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Post by Hoppy on Oct 12, 2007 20:22:03 GMT -1
Had my first trip to the hallowed water of the River Dove today, in the Derbyshire Countryside. It promised to be a great day, overcast, mild with a good hatch! On the first beat i only managed a 4 inch fish! Moved further upstream to another beat, it looked perfect.... Within minutes we had seen some cracking fish, including some real biggies and some huge brown trout! The hatch was amazing, i actually saw a Mayfly! As well as Sherry spinners, sedges, olives, pale waterys, big yellow things (yellow mayflys?) - plus loads of other things - needle flies? There was so much life i think it put the fish off, as i had about 5 offers to the dry all day, managing only one fish What was interesting was the size of the fish - i saw a dead brown that had been carefully peeled by an otter, if this fish was in the river, it would have been a conservative 5-6lbs! Perhaps winter or spring will be better. Hoppy
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Post by davepurslow66 on Oct 16, 2007 9:18:21 GMT -1
Hoppy, which stretch did you fish? I was down there in summer and got talking to the bailiff, he wasn't a happy chappy because of the whey discharge that the cheese factory in Hartington (just downstream of the 'Charles Cotton' pub) are being allowed to pump into the river. I was on the Beresford Dale stretch and the water just looked like cloudy milk. Then had a trip down to Dovedale on the Izacc Walton hotel stretch. too many walkers on the bankside spooking the fish but the water clarity was better.
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Post by Hoppy on Oct 16, 2007 15:02:53 GMT -1
Dave,
I was fishing a stretch below Mayfield.
I'd be interested to find out how to get to fish the Dovedale water, it would be a type of haj for me..
Hoppy
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Post by davepurslow66 on Oct 17, 2007 7:38:49 GMT -1
Hoppy I'm pretty sure that the majority of the Dovedale stretch is controlled by Leek Flyfishers, however if you stay at the Izaac Walton Hotel in Ilam you can fish a stretch of the right hand bank which they control.
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Post by sewinbasher on Oct 17, 2007 12:38:47 GMT -1
Hoppy,
Keep an eye on the WTT Auction as they often have a day on the Dovedale water as a lot donated by Leek & District FF. I won it two years ago and had a great day taking about a dozen fish of up to 14".
Davepurslow is right about the number of walkers, I'm told up to 1m per annum, but I found that they had no effect on the trout rising as, when you think about it, they would starve if walkers put them off. I did however find it a bit uncomfortable having to watch over my shoulder all the the time.
I found fish rising perfectly happily as walkers passed by and they seemed completely oblivious to them and this also meant that you could get closer to a rising fish than you might otherwise expect but they were extremely choosy with presentation and you have to watch your backcast all the time because of the walkers until you get up into the section where the footpath leaves the river bank for a while.
The Compleat Angler series with Geoffrey Palmer featured a programme on the Dovedale water and is worth a look if you have Sky.
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Post by davepurslow66 on Oct 19, 2007 17:48:24 GMT -1
Sewinbasher, you can get the Compleat Angler (yes they do spell it that way) Series with Geoffrey Palmer on DVD in a set from "The Works" bookshops, like you say it has a very good section where they fish the Dove. I really fancy having a go on the Derbyshire Wye that runs through the Haddon Estate, for the wild Rainbows. The Peacock Hotel in Rowlsley does day tickets at £30 to £60 dependent on which month you choose to fish it.
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Post by sewinbasher on Oct 20, 2007 8:43:11 GMT -1
Sewinbasher, you can get the Compleat Angler (yes they do spell it that way) Series with Geoffrey Palmer on DVD in a set from "The Works" bookshops, like you say it has a very good section where they fish the Dove. I really fancy having a go on the Derbyshire Wye that runs through the Haddon Estate, for the wild Rainbows. The Peacock Hotel in Rowlsley does day tickets at £30 to £60 dependent on which month you choose to fish it. I've fished the Peacock water several times and although it's very nice it can be difficult towards the end of the season as the C&R makes fish wary and the rules of the fishery severely limit your choice of patterns. There are also many places where you are going to be fishing with an audience although to be fair there are other places which are nice and quiet. The hotel is excellent if a tad expensive and has a really nice Sunday lunch. I prefer the Wye a little further upstream which is very quiet and less burdened by silly rules. With regard to the Dove the PAAS stretch at Mayfield is typically PAAS in that parts of it are very good but quite a bit of it is crap. The top 200 metres are really nice with trout to 16" and even bigger grayling. On a good day there are excellent fly hatches and the fish are willing risers. A few years ago it was plagued by tiny escapee rainbows but these seem to have disappeared in recent years. I had an hour or so there last season and caught ten grayling to just over 16" and four trout to 15" on a combination of dries and light bugs all in the top 100 metres of the water. By the way I read somewhere that "Compleat" on the title page was a spelling mistake, Walton intended Complete and in all other parts of the book it is spelt correctly, but the mistake was left in.
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Post by davepurslow66 on Oct 22, 2007 16:16:22 GMT -1
Sewinbasher, that's very helpful, thank you have you ever fished the River Lathkill around Cronksbury near Youlgreave or is it all tied up by the Haddon estate? Any day stretches?
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Post by sewinbasher on Oct 22, 2007 16:54:02 GMT -1
Sewinbasher, that's very helpful, thank you have you ever fished the River Lathkill around Cronksbury near Youlgreave or is it all tied up by the Haddon estate? Any day stretches? From what I know about access to the Lathkill, and it's not much, you will find it almost impossible to get a day ticket, your best shot is to watch for a lot in one of the charity auctions like the WTT.
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Post by davepurslow66 on Oct 23, 2007 15:38:53 GMT -1
Will do, thanks very much
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