All in a spin

I don’t like crowds when I'm fishing, I don't like crowds much at all come to think of it. I like having the river to myself, don’t we all? There are some waters where this is hard to achieve and some waters where its damm near impossible. If you can't do owt about it then, I guess, you learn to tolerate it or fish somewhere else.

Wolfscotedale on the Dove is water a bit like that. Only a couple of miles from Hartington, a very popular base for walkers, there are times when you think the procession of blue and red anoraks will never cease.

I used to fish Dovedale on the Leek and District ticket and that was very similar. In fact I read a report recently that said this was the second most visited spot in a national park next to Mount Fuji. It certainly felt like that at times but I learnt a few valuable lessons which apply at Wolfscotedale and probably many other stretches of river popular with the general public or, as I like to refer to them when I have rod in hand, noisy scumbags! Those lessons were, in no particular order but I will give them one anyway...

Firstly, that the fish actually get used to scumbags walking next to the river, they will carry on feeding but they tend to be a little more cautious of anything over or on the river.

Secondly, the fish will adapt to the scumbag hatch/fly hatch cycle and make the most of the early morning and late evening but that they become ultra cautious of bankside activity at these times.

Thirdly, scumbags don’t rise until 9am and are not seen making noise and merriment before 10am. They need long, big, hearty meals before a long sleep and are at the dinner table by 7pm and so desert the riverside by 6pm.

Finally, Scumbag hatching cycles increase at the weekend - avoid at all costs!

I arrived at Wolfscotedale at 6.30pm to find one car in the car park. He'd been fishing since 3.30 so it was a good guess that he would not be fishing late. This was a good sign, not many of the Derby County AC anglers’ fish the spinner fall even though it can be very good fishing.

There was little activity on the river and no activity on the footpath. Nothing really happened until about 9pm when the first fish started that classic rising pattern of trout feeding on spinners; a porpoys..poirpose..porposie..dolphin like rise where the head comes out first slowly rolling along the back until the dorsal fin shows. I like this kind of rise, you get a good feel for the size of fish.

Although I had been at the river two hours already the Pheasant Tail tied spinner pattern was already in the butt ring.

Five lovely fish between 12 and 15" graced the net in about an hour of wonderful silence!