River Dove/ Ellastone and Eaton dovedale

Had the full day fishing yesterday so opted for Ellastone in the morning and Eaton dovedale in the afternoon..
Not much rising early on but stuck with the dry, Lots of ldo's coming off and around 11 the trout started to rise, they were hiting the ldo hard, jumping clean out the water and sinking them, managed to take 4 brownies on a DHE,
Finished at one and went down to Eaton Dovedale to have a go, only fished it once last year so going to give it more fishing this year,
Parked by the bridge and saw fish rising straight away, got in by the bridge and had a couple of refuseals until hooked a small fish but the fight was much harder than any trout i have hooked for the size, on landing the fish i noticed it was all silver with a hint of blue, i think the fish was a smolt, i have put a picture on my blog if anyone can tell me what it is?
Met Brian a lad from stoke who was also fishing, he knew the water well and kindly showed me all the good spots to wade, We waded together and fished for a couple of hours taking around 8 fish between us, at times the hatches of ldo was massive,
Brain was very helpful and kindly gave me lots of his own flys to try,
The fishing was great today and i will be putting more time in at the farm to see if i can hook one of the 2lbs ers people talk about on there..
Had the EA come around Eaton dovedale checking rod licences, first time i had ever been checked, infact Brian said it was the first time in twenty five years he has been asked
I asked the baliff if he catches many fly fisherman with no rod licence and he told me 'not many but most of them have been caught at DOVEDALE'

Thanks

Glen
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River Dove Ellastone

Whent for a couple of hours after work tonight, blanked for the first time on Ellastone, well i did fish a dry fly all night, met a nice bloke up there who said he had a couple a grayling to the nymph,
After a short rain pour while fishing there were loads of ldo's coming off everywhere but even that did not spark many rises, saw a few but nothing much, another few weeks and we should see some good dry fly fishing, I think you have put a jinx on me dave saying i was lucky

Glen

River Dove Ellastone 19/03/09

My first bash of the season, went to ellastone on the drac strech, only managed to get a coulpe of hours in but the weather was lovely and could not resist to thrash the water for a bit, quite a few flys coming off, think they were olives, not many rises but the odd few from grayling, took a nice out of season grayling of around a pound on a small black F fly, it was a aggressive take from grayling and come clean out the water to take my fly, i had one more take but missed it,
The buzz i get from fishing dry fly and seeing the take is what its all about for me, cant wait to get out again,
Will be off to the churnet next week for them wildies i hope!

Glen

Cant wait for the Dry!!

Not done much fishing over the winter due to being shite at nymph fishing, but now the flys are starting to hatch i have that buzz again to get back on the rivers, will be starting my fishing on the river churnet in alton, this place is a dream setting to fish and the trout are as wild as they come,
Will keep my posts coming on here soon.
Tight lines

Glen

River Dove Salmon!!! My first 9lb 14oz

Well here is my story of catching my first ever salmon.

I am not a Salmon fisherman and have never tried it but enquired around Scotland this year but never got chance to go but as things turned out i did not need to bother.
I was Grayling fishing last saturday and whilst wading through a deep run i saw a salmon come clean out the water, this fish was around three ft away from me and scared the **** out of me, i was shocked to see how big this fish was, it was around three foot long and had a red glow down the bottom of its body. It seemed unreal to see a fish so big in a small river like the dove but it made me realise that these fish are coming back to the dove around a very good size.
The next day on sunday i went back to have another go at the grayling and hoping to see these salmon again, I took a friend with me who wanted to watch me fish,
As the light started to go i flicked my nymph unpstream where i had seen the fish and when i started to retrieve the bug i saw a huge salmon come out the water again, i thought wow what a nice fish when my friend shouted from the bank 'its took your fly',
I lifted into the fish and felt my rod tighten into the fish, i was using a 8ft 4 weight greys streamflex rod with 5 lb line and i knew i was in for some fun!!
The fish went absolutly nuts when it felt the hook set home and just run downstream, it went through a stong rapid a i could not stop it doing anything, its took me straight onto the backing so it was at least 40 yards down stream and still running,
I knew the only way i would get this fish was to tire it out so i went running down the river to my friends amusement!! I cover at least 60 yards running down the river with the fish still going when my line got caught around the reel, everything went tight and i thought it was going snap but it turned from the pressure and came leaping out of the river making my heart jump, the sheer size of this fish had me shaking like a leaf, my friend was shouting 'dont lose this fish you ****'
I was into a fish of a lifetime and eventually got it to start turning under full pressure, my rod was just doubled over all of the time,
When the fish saw me it made four more big runs but it was starting to tire,
After half a hour i had the fish in full view and she was lumping around like big fish do, so
I had a small trout net on my back and there was no way it would fit in there so i when i got it close to me i threw me rod down and grabbed it with both hands!
I took it onto the bank and me and my friend micky were jumping up and down like we had won the lottery! well to me it felt better than that!!
The fish was a female Hen and was quite dark. the fish measured 34 iches long with a massive tail, i got the scales from my van and it weighed 9lb 14 oz
In fact it was the lenght of my foot to my waist.
When i got home i told the mrs i had had the best night of my life and she said 'better than your first night of sex with me' and i said 'no not that good babe' but i am a great liar and if you are a fisherman you know what i mean!!