16/08/2023 - Summer trotting part IV (yet more dace)

Just spent a relaxing two weeks at the in-laws place in rural France, eating cheese and baguette and the odd punnet of snails, drinking wine and just dossing about. The "neighbours" were certainly varied this year - we had redstarts in the garage, lesser horseshoe bats in the barn, roe deer in the back field, bumble bees and lizards in the walls, honey bees in the chimney and dormice in the roof. However, the buddleia in the garden kept us entertained for hours with the huge variety of butterflies and moths it attracted, including scarce swallowtails, southern white admirals, silver streaked fritillaries, hummingbird hawk moths and broad banded bee hawkmoths.  Even managed to get some half-decent pictures with the iphone (along with many more blurred ones!).

Unfortunately it was all over too soon and it was time to make the seventeen hour journey back home - not quite the same as the outward journey that had been full of excitment and anticipation!  

Hadn't bothered taking any fishing tackle on holiday with me this time due to my complete failure to even buy a bite on the local River Charente last time, so I was ready to get my string pulled again. Lasted all of two days back at work before I decided to have an early finish and head off for a few hours on the Derwent. Had just the one swim in mind from my previous visit - the one that had involved a scramble down a near vertical, ten foot high bank. However, I was better prepared on this occasion with a bank spike and a length of rope as I very nearly didn't make it back up last time! Timed my arrival at the car park just as another angler was opening the gate and had a quick chat as we both got kitted up. He'd just come down for a couple of hours with the float rod as well, but opted for one of the more comfortable swims near the footbridge while I headed upstream for a spot of abseiling. 

With the crops in the fields now harvested there was a distinct "end of summer" feeling. The banded demoiselles, so prevalent last time, had also disappeared and there was just a few dragonflies hawking up and down like police helicopters patrolling the local estate. Arrived at the swim and sorted out the bank spike and rope before sliding down into the river, getting showered by seeds from the Himalayan balsam as I did so. 

The decision to go fishing had co-incided with a warm, sunny day with virtually no wind for a change and I'd already got a bit of a sweat on walking up, so it was nice to feel the relative cool of the river through the waders. 

Got into the usual routine of trickling in a few loose maggots whilst running the float down the nearside crease and it wasn't long before the first of many, chunky dace came to hand, all like peas in a pod. Tucked down under the bank I was in my own little world and for the next couple of hours I was kept busy, adding bleak, chub and grayling to the mix. As the bites eventually started slowing down I gave it one last cast before calling it a day and had another of those pristine, elusive Derwent roach that keep tantalising me. It was at that stage that I realised that I'd lost the pawl out of my centrepin and so couldn't engage the drag. Briefly had a look around my feet to see if I could spot it on the bottom before giving it up as a lost cause and finding a piece of stick that I could push through the reel housing to stop it rotating as I clambered back up the bank. Luckily, upon returning home I was able to cannibalise an old fly reel for a perfect replacement, so it was panic over. 

Off to Wales next week, so probably won't have time to fit in another session on the rivers, but will be looking forwards to chasing some bass and wrasse instead!