Despite the loss of that trout I felt quite bouyed up by my last session, so when the weekend came around I decided to do some prospecting rather than play safe. Had rejoined a local club after a hiatus of fourteen years to gain access to some more sections of the Derwent. At that time grayling were pretty rare downstream of Derby and I had concentrated on the perch, catching multiple fish over two pounds up to a best of 3lb 3oz, but with them now widespread in the lower river I was keen to try some new spots.
However, on this occasion I decided to try a section just to the north of the city centre that was meant to have a track record of producing grayling in numbers. Set off nice and early along the A52 but ran into my first issue when I got there. The code for the combination lock on the gate wouldn't work and after several phone calls and WhatsApp messages I finally got through to somebody from the club who told me that they were in dispute with the landowner over access and that he had replaced their padlock (none of which had been on their website). They did direct me to an alternative access but by the time I eventually got on the bank I'd already wasted an hour. Started walking downstream until I came to a nice run that screamed fish.
Began running the float down the inside, moving progressively further out into the river. However, after 30 minutes I'd not had a sniff. Had one last trot down before stopping the float at the end of the run but when I lifted the rod I found that I'd got a fish on! Must have taken the double maggot as they lifted in the current. Gave a good account of itself all the way back, but unfortunately turned out to be an out of season spotty rather than a grayling. Carried on for a bit more, but was soon on my way again. Downstream the river was quite uniform and with tree-lined banks, so I didn't stop until I came to a big, open horseshoe bend at the bottom of the section. Again, it absolutely screamed fish with a clean gravel bottom sloping away to where the main flow raced along the far bank but with a nice, steadier current on the inside. Started working my way slowly downstream and had got over halfway around the bend before the float eventually disappeared.
Struck and thought I'd snagged bottom before I felt a couple of heavy head shakes and the Acolyte hooped round. Was clear that I was attached to big fish as it did absolutely nothing except use its weight, forcing me to slowly draw it upstream against the current, before turning and powering off and easily taking back what I'd just gained. This went on for at least ten minutes before I finally caught sight of the float. However, the fish decided to really wake up and had me frantically wading after it as it shot downstream. Caught up with it again and saw a chance of getting into some slacker water on the inside, so changed the angle of the rod to try and make it kite into the near bank. Just as it started to move in the right direction...the hook pulled out. Needless to say, I turned the air blue! Unlike the fish I lost last session where I didn't really have any control from the start, I'd lost this one just through being impatient. Took a few minutes to calm down before resuming.
About ten minutes later I repeated the trick of lifting the rod at the end of the run to find myself connected to another fish. Turned out to be another brownie that looked like it had a recent and lucky escape from the Black Death. Fished on for another half an hour but didn't have anything else after this and, having promised the wife I'd take her out to lunch, I packed up still kicking myself. Whilst I hadn't seen that lost fish I was pretty sure it was another big trout. However, it was the complete absence of any grayling that was a bit perplexing. On the way back to the car I did pass a small commercial fishing pond by the side of the river. The fact that it was criss-crossed with wires and tape perhaps told it's own story. Went home with thoughts of returning in a couple of weeks time with the fly rod and chucking around some big streamers...
No comments:
Post a Comment