Sight fishing for wild trout on the Derbyshire Wye

The Derbyshire Dales was covered in thick mist as I drove towards the Cressbrook and Litton Flyfishers Club day ticket water on the Derbyshire Wye. However, the mist cleared as I entered Monsal Dale but still clung on to the hilltops. You knew that once that mist burnt off it was going to be steaming hot and the weather did not disappoint. The river keeper met myself and two other fishermen in the car park at the lower end of the beat and briefed us on the rules, etc. The other two fishermen had fished there two days the previous week and shared some vital info on what was hatching and what times of the day. It was the back end of the large mayfly (Ephemera danica) hatch so while they were still a key species to keep an eye out for, the flylife in this river is rich and many other ephemera species were starting to hatch, like the large olives.

It is worth noting that while wading is not prohibited, fishermen are allowed to step into the river to cast under trees and land fish. With the river being shallow in many parts long wellies would be fine but thigh waders even better. I wished I had known this beforehand and taken mine. The bank in many places is sheer being 2 or 3 feet above the water and as such a long handled net is essential as you will not be able to get into the water to land fish. Given the size of the fish you could catch a landing mat would also be a good idea. It is also worth noting that this is an upstream dry fly and nymph fishing beat where only a single fly no larger than size 12 is allowed. No lures are allowed.

I started up the left bank as the other two fisherman were targeting the right bank. Nothing was moving on the first few glides but the odd mayfly was emerging so it wouldn’t be long before the action started. Following a run in with some agitated livestock I headed up to fish the stretch up below Cressbrook Mill. This proved to be a good decision as I caught and released my first brownie just above the island on a crippled mayfly imitation dry fly. To be honest there were so many food items in the stream I am surprised that the fish found my fly in the insect broth that was the river. Aside from a smattering of large mayflies, there were plenty of smaller ephemeroptera notably olives, caddis and midges hatching amongst a sprinkling of terrestrials from the rich margins and overhanging trees.

It is the second trout that I caught that I am extremely proud of. I spotted the monster feeding in a small channel on the lower far side of the island. I watched it feeding for some time and it seemed to only be taking crippled danica mayflies and ignoring everything else. It was going to be some cast to get that far out and not spook the fish and drag was going to be a major issue so I planned where I wanted the fly to land, where I wanted my line to rest. The window was pretty small as too far to the right and I was in vegetation on the island, too far to the left and I would potentially line the fish. The crippled mayfly pattern was tatty after the last fish so I put on a fresh fly, a winged fly that was going to make the cast a little trickier. I was using a 9 ft 6 lb wychwood camo leader with an additional 4 ft of 4 lb tippet. I ginked the fly, washed off the excess and degreased the tippet. My first cast was deliberately short testing to see how the light wind blowing upstream affected the cast. The second cast was again designed to be 1 m short of where I wanted it as a range finder. The fish detoured to look at the fly but cruised back to its station rejecting my offer. I didn’t recast straight away but watched to see how the drag affected the fly, I would have maybe 3 seconds from the time the fly landed to when the drag kicked in as I was holding the rod out as far as I could to keep as much flyline off the water as possible. I cast the full cast this time and landed it right where I wanted it about 1 m in front of the trout, he cruised up to take a look and then lazily swallowed the fly.  

Then all hell broke loose as the fish charged off into the pool on the other side of the island. I managed to control it with sidestrain and get it back over the sand bar back into the main stream. A few more runs downstream and it was in the net, well kinda, it was so large it barely fit in the net. The barbless hook popped out and the fish was released in no time at all without leaving the water. I want to give a shout out to Dean Bells documentary The Dead Drift which is currently available on Fishing TV as it has been a while since I have fished and watching that documentary the day before allowed me to brush up on some of the key aspects of sight fishing and the dead drift. Even little tips like changing the angle of the side strain depending on the direction the fish was swimming in to keep the hook pressure aimed back into the scissors of the trouts mouth. On this occasion it was no doubt a key factor when I saw the location of the hook in the fishes mouth. While some will say that it was duffers week and this contributed to the success, that may be true to an extent, but to me that doesn’t detract from the sense of accomplishment I got from the experience and the renewed enthusiasm I have for the sport.

Then began a frustrating few hours trying to tempt fussy full fish who refused everything that I offered. It was remarkable to watch how adept these fish are at detecting even the slightest issue with the drift or the fly. At times they just cruised off, others got excited and inspected the fly multiple times determined not to let it get away but knowing that something wasn’t quite right while others rejected the fly with disdain and a tail flick. My greatest disappointment is that I had two equally large rainbow trout on the line, both taking olive patterns, and lost both of them. Both used the same tactic to chuck the hook, head down and loads of head shaking and tail flapping as if they were trying to burrow into the riverbed. Perhaps I needed to give them more slack and play them looser than the brownies, I am not sure. My target was wild rainbows and on that front I failed but I was pretty pleased by the large brownies I did catch and the manner in which I did so. I must say that I was not aware that such large wild brownies (and rainbows) were present in our streams and given the numbers of fish feeding and cruising in the stream I would not have guessed that such a wild fish density was possible in a natural stream. That surely is testament to the water quality of the Derbyshire Wye. Oh well, I suppose I will have to return and have another go for wild rainbows!

Tight Lines

Greg