Ecclesbourne

I decided to walk the whole venue today and then crawl my way back to the car. I made sure to keep well away from the waterside to ensure that I didn't spook any fish, making the return leg a blank before I even started fishing. The Ecclesbourne is a lovely little stream in appearance, however, on my last walk I only spotted one fish so I hoped things had improved along with the weather.
I reached the end with the stone bridge and like a ninja, I crept very slowly into the river keeping low and quiet. The atmosphere was electric, and the target was to fish stealthier than ever before, I used the 3 casts to 1 step method which soon had me trickling upstream. I decided to use my 9ft 4# Bloke as I'm not keen on small rods and breaking my 9ft Sage under the canopy was never going to be an option.


I noticed loads of Large Dark Olives (picture below) hatching and slowly watched them downstream until out of sight. After a while I must say I became a little disheartened, and remaining in the zone was proving difficult, especially with nothing rising to these LDO's when fish have gone mad for these at other venues lately. I tried pausing now and then, hiding behind trees, just hoping and praying to see something move but it just wasn't going to happen.

I kept on trying all the way upstream to below the wier - and still without so much as a sniff of anything. I had tried to match the olives with Kites Imperial, Grey Duster, Beacon Beige and F-Fly, but the river appeared fishless today and I couldn't tempt a donkey with a carrot. The highlight of the day was a close up of a Kingfisher, which didn't give me time to sort my camera - so no picture I'm afraid. I must admit to wondering what it's diet consists of, as the river seemed empty of fish. There is also a lot of silt build up, and no matter how gentle you place your feet, a red cloud spreads slowly upstream and down until its the size of Hiroshima.

I decided to take a rest and boil up some Ringtons tea, and noticed there was a lot of restoration going on, people had been working hard to bring this river alive, providing loads of habitat and hidy holes for the trout about to be stocked. I took this picture below which clearly shows the important things needed for a day flyfishing on the river. I made a few more casts as I made my way back to the car, then checked the returns in the check in box (sod all), needless to say I will not return, unless I hear good reports from other members who have caught (a) fish.