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

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!