Derbyshire Wye fly fishing dry fly only...'perfect'

 

I had Tim Roberts one of the Islay lads on my case to take him for some river dry fishing, there was no other place I could show him some class fish other than the Derbyshire Wye..

This place is a hunting ground for me two seasons ago and I got to know many spots like the back of my hand, the place taught me how to match the hatch like no other....

I have always kept in touch with the river keeper Jan Hobat who always keeps me updated on how the wye is fishing and was buzzing when he told me that the hatches were high and the fish very looking up all over the river.

I met Tim at the sheep wash bridge, a absolute cracking spot to take a newcomer to show him the crack.

I did notice that the river bed had changed since my last visit and my old favorite pools had disappeared and new ones appearing so I was quite refreshed to find this new river!!

My plan was to not fish until I had sorted Tim out....Tim is a accomplished fly angler taking the plunge into rivers, it was going to be easy for me to guide him into the 'flow'

His first 3 fish turned out to be a grayling,wild brown trout and a wild rainbow trout all caught on a dry fly, wow what a perfect start...

It was now time for me to pick up my rod and go looking for fish....gone are the days where I will flog a river to death trying to catch huge amounts of fish, I find looking out for a hard rising fish and test my skills against it, that's what I love these days...

Pearing through a overhanging tree I saw a 2lb plus wrt holding in the fast flow a foot below the surface...she wasn't in water like that having a break and I waited and watched and before long she rose to a fully emerged blue winged olive..that's when my adrenaline kick in as i reach for my fly box...

A downstream cast was my only option and Tim and myself creeped behind a tree into position... My first cast supprisingly landed a foot to the left of the rising fish and sailed down drag free, the fish saw it and followed it all the way across and sipped it down cool as.... A short sharp strike and the fish was taken out of its calm feeding mode and shot into life jumping 3 ft in the air shaking its head,, ping the line went slack and my fly shot out.... I looked at Tim and his eyes were wide open shaking! 'that's what we get on this river mate' ...

Oh he was buzzing and so was I... It was good to be back...

In the evening I met up with rid regulars Trugg and Richard, they might be a year older than when I last saw them but they were still buzzing as we all looked into the air to see millions of different fly life all with sex on there mind!!!

We all set off to different spots, I choose one right down the section of town that has really give me some headaches over the years, I love it this way, rock hard fishing where you have to test your skills to the max,...

Tim set off down stream and i just sat on the beach pool looking...if there was every a tip I could give do not go rushing into a pool until you have seen what's going on...it's a good job I did as looking into the pool for a good ten mins I had worked out what was happening, quite mind blowing really.......

At the rear of the pool there were Grayling rising at the back end that looked to be taking tiny chromids, further into the faster water there were rainbows walloping pale watery Duns, and rightnt the top of the pool there was a brown trout that again was ignoring the pale wateries but smutting on dead diffiting chromids... This might sound mental but I have seen this happen so many times on this river, there is so much food around the fish will lock onto different patterns and only be yards apart!!! Casting the wrong fly will have you going home beaten...

If there is any fishing I love it's grayling on the dry fly, there is no other fish that can drive you to insanity, but there are good reasons for this that I will write in a future post...matching the hatch to a grayling in flat slow water is top draw stuff and if you are taking them you are certainly presenting correctly...

I decided to leave the head of the pool and have a crack at the grayling, this went down superbly as I took a few 1lb ladies of the stream.. In the corner of my eye I could see this brown starting to rise every five seconds and as the light was drawing I knew it was time...

Problem....

Two pools meeting eachother and the fish was rising in a flat spot on the far side!! Basically it's a nightmare of a pool and I had only a few chances before I put the fish down... Browns are not forgiving and one in this spot was obviously in the king spot of the pool so I knew it was gonna be that bit special....

First cast I always gets a feel and land it well short to get my casting bearings, never just try and hit first time unless you are a wizard at casting... I did thins a got a 100 mph scate with my fly!!!

Next one a bit further over with a slack line and the next one landed in the zone... I held my breath as it just fluttered about in its 300mm feeding zone!!! A pair of lips popped out with no effort and engulfed my size 22 midge...proper heart in the mouth stuff.... I paused and then smashed into this fish with no messing about...that amzing feeling when u feel the rod loop around.... Oh my god this fish went absolutely mental, like no other brown I have ever hooked, it gave me the feeling of a hook virgin... She jumped clean out the water twice as I struggled to get her under control... Then starting powering for the roots with deep runs... I really give this fish the full beans as it was proper agressive....

Tim came running over as I slipped the net under the angry brown

Lifting the net I saw the most amazing brown trout to have ever been in my net and I was as proud as punch..

The whole event of catching this fish was what I love about fly fishing...dry fly fishing to a rising fish in a food lane...in my mental world of fly fishing this is the real deal....

Can you imagine catching this fish using nymphing techniques? Boring!!!!!

Ltd

Glen

 

 

Glen Pointon 07973951352