river Dove 2014/15

[john hooper]

Was asked for my rod licence today on the dove, first time ever.the man said that because all the stillwaters were frozen he had decided to look where all the anglers were hidden, fair play he had started in dovedale and was working his way all the way to the end, hadn't caught any non payers by the time he got to us.he did say how important it was for anglers to call the emergency number if they found anything wrong, ie pollution, anglers stealing fish, set lines etc, good bloke. Caught three grayling, quite tough conditions today.

john

 

[john hooper]

Had a last go on the river on thursday in lovely spring weather, it was perfect for trotting with an upstream breeze so I waded down the middle of the river to a swim that is rarely fished because you have to wade to get to it. Fed a few maggotts then run the float through to test depth, when it went under I thought it was dragging bottom which led to my first fish lost, after that it was grayling all the way, landed 9 the best not along way from 2lb and bumped another 5 off, a lovely day. My friend was fishless untill late in the day when he rescued the situation with two perfect condition 4lb+ chub but was annoyed to loose a bigger fish which he thought was a barbel (rare as rocking horse droppings on this stretch) especially as neither of us have caught a barbel here, have to try again next season. I am going to try fly fishing here through the closed season, l'm fairly hopeless but with so many trout and grayling to catch l'll have to give it a go.

john