Silly Old Moo

A day off work and time on my hands so a drive around Derbyshire starting with the Dove where the mayfly were thin on the ground with little rising so I ventured further a field to the Manifold(below). On arrival there were a trickle of Mayfly with a few splashy takes but nothing to write home about here either. I tackled up and fished for a few hours and although as always I thoroughly enjoyed my time here, I only had 3 stockies (below)for my efforts, a little disappointing really but that's fishing folks. I decided with time to spare I'd drive over to the Derwent for the triple whammy and fish the evening at Willersley.

Willersley Castle

Following that DCAC tradition of peering over that bridge upstream there was definitely progress with plenty of mayfly, well compared to the Dove and Manifold anyway and with a few rises I felt more optimistic. I carried my extra bag with my kelly stuff as I'd decided I was doing more observing tonight, therefore plenty of brews will be enjoyed so the 2 bottles of water were heavy but sitting on the riverbank can be thirsty work.

I picked of a few trout on the way upstream like this handsome devil (below) which unlike the brute before him who'd pulled me into the fast water and snapped me off, came to my hand with a little risky bullying. The fish seemed to be holding in the powerful fast shallow water at the tail end of the pools which was a real test for anyone to land but nobody said it was easy.

I walked up to Masson Mill to search for anything rising and plonked my brew bag on the bank and thought I'd fish the bend before a few cups of tea. I didn't have any success here so after a while decided on several cups of tea was in order. I turned around to witness a gang of cows giving my brew bag a good treading then nosing it around before another stomping.

I clambered out of the river shouting obscenities eventually getting them to scarper as I got close and my bag was crushed and covered in cow snot. I checked inside hoping my kelly still resembled the shape it was before getting mugged and to my surprise it was perfick. To my disappointment the sons of bitches had exploded my 2 pints of milk everywhere which ruined my chances of a brew, talk about Cravendale being so good the cows wanted it back. Eventually I managed to console myself after shouting a few more obscenities and got on with the task at hand catching fish but they followed me all night, I'm sure I heard the odd giggle as they carried on goading me.

My biggest surprise of the night was this chub taken on mayfly and he gave a good account of himself and had me completely fooled until he surfaced.

I eventually noticed a lively pool late on with mayfly spinners getting walloped everywhere, this was it, my mayfly season had begun in this intense little area for no no doubt a culmination of reasons that I won't try to explain. I was catching every other cast and all decent fish, of all sizes. It was one of those sessions that leave you exhausted, once you wake up from the duffers dream that is. I'm my Ltd experience I have noticed different rivers do better annually than others and they seem to take it in turns and I predict the mayfly on the Derwent have not been this good for 4 years but I suppose being in the right place at the right time had something to do with it, needless to say I struck while the iron was hot, finishing with this fine fish below as night fell, and to save what little dignity left in me, I will only say I caught plenty.

Its been raining all night so lets hope it doesn't have a negative effect on the mayfly season and I wish you all an equal experience to mine last night.