Diamond Jubilee Week-end

Friday - 1st June
My weekend started with a couple of hours in the evening down at the willow pool. The temperature wasn't great but there were loads of large spinners around all about a size 12 with grey bodies and 2 tails, ldo or olive uprights? I had on my greyolive parachute in a 14 and took a small brown. Rises were only here and there so if you covered one it wasn't definite that the fish would come up again. After a while I changed to a rusty spinner in a 14 and took another couple of browns before calling it a day.
Saturday 2nd June
My son Adam wanted a day so we decided to get onto the river quite early for me 11.00, again we went down to the willow pool. It was at this point I realised I had left my camera at home, brilliant! Adam started at the tail of the pool and soon landed a couple of rainbows, a great start as I always want him to catch fish as he rarely gets to go fishing, golf is his favourite pastime. I decided to have a chuck too whilst waiting forever for the kettle to boil and I also took a couple of browns. Only the odd mayfly was coming off at the moment but the sun was shining and we were fishing so everything was good. After a couple more fish we decided to go down to the gully pool. This pool is good when the sun is out as its sheltered by lots of trees, fish were showing here and there and by now the mayfly were coming of more frequently and the fish were taking them. We both changed to dry mayfly, the good old 1-up 1-down (Philip White's pattern). This is the pattern I use almost exclusively now when the mayfly are about, I have dabbled with other patterns but none seem to equal this for me. We both took fish as we proceeded down the pool, me first as Adam didn't have a wading staff and the bed of the river had changed since last year, still bottom clenching! I skirted around the deer boom and then got down to Bar Brook were the mayfly were only coming off here and there. It was odd that the mayfly came off in fits and starts, a good flow then nothing for 20 minutes then again for 20 minutes and so on. I reached here during one of the off spells and so went back to my mayfly nymph. First cast and a cracking rainbow of between 4 and 5 pounds resulted, not quite as big as the 6lb'er I got earlier in the week. This was followed a couple of casts later by a couple of blues in the same weight range. These took a good 10 minutes each to get in, they fought like demons and jumped like sea-trout. I spoke to Matthew about these and they had been stocked in March and were from the previous season as they had been kept in tanks over winter. By now Adam had joined me and we both continued to take fish mainly to the dry. The only problem with fishing these big mayflies is that they play havoc with your cast. I had on 3lb tippet and had to change it numerous time due to the twisting effect of the fly. It was a great afternoon fishing the mayfly however I don't think the fish were totally switched on to them as many of the newly hatched duns made it to the safety of the bushes. We finished by 1800 as the hatch finished around 1730 and we had taken over 30 fish between us. A great day.
Sunday 3rd June
Rain rain rain, a horrible day, no fishing just sat and read the paper and tied up some more mayfly nymphs. At least the rain didn't bring the river up.
Monday 4th June
I arranged to meet Derek at Bar Brook around 1400 but I was a bit late. I wandered down there but he wasn't around so I started to fish. The mayfly were hatching in droves now as the sun was out but not particularly warm. Bar Brook was spewing out brown coloured water which left a distinctive line where the 2 waters met as the Derwent only had it's usual tea coloured tinge. The hatch was more or less constant today and I took several browns all to the dry mayfly, same old pattern as before. Fish were rising in both the clear water and the colured water from Bar Brook, It's interesting to note that the coloured water wasn't putting the fish off. As Richard Walker once said "if you think the water is dirty put some in a glass and you will see how clear it is" or words to that effect. I fished till about 1630 when the hatch petered out but the same spinners as Friday were still about plus some smaller ones which I suspect were BWOs, but maybe wrong. I switched to the greyolive para again and took my last fish of the day another brown. That was 6 browns for the couple of hours which in my book ain't bad. As I made my way back I spotted Derek in the gully pool so watched him winkle out 4 fish in as many casts to his new mayfly pattern, but this is still in the development stage. He wouldn't divulge how many fish a fly has to take to make it into his box.

 Where Bar Brook enters the Derwent.

Looking up towards the deer boom from the previous shot.

Derek with one of his fish to his new mayfly pattern

Tomorrow we are going to the gardens at Chatsworth to see the rhodedendrons so no fishing but I have Wednesday off work so Derek is taking me on the Wye, I must tie up some more mayfly duns as the fish soon mash the ones I tie. Thursday and Friday afternoons it's back to the Derwent as booked them off work too!.

1st Evening Session

I decided to have a couple of hours in the park as it had been a glorious day but the heat had gone out of the evening. I went down to the cricket pitch and wandered down to the stump, another of my favourite places. There was the odd fish showing here and there and on my second or third cast with my good old rusty spinner it was taken by a lovely wild brown.

This was followed by a decent out of season grayling and another small brownie. A few spinners were about, possibly LDO spinners. I then wandered down to Mary's Bower where there were numerous fish showing. I covered a few and touched them with the same fly and then managed another couple of brownies and the twin of the previous grayling. I wasn't convinced that this is what the majority of fish were taking although there were spinners about it was not immediately obvious to what. I suspected it was something small however just as I was perusing through my flybox a couple of mayfly duns floated past I also spotted a couple of shucks so hey they are on the move! Anyway I digress, so I put on my "Nana's" fly tied klink style on a size 18 206BL, love it, I have blogged about this fly before. A small rise showed in the run in to the pool and after several passes up he came and took, wow! don't you love it when a plan comes together. It had me all over the place and eventually on the second attempt I man handled a cracking 6lb rainbow half into my net half out and ran up the bank to safety. After that anything else would be an anti climax so I packed up and went home early!

Sunday 13th May - Finally!!!!

At long last I managed to get out for a couple of hours even though it was not exactly spring-like! Since the season started every time I had the opportunity to go, the river was in flood or coloured. Anyway I decided to go down to the works where I knew there would be some respite from  the wind. There were some fish rising below the works and so I started with a large dark olive and covered a few but nothing so a quick change to a black gnat and a take from a rainbow but I soon realised it was foul hooked. I covered several more but again nothing. A small willow type fly I spotted on the surface so another change to a greyolive para ensued but still no-go. I decided to move above the works to the sycamore pool but the wind was really cruel here and the river was dead. I looked closely and below the tree the odd fish showed. I had changed again to a small black gnat and covered a rise on the far side, a good cast, but up came the fish and took. A decent brown legally hooked this time was landed and it looked like a wild one or mayube from the previous season but in exceptional condition. Soon a second fish showed and again covered and hooked, another brown similar to the last but completely different in its markings. I soon called it a day, a very chilly day at that but a decent start, as they say we're off!

1st Trip of the 2012 Season

As planned yesterday Derek took me onto the Cressbrook and Litton streatch of the Wye to share a rod with him. We went above the A6 road bridge at the bottom end. Not much was happening which was odd considering the beautiful afternoon. Derek was 1st to score with a lovely small brown then it was my turn and I quickly took 2 small browns on a dry olive prarchute, what a cracking start. Fly life was also absent but we continued with the dry. We worked our way upstream and I took another brown. On reaching a slow deep pool we changed to the good old olive FSN where I took a reasonable brown and Derek took the best fish of the afternoon  a lovely rainbow. By now it was getting towards 5 and I had to get home so we worked our way back but didn't touch another fish.
We had to sign out at the luncheon hut and blow me someone else had beaten us to the beat earlier in the day! No wonder there wasn't much happening but all-in-all a good start to the season and a lovely beat to start it on too. Thanks Derek.

Nearly There - It's been a long Winter!

I have just been over the road to feed the ducks however the fish seemed more keyed up and were beating them to the bread! What a gorgeous day, really jealous of those whose season has started but here on Chatsworth its the 1st April for kick-off. I even spotted a couple of fish rising today just below Baslow old bridge, I could feel my arm going!
Hoping to get out over the weekend with Derek on the Creassbrook & Litton stretch of the Wye as his season has started so has invited me to share a rod for a few hours, can't wait.
Am enjoying reading all your blogs of seasons first trips.
Here's to a good season to everyone.

Nearly the End of the Grayling season

Today was a lovely day especially if you had been able to get on the water, me, well we had relatives around so another weekend bites the dust. Next weekend will be my last chance so sod's law says, as it has done all season, that the opportunity I get to go fihsing and the river will be out of sorts! Fingers crossed for adecent weekend next week!
I have been doing some tying recently after watching a Craig Matthews DVD, him of Blue Ribbon Flies fame. Some comparaduns, iris caddis and sparkle caddis.

I have also tied up some black gnat type flies with a parachute hackle, hopefully these will do the business when the gnats, hawthorne flies and dark stoneflies are on the water.

Finally following the last grayling meeting I have also added some sedges in various colours.

Our season for grayling finishes on the last day of February then there is a month off before the start on the 1st April. I have sent off my membership renewal now so it is getting closer. It's been a strange grayling season this year, I have only managed 1 visit. As I said earlier whenever the opportunity was there to go the river was out of sorts. We certainly had a lot of rain before Christmas and since then a bit of snow. The levels in the Derwent are looking good and its had a good scour out with all the floods. Here's hoping everyone who is a reader of my blog has a good coming season, some of you will be starting before April so tight lines to you all.

Grayling Society Meeting and Regular Rod

It was another very entertaining evening at The Rutland Hotel in Bakewell last evening all brought together to listen and watch Regular Rod (Richard Ward) take us through his flybox and tie up some of his successful flies. These were then raffled off and won by Mr Marriot. Numerous of the patterns appear in Richards blog which is a must http://dryflyexpert.blogspot.com/. I will leave it to you to read his blog.
Thank you Richard for a good evening. BTW have just tied up a couple of the Cotton black fly, roll on the start of the season!

Snow!

I was planning to get out today as we had a fairly quiet weekend however the snow came yesterday and put a block on that so we walked into Chatsworth Park and took some photos instead!

The Hunt visits Bakewell

Went into Bakewell this morning to see the hunt pass through. This happens every Boxing Day and is a wonderful sight. Lots of people also come to support and enjoy the spectacle.

Pike Flies

I bought some materials from the Flyfair earlier this year to tie up some pike flies and have just got around to having a go. These are my first attempts which I am hoping to use over the Christmas period, whether they will catch anything is another matter! These are tied on fairly large hooks 2/0, 4/0 and 2's all Partridge Ad Swier's. I must buy some epoxy or equivalent to try making the heads as not used it before. I have seen something called EZ Sparkle body so if anyone knows if it is any good please let me know.

Names for the various attempts have not been thought of yet but will post after I have used them.

No.1.

No2.

No.3

No.4

No.5

No.6