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

First Outing of the Grayling Season

It was a glorious morning here in the Peak District today so I decided to leave the garden tidy-up and go fishing. I went over the road at 1.30 and started off with a size 16 grey klink but with the white post it was difficult to spot amongst the foam so I changed to one with a pink post. This was easier to spot and after a couple of drifts down some likely looking runs I landed my first grayling of about 10". Following another couple of drifts along the same run I took another slightly larger grayling, things were looking good. I was thinking maybe there could be a few more in this run but following another few drifts nothing came so I decided to put on size 20 ptn attached to 18" of tippet off the bend of the klink. I fished up another couple of runs before my 3rd grayling took the ptn this was a better one and I measured it at 13". Again after another cast or two I landed another grayling probably 10-11". 4 grayling in 30 minutes was a result. I decided to move downstream to just above the new bridge and fished there for 30 minutes where I hooked a further 4 grayling but did not manage to touch them so didn't count. I called it a day just after 3 as the cold water was getting through to me. All in all a very pleasant afternoon!

Fisherman's Evening

Last evening it was the annual get together of the Chatsworth syndicate where we usually meet friends old and new. After a brief resume of news about the fishery from Charlotte we were treated to a delicious chicken casserole before an interesting presentation from the guest speaker who this year was no other than John Tyzack. One comment by John during his presentation was that he thought that the Derbyshire Derwent was predominantly a grayling river and the trout were maybe the secondary species. Discussion also took place as to why the majority of grayling caught on this stretch seemed to be up to a maximum of 1.5 -1.75 lbs. and that other rivers in the area, notably the Wye and Dove tended to produce larger specimens, I have been fortunate to land a grayling pushing 4lb (all 21" of it) from the Dove when I fished it on Leek and District back in the mid nineties. However I digress! Following a healthy question and answer session it was left to us to chat amongst ourselves about how our season had been and looking forward to the grayling and subsequently next year. I met quite a few fisherman who tend to hang up their rods during the winter and give the fish a well deserved respite! Needless to say I am not one of them and enjoy those crisp winter days when the sun shines and the odd fly hatches to be gobbled down by one of the numerous grayling which inhabit our stretch. The grayling are well spread throughout the whole length of the river so it is rare to not get amongst them, you just have to move if you start hooking out of season trout. Matthew tells me he is still going to be feeding the trout during the close season and I am convinced that this helps them to survive through the winter and be in tip top condition come the beginning of April. This may broach some comment/discussion on the merits of feeding but I just say that the evidence at the start of the season justifies the means. As I write this it is raining here in Baslow but hopefully the river will be ok for an hour or two on Sunday.

Sunday 3rd October

We spent a lovely week with family and friends on the Llyn peninsular last week, glorious weather too but no fishing! I did check-out the local tackle shop in Abersoch to find out if there were any marks for saltwater flyfishing for future reference. I was told that the weekend was probably the last tide when the bass would be in due to a high tide and lower water temperatures so the sandeels would be disappearing. I have acquired some tying materials for tying pike and saltwater patterns so I will be tying some up during the winter. Anyway we got home on Sunday afternoon so Mrs Baslowfisher suggested that as I had been a good boy why don't I go fishing. A quick call to Derek to find out how last week had been and he had had some good sessions with a black beetle. So off I toddled off down to the works and decided on the willow pool but unfortunately someone had got there first so I went upstream. I got in just above the sycamore and cast my black beetle to a few rises and soon had a solid take from a decent brown. There were quite a few fish showing but I could not make out to what, there was nothing definite about. So I persisted with the beetle and soon took another brown followed by a blue. Things were looking promising! I worked my way slowly upstream the sunshine alternating showers. I ended up taking another couple of browns and blues taking my tally to 7 fish in a couple of hours. The rain came and the rises more or less finished, as I wandered back to the car I contemplated whether it would be the last outing of the trout season or could I manage another 1.............. 

Thursday 15th September

I went down to Beeley late afternoon at 1700. I fished the pool above the hut but nothing much was showing so I switched to a pale olive fsn and took probably the smallest fish ever, a minnow all of 2.5 inches! A few olives started to show but still only the occasional fish showed, I covered a small rise with a dry pale olive parachute and I watched the fish come up straight for it and took. After what seemed like an age, I struck into a decent grayling which came to hand. I moved to the pool below the hut and again rises were few and far between. Those that did rise were ever so gentle sips. I still had on my pale olive parachute and covered what I thought was a small fish but connected with a good brown pushing 1.5 lbs. Yet again I was deceived by the rise as I was sure it was only a small fish! This was followed by a couple of long range releases before bringing another 2 browns in. Certainly a difficult couple of hours but I am sure we are getting towards the time when evening fishing is almost done for another year. What happened to our summer and warm balmy evenings!

Derwent Coloured

Thursday 8th September
Following the recent rain I had hoped it had freshened up the Derwent so I decide to go down to the willow pool for an hour or two. The river was slightly coloured but not too much to prevent the odd cast. I waited a few minutes to see if there were any fish moving but there was only the odd one here and there. I noticed a constant riser under the first tree so made a note of where the rise was and eased my into the tail, again the fish showed so I cast my size 20 yellow klink about a yard above the rise and I watched him come up slowly to engulf the fly.......wait....wait...strike and its on! It was a decent grayling knocking a pound a great start! Rises as I said were few and far between and they were those slow head and tail slurps. There was nothing definite on the surface only the odd sedge and I did notice a few very pale olive type flies probably pale wateries of some sort. I covered a few other fish but nothing. There was a riser on the far side beneath the cover of a branch but by some deft side casting I managed to drop my fly above but it was ignored several times so my thinking being that its after something else. I changed flies several times but fortunately the constant casting failed to put it down, in the end I put a small rusty over it and it decided to have it! A lovely brown but I am sure I've caught it before in this pool as it has a missing pectoral fin! Obviously a stock fish but each of the other fins and tail were perfect together with the lovely red spots so some stock fish do look good. That was it for the evening as I had to be home by 7.30 as it was our 'dance' night!

Friday 9th September

As I hadn't been down to Beeley for ages I decided to pay a visit to the area around the hut. Unfortunately due to the overnight rain the river had maybe come up another inch or two but had coloured up considerably, to be honest I should have turned around and gone home but as I was here then I may as well have cast. The pool above the hut has some fast water were I thought the clarity maybe better. Rises were conspicuous by their absence to say the least. Leaves and other autumnal detritus were being brought down however on the hut side there is a nice run which usually has a fish or two as I remember a few years back fishing with Bill when he trundled a nymph down the run early season a ended up with a cracking rainbow. Anyway I digress but unfortunately I put a dry down the run and a nymph but nothing. however I was taken aback by the dipper which was no more than 10 feet away busily trying to find his dinner in the margins! I then noticed a small rise in the fast water at the head so changed my nymph for my small yellow klink and after a couple of casts had a take and landed a grayling as below. The sweetest thing you could see and one of the smallest I have ever taken. Its encouraging to know that the river is still as clean as can be following the previously pollution from the mine in Stoney Middleton.

I finished of with a cast or two in the pool below the hut with a caddis and took another daft brown. Not a brilliant hour or two but at least I got out.