30/06/10 - River Derwent

Headed down to Draycott again. Thought I'd cracked it last week - how wrong could I be! There was one other car in the car park when I got there and I could see the occupant settled in downstream on the big bend, so I headed in the opposite direction to where I fished last week. Wasn't really expecting a fish much before dark, but it wasn't until 2320 hrs that the left hand rod finally wrapped round. Up until that point I'd spent a couple of frustrating hours without even a suicidal chub to show for my efforts, despite them trying their hardest to pull the pellets off the hair - the little beggars! Again the fish charged off downstream before doing such an abrupt about turn that I thought I'd lost it. Finally caught up with it almost under my feet where it dogged around in the deep water for a bit. Turned out to be another mint barbel of just under 6lb. They really are in good nick down there. Had a second one just under the 5lb mark within the half hour. Hung on until just after midnight in case there were a few more on the feed but, with work the following morning, that was that.