Friday 26 June 2015

Derbyshire Wye

What a fantastic river in the Moseldale Valley. The Cressbrook and Lyton beat of the River Wye was our destination for the day and how dramatic and picturesque it was. After a civilised briefing from the warden we took a slow walk up stream to see what we fancied. There was a decent flow on the water that was fairly clear but it did have a bit of colour in it which maybe a tinge of peat. We were hoping for some mayfly but as there was no rises anywhere it was probably a wait for the weather and hatch to warm up so i started on a nymph. After a few dabbles in some small pools it was difficult to get a decent run but as i walked up there was a lovely pool with a fast run in and then split round both sides of an island.
I sat on the bank behind a small bush and as i cast upstream on the edge of the faster water it felt fishy. It wasn't long and the sight indicator twitched and i was into a superb little brownie and you always feel better when you get the first one in.
I then got into it and realised there was a few fish in the pool including some cracking rainbows and didn't realise that this was one of the very few places that the breed in this country. I managed 8 fish from the pool and they kept getting bigger and bigger -I was over the moon.
Phil and i had lunch looking over the river and we saw a few fish rising so Phil had a flick and caught a fish.
This got us going and we both fished the dry for the next few hours catching a few fish but it tailed off. I managed to pick up another couple of rainbows from a deep pool which gave a great fight as i perched quite precariously on a steep bank so i could flick the fly under a tree. What a great place and i'll definitely be back.