Ellastone 'the grey duster is a killer'

The weather conditions were great today and i knew Ellastone would be a good option, arriving at half eight i walked up from the bridge to see a huge hatch going off and rises all over the river, I soon tackled up and got in amongst them, I have started to fish the slower part of Ellastone because i find it harder fishing and it gives me great satisfaction to catch there, The rises were sips with head fin and tail rises, I could see lots of black sedges hovering over the water and emerging, from my lesson i have been told that these are taking emergers, i opted for a ballon caddis, fishcake emerger!, and a small f fly, i had little slashes and managed to catch a few but lots of fish were just ignoring them, this really gets on my nerves and i am obsessed with matching the munch, I got that pissed off i put on a small hairs ear nymph and fished it two inches under the surface which got me into a very good fish, i played the fish for a good five minuites and it was giving me a right run around, i give my fish really hard hammer now as i have had trouble reviving the fish this year and try to get them in as soon as possible, this seems to have done the job. I could not get this fish near the surface and it was plodding proving i was into a good fish, I got the fish near to me and it just bolted when it saw me and dived into the weed, i waded across to try and free it but the fish had freed the hook!!, gutted! another big fish goes missing on me again, this reminds me of my barbel fishing days, hook a clunker which takes you days of stalking and baiting up only to hook it and lose it!
Well i do not fish the nymph normaly but i had to do something to get a take, but this method did not producer anything after losing taht fish, i opted to go and get my new kelly kettle going and sit and enjoy the surrounding to chill me out, i got the idea of a Kelly Kettle from Mick Martin who uses one regular, i can see why as they are a great way to have a nice fresh cup of tea and relax, i sat with squire and wood the other night and we just sat around and talked general fishing and stuff while drinking fresh coffee, Squire texted me the next day to say 'it proves there is more to fishing than catching fish' this could not be more true and nights like that are not forgotten..
I soon got back in the river and started to fish the sedge inmatations again with fish totally ignoring them, i saw a couple of olive coming off and thought of trying something different than sedge, i went for a grey duster which absolutly killed the fish!! i was taking a fish from every rises i saw, I had very good sport until the bats came out which was time to call it a night, catching on the duster has just confused me so much more as i was thinking they were on the sedge all night??

Well a great night on a great stretch of river but a confusing one?
If anyone knows why why the duster did so well please let me know as i am confused!!

Thanks

Glen

Ellastone 'Popp along Possy'

Dovedale 'With Dave Wood as a guest'

Ellastone 'a lesson in matching the munch'

Went to Ellastone tonight again, started to fish at the bridge section, the wind was very blustery and with a nice hatch going on the fly life was struggling to get off the river and therefore a nice easy prey for the trout, rises were almost everywhwere and it reminded me of a mayfly hatch when trout are hitting them, I started to fish off the bank side to stop spooking any fish but could not get any takes on quite a few of my favorite flys, i have been recently studying fly life with reading up and photos ect supplyied by Matt ( north country angler), I decided to wade in at the bridge end to see what was coming off, i started to see small olives saling down with wings upright drifting all over the place like windsurfers, the problem was i could not take any of them to inspect because the trout were nailing them before they could even get to me!! eventualy a got one and they were the smallest olives i have seen, they were around size 20/22 with very slim light brown ribbed body and upright wings, nothing in my fly box could match the size so i did the usual and went through the fly box, the fish were taking them and other flys were totally ignored, this was a good lesson for me, i had been standing in the river for over a hour trying to get a take and the fish were rising right around me, one very good sized brown was rising 3ft away from me and i stood quitely and watched the fish for over a half a hour, this was amazing and i saw how a trout works while feeding, it would drift down to its holding postition and watch a drifting olive and always swim back when the fly had gone over its head and calmly sip the fly away, this made me realise how important it is to cast say 10ft over where i had seen the rise, i had stopped fishing now as i new i would have nothing in my box to succeed, this was giving me far more a lesson than reading any books at home, i also noticed that the smaller fish would be more aggressive and hit flys harder making more of a surface splash, the large trout would take a olive somtimes with hardly any disturbance.
On studying the fly i made my mind up that the olives were bwo, but not too sure because of how small they were?
I did catch nine fish in the end when the light dropped and the black sedge took over the olives, including a rainbow that took me on merry dance, all caught in the space of a hour..

Thanks

Glen

Ellastone 'on the sedge'

Fished Ellastone tonight with Dave (wood) off the forum, new member of DRAC,
Met Dave on the bridge at elly, had a quick look and conditions looked just right slight bit of colour and running around normal, Dave has never fished this run and is quite new to the game so we decided to wade together and walk through the stretch taking turns in casting to rising fish, i showed him some of the spots where i have taken fish in the past, it started quite slow with not many fish rising and we took around 4 fish working our way up, as we got to the water flow pipe things started to pick up and we picked up some nice wild fish around half a pound, as the light faded the river came alive to emerging black sedge, soon we started to take quite a few fish, i think Dave was a bit nervous with the wading but he will get used it, i know it well and he will soon..
As the bats started to come out we knew it was time to call it a day, we had a great night and Dave is a joy to fish with, his enthusiasm is matching mine and we had a good laugh wading through together, nights like this are what fishing is all about...

Thanks

Glen