21/10/2010 - River Derwent

Another two weeks that have flown by without any fishing. Never mind. Had three days of great surf at Saunton and got out on the mountain bike when friends came to stay last weekend. However, when the opportunity did arise I was straight down to Borrowash. Was expecting great things with it being so mild compared to previous days. Certainly started catching on the float rod straight away, including a decent stamp of roach.


Good fun on the float

Soon had a paternoster out alongside a reed bed downstream. Had only been in a couple of minutes before I had the first run. Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of my friends called "Jack"! A couple of casts later with the float rod and I had one of his mates go airborne after a chub I was just lifting out of the water. This was followed by a dropped run on the paternoster and an another attack on the float rod by something that left a very impressive boil at my feet. Seemed to go quiet after this initial flurry of activity. However, whilst I continued to catch steadily on the float rod, ending up with a nice mixed bag of roach, chub, dace and bleak, there wasn't any sign of any perch.

Perhaps with the recent cold weather I now need to go looking for the perch, rather than building up a swim full of silver fish and waiting for them to come to me, especially with so many pike about. Will definitely be going back with the pike gear though!

06/10/2010 - River Dove

No fishing for best part of a week again due to work and social engagements. However, had made a date in the diary to meet up with my mate Tim that I wasn't going to change. Settled on the Dove at Tutbury as the venue. Was feeling really confident when we got there. River was still above normal level and nicely coloured. Settled onto a classic smooth, "walking pace" glide above a big willow and soon had two paste-wrapped boilies positioned downstream. With minimal debris coming down, things looked perfect.......

How could I go wrong?

Unfortunately, things were far from perfect as neither of us had a touch for the next four hours (unless you count the minnow came back impaled on my hook)! Perhaps we should have moved around a bit, who knows? Bit disappointing to say the least.

No fishing this weekend - surfing at Saunton!

Postscript: Tim went back the following evening for another go and, whilst he didn't catch any barbel, he had a PB chub of 6lb exactly on meat!