Charity Fishing Competition

• Fly Fishing Demonstration
• Angling Tuition
• Boat Tuition
• Refreshments

For more information contact the fisheries office on 01433 659712

Barbless Hooks are a must and sensitive wading is allowed.  Included in the price is tea and coffee and the keys to Charles Cotton’s fishing house.

Tickets are priced at £75 off-peak and £125 peak Mayfly time.

For more information contact the keeper on ember97uk@yahoo.co.uk

Budget

q. How much should I spend, how good (or bad) are budget rods, what do all the letters mean.

To be blunt you should spend around a third of ones weekly income if you are going to be a twice a year chap.  If you are more committed than that, up to three quarters of ones weekly pay is an amount most feel comfortable with. {We are talking beginners here.}

The blunt truth is the majority of first (and second) rod sales fall between around £125 up to £225 but there are good deals around for under a £100 nowadays

If £80 or so is beyond your circumstances you may find something in the pre owned market, and although there is some decent enough stuff around there are some villains also. Budget rods have got better and there are some reasonable rod in a box outfits around this season which we will put on site when they arrive. These outfits will come out at around £80 or £90 and will include reel and line.

The numbers and letter are to distinguish one level of refinement from another, mini cooper “s” any one? 

The important ones concern he length of the rod and weight of fly line it is deemed to fish best with for the everyday practical purposes we need it for. This is the a.f.tm.a. or line size numbers sometimes shown thus #, sometimes shown in two numbers thus7/8. Implicit but not obvious in this rod rating is the sort (size?) of fly  to be fished. This is something for your tackle dealer to be concerned with, hopefully me by the time you have ploughed through this lot

Where do I live?

q. I live ten minutes from Stillwater day ticket water but I want to fish a tiny stream in the peak district. Can I make my big Stillwater rod do for both?

No.

Where will I fish?  

q.Should I wait until my club membership / retirement comes through before I make a start?

No.

Make a start for pity’s sake. Lots anglers have taken up the sport in somewhat later years and have taken tuition with me, loved it, proved good at it and then complained “Wish I had done it years ago”

There are some really good waters for the angler at prices to suit most budgets I.e. Free fishing and up to about £80 for some of the nicest river fishing in England .

£20 or so gets you a day on most of our local Stillwater venues.

River fishing on small streams 

Q. what rod for small streams?

 A 7ft rod up to about 8ft for a line size 4 covers a multitude of sins

Leave any thing outside that until you have a little bit of experience

We are still talking to the novice here.

On larger rivers   

Q .What about larger rivers then?

When we fish on larger rivers consideration of wading or not is of most concern. That, and are we on fairly open water or under a canopy of trees. If wading is not allowed, as on a certain stretch of the River Wye then a long rod of 9 ft or even longer can be a good friend. On the Derwent river, underneath a tree when thigh deep a long rod can be thundering nuisance. 8 0r 8.6 “is handy. Or even the small stream outfit will be fine. Don’t worry too much about this, whatever first rod you choose, it is a first rod. We discourage newcomers from extremes of length and line weight, and it has cost us sales too. 

On smaller Stillwater’s 

Q. What about the Barlow lakes and the other small still waters of this world?

There are good sound reasons to use the heavier river rod 9 Ft 5 wt or similar on small waters and a good argument to be made for a 9 ft rod being the best all round rod out there.  A small water special for specific is probably a slightly longer weapon of nine and a half feet for a six weight line. Currently we do not know of a rock bottom budget rod, there are some nice ones mid range, and we are still talking a first rod here.

On a larger Stillwater. 

Q.  finish me off then , you are going to say a rod of about nine and a half foot for a six or seven line , maybe even a ten footer for the boats are you?

Yes.

The monomaster waste line collector in use.

The packaging is bright and cheerful with a clever “ have a play with cut out “ on the spindle. 

The monomaster is bit like an oversized film canister with protruding spindle, a letterbox slot on the side leading to the gubbings inside .  Colour is a pale green and the end of the cylinder has a moulded handle to fasten to a zinger or something.

I have tried putting the monomaster on my “help for heroes” wrist band for convenience and to show where my loyalties lay and having it all on my sleeve as it were.  In practice it got in the way a bit and was a bit distracting.  Probably looked a bit of a pratt at the same time.  I have mine on ye zinger now, on the inside of the waist coat along with other handy always needed bits and bobs, line grease and mud. Pinning it above an inside pocket so it can hang inside and not dangle all over the place works for me.  I use the wrist band idea sometimes when I am teaching and not fishing though as “a good example”.

Anyway, the idea of the tool is that those odd few inches of mono and clippings can be put into the letterbox slot , the spindle turned and the little bristles inside grab and wrap the waste line.  An oddly satisfying experience.  Bending the line to a curve gives the velcro bristles something to grab onto.

It is surprising just how much waste line we can generate in a session and although with the best of intentions we fold our waste into a pocket to take home, it is a bit of line which probably gets dragged out again having been forgotten about.  Sometimes I use flouro carbon line for a couple of reasons but the big downside of flouro is that is does not rot away like other stuff ,a life span of a thousand year has been postulated.

Another plus is the tool gives us somewhere to put the odd bits of line that one may come across, left by other less caring “anglers”  When we get back to the ranch , house, study, stone built lean to on the edge of Kinder or whatever we pop the lid of the container and run the scissors up the Velcro cylinder to dump or burn the waste.

The pressure to pop the top off at first is considerable when fresh from the cold, but a sideways pressure soon pops it off.  It needs to be a bit tight for durability, and it eases over time but is still secure on my personable one.

Have been using mine for well over a year now and can thoroughly recommend them for all anglers. They should be compulsory!

The old cheese factory at hartington (a substantial place) is the source of a large amount of oil spillage.

The E.A are on the case as we speak, with Andy Heath of the passports scheme and keeper of the Famous Charles Cotten Beat working round the clock to stem the flow.

It appears that ” persons unknown “, allegedly, broke open an electrical transformer and stole the core, causing the coolant oil to escape down a ditch into the Dove in the process.

i have fished the river today , and there is oil visable on the surface. and a distintive smell.

Andrew is a first rate guy with a major set of problems at the moment.

I do not have the details but there are all sorts of complications over and above the problem itself, ownership and responsability issues , and the best way to tackle the flow may be problematic.

There is certainly a lot of activity on site , arc lights, tankers,and several of the blue container type units we see on building sites in evidence.

Sorry to be a bringer of bad news, but i thought you should be aware of this and pass it onto club secretaries etc. or maybe you already know all about it.

lets try to support where we can, and wish Andy , The E.A, and the owners
of the affected fishing the best of luck in what seems to be a messy incident in every way .

If you are interested in a fly dressing class in the new year leave your details in the shop

Or to book call 01433 620662

A chance to blow the dust of the old vice, meet old friends and maybe make some new ones.

We are calling this an improvers class but do not be put off, nothing too complicated!

In the new year (23rd January)

At the Hope Valley College

On Monday evenings

At 7 :15

Till 9pm

For the last couple of years, during the
period between Christmas and New Year,
we’ve “enjoyed” traditional grayling
weather – freezing conditions, snow, low
water and ice in the margins. This year
it’s been the opposite with heavy rain, high
water and temperatures in double figures.

On Boxing Day the river level had been
edging into the “danger of flooding”
segment of the EA’s Ashford river gauge
but happily it was easing back by the time
we arrived for our traditional “cabin-fever”
get together on the following day. A glance
over the bridge at the Bobbin Mill confirmed
it was still high but fining down nicely,
with that lovely tinge of jade which always
gives me confidence at this time of year.

There were plenty of midges in the air as we
tackled up, enjoying a Sloegasm, courtesy
of Chris Pryor’s well stocked mobile drinks

rainbow, quickly followed by a very nice
grayling which had taken the Serendipity

cabinet. Rather unsteadily we made our
way up and down the river to see if the
grayling were coming out to play.

There was nothing showing on the surface
so I put on a couple of reasonably heavy
nymphs – a PTN on the point and a white
bead head Serendipity on the dropper. The
PTN was tied on one of those Czech
cranked-shank jig hooks which fish with
the hook point uppermost. This took the
first fish – a spanking bright winter

as the cast came round behind me. This is
a characteristic grayling take. Stuart
Crofts was telling me later over a pint that
the fish will often gather behind an angler,
feeding on stuff dislodged by his wading.
So it always pays to fish out the cast,
drawing the flies slightly upstream then
letting them down again, a movement that
grayling find irresistible. A sort of
downstream induced take. Another bright
silver rainbow followed, fin perfect and
bursting with life, and then the tiniest
grayling I’ve ever caught – no more than 3
inches but a perfect little specimen.

It was now 1.30 pm and time for a cup of
tea with some of Dr Smith’s Christmas
Cake and Wensleydale Cheese. And of
course on cue, a hatch of Olives started as
soon as we were tucking in. A few fish
started to show on the surface but we’d all
had a fish or two during the morning and
the lure of the pub was now more attractive.

Later, over lunch at the Cock & Pullet,
Stuart asked us – which olive did we think
had been hatching? We all assumed Large
Darks, but in fact they were actually Blue
Wings, Stuart having caught a specimen
which he produced from his fly box, still
alive. Quite amazing to see them hatching
so late in the year, presumably encouraged

Cressbrook & Litton Flyfishers’ Club
Fishing Report 29 December 2011

by the mild weather, and a reminder never
to assume anything in fly fishing.

I shall be doing more shooting than fishing
in January but given reasonable weather, I
intend to put in a few more grayling
sessions as the days start to draw out
during February and early March. I hope
I’ll see you on the riverbank.

Happy New Year & tight lines!
DJM