Tag Archives: Derbyshire Derwent

Just before the end of the river season (and before the COVID-19 lockdown), I fished a very swollen Derbyshire Derwent for barbel. It was a slow day, but the river was visibly dropping as I was there. I stuck with it, dropping The Hook Bait Co’s Garlic Nimrod & Big Squid boilies behind trees and submerged bushes, and eventually my persistence paid off in the form of an 11lb 10oz barbel – a fine finish to my river campaing. I had an issue with my camera flash when I first attempted to take some sef-take photos of the fish (I ended up resting the fish again in the margins, whilst I sorted the camera out), and when I went through the images at home I had several blurry, reject photos. As I flicked through them it looked like I was dancing. It reminded me of the iconic Firestarter video by The Prodigy, so I decided to have a play with making a stop-motion parody of Firestarter by editing together the still photos. The above video from my YouTube channel is the result! It’s just a bit of fun. Enjoy!

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Each May marks another year since the demise of Chatsworth Angling Fair; a show which in my eyes was much more than an event. It was an angling institution. Its omission from the year’s angling calendar is a sad loss for our sport. Very rarely are so many angling disciplines showcased in one place together; with Coarse, Match, Sea, Fly, Carp and Predator fishing all strongly represented. I have many fond memories of the Angling Fair, stretching back to when I first attended, aged twelve. Two of us were dropped off nearby, and made our way to the main entrance, where we realised children were only allowed free entry when accompanied by a paying adult. Having saved pocket money for a few months, we didn’t want to “waste” part of it on the entry fee. So, being a bit slimmer in those days, we found an area of fence we could slither beneath, and headed towards the tented village that made up the majority of the fair. What a revelation it was to find row upon row of tackle dealers plying their wares, with bargains to be found wherever you looked! We spent hours perusing the stalls, testing out tackle, …

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Trotting for grayling on the River Derwent What an unpredictable year for the weather last year was! With fluctuating water levels, and temperatures which never really stabilised for more than a couple of days, it was hard to know what best to fish for. My annual winter pike campaign was virtually a non-starter, with only a handful of jacks to show for eight or nine sessions! I’d been promising myself a return to a day ticket stretch of the Derbyshire Derwent ever since I last fished it, about three years ago. With my pike fishing being so dismal, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for some time-out, trotting for grayling on a crisp midwinter’s day. After entering the annual Boxing Day charity raft race on the river at Matlock only two days before, I was a little hesitant at fishing the stretch. I had witnessed first-hand the thrashing of the water with 300 paddles and an incessant hail of eggs & bags of flour; seemingly enough to support a small nation’s grain industry! Indeed, this was still very much evident when I arrived at the river. It was like an eerie, wintry war zone. The streets were very quiet; the …

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Grayling fishing, on a day ticket, on the Derbyshire Derwent First of all, I can’t believe I’ve now been writing for Anglers Today for a year already; and what a year it’s been!  Thankfully the fish have been quite co-operative, giving me some material to write about and allowing me to notch up no less than nine new Personal Bests along the way. In the week leading up to Christmas I managed to fit in two fishing sessions on very different natures. I decided to fish for pike one day and, in the interests of diversity, grayling on the other. In Derbyshire and the surrounding counties, we are quite lucky to have various rivers offering the chance of quality grayling fishing on a day ticket. Many venues are fly only but some are mixed fisheries, recognising bait fishing as a valid method for catching ‘Lady of the Stream’. It’s almost two years since I fished for grayling, but it is a species I shall always long to catch. Firstly, to catch one you must fish clean, fast rivers. Once you hook a grayling, you are then treated to a terrific, spirited fight; where the fish will use all of its …

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