The Dove rewards me with a 2lb1oz male dogger...

Had a spare hour today after doing a job for fellow angler Guy, i decided to have a nip down to dovedale to see what conditions were like, the car park was empty and i felt i had the place to myself which is very rare, i took a quick look at the river which was pushing through very hard but clearing up nicely..

I thought i would wet a line just to help with my fishing addiction, its strange how a hours fishing can sort me out and stop me 'ratlin' as the heroin addicts say!!

I went with a three fly set up and walked my way up the stretch fishing runs that looked to hold fish, the water was really pushing through and i had to put a real heavy tungsten hairs ear on to get it to the bottom, i have seen JT put some nymphs on that hit the water like a gun shot, i remember thinking someone was shooting at us until i realized it was him casting!!!

I walked to the top and fished my way back down, catching three out of season browns, its strange as i get a sunken feeling when hooked out of season fish, at one time i would be grateful of any fish but i suppose i have learnt much over the last few seasons and i get no satisfaction of taking a trout when i am after the Grayling..

I was literally on my last few casts of the day and i was trundling my tungsten down the pebbles feeling every vibration down the rod when the line stopped, i had been striking at these all day to only feel a stone, but i felt that special 'bump' of a fish that only anglers know the feeling, the fish headed right down the fast rifle thumping the rod tip, i have been taught how to play these fish by JT and it has landed me loads more fish, i was doing fine until i saw a huge silver flash and the good length of this fish, i knew i was into a slab and i started to do all the wrong things for a second until i kicked my self back into landing mode, the fish was heading down stream for the bottom of the pool and down into the next pool so i was sure to loose this fish, i grit my teeth and give it full side strain waiting for that ping of the line but the fish started to swim upstream hugging deep to the bottom, the fish now came just under the surface swimming up the current nice and smooth with me giving it enough pressure to stop the hook pull, then something i have heard about, a huge red dorsal of the fish came sailing through the surface, i then new it was a proper clunker!! the net came out, i swung it across and straight into the net then a big sigh of relief...

I thought it had taken my point fly but on unhooking, it had taken my JT pink shrimp on the dropper...i weighed it in my mcleans net and it just creeped 1oz over 2lb...

I had not taken my camera so had to make do with a few pics from my phone, the fish was a old male dog that had scars from battling over the years and a torn mouth from some nob using big barbed hooks and torn out, luckily the mouth had healed and did not effect the fish....

I returned the fish and held it upstream for a few mins and it slowly drifted off back to its hold...

At this time a year its great to have any Grayling but a clunk from a very hard river is buzzin..

I will put this down as a pb but i did have a huge fish on the dry last year while guesting the Dove that was much bigger than this, i have a photo on a previous blog post...

Since my recent blank on the Tweed this was a reward for my hard efforts there, a blank is good for the soul, but the good thing about fishing is you always get another chance, and today i did..

My next outing will be with Woody on the centre pins stick fishing for Grayling and chub with the maggots, a method i have done on the rivers for years that i will enjoy a dabble at....

Nice one

Glen