im fishing derwent water tomorrow up in consett and im after some ideas on tactics and flys to use

im used to fishing small waters where its much less difficult to judge what the fish are eating and where they are holding etc so i was wondering if i should just use lures to temp them or will there be any sort of hatches so early in the season?

any advice chaps?

Hey, As Derwent is my local water i've fished it a number of times in all weather and during all times of the season. You can't go wrong with lures such as a Black/Orange Fritz, Dawsons Olive, to be fair, any big bright lure fished deep should have some luck.

Some info here aswell Northumbrian Water -

Hope this Helps.

I'm going to the Derwent tomorrow, but I'm heading to the southside - doing a bit of bait fishing.

I might head over to the north side later in the day to get a couple of hours fly fishing in.

Olive fritz gold head is my number one choice. Black also works well. Had some good early and late season success on Hury with them.

i've been a few times bait fishing but as for fly fishing the wind was too hard for me to handle as my casting then was tragic

im much better casting now and can handle most winds even with my little 5/6 whisker

cheers for the advice on lures as luck has it i've just tied some blobs so i will give them a try

Did you go today?

I did. I didn't stay the full day (left around 2pm), but did manage to get 4 rainbows - including a 4lb'er.

Well done brucealmighty, thats a good start to the season. What did you catch them on?

I must confess that I didn't catch any on the fly.

My plan was to do a spot of bait fishing in the morning, catch a few fish, get the season off to a start, then go get my fly rod and roam around and have some fun. But, I forgot my fly rod. So, all four fish fell to some popped up sunshine yellow powerbait (I can hear the calls of 'burn him' as i speak). The first was about 60 yards, out, about a meter off the bottom. The following 3, about 12 inches off the bottom - maybe just 3 rod lengths out.

I had a drive up today just for a walk around Pow Hill. There were a few anglers out but I didnt see anyone catch while I was there. I'll be waiting for the water to warm up a bit first before I venture out. It will probably be Hury though, just dont seem to click with Derwent, even though its my closest NWL water.