A class on the Derwent & a holiday in the Wolds

Kev Hales showing me how it's done on the Derwent.

August 4 at Beechwood with my angling mate, Geoff, who was after the Carp on his hair-rigged Polish sausage which worked well and saw him catch some nice fish and I caught plenty of Roach, Rudd and a few Carp from 2½-4lb.

On 10 August I was fishing on the River Derwent in the evening, having a lesson with Kev Hales, Clive and John (Alfreton Angling) along with Tim Baker fellow Earl angler. We got some great tips and caught Dace, Roach small Chub and Tim had some Grayling and Trout, plus we both caught loads of Minnows! It was a great session on the river, where I’m not very confident, but the session helped me understand rigs, improved my watercraft and I’ll definitely be going back to the Derwent to put into practice what I’ve learned.

With some maggots left over from my lesson on the Derwent I went on the cut at Willington on 11 August, going a bit further downstream where I found a nice spot next to a moored boat. I threw in some casters and red maggots, set up and caught loads of the usual Perch, including some good size ones, some Roach and Rudd, some quite big Bream and a Ruff. For the last hour I went onto a light ledger setup and continued to catch some Perch and Bream, a great late afternoon, early evening session.

On the 15 August I was back on the canal at Willington with my Nephew for his first session on the cut. We went back to the same spot I fished the previous session and the narrow boat was still there, which I hoped was a good sign. It was a hot day with temperatures reaching 24 degrees and hardly any wind and as I set up, my Nephew started catching and continued to catch plenty of Perch including some up to nearly a pound which he was very pleased with, a few Roach and his first Gudgeon which he wasn’t sure what to make of until I told him it was a good size! He landed 19 fish in all - he’s a numbers man! I also caught a good variety of fish including a few Bream, a good afternoon session.

I spent a week at Poachers Hideaway in Lincolnshire for the last week of August and experienced some lovely, relaxing fishing in the Lincolnshire Wolds in very peaceful surroundings. I fished at different times of day from early morning to dusk and caught some lovely Roach and Carp in pristine condition on the waggler, using maggots, worms and also some tares one of the other anglers gave me. There were only two other anglers fishing while I was there and they were both nice blokes fishing simple methods. It was a great relaxing holiday in a lovely part of the world with some nice places to visit between fishing and I’ll be trying those tares again!