Had a rare day in the office today as I had some scanning and printing to do, but fortuitously had wrapped everything up by mid-afternoon.
Still had the gear in the car from last week and so had chucked in the remains of my maggots on the off-chance before leaving the house, so took the opportunity to drop in on the Derwent near Draycott on the way home. Despite a brisk westerly breeze it was bright and sunny and at a balmy 8 degrees Centigrade it felt positively warm. Reckoned I had two hours of light at best, so headed upstream to the first sheltered swim in the lee of an island. Storm Jocelyn had brought yet more rain during the week and, whilst the river was fining down, it was still actually higher than when I fished it seven days ago. The main flow was therefore racing along the far bank. However, it was again far less angry and had much more of a gentler pace down the inside.
Waded out over the dead reed beds until I was stood on clean gravel and started running the float down off the rod tip. Bites were slow in coming, so doubled up the maggot on the hook to give the fish a bigger target. Also amused myself by flicking a few maggots in the direction of a beautifully marked grey wagtail bobbing up and down on what was left of the sand bank. Eventually the float buried and the hook went home with a satisfying thump causing the grayling on the end to start gyrating like mad. Again, not huge but big enough to put up some stubborn resistance in the flow. Carried on but after about an hour I had only added one more fish, so with nothing to lose and about half an hour of light left I decided to head downstream to another swim.
This was the same spot that I had failed to attract a bite in last week, but I was sure that it would hold a few fish in the conditions. Avoided the boily water at the head of the swim and moved downstream until the flow had settled into a nice, even walking pace. The sun was now low in the sky making it a bit difficult to keep track of the float in the glare on the glassy surface of the river, but not enough for me to see it disappear resulting in another feisty grayling. Seemed to have dropped on a few fish as I quickly added half a dozen more and lost one that got itself wrapped up in the hooklink, making me think I'd hooked an absolute monster. Called it a day with the best fish of the session as the sun finally disappeared below the horizon.
A couple of dog walkers came past at this point causing a bird up in the dead tree next to me to start calling in alarm, so I got out the phone and used the excellent Merlin Bird Sound ID app to identify it as a greater spotted woodpecker. Sure enough, peering throught the gloom, I eventually made him out hopping up the side of the trunk. Headed back to the car accompanied by the cackles of the fieldfares roosting high up in the riverside trees. Think this will be the pattern until the rivers and the weather settle down - short trips as and when the opportunities arise. Looking at the forecast ahead the wind definitely can do one - my pike rods hanging from the ceiling of the garage have got cobwebs on them!
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