Darley Dale

Arrived around 3pm on this hot summers day and walked the stretch to find a few rises but pretty quiet in general. The Derwent was at a good height considering the difficult wading here and the water was 85% clear. I managed to take a couple of rising trout with my Fandango fly which has taken most of my fish on dry lately and proved effective on the Derwent.




The Mayfly seemed poor on the Derwent this year, however there was a small hatch yesterday probably the best trickle I've seen on the Derwent this year. Early evening was met with some crashing rises and I managed to take advantage of a few aggressive little buggers and 1 or 2 lunkers as well. I noticed that the dreaded Himalayan Balsam had taken hold along the banks and shall contact relevant clubs as dealing with it now will be relatively easy to control at this stage with a working party.

This trout above really tried to shake off the Fandango making a nice picture we are all familiar with. Below shows a couple of bigger trout, especially Billy Bunter in the bottom picture who came crashing out of the tail end of a pool with an audience of small boys - I like being a hero.