Salmon Pastures

A quick trip out to suss out the fishing further down the Don. Parking near one of the entrances to the five weirs walk, I wandered down to check out the river and have a quick cast.



Just through the entrance is this wood carving of a salmon, once prolific here. Whilst there were fish rising, and I had a number of takes, I failed to land anything! I think I was rushed, knowing I only had limited time here today so I wasn't fishing well.
However, there is certainly potential here for some more trips- I'll keep you posted!

- Posted from my iPhone

Home Waters...

A pre-night shift fishing session beckoned, and I fancied fishing a little closer to home, rather than driving across town to the Don. Within half a mile of my house is the Sheaf, which is home to many small brown trout. Millhouses park was busy, with school holidays and kids everywhere enjoying the park, so I wandered to my hidden gem of a stretch - the ultimate in small stream technical trouting!
Prepare to do battle with the undergrowth - my flies spent more time in the trees that the water.
I started near the bottom of the "tescos" beat, and worked my way upstream.

I started on a duo setup, fishing a small goldhead PTN underneath a Para-Adams. This accounted for my first trout, a tiny specimen taken in about 6 inches of water!

Not even a handful!

I then fished up to the first pool, which there were fish rising in.

If you enlarge the above photo by clicking on it, then clicking on it again, you'll see a rise just right of centre.
Still using a duo rig, I had a few casts. I had a take on the para-Adams, but didn't connect to the fish. A bit more inexpert casting and the fish were not playing any more. These small stream trout are super wary - every cast has to count. I changed to a F-fly, but by now the fish were hidden away.

I moved on, and fished up to the next big pool (with the "interesting" mud feature).

The big pool, covered with falling blossom

There was nothing at all rising here, so a few tentative cast covering likely lies with a klinkhammer with a hares ear nymph underneath produced very little, until I fished the inflow of the pool. Here I had a trout dart up from the bottom, and have a go at the klinkhammer - however, it was gone before I even had chance to strike.

Next section is the walled river which is tight and shallow - I had not previously fished this, having been drawn to the pools before. I used a Klink and hares ear nymph, casting to rises that were happening in every little glide and run.

Looking back down the walled section

I was soon into another fish, again taking the nymph.

I fished on a little further, enjoying the challenge of tight technical casting to super wary fish. Waders are pretty much essential here, but mainly to protect your knees when kneeling to keep a low profile, and get low to the water to side-cast effectively.

A couple of hours spent on a sunny morning, fishing for wild brown trout for free half a mile from my doorstep - can't complain about that!

Casting round trees - an essential skill!

Before leaving I had a look at the next section of stream, which I haven't yet fished. There looks to be a couple of likely looking runs.......

On another note, I must try and organise a day on the Wye - I have not yet fished the Wye, and keep meaning to book a day on the Peacock stretch. It's only 20 minutes drive away so I really should make the effort!

Bailey bridge up to Norfolk bridge Weir

A warm and overcast day today, so reasonable conditions for a spot of fishing. I went down to Attercliffe again, parking on Effingham street and crossing the bailey bridge to access the river.

The river here is slow and wide, with lots of weed on the bottom. I quickly moved further upstream, and fished the faster waters down from the weir.

I was soon into some lively brown trout, all taking a gold head hares ear nymph below a klinkhammer - my standard duo type setup.

I worked on up to the weir, having 3 takes on dry flies right under the wall beneath the weir - 2 on a klinkhammer, and I then changed to a sedge, which also produced a rise. I failed to land any of these fish - probably still in winter nymphing mode rather than summer dry fly mode!

After a pleasant couple of hours, I headed back home - another urban fly fishing destination to add to the list!

The glide along the wall that produced some rises to dry flies

Looking upstream from the weir.

Trout!

Trout season is now well upon us - a quick visit to the Don after work with some tricky fishing put me into 2 trout today.

I fished an area I had not fished before, nearer the middle of town than previously. I had scoped it out a couple of days ago, when the pictures below were taken - lovely and warm, and not too breezy. That was not the case today however! A strong gusty wind was blowing downriver, making upstream casting very difficult.

I had on my usual set up of a copper john beneath a klinkhammer, and after a few missed takes I was surprised when a reasonable sized trout (for the Don!) shot up and took the Klinkhammer. That certainly woke me up, as did the next minute or two of good fight in a strong current.

After that, I had a smaller trout on the copper john, before heading home before the rush hour traffic got too bad.

Don't know the fisherman in the pictures below - he seemed to be having a nice afternoon!

On the way home from work

I stopped on the way home from work for a quick hours fishing - it was overcast and cool, and nothing was rising. I went initially for a duo set up, with no results. I fished all the way up to the weir, and then swapped to a single nymph and fished back down to the area where I started, above the bridge. I then changed to a Czech nymph set up, and fished the slower waters below the sunken weir. I was quickly into a decent fish, and brought a nice grayling to the net. This was probably the biggest grayling this year!







- Posted from my iPhone