29^th May 05

The River Dove is famous as one of the haunts of the author of “The Compleat Angler” Izaak Walton and his friend Charles Cotton.

Alistair had invited us to fish the Dove with him and his partner Dee on Sunday and we duly met up at Dove Cottage to catch up with news and tactics.

Ali had tied up a few of his deadly grey wulff flies, plus some hawthorns, grhe and a creeper pattern and kindly let us have a few. There were a few mayfly duns and spinners about, so the grey wulff patterns could be useful if they start feeding on them. The mayfly season seems to be a few days behind this time last year though.

Starting from the pool below the bridge, we fished downstream. I put the creeper pattern on Isabel’s leader and showed her how to fish it. On the third cast, I had a nice brownie take it. This was landed quickly and I handed the rod to her to have a go. She was casting quite well in no time.

I moved to the next pool and tried a grey wulff. A few minutes later and I had another brownie on. This is easy, I thought, but then it went quiet for a couple of hours.

After fishing out the pools and no doubt putting the fish down for the morning, we moved several hundred metres downstream and fished a series of riffles, pools and weirs. I had changed flies constantly, especially as they kept getting caught in the overhanging trees over the water and behind me. However, it was necessary to take chances to reach the fish taking up station beneath the overhanging branches and other obstructions. It makes sense, as there were terrestrial insects falling off the trees from time to time.

I had a take on the grhe next, but it failed to hold and shot back behind me, lodging in a tree. I had to break the tippet and the fly then dropped into the water. I tried to retrieve it, but the bottom was so muddy there that it covered the fly before I could reach it.

Things had been very quiet and we hadn’t seen any surface activity for over an hour, but things were starting to move again.

Moving back upstream we had the advantage of surprise and I had another fish attempt to take a dark olive wulff. Then I noticed a sudden large hatch of hawthorns and put one of Ali’s flies on. I had an immediate take and landed a beautiful wild brownie. I handed my rod to Isabel and she cast upstream to another trout and it also took the fly. However, she did not respond in time and it was able to spit out the fly.

Moving back towards Dove cottage, we had no more takers for the hawthorn fly, but I had another on the dark olive wulff, before we headed back for a light picnic lunch on the lawns of the cottage, overlooking the river and trout rising enticingly.

Lunch seemed to take a good hour and a half with some rather nice ale and sopocka sandwiches. The rises continued with mayflies coming off the river and the pull of the water proved irresistible.

We made our way upstream this time and quickly found a series of long, fairly deep glides full of fish. Some were rising continuously, taking something on, or just below the surface. We were not getting anywhere at first, but then I had a take on a grey wulff, just as Ali realised that the fish were chasing nymphs. He allowed his nymph to drift downstream and then lifted it up in the current and had a number of takes before successfully hooking a trout.

I then tried a nymph fished just below the wulff pattern and had a lot of interest, but none actually taking.

Spotting a good mayfly dun hatch in a bend of the river, I took off the nymph and cast the grey wulff just upstream of a branch hanging a foot above the water.

A fish rose to it, but missed on the first drift. On the second drift, I hooked a fish just under the branch and landed a nice 1lb 4oz brownie a little while later.

There were more fish feeding there, but after hooking the same tree behind me twice in a row, it was time to pack up.

Isabel and Dee had both hooked and played a fish, but were unable to land them. Our fault apparently, as we were some way off and didn’t hear them yelling for us.

There are grayling in the Dove, but surprisingly, we had none go for the nymphs.

Maybe I should have tried a czech nymph.

It was a lovely day, chilly winds to begin with, but warming up considerably in the late morning.