bags, each destined for the dinner table. I'd had a nice brace of rainbows and it was decided that we should each point our dodgy vans towards Stoke and to head back home over the rugged roaches.

EFFC offers day tickets at £15 each that can be purchased at various local outlets including The Wine Shop, 22 Russell Street, Leek, SY13 5JF. 01538 382 408. The club also offers an annual membership that is set at an incredibly reasonable price...more info on the club website. The fishing season takes place between the 3rd Saturday in March until 31st October. As well as the stocked rainbow trout their is also a population of native wild brown trout.

To sum up, we had a really enjoyable afternoon at Errwood. The Goyt Valley is an absolutely stunning part of the Peak District National Park and an area that I'm very much looking to exploring with the kids of the remainder of the summer holidays. The fishing is cracking with an abundance of good sized fish that are more than willing to take the dry fly, even huge ones, and at close quarter. The parking is great, and the company is good too, fishing for normal folk with a complete lack of pretence, something that we could do with more of on the river bank.

Woody

Ian with a good sized rainbow caught on a previous occasion

Come on Pointon, Let's Get On The Wye

I managed to free myself up yesterday for a whole day's fishing. I've struggled on my local waters of late due to low water levels and I knew that if I ventured to one of those, that I might give up if conditions were tough.

I thought about giving the Derbyshire Wye a go. That way, having purchased my day ticket, I'd be more likely to preserver and to concentrate harder if the going was tough. I was aware that it was the second day of the Bakewell Show and that I might have to think about avoiding the crowds. I usually like to spend an hour or two in Scott's Garden but this would be out today due to the fact that it had become a temporary car park for the two day event.


I gave Jan a call first thing to check conditions and he told me that there was a fair breeze and there were occasional light showers. I packed up and sped off to the Peacock Hotel at Rowsley to pay for and collect my ticket and a few flies, managing to resist Pointon's habit of morning coffee, preferring to find a quiet spot away from the show goers and to land me a couple of fish.

I made my way to a spot where I'd done well on my last outing on the Wye. I tried a few different patterns but seemed to struggle and quickly felt my confidence drop. I'd been sure that I'd be into a fish on my first cast.

10 mins to observe the river and chill out was required. 5 years ago, this would have been time for a smoke and a little contemplation.

A small hatch of sedges commenced.

Glen's LTDs were running low in my fly box and I seemed to be down to the dregs of them, ones that I'd probably tied after a few too many glasses of Sauvignon Blanc and gave the appearance of what can only be described as a distressed sedge.

I managed to get one to look somewhere near presentable, carefully muded up my tippet and cast to the far bank, mending my line continually and trying to remain drag free for as long as possible so as to be still fishing when my sedge made it's way under the low branches of a willow on the far bank. Almost immediately, and to my great surprise, there was a huge flash of silver, a big swirl of fin and water and a tremendous bang on the tip of my 8ft"6 4wt rod. The result of this frantic activity was a lovely Grayling in the net and at last, the first fish of the day.

A successful time was had at that spot and I managed another Grayling, a Brownie and 3 wee Rainbows. I made my way downstream and fished around the sheep bridge managing a nice brace of Rainbows and then my OCD kicked in and I started to worry about illegal parking and where I would park in town in time to rendezvous with Pointon who was imminent. I shifted the car and queued up for chips, peas and gravy with 500 Bakewell Show goers and waited for Pointon to arrive. I was glad for the rest as I'd been walking up and down quite a lot and new that energy would need to be conserved for the evening's fishing around the town centre.

Pointon arrived and he was clearly a man on a mission. When ever he goes fishing he always has some sort of a target in his mind. He is unlike me, when I go fishing, I just enjoy catching fish and am grateful for anything. Glen is driven by a particular fish, in a particular swim and doesn't get closure until he's caught it. e.g.....the 9lb Wye Brownie, the Tean 2lber and so on. He'd been watching a particular, large Grayling in Bakewell and raced to the spot to have a cast or two at it before me. Almost immediately he requested that a might bring the flipping net while he tussled with the fish whilst it thrashed in the shallow waters, continually displaying it's huge dorsal fin.

Before long the beauty was landed and weighed. 2lb spot on, a clunker of a Wye Grayling and an angler's dream fulfilled...again.

Jan joined us with his dogs and as the light faded we strolled upstream, casting here and there and awaiting the spinner fall. Rises were not as prolific as they'd been a few weeks ago in more than favourable conditions when we fished with CooommmmoooooooOOO and Bonehead, but a couple of 2lb plus Rainbows were managed along with another nice Grayling.

All in all I'd enjoyed catching 15 beautiful fish, Browns, Rainbows and Grayling. Another belting day's fishing on the region's finest stretch of river. I can't wait to return and to explore upstream and the swims that I've not even seen yet. Come on Pointon, let's get on the Wye.

Woody

Glen Pointon's Living the Dreamworks Poacher Watch Campaign

The Upper Trent and Early Nineteenth Century Romanticism

Knypersley by Jason Snape





































I first went fishing at the age of 6 on the river Churnet in Leek. My Grandad and I would fish for Sticklebacks above the bridge at the bottom of Ladderedge in the field that is now occupied by the Golf Club car park. Later, Perch became our prey, and they were a joy to catch on my Grandad's split cane rod. A year or two later, I was allowed to fish further afield. I joined what was then the Cheshire Angling Association and immediately started to enjoy fishing one of the club's main waters which was Knypersley Reservoir. We caught Perch, Roach, and lots of Bream and I loved fishing there. At that time I lived in Endon and I'd walk the 3 miles with all my gear, calling on my pals in Brown Edge on the way.

When I wasn't fishing at 'Knypo', I'd be playing there in the woods with my mates, or walking it's many paths with my Grandad who told me many tales about the place. His Grandfather had been Head Keeper at Greenway Bank, and the banks of Knypersley pool belonged to the estate of the now long gone country house. When my Grandad was a lad, his farm was only just up the lane from the pool, so he, as I, played in the grounds all the time. My Grandmother's childhood farm also had land that was adjacent to the estate and she also enjoyed the place.

The tower shown in the two pics above are probably the most famous landmarks at Greenway Bank Country Park. The facade was built in 1827 in the Gothic style, and everything about it's design was steeped in the romanticism of the early nineteenth Century. There was absolutely no expense spared in the design and construction of the tower to the extent that some of the river Trent was diverted to form a moat to compliment the tower and to complete it's fairy tale appearance. My Grandad had stayed in the tower many times when he was a lad, he was a friend of the boys of the family that lived there. Sadly, the tower has been empty for over sixty years.

The 'moat' begins it's life about a 1/4 of a mile away, upstream on the infant river Trent. Here, a sizeable weir was built for the sole purpose of diverting water into the moat (See bottom left of pic above). The moat then winds it's way, following contours, to pass in front of the tower and then runs parallel to Knypersley Pool for another 1/4 of a mile and then empties in to The Serpentine, Greenway Bank's second reservoir. I imagine that, during the Victorian times, the banks of the moat would have been well kept with ferns drooping into the running water and fresh, exotic plants (that would later become a pest to us) being introduced here and there. The extent that the architect went to in the design of the tower and this fairy facade is incredible. A large weir, 1/2 mile of canal and a canal at a gradient to promote a slight trickle, must have cost an absolute fortune. What a shame that it no longer runs and that most of the moat, along with the tower, is now derelict and overgrown. The best place to see the moat today is near to the dam between Knypersley Pool and The Serpentine. It can be seen for quite a while here and some of it's fine stone work is exposed along with a another facade, a small footbridge heading nowhere.

This pic shows the weir for the moat again. My Grandad and his pals regularly bathed in the pool below the weir in the early 1920s.

The majority of the moat looks like this today. This section is near to where it leaves the Trent and contains running water. However, it only runs for a short while and at the point here it once met a small reservoir that held water back to ensure a constant, regulated supply for the moat, the flow has recently been diverted back into the Trent, causing the reservoir to dry up and become overgrown. This in turn has left the majority of the rest of the moat, quite dry and overgrown.

The river Trent above the moat weir. This pic was taken after a very long period without rain and would usually contain a greater depth of water. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a healthy population of wee broon troots.

One of the places I enjoyed visiting as a lad was Gorton's Well the remains of which are shown in this pic. Gorton was a hermit. Apparently, no Victorian country estate was without it's own hermit. Usually, one's hermit lived in a cave somewhere on one's land, and this was all to add to the fairy tale romanticism of the age. They were often given a place to live, and fed and the guests of the house would go and visit what was very much promoted as some sort of circus act.

Gorton's Well is a spring. A series of troughs has been constructed at some point with walls surrounding them. I can remember my Grandad telling me that at one time the structure had a roof and that many folk from the local farms, including my Grandmother, used to wash all of their clothes here. The tall wall that was constructed around the well as a deterrent to deer is still in good repair.

Walking deeper into the woods, eventually Gorton's Cave is reached. My Grandad used to tell me that this was where Gorton the hermit lived.

There are many, very old initials carved into the supporting rocks of Gorton's Cave. These initials are those of my Great, Great Grandfather.

Walk a little further past Gorton's Cave and eventually you will drop down to the lovely upper Trent. From here, the river runs into Knypersley Pool. The reservoir was built by Thomas Telford in 1827 to feed the Caldon Canal.

Mystery River Quiz

Had a trip out to a spot where I spent many of my boyhood days this morning and I thought I'd post a couple of pics to see if any local anglers might know the spot.

I'm not going to say too much about the locality so as not to give it all away but I do intend to write a post about it sometime in the near future.

Usually, this river carries much more water. Our region is desperate for a prolonged downpour to give all of the rivers a good flush out and to improve the fishing. The Dove in particular has suffered this summer.

Anyway, here is the deal. The first angler to contact me with the correct answers to the 2 questions below will win a wee prize from The Queen of the Moorlands range. (a 200ml bottle of whisky, or, if you're under 18, a bar of Queen of the Moorlands Whisky Soap!!!). Prize to be collected from The Wine Shop in Leek.

To enter, please leave your answers on a comment on this post.

a. What is the name of the river
b. Where were the photographs taken

Addition to post 17th July.....

It may as well be the Amazon rising in the hills above Fegg Hayes given the response I've had to this post :)

Cheers

David

The Wonderful Wye (Glen Pointon appears courtesy of Forrero Rocher and Cucumber Sandwiches With The Corners Cut Off)

Just a short post to say thanks to The Peacock Hotel for another absolutely wicked day on the wonderful river Wye. I say short because our host for the day, none other than Glen Pointon seems to have stolen my thunder on his blog as usual. So i've poached some of his pics from his photobucket site to get my own back.

It's good to see that he has settled in at The Peacock. When I arrived at 11.30am on Sunday Morning I thought that I had made it before the others because it was so quiet, in fact, I walked straight past Pointon, I couldn't see him, so well did he blend in to his new surroundings.

When I eventually spotted him, after being called over by Commo, I thought I was hallucinating. Sat there, quietly tying his flies for the day to come, sipping Twinnings English Breakfast tea from fine bone china, his little finger pointing towards the ceiling as he occasionally raised the cup, was none other than Pointon, Lord Rocher himself.

"Hi Woody", he says, "come and join us".

I think that those are the most words I've ever heard Glen say without him swearing. Look back at all the posts I have written on this blog over the last year or so that involve Glen. In almost every case, in the first paragraph there will be a mention of an unfeasibly large breakfast, not today....just the tea and a nice, wafer thin biscuit would suffice.

At just after 12 noon, Johnny arrived, and I'm sure he to was in a state of utter shock to see the "Stoke on Trent One" so at home in his new habitat.

We decided to make a move and it was down to Caudwell's Mill to go look for a few rising Grayling. Commo had a nice wee wild Rainbow Trout early on and Johnny managed a Grayling.

We walked upstream a little and found a few fish rising under a tree on the far bank and Commo and I were given the task of casting at them, under the watchful eyes of Johnny and Pointon, the latter, now away from the posh surroundings, slipping in to his Liverpudlian accent, and hurling abuse at us for casting too short, casting too far, casting into trees, and generally cocking it up...but a nice wee Grayling was managed eventually.

We had a drive up to town and Glen showed us around the river. We knew there wasn't really any point in fishing too hard for the 2 or 3 hours to come as there was very little happening. The fish were not moving, there were no hatches, and energy would need to be conserved for the inevitable burst of activity in the evening to come. So for a couple of very well spent hours, we took our time examining the pools and riffles for a later date.

At about 4pm, we were slowly walking along the riverside path in Scots Garden, and Glen went all weird again. He stopped and turned to us, dismantled 9ft 4wt Streamflex in one arm, Port Vale FC emblazoned on the other, and suggested that we might "return to the Peacock for arrrrftarnun tea".

Johnny, Commo and me just looked at one another. There was nothing to be said really so we motored back to where we started and made our way into the lounge where refreshments would be served, Pointon having arranged for them previously.

Five minutes later, in the lounge, sitting dangerously comfortably in our chairs, were were served with more English Breakfast Tea, but this time, it was accompanied with homemade crumpets and lashings of strawberry jam.........I know.

Later on we'd head to the town centre and witness huge fish rising everywhere. Johnny had 2 or 3 cracking wild Rainbows and I a personal best (wild) Rainbow of just under 4lb and a Grayling of just under 2. Both to Glen's LTD sedge.

A cracking day's fishing in the great company of Commo, Johnny C, and Glen. Thanks to the Peacock and the river keeping team...

Woody