Sunday 19th June

Today Adam and I went down to the cricket pitch. It started off reasonable although the upstream breeze was rather chilly for this time of the year. Adam got in at the bottom of the cricket pitch and I went upstream. I noticed more pr less straightaway that he was into a fish. He had on a 1-up-1-down mayfly and started picking up fish as he progressed up the pool. Duns were coming off and the odd spinners was about but I think we are at the eve of the mayfly for this year. I got in at the steps and started up the pool towards Bar Brook. The water had the tinge of cold tea but was adequately fishable. Only a few fish were rising and none consistently. I had on a mayfly nymph and was fishing it upstream. A tiny brown came to hand followed closely by a 2nd larger specimen. The nymph wasn't really doing the business so I switched to the same fly as Adam. I covered rises but not much happened apart from a few half hearted slashes at the fly. Eventually a lively rainbow took and was landed. By now I was beginning to get chilled so retreated to the bank to warm up.
Is it summer?
I noticed a fish rising a couple of times centre stream so approached from behind and covered it, on the 3rd or 4th pass it came up and took the mayfly, another rainbow came to hand! I returned to the car to try and warm up as I was starting to shiver.
Adam meanwhile was still moving up the cricket pitch pool and was taking numerous fish. At least he was having a good time!
After warming up I wandered down to see how Adam was getting on and he had brought 10 fish to hand.  He was back at the bottom of the pool again to try and torment the ones he had missed. I waded up with him pointing out rises and he covered them well but struck too eagerly for some. The mayo;y were still coming off and spinners dropping. He brought another 3 or 4 fish to hand.
We called it a day as it had started to rain and most of the fish went down.

2 Tuesdays - 2 hours!

Last Tuesday I had an hour over the road after work and before our evening meal. The mayfly were coming off still and there were spinners about too at this time. I put on one of the "Staziker" hatching duns which is tied on the dvd which Don and Keith made of the Derbyshire Limestone Streams. It is an excellent hatching dun pattern and it wasn't long before a brown came to hand after missing a few first. Although it's got a bit of cdc in it flows right in the film. several more lovely spotted browns came to hand and an OOS grayling. After about 4 the cdc was done (dun) in and so I swapped to a 1-up-1-down dun. This also started taking the browns too and a few more came to hand finally followed by a rainbow. So in an hour I had 8 fish to hand  and too numerous to count risen.

Tonight I went over to the old bridge to see if there were any spinners about as there were none in my garden which I use as an indicator. There were quite a few about so a quick dash back and jump into my waders and I went over the road and downstream a bit as here I noticed a few fish rising and hordes of mayfly spinners around, it was 8-30 so I had a good 90 minutes ahead of me. Er no after 20 minutes the rain started. so I sheltered beneath a tree.  I had risen numerous fish and had 3 to hand all browns. As the rain started the spinners were still dipping but the fish had gone down. The spinners continued for a while until the rain started coming down in stairods then they started to disappear. After 20 minutes I gave up and dashed home.

Monday 6th June - A Day of 2 Parts

I had the afternoon booked off work today and had arranged to meet Derek and David S at the works. Iy was a beautiful warm day with not a cloud in the sky, not ideal for flyfishing! We decided to go down to the willow pool where David got in Derek went back upstream and I  went down to the deer boom again as I was still after some shots of hatching mayflies. Although there were mayflies coming off the fish were still not switched onto them as numerous floated past fish who showed disdain for them, give them a few days and they will soon get the taste for them. I didn't get anything here so as it was way too hot for the fish decided to go upstream into the gulley as this pool is protected from the sun by trees and I had noticed a few fish showing. It was difficult going with only the odd fish showing consistently but to nothing obvious. A mayfly floated down and was taken so a switch to a 1-up-1-down mayfly resulted in a lively brownie being landed.  I worked my way up the pool quick briskly as there was little showing and I couldn't be arsed bothered to change to a nymph. I picked up another couple but 1 other came to hand.

In the evening I took David M as a guest and we decided to give the bottom stretch a go to see what was around. I could not believe how many mayfly spinners were about.

Mayfly Galore!

We went don to Max's bench pool and the one above and again only a few fish were showing. I had on a 1-up-1-down mayfly and raised a few fish but gave them a "long release"! Eventually I started to land a few as I worked up the pool but again the fish were not totally clued into them. After an hour we decided to go up to the cricket pitch and agin the air was full of mayfly plus a host of other spinners and general buzzing "machines". I pointed the various pools/runs out and David started below the cricket pitch, I noticed him take a couple of fish. Meanwhile I went down to the "stump" where an alder which had taken root last year was now growing away also a rather large rock was submerged in the run so something to be aware of. As I still had on my mayfly I covered a few fish but they didn't really show any interest so I switched to a small cdc "Gasparin Dun", another one shown to us during the winter by Dave Southall. Needles to say the first fish I covered with it had it and a lovely brown was landed. A fish had been rising to something right on the far side in an awkward place and I covered it several times with the various flies I had on to no avail, at least he wasn't put down. I noticed a few small duns on the water too and captured one for future id. It turned out to be a pale watery dun. 

pale watery dun.

The nearest I had was a small grey-olive parachute which went on and after a couple of casts the fish took it as everything came together however it wasn't to be as it took off and under something on the large rock and then continued downstream. Needless to say it was goodbye to him but I call these moral victories!

Unfortunately I didn't have any other flies like this so put on a size 20 yellow bodied emerger as I have had reasonable success in the past when you can't really make-out what they are taking. After a couple of passes "jaws", a large rainbow, put in an appearance and took. After a struggle he got his freedom without me getting him anywhere near close to me.  Another wild brownie came to hand to the emerger before I decided to start moving upstream as the light was beginning to go. I noticed a few fish taking the mayfly spinners caught in the surface film so switched to my old faithful again. I immediately started to hook up with some lovely wild browns as I made my way towards the cricket pitch. 

David had got to the top of the cricket pitch pool now and had been successful which is always good to hear for your guests. I followed him up again taking some more lovely wild browns plus a rather erratic blue rainbow.  It was interesting to note that all the brown trout were wild as they come and no stocked browns and only the 2 rainbows. I think the wild fish know that mayfly tastes good and are not afraid of them.  It always takes the fish a few days for all the fish to completely switch on to the mayfly. 

We ended the evening around 10 with fish still rising but the temperature beginning to drop. Getting or rather stumbling out of the river in the darkness was interesting!

The Mayfly Have Started

I finally managed to get out for only the 2nd time this season due to family illness. I had arranged to meet Derek at the works so we could go down to the gully where the sun would cast a shadow over the pool. It was an unusually warm day and when we met around 2pm the mayfly were starting to hatch off sporadically.  We ambled down to the gully but I decided to go beyond the deer boom as this is a good place to watch the mayfly hatching and I was after some video of a fly hatching. Unfortunately there were not the numbers yet so maybe in a couple of days I will get my shots. I tackled up with a mayfly nymph just below the deer boom and noticed a fish in the margin so a quick flick and tweek of the nymph brought the fish up and of course I struck way too soon! The fish wasn't touched and returned to the bottom so again I flicked the nymph out and again he came up and yes gain I struck too soon but I think he must have felt something as he sloped off into the depths. Mayflies were drifting off but it is still a few days too early for them I think, according to my fishing diary. Hopefully this week will be better as I have each afternoon off so watch this space!

Looking up towards the deer boom from Bar Brook

I didn't get anything from this area so wandered down to Bar Brook, here a few more fish were showing but  not to mayfly. There were also a few yellow may duns coming off but I have yet to see a fish take one on the Derwent, I know other people take fish on them elsewhere also but not here. Lots of other small flies and duns were also hatching so off came the nymph and on went a IOBO cdc. Something which Dave Southall had tied during the close season at one of the grayling evenings. I noticed a fish rise several times and covered it with this and blow me up he came and had it. I struck into a lovely brown which was eventually netted.

A lovely brown to  IOBO cdc

Below  the brook I watched numerous mayflies hatch in the run on the far side and suicidally float past a number of fish which had risen to small stuff but let these by so this convinced me that they have yet to get the taste for them.
A mayfly floated past which was obviously having trouble casting the shuck away as can be seen below so I gave it a helping hand but it's wings were deformed so that wasn't going anywhere!

Stuck shuck emerger

Nothing down for you I'm afraid!

  

 By now I could feel the sun making it's mark on me so I decided to wander back towards the deer boom where some shade would be forthcoming and on the way picked up a decent rainbow.

Derek was ensconced in the willow pool and  I was given a masterclass in upstream nymphing where he caught and released 6 fish in probably 10 minutes! We called it a day as it was definitely an evening rise evening to be out and maybe we had fished at the wrong time of day, for me at least!
Roll on this week!