I have just joined the Derby Railway club as they have several stretches of the Dove, Trent, and my local Derwent as well as several Lakes. I decided to take out the Trout ticket as well , as this allows me to fish for Trout, during the close Season.

It will also allow me to fish instead of just walking the banks to discover the Barbel and Chub areas for the forthcoming season.

Today I went to my nearest water, The Derwent at Darley Dale, just North of Matlock.
The methods allowed are Fly, Spinning and ledgered or freelined worm.

I am not a fly fisherman, so armed with a small tub of worms and a 9 ft 2 piece Daiwa Sensor 'winkler' rod, plus a 7ft telescopic (kindly loaned by ESOX) and a new set of Mepps, I set off to discover the water at about 12.00 in glorious sunshine.

It felt strange to be traveling so light, with just a landing net, a bankstick , the 2 rods and a small holdall, in which the flask took up most of the space!

The map for the some 2 mile stretch, left a lot to be desired, but I eventually found the Parking area, cut across a field which had an open gate, climbed down 2 steep embankments, crossed a railway and eventually found the river!!!
Thankfully , coming back, I followed the footpath and found I was some 50 yds short of the official footpath!, but I'll know next time!

The River was delightful! A fast flooding deep cut river, fed from the Pennine heights, it is extremely picturesque, although difficult to fish as the banks are very steep and there are no natural flat pegs.

Trees line much of the bank and casting is extremely difficult.

I choose a fairly open swim, set up the ledger rod with a 12 hook running link of 4lb hooklength to 8lb braid and a 6" 4lbbs bomb link.
Casting out into a fairly stiff current, I used a 1/2 oz bomb allowing it to roll down searching the swim.
It came in to the edge and slowed, then settled in the slower water close to the bank.

I started to set up the spinning rod and had almost finished when the end of the rod signaled an unmistakable bite!
I struck and was pleased to see the rod plunge and bend as I hooked my 1st purposely fished for Trout of 2002.
She came to the net and I was delighted to see that at around 1lb, the fish was as clean and healthy as you could wish for.
after a wait of some 45 minutes, I had a 2nd and 1/2 an hour later, I decided to try the spinner.

Some 40 minutes of spinning and I was vastly improving my technique, but had no sign of even a bite!

Deciding to act like a true Trout man, I moved back down the river to learn more swims!
The second swim produced a small trout, about 8ozs, again to the bomb.

The 3rd and 4th swims were not good choices and I fouled trees, bushes and generally spent more time retying and setting up than fishing.
I also suffered my only loss of the day! 1 snapped off Mepps spinner (cheap day for the curse!)

At 6.15, I settled into my 5th and final swim, in a glorious evening sunset and reflected that for the 1st time this year, I had not been cold all day and I had not even put a Jacket on! (only a Xmas Jumper Norm)
In the next 30 mins, I had 3 more trout, 4 and 6 being good 14 oz fish and 5 being a harder fighting than his brothers, 8 oz
It was nearly dusk when I found my way to the track that led home, a full moon awesomely shone down from a cloudless sky and the lack of a Jacket suddenly reminded me of how early in the year it still is!
I reached the car at 7.00 , by which time night had fully fallen and mentally blessed another memorable day.

Trev