"dry" fly fishing.....

A saturday afternoon trip out - Hillsborough was to be avoided due to Wednesday playing at home, so I opted to explore a new stretch of river, accessed from Club Mill Road. I parked up on an industrial estate just off the A61, and walked a few hundred yards to the river.

There were  couple of blokes float fishing just up from where I got in the river, so thought it best not to start wading up towards them. This however did mean that I had to wade down river, and then fish back up. I waded down, past some massive banks of Himalayan Balsam. Once I had waded a hundred yards or so, I waited for a while, sorting out my leader and deciding which flies to fish. As I got ready, fish started rising in the area I had just waded through 5 minutes previously.

The "grayling run"

I started off on a duo rig, but before long the heavens opened. I sheltered under a tree overhanging the water, which provided little cover!

Downpour!

As the rain abated, there were a large number of midge type flies over the water. Fish started rising all around me, so I quickly cast the duo rig (Wulff on the top, Copper John on the bottom) and covered some rises. To no avail - despite laying out some nice precise casts, nothing was interested.

Time for a change of flies - and onto a black F fly. As soon as the fly hit the water, there was a take which I missed. I cast again, missing the spot I was aiming for by about 3 foot. And the fly got hit again. And I missed again!

Fish seemed willing to take wherever I cast. I soon connected with a fish, a small grayling.

Soon after, another downpour, so more sheltering. Straight after the rain, casting to the same spot, I kept getting takes and connected with every 3rd or so. It seemed there were a lot of greedy grayling!

A cast tight into some overhanging willows produced a nice little brown trout - camera shy as it wriggled back into the water before I'd taken its pic.

After some good sport on this little run, I waded on upstream. The river was now running higher and seemed more coloured.

I fished on up to a slow glide, where there were fish rising. The F fly failed to tempt them on this occasion, and the duo wasn't working either.

Time was pushing on, so I decided to finish by fishing the fast run by the wall up to the weir, and the weir pool itself.

The bright green water weed (not sure of the name ? ranunculus) is really taking hold here, making the place look like a real trout stream!

I had a couple of hits on the copper john, before hitting into a nice little brown trout.

A nice Don brownie, with its blue-ish sheen

Fishing the tail of the weir pool, I soon had another brown trout, which skipped and splashed over the water.

The light was fading now, so off back to the car and home. Another fun trip, really enjoyable dry fly fishing for grayling and some nice brown trout as well.

Heading north.. Middlewood Road Don

The advantage of working shifts is that I get occasional days where I can get out fishing during the week - today was one such day (though it does mean I'm working nights over the bank holiday..).

I decided to venture a little further north out of Sheffield, and parked up on Middlewood Road, not far past the ambulance station, next to the speed camera. There is free roadside parking here, and as it is on a main road, I suspect the car is safer left here rather than some of the more secluded spots you end up parking for the other spots I've previously visited on this blog.

I entered the Don, and fished up to the weir, managing to tempt out a small brown trout on a gold head PTN fished underneath a balloon caddis.

The true right stream up to the weir.

Small Brownie taken on the goldhead PTN in the area shown above.

I fished the weirpool for a while, not catching anything. I then walked another couple of hundred yard upstream to where the footpath crosses the river. I entered the river just below the bridge, and fished all the small riffles. I caught 2 tiny grayling - and I mean REALLY tiny! Just upstream was a professional fisherman, probably having more success than me! (the heron at the top right of pic)

Fishing up under the bridge I was soon fishing the faster moving water, and hit into something BIG. It tore around the river, and was a good fight, especially in the fast moving water. I soon brought it to the bank and netted it - a decent sized brownie well over a pound, maybe just making 2 pounds? It certainly only just fitted in my net.

A good fighter!

and back into the river...

I had caught this one on a goldhead PTN, and carried on fishing this set up - a PTN beneath a Royal Wulff. In the fast flowing water, the Wulff flies are excellent, being nice and buoyant and floating through all the choppy riffles.
There was lots of evidence of fish here - rises all around, and some really nice deep runs.
Fishing a little further up the run, I soon was into another fish.

Moving a little further up the run, another take!

All really good fighting fish, beautifully marked and of course wild.

The fishing here was fantastic, good fish in fast water.

The productive area today - a mix of fast runs and deep eddys

I moved a little further up and fished the pool beneath the bend in the footpath. There were plenty of fish rising here, but I didn't manage to tempt any of them onto my fly.

Another great few hours fishing, all for free on the Sheffield Don.

Definitely worth a visit here! I would like to explore further downstream from where I started, the section between here and Winn Gardens. For another day perhaps....

Allsorts...

Today we spent a few hours behind the Trebor Bassetts factory, fishing the Don.

The weather was a bit changeable, from bright sunshine to drenching downpours. We started by walking down to the weir, and fishing up to it and then up river from there. 

Walking in

We fished one rod, sharing the casts, each taking a run or pool each before swapping over.

Fishing was slow, with us both losing a couple of fish and landing one each, all brown trout. I was first to land a fish, a brownie just over a pound.

Matt soon after landed another brownie, a little smaller. Both fish took a copper john fished beneath a klinkhammer.

A sneaky cast - it was from around here I got the decent sized brownie

We worked our way back up, to near the scrap yard, where we both managed to not tempt the rising trout in the pool beneath the bridge.

A nice cast under the willow

A good few hours fishing, in some nice urban surroundings. 

You can smell the allsorts!

Just up from Matt in the picture above, I lost a fish taken on a balloon caddis - after a ferocious take, it managed to get the line round a snag and snap me off. Disappointing, as it was a big splashy take and felt like a decent fish.

There is evidence of the recent balsam bash here - and there are small native species starting to sprout where the Himalayan balsam was.