Fish were visible to the naked eye, but with an exposure time of more than two minutes all moving things, like traffic on the road, either disappear or, like the water surface, become smoothened out.
Regular Rod
Thursday, 26 September 2013
Vertigo!
An early morning stroll along the local trail (a disused railway line now known as the Monsal Trail) with the camera and tripod led to this view of the Derbyshire Wye from one of the viaducts at Miller's Dale.
Fish were visible to the naked eye, but with an exposure time of more than two minutes all moving things, like traffic on the road, either disappear or, like the water surface, become smoothened out.
Regular Rod
Fish were visible to the naked eye, but with an exposure time of more than two minutes all moving things, like traffic on the road, either disappear or, like the water surface, become smoothened out.
Regular Rod
Thursday, 19 September 2013
Ignoring the Trout?
That's what your faithful blogger will be doing until next April. At least as far as trying to catch them that is. Grayling in Autumn are the main quarry for a traditionalist like yours truly. The hen brown trout are nearly all mottled now, a sure sign they are getting into spawning condition for the few weeks around Christmas Day. The rainbows are in their usual great condition, but... the grayling are in such fine fettle and this IS the nicest time of the year to fish for them. So...
A quick check of the fly box and whoa there! The Sturdy's Fancies were in short supply. There were more in the hat band than in the box! Ten minutes work and a trio of reinforcements were in readiness. Here they are...
Matching the hatch is always best but this fly matches so many little midges, smuts, aphids and other micro-species that it sometimes stays on the tippet all day long with no fall-off of Sport. It is highly commended to all you Autumn Grayling fans.
Regular Rod
A quick check of the fly box and whoa there! The Sturdy's Fancies were in short supply. There were more in the hat band than in the box! Ten minutes work and a trio of reinforcements were in readiness. Here they are...
Matching the hatch is always best but this fly matches so many little midges, smuts, aphids and other micro-species that it sometimes stays on the tippet all day long with no fall-off of Sport. It is highly commended to all you Autumn Grayling fans.
Regular Rod
Friday, 13 September 2013
Guess!
Guess where I was taken fishing today!
Not a boast, please be assured, but today was very special and even in the rain it was a delightful chance to celebrate our Noble Sport in the very cradle of fly fishing. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods!" Well that commandment was broken today and hopefully the Recording Angel is perhaps a retired fisher who may understand and not mark my Soul down too harshly.
If you are coming to England at all and you love fly fishing... Well let's simply say "You owe it to yourself!" Email me if you would like to fish (and take luncheon) in the footsteps of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton. I will let you have all the necessary contact details. Every fly angler should fish this special place of pilgrimage at least once in their lives and catch the direct descendants of Izaak's and Charles' trout and grayling.
Regular Rod
A Sure Sign of Autumn Fast Approaching
Your faithful blogger loves misty mornings by the river. Perhaps because the deeper, sub-conscious mind associates them with joyous times as a boy, Coarse fishing, usually for roach, when the float could trot quite out of sight in the enveloping fogs.
This is not a photograph of some carelessly discarded nylon. It is one of the amazing threads of silk made by the spiders in the night. This one spanning well over six feet. With a coating of misty dew it makes a fine indicator of how the weather is now distinctly Autumnal.
No river roach for me these days, too far away.
Never mind though, today I am surrounded by rivers that teem with grayling...
How blessed we are to be anglers!
Regular Rod
This is not a photograph of some carelessly discarded nylon. It is one of the amazing threads of silk made by the spiders in the night. This one spanning well over six feet. With a coating of misty dew it makes a fine indicator of how the weather is now distinctly Autumnal.
No river roach for me these days, too far away.
Never mind though, today I am surrounded by rivers that teem with grayling...
How blessed we are to be anglers!
Regular Rod
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Buxton
The good folk of Buxton are probably oblivious of the way they treat their river, MY river!
Here for a short length the Derbyshire Wye comes out of a concrete and stone walled tunnel and a few trout manage to eke out a living here below these twenty feet high walls. Ten yards down from the discarded supermarket trolley it is put into another concrete tunnel then, when it comes back out into the light, it is part of a sewage plant and from there on for half a mile it runs in a concrete channel with no life in it.
It is, however, a miraculous river as, at the end of the concrete channel, there is gravel and Ranunculus fluitans, which with the additional water from the many limestone springs in its bed brings it back to life for the rest of its journey to the confluence with the Derwent at Great Rowsley 15 miles from the source.
Regular Rod
It is, however, a miraculous river as, at the end of the concrete channel, there is gravel and Ranunculus fluitans, which with the additional water from the many limestone springs in its bed brings it back to life for the rest of its journey to the confluence with the Derwent at Great Rowsley 15 miles from the source.
Regular Rod