Fishing the River Derwent for beautiful ladies

One of my fishing pals, Tim, asked if I would like to join him fishing the River Derwent for grayling on his Cromford Fly Fishers guest ticket.

Not surprisingly, I said yes, and all that was left was to organise the day. Simple, but the weather had other ideas.

Eventually, the weather gods heard our plea for dry weather, the river level dropped to a fishable height (0.67m on the gauge at Matlock), and we could fix a day on the river.

Fishing the River Derwent for grayling

Heavy traffic around Manchester delayed my arrival, and Tim was already getting ready when I pulled into the car park.

After a quick catch up, we discussed tactics for the day and agreed that nymphing was most likely the best option because there weren’t any flies hatching in the cold conditions.

I set up my rod to fish a team of Czech nymphs space 18″ apart on 4 lb fluorocarbon leader because no grayling rising (point: #13 PTN with a 4 mm orange TB; middle dropper: #14, purple collar black PTN with a 3.5 mm silver TB; top dropper: #18, Hares Ears 1.5 mm copper TB).

Fishing the pool upriver of the lower car park

Another club member, Steve, was fishing the bottom pool, so we agreed to start above and work our way upriver searching for grayling.

Methodically, I fished through the first pool but only managed to catch a juvenile grayling on the black PTN.

I wandered upriver to see if Tim was having better luck.

Fishing the Weir Pool

In the pool above me, Tim was also struggling. Therefore, it was time to turn to the dark side of fly fishing.

So, I replaced the black PTN with an orange, squirmy worm and Hares Ear on the top dropper with a #16 pheasant tail nymph.

Hoping these changes stimulate more interest, I began fishing the weir pool above Tim. It proved to be a good move because, after a few casts…

BOOM – I had my first solid take of the day.

After getting things under control, I guided a lovely grayling to the net with the squirmy worm dangling from its mouth.

Fishing the remainder of the pool produced another take but the grayling struggled free before I had a chance to net it. After this loss, we moved upriver to see if the next pool would offer up more grayling.

Fishing the bridge pool

The spot I liked the look of was a small pocket of deep water below the old railway bridge. Fishing the head of the pool with the nymphs didn’t produce any takes.

I turned my attention to the pool’s tail but couldn’t reach the area with the nymphing setup that looked like the best lie.

Therefore, I set up my 9ft 5# rod to fish a heavy nymph and squirmy worm 7ft below a large bung, which I’d roughly cut out of yellow Veniard foam block the night before after reading an article on grayling fishing on the River Wharfe.

The bung wasn’t subtle but designed to hold the heavy nymphs sporting large tungsten beads.

I don’t have much experience fishing nymphs below a bung, but this section of the river was crying out for it. So, I had to oblige.

The setup wasn’t easy to cast, and I had to slow the forward stroke to get it into the seam of slower flowing water. On the third drift, the bung stopped moving, I stuck, and the rod bent around into a nice fish that dived deep into the main channel.

As I guided it into the back eddy, a beautiful brown trout surfaced with the orange squirmy in its mouth and not the grayling I was expecting.

Fishing the remainder of the pool with the bung setup but didn’t have any other takes. So I headed upriver to see if there were grayling lurking in the pool above the bridge, where Tim was fishing.

Euro nymphing above the railway bridge

I started fishing above Tim and slowly followed him down through the pool with the euro nymphing setup. After missing a couple of takes in the fast water, I caught two juvenile graylings on the PTN.

About halfway down the pool, it was possible to wade out into the middle of the river and fish the nymphs close to the overhanging trees on the far bank. It proved to be a good move because it wasn’t long before I hooked another grayling, which could resist the orange tag PTN on the point.

A few casts later, I caught another grayling that had taken a fancy to the orange squirmy.

Carefully, I fished on downriver until I had a solid take in a pocket of slack water close to a large tree on the far bank. My rod bent around into a much bigger fish that took off. I hoped it was for a big grayling, but…

a large, golden flash suggested a brown trout.

It was a struggle to safely get back to the bank while the fish was darting around the pool. Fortunately, I gained the upper hand and guided the beautiful brown trout to the net that had taken the squirmy worm.

After safely releasing the brownie, I fished the rest of the pool until hometime but didn’t catch anything else.

Summary of my River Derwent fishing trip

Overall, I had a great day fishing Cromford Fly Fishes beat on a guest ticket with Tim and Steve, made…

especially enjoyable with their warm banter.

Despite the slow start to the day, I eventually caught a few beautiful Derbyshire grayling fishing the River Derwent.