Willersley

Went at 5pm after work to find the fish rising well in some of the deeper tree lined stretches, due to the shallow water no doubt. I landed 7 fish all taken on Mayfly, the best a fantastic 3lb wild cock fish, no camera, gutted, suicidal and bloody typical. This fish fought like sugar Ray Leonard running rings around me, first heading for cover with his brute strength and then trying to move into the very fast water downstream,. At one point my line was snagged on my bag pack with the fish sniffing my backside, before twanging off for another round, God only knows how I landed this fish, I swear I felt like I was under attack. We all know about the lunkers lurking at the Castle and I've probably caught my fair share, but this fish was top of the bill for me at Willersley and definitely my most memorable along this stretch.

There were a mixed bag of insects around including a few mayfly and just as I took time to realise how intense my pleasure was (buzzing) seeing these huge mouths wallop my mayfly, along came the rain to put out the flames. In next to no time all but the odd rise on the far bank had stopped. I struck up a conversation with an old timer who remembered fishing the Peacock water for £12 claiming that was expensive at the time so he had to reduce his fishing to once a fortnight. He explained how he'd moved to Cromford in his retirement and had lost his fishing buddy aged 80, who'd left him some vintage tackle he was proudly using last night.

Just when you think you know it all, along comes an old chap to humble you with stories from the glory days gone by, clearly hes forgotten more than I know and we both chatted away under a tree for an hour while the rained did its best. I wasn't going to blog without pictures but decided it was a record for seasons in the future, especially improtant in the run up to Duffers.