Does anyone fish the Derby Railway Angling club beats on the Dove around Rocester and Ellastone? Any good? Its not too far from me and looking at their website I'm tempted to join (some of the coarse fishing looks good too). Any info much appreciated, by pm if preferred. Thanks

Jeff

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Ellastone is a good but short bit of right bank fishing (the left bank being the Norbury club). It's probably only two fields long but has a good head of trout, grayling and the occassional rainbow. It gets very heavily fished though, and members often abuse the booking system.

I don't often fish the DRAC water below Rocester, despite it being closest to my home. It's a much bigger river there, not least because it's below where the (rain fed) Churnet joins. Drop Fishcake (Gary) a PM as he fishes it regularly.

Kev

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I like the DRAC waters.

You can make a good day by booking the Ellastone stretch and fishing in for a half day then moving down to below Rocester, or vice versa!

As Kev says I do fish the Eaton Dovedale stretch a lot. It gets stocked around April time and a lot of fish get taken as people do fish it for the table. LAter on in the season you can get the occasional stonking brownie (as Kev will vouch for actually).

There's loads of grayling in there. I've had two visits recently, one using the fly tackle and had around a dozen grayling in a half day and another day trotting maggots and had around 30 grayling. Again its good if you have a freezing day when you want to stay a bit warm (or less cold!) and can bait fish from the bank.

Also you've got a good stretch on Sutton Brook. Again stocked but its got some wild trout and grayling.

I think that the DRAC Trout ticket is around £65 and for me you can't go wrong with it!

Thanks for the quick responses chaps, as you say, for that price you can't argue can you. I've dropped them an e-mail as I'm sure I heard something about a waiting list for the trout membership, so fingers crossed. I've got a coarse fishing pal who's a member of Burslem Izaak Walton and who fishes their bit of the Dove a bit lower down and thats still got a decent head of grayling (apparently), as well as some stonking barbel and chub of course...so thats my plan B (or maybe Plans A and B

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Hi Jeff,

Yes I think you're right about a waiting list. I've been a member of DRAC for a number of years and had coarse/trout membership, but I dropped the trout membership off last year due to having access to loads of other quality trout waters. One of the stillwaters they have holds quite a few Pike, albeit small ones, but they are good fun to catch on the fly. Think I had five in an afternoon last year.

Good Luck
Simon

Jeff, I fish the DRAC waters reasonably regularly and find them very enjoyable. Best way to make contact is either telephone Richard Anderson or write to him. The telephone number and address should be on the website. If not let me know and I'll dig them out for you. E-mails are not normally very productive
I may have been lucky this year but have not had a problem getting onto Ellastone, I've fished it a dozen or so times and I think only once have I found it booked up. It is only really popular during mayfly time. When I have fished it I've been on my own, the same can be said for the Norbury stretch on the opposite bank (apart from when the Grayling Society are fishing it).
I've posted most of my exploits on the DRAC forum if you want to get a flavour, I normally manage to catch and I'm no expert.
The other trout waters as Gary says are also well worth a look.
Regards,
Dave.

If my experience is the norm then membership will start on 1st June even if you are intending to join on a trout ticket.

As others have said, for the money the fishing is excellent value. I just hope I can get time to do more of it in 2009

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Brian

Don't get me wrong - it's fantastic value for money - but I do get a bit concerned about the pressure that Lower Ellastone gets. I've been up there and found 6 anglers just on the DRAC side.

Any idea how many trout members there are currently? They seem to have had an advert in the back of FF&FT for a couple of years now.

Sutton Brook is a nice bit of water, particularly if you're also a Fenton and District member. The Fenton ticket is also well worth getting if you're also a LADFFA member because of the Churnet.

As for the DRAC bit of the Dove below Rocester, I had a very good session with Gary last season that saw plenty of grayling and one very big fish that stripped a shed load of line off the real before spitting the hook. In fact it's the only bit of Staffordshire/Derbyshire river that I've seen grayling shoal up in numbers. You certainly don't seem to get that further upstream on the Dove, nothing like you get in Welsh rivers.

Kev

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Thanks Squire (Dave), I'll give them a ring. I had a quick look on the DRAC forum and noticed your name on there, so if I manage to get membership I'll join in.

and thanks Cumbrian - yes, I noticed membership starts from coarse season, ie June, so I might have to wait til then anyway, even if there's no waiting list. BIWAS runs from Jan to Jan and is only £20 ish, so I'll probably join that in the meantime, mainly for coarse fishing but I can still have a play with the fly rod

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I had bad experiences and believe you only get what you pay for, low end flyfishing, although the course fishing could be great.

Mick

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"I will give him seven feet of English ground, or as much more as he may be taller than other men"
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