Since the end of October the grayling fishing on the club water has been a bit of a non starter, despite good numbers of grayling in the river compared to previous years. The problem has been the persistent and heavy rain that has been the biggest feature of this winters weather. For me it has curtailed my fishing but mercifully that is the extent of its impact, many others have not been so lucky. Our river tends to hold its colour for a long time after rain and with the grayling population being patchy a days grayling fishing in anything other than clear water conditions can be a frustrating one. After a frustrating November and December we started to look further afield for opportunities.
This search took Ben and I to Derbyshire to fish the Dove on the 17th of January. The date is notable only because it just happened to be the day that we had our only significant snowfall of the winter in our part of the world. The Dove in the snow is a sight to behold, the black water snaking its way through a white wonderland.
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| The Dove in the snow |
You can fish 3 miles (single bank) of the Dove on a day ticket from the Izaak Walton hotel for the princely sum of £20 during the grayling season. Great value especially on hallowed ground such as this.
We both caught fish in the morning, Ben managing more grayling whereas the trout seemed to like my offerings, I did manage one nice grayling, saving a technical blank (trout don't count in January of course). Ben caught a particularly nice grayling which I failed to capture on film, I did manage a a few shots and short video of him playing and landing it though (video on Ben's blog).
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| Ben playing a large fish of about 1 1/2 lb, Dove grayling are hard fighting, this one made several runs and took line off the reel |
By the afternoon the snow was melting and as well as dripping down the back of my neck made the water temperature drop and the fish went off. Still, what better way to blow the cobwebs away and we both left feeling satisfied at having braved the conditions and caught some fish.
I unexpectedly found myself back on the Dove only a week later. Eliot and I had long planned to go down to fish the Frome on the Casterbridge Fisheries beats hoping to be able to sight fish for big grayling, but the winter weather was to win again. I spoke to John Aplin, the keeper, a few days before we were due to travel and the river was in flood, even nearby beats that allow trotting were unfishable so even our contingency plans were off the cards and we decided not to go. John's honest assessment of the conditions saved us a long wasted journey, thanks John! We still wanted to fish though and after a quick chat with Glen Pointon he advised that the Dove would clear quickly and be fishable on the weekend. We booked a cheap B&B, packed our gear and headed off for two days fishing.
We arrived late afternoon on the Friday so decided to head to the river to look at the conditions before going to the B&B. The river was pushing through but clear enough to fish, albeit with a slight greenish tinge. We were just walking out of the car park to head upstream to explore when we bumped into Glen, who was just walking back to his van having fished a short session, he gave us some tips and generously shared a few flies from his box for us to try the next day.
The river looked very different without the snow. Having two days at our disposal we decided to walk right to the top of the beat so we could get a good sense of the river and then work downstream. Eliot started at the top limit.
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| Eliot fishing the pool at Ilam rock |
And I fished pool below. We both picked up fish quickly, Eliot finding trout and me locating a grayling.
We worked downstream during the day fishing likely pools and both contacted fish fairly regularly.
The second day was better still with the river falling further and clearing overnight. Eliot wasn't feeling too good and opted to stay in the bottom half of the beat, I walked upstream as I wanted to fish this pool again.
I'd located a decent shoal the day before and wanted another go at it as the fish were a good size and I felt there was a chance of a big fish in the faster water. I wasn't disappointed as I landed my largest fish of the trip from this pool and took 5 grayling from the run. I didn't get a clear photo but the largest grayling was around 13-14". Again we both caught good numbers of grayling and the trout were clearly hungry too as we caught 2 trout to every one grayling.
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| Typical Dove grayling, fit, lean and hard fighting |
The next few weeks saw no opportunities to fish, which brings me back to daydreaming, if you'll allow me a short digression. At the beginning of February I attended a meeting for work at Ironmongers Hall in the City of London. This was a 3 day affair requiring my full attention and absolutely no distractions. Unfortunately the organisers choice of venue was to bring my mind squarely back to the Dove and the grayling and away from the job at hand. At coffee on the first morning, when I happened to look up, imagine my surprise when I saw this stained glass window.
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| Stained glass window at Ironmongers Hall in London |
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| Izaak Walton himself on the wall opposite |
On the opposite wall was a portrait of the man himself. A little research revealed that Izaak Walton was an ironmonger by trade and a member of the Ironmongers Company. Needless today the rest of the morning and a good part of the afternoon was spent thinking about fishing, especially getting back to the Dove. I imagine Izaak Walton himself spent time in those same halls daydreaming about fishing with Charles Cotton on the Dove.
This was surely a good omen for my next visit in late February. This was more of a social visit with 4 of us from the club (Ben, Steve, Eliot and Myself) fishing the hotel side and three other friends (Mike, Jon and Lester) fishing on the other bank, controlled by Leek and District AA. We went separate ways in the morning and met for lunch and a brew (Jon having brought a kelly kettle, a revelation) half way through the day. The conditions were about perfect, there having been no rain for over a week. We all caught fish and had plenty of good banter.
My day was made in the first pool I fished when this grayling took the size 18 pink shrimp I'd tied especially for the trip. The fish was in a fast run, about half way down the pool and the indicator darted away as my flies came round a large boulder, this chap was sitting out of the flow in its wake taking food items as they passed. It was a tense couple of minutes as the fish charged around in the strong flow but I eventually got the better of him and he slid into the net.
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| A sizeable Dove grayling |
In the coming weeks with an enforced break from fishing I'll surely find myself distracted by daydreams of fishing. Although this time it will be of early season trout rather than big Dove grayling..
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