The Gulley!!!!

Went down to the willow pool again on Tuesday night but there was somebody there so decided to fish the gulley (da da daaaah). Now this is not for the faint hearted as its quite difficult to get in and looking at the pool from above it looks dark and deep. It is possible to get through the pool but care must be exercised as there are lots of football sized stones and deep parts to trap the unwary. I had on a sedge and raised a couple of fish which didn't connect properly then someting a bit larger took. It bore down and next thing snapped my 2.6 bayer tippet. Start again! Rises were few and far between but I noticed some rises further up the pool so made my way up vary carefully. No sedge were about but the fish were sipping something so on went my trusty rusty spinner. After a couple of fish covered I took a small wild brownie. This pool always produces good wild browns. I worked up a little further and took a good wildie which must have been 12-14 inches and beautifully marked. I finished off at 2130 at the head of the pool taking a grayling to complete the evening. 4 fish not bad I suppose.

Rusty Spinners show up

Went last evening to the willow pool. A lovely warm and sunny evening, there were clouds and clouds of sedge about but strangely not many fish rising only the odd 1 here and there. I started with a sedge and after a couple of half hearted rises and not connecting I switched to a smaller pattern but still nothing. After about 45 minutes I went up to the head of the pool where I had noticed a few fish rising but still nothing would take the sedge. I switched to a sedge pupa which managed to deceive a brown but must have been a flook as nothing else was forthcoming. The slight breeze dropped about 2045 and then fish started to move and rise consistently so I moved back down to the tail of the pool. Many of the rises were splashy so I changed back to the sedge and took another couple of browns. Considering the number of fish rising by this time and the fact I was covering fish on every cast I didn't think the sedge was the exact fly being taken. There was nothing showing on the surface in the immediate area where I was standing so I edged as close as I could to the foam lane where the fish were and b***er me there they were, RUSTY SPINNERS even though none were about in this area. I understand that BWO's lay their eggs in fast streamy water so I suspect that they were coming down from the head of the pool. I put on my strusty rusty and imediately started getting takes. It was now 2100 and I managed to land 4 more browns by 2115 before the rise petered out as the temperature dropped. The rise was over in 30 minutes but it is satisfying to know that you suss out what they are taking (eventually!!) and get the result.

Derwent Up!

The Derwent is still up and running coloured. Hopefully be back to "fishable" in a day or 2. At least it should clear out lots of the algae and rubbish.

Sedge Time!

This is the first session for a while as been on holiday so was expecting to be a bit rusty. I decided to go above the 1 arch bridge in the park. As I had not been recently I was not sure what to put on so started with a grey olive parachute. The main pool about 100yds below the bottom weir was my aim and there were plenty of fly about. After a couple of casts Matthew the keeper came down so spent some time having a chat. He is not happy with the way its been fishing due to the low water and high water temperature. As far as I am aware its been doing ok or at least Derek has been doing ok. As we were talking there were swarms of sedge about so I knew what I would be restarting with. On went an elk hair caddis and immediately I was into fish. They were rising everywhere I ended up taking about 7 fish on the elk hair sedge. I then noticed a good fish rising on the far side so had to wade across to cover it but as my fly was a bit tatty I decided to tie on one of those LTD sedge thingy's (Mr Pointon furnished me with it at the Fly Fair) anyway need I say more but that also cleaned up with probably another 5 fish before it got too soggy. It was getting darker now so I waded back to where I started and changed to another Derbyshire sedge called Larry's Pride (Mick Martins pattern and another cracking fly too!) needless to say this also took a few more before I had to call it an evening at 2145 as I couldn't comfortably spot the fly. So I ended the evening with about 15-16 fish in a couple of hours and they were still rising to the sedge when I left. What was interesting was that they were all browns between 9-16 inches, some wild, some stock fish but all in 1st class order. It's good to be back and thanks Glen and Mick for letting me in on your sedge patterns.