Darley Dale

I fished Darley Dale with our kid this afternoon and as I expected, it was coloured and was a fraction high, but thats probably me being finicky. The sun was shining for most of the day which justified the T-shirt only policy, although when I dribbled over my waders a little, I wondered if I'd made a good choice. We had 2 lots of canoes come through today, but they showed some respect for us fishing, happily following where I wanted them to go, mind you I do resemble a hippo once in the river, and I suppose they didn't want drowning. The fishing was excellent with plenty of fish taken on dries and nymphs with a few bigger fish showing themselves, like the ones pictured below. Both of these fish proved a handful taking me straight downstream, so gently working them back through the strong riffle/current below was tense to say the least, especially with all my fly line out, but luckily they didn't pop off and came to say hello.

This brown below had a huge tail worthy of any fish that swims in the Derwent and explained the tussle landing it.

The brown below looked as old as the hills around us, this was truly a specimen right down to its amazing butter yellow colourings and stunning markings, not to mention a decent kype which I swear bit me as I cradled it in my arms like a baby.

This venue has proved to be a great stretch of river of late, holding a few beauties that would stand against anywhere on its day. We really are lucky to be fishing these venues around Derbyshire so looking after and respecting them is off paramount importance.