Another spell of rain caused the local rivers to spike early in the week but after two days of warm, sunny weather (is it finally summer?) they were back to near normal again, so I went and got a pint of mixed from Stapleford Angling (open this time!) and headed off to the Derwent again.
The temperature was nudging 30 degrees Centigrade when I arrived at the empty carpark and I contemplated just putting on my boots and wet wading, but pulled on the chest waders in the end, still clammy from last trip. Whilst there were no other anglers on the section, the sun had brought out the local youth and I could see a group of lads tombstoning off the high bank into the big slack upstream of the island. I've often had my eye on that spot for a perch or a pike, so I stopped and had a chat with them. One was obliging enough to stand on the bottom to show me how deep it was (up to his shoulders so a good five feet) and confirm it was a gravel bottom, whereas it was soft mud closer to the bank.
Filed that away and left them to it. Carried on upstream, the vegetation either side of the path alive with banded demoiselles and various butterflies, including peacocks, meadow browns and large whites. Whilst at a decent level the river was still carrying some colour and looked quite brown in the sunlight but when I slipped into the river the clarity wasn't actually too bad. Swung out the stick float wondering if I'd get a first cast fish and a fat dace duly obliged halfway down the run. No that it continued that way as they appeared to be a bit finnicky as I subsequently missed bite after bite, some so fast and violent I felt them on the rod tip before I saw the float move, so after an hour I'd barely scraped into double figures.
Thankfully things picked up in the second hour, either because I finally got my eye or in or they were becoming more confidant, and I added a few bleak, including an absolute monster that flipped out of my hand before I could get a picture of it, a couple of "wasps" and a roach to the species tally. At one point, stood in the water shielded by a willow next to me, I could hear voices approaching from upstream. Expecting to see a couple of kayakers I was surprised by a tattooed gentlemen on a blue lilo, closely followed by another chap in a kid's inflatable boat. They were polite enough and apologised for disturbing me, not that it seemed to make any difference as I added a couple more dace before they'd drifted out of sight.
I'd got itchy feet by now anyway and soon followed them downstream to my next spot. Got the bank spike and rope out for this one, lowering myself into the water through the Himalyan Balsam and disturbing a decent fish sitting right next to the bank that shot off leaving a cloud of silt in its wake. Passed another couple of hours nailing dace after dace, with the occasional roach and chub thrown in, one of the latter with a dot of blue dye between his pectorals denoting that he'd born and raised at the Environment Agency's Calverton fish farm and was a survivor of last year's stocking. Gave my self one last cast and was in the process of reeling in yet another dace when everything went solid. Realised that the fish I'd disturbed earlier had probably been a pike and that it had just helped itself to an easy meal.
Gave it some welly with the Acolyte expecting the float to come pinging back at any moment. However, it looked as if my size 16 widegape had found a secure hold somewhere as I managed to prevent it from reaching the bushes on the far bank. After a few minutes of playing tug of war in mid-river I got it up onto the surface and into the slower water downstream of me and it looked as if I was going to win. Unfortunately after all that effort the pike had other ideas and with a last gasp dash into a clump of reeds the hooklink finally parted. Didn't bother re-tackling, but hauled myself with some effort back up the bank. Walked back to the car to find the local youths lined up on the footbridge, so waited as they all tomb-stoned off in turn.
The intrepid river adventurers from earlier were also there having now pitched a tent and got through several tinnies between them by the looks of it. Left them all to it but had got a thirst on myself, so stopped off at the local Lidl where a 5 litre keg of Budweiser Budvar caught my eye. Less than £2 a pint for 5% Czech lager (not fake Euro fizz brewed in Burton Upon Trent) - what could go wrong?
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