I often fish the upper Dove (as I know a lot of forum members do on the LADFFA and DCAC stretches). This autumn/winter i'm making it a personal goal to fish some of the lower reaches of the Dove.

These waters are favoured by the coarse anglers aiming for barbel and chub, as I have done so myself very often in the past. Including sleeping over in a bivvy with alarms set! On my many visits in the past with boilies and mashed bread in hand I never saw an angler with a fly rod. Well if that mould wasn't broken before then I broke it on Saturday afternoon!!! Mind you there was no-one else down there to witness it!

I'm not sure what the trout population is like in this area so I targetted the grayling on the assumption that there were some there. Although it was a superb afternoon weather wise and a lot of flies airborne there did not appear to be anything rising. So I opted for a couple of nymphs using a goldhead red tag nymph and a hares ear to cover my options.

To my surprise I had an 8" grayling on my third cast! I managed another 4, all small with the best of the bunch in the photo.

It was a most enjoyable afternoon. I had the river to myself (having chosen an area that has a long walk to it, not well-liked when you're loaded down with tackle), a few fish and now a real desire to return!

Anyway, my question is, does anyone else on here fish the fly down at the bottom end of the Dove? If so i'd like to know as i'd like to find out a bit more about the fish population (not barbel and chub though!!!!).

A very fine looking fish , is this where the salmon have been seen ?????????

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Andy Wren
Winter grayling taking a year off !
Claret not just a great dubbing colour!

hi fishcake

when you say lower dove do you meen eaton dovedale,
doveridge or tutbury or scropton.
have fished eaton quite a bit through the summer with
some good results, trout on mayfly, grayling right from
the car park down on the surface mainly .will have to
try nymphing there soon.
john

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Derbyshire flyfishing blog.

http://derbyshirefishingblog.blogspot.com/

They've been seen, and caught on video, all the way up to Ellastone....not sure about above there???

I'm really talking about below Tutbury and down to the A38 at Burton on Trent.

which club waters?
burton mutual
fenton

have you tried eaton recently?
john

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Derbyshire flyfishing blog.

http://derbyshirefishingblog.blogspot.com/

John,

Its the BMAA ticket. I joined ages ago for the coarse fishing and fancied a new challenge recently by going at it with the fly rod. I suspect that there's some good grayling down there and probably the odd old (and big) brownie. But i'd like a bit more info on the area really. I'd be surprised if anyone fly fishes it regularly.

I've fished Eaton Dovedale a lot, not so much this year but I do like it down there in the winter, again for the grayling.

Have you seen the video fishcake, would love to see that,

Glen

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http://glenpointon.blogspot.com/

The true riches are to be found in an angler's soul, not his wallet.

F,
I caught Grayling on the PA section of the Dove where it joins the Trent so they are in the Dove for the full length.I have also caught them in the Trent at Willington in the DCAC section.
On the Salmon issue, the keeper at Norbury told me the EA are trying to put a fish ladder into Norbury weir.I think Alex has a video of them trying to get up Norbury weir but it would take huge flood for them to get past it now
Regards
Rob

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on the banks of the River Dove-walking in Isaac's footsteps

Anyway, now that i've been made redundant I can get back to some of my previous interests. (Before I go any further, if anyone hears of a job that would suit a good NAM with over 5 years experience with DIY Mults then let me know). So I headed back down to the lower end of the Dove this afternoon and had a dabble in a couple of different spots. First I headed back to the same stretch that I covered last September. I was targetting the grayling and was really pleased with getting four fish. The first was about 8" long but the other three, all caught within a 30 yard stretch, were all around the 1lb mark. I was also pleased with catching all of the fish from different areas than the last visit.

I should explain that I have the theory that there must be a few monster grayling down this end of the Dove. Why? Because coarse anglers are prevalent and tipping in loads of bait for the chub and barbel. The grayling must pick up some of this??? Or do they? I'd welcome some feedback.

Anyway, only snapped one of the fish:-



The mark on its side is not blood, it's bird damage and was present on the other side. I did see a cormorant flying around and look further down this post to see the monster footprints!!

The sun came out and it got really hot. Here's a nice riffle which looked very fishy but nothing came out of here.



Instead of going over old ground again on this stretch I went back to the car and moved down the river about a mile. I got in at the weir and wondered if this was a fish pass in the middle of the weir?



Anyway, i'm not sure what's happened down this end of the Dove as it has been relatively heavily fished in recent years by barbel anglers including myself. The banks didn't seem well trodden at all and even though were only a week into the coarse season it looked as if hardly anyone had been down there. I wonder if the barbel fishing has dropped off due to pressure??

I was concerned at one point that I may set off a Vietcong booby trap and rip my waders (possibly also causing rod damage if it was an incendiary device )



I think Big Bird from Sesame Street has been down there! Look at the size of these prints in the mud compared to my old size 9's !



Finally, I was getting a bit down in the dumps over Kev's excellent pictures of various flies and flora and fauna. So in a moment of quick wittedness and lightning reflexes I got this beauty down on film