Another Kicking From The Derwent

As the weather forecast for Friday early morning was for rain, I decided against an early start as I really hate setting up in the rain.This proved to be a good move as it was still heavy drizzle as I had breakfast. The rain had stopped by the time I got the car loaded, so off I went to the Derwent. The river was a lot more coloured than I expected. It's only really this century that the river has coloured up like this with only a small rise in level. It used to be an excellent winter venue because, unlike the Ouse system, it didn't really turn brown except when it was at a high level for a long period. A wander round with the lure rod showed there to be some nice slacks even if the pike weren't chasing lures.

Starting at one end of the length I intend to give each of the slacks about an hour. For bait I started with a large chunk of lamprey on one rod and a large smelt on the other. The smelt was fished just off the bottom and allowed to drift about the slack.  Not a great deal happened in the first couple of swims and it was soon lunch. After a bite to eat I replaced the lamprey with a large sardine, injected some oil into the smelt and moved to the third swim. Twenty minutes after casting the baits in, and as I was taking a photo,  the float on the sardine rod  popped upright and bobbled about. A strike resulted in nothing but a slightly chewed sardine. Out it went again, this time with added oil. The drifted smelt stopped in its tracks, but this was just some debris on the line. That was the sum total of action for the day, with the next two swims producing nothing but the odd twig.

For most of the day the hawthorns opposite wee rather noisy with small birds feasting on the berries. Due to the misty nature of the day I wasn't able to identify any other than the occasional black bird. just before I started to pack up the drizzle started again which was rather annoying. Boxes and bags a currently drying out in the garage. I think I may have to resort to still waters as there is more rain promised and the rivers are currently rising again.