Big rainbows.

[mick dunn]

When weighing my fish in yesterday at Derwent i had a look in the "heaviest fish" caught book.
Saw a 12 ib er had been caught on ledger using worm. Also a 7 pounder on worm and power bait,again on the bottom by the dam wall.
Is the water at its deepest here?.
Are all the big uns feeding on the bottom?.
Are the big uns put in by the stocking or do they grow to that size? naturally eating stuff in the lake. ( including smaller fish).

Cheers Mick.

PS why is there no brown trout but blue backs are in there.?

[Hiram.A.Biff]

When weighing my fish in yesterday at Derwent i had a look in the "heaviest fish" caught book.
Saw a 12 ib er had been caught on ledger using worm. Also a 7 pounder on worm and power bait,again on the bottom by the dam wall.
Is the water at its deepest here?.
Are all the big uns feeding on the bottom?.
Are the big uns put in by the stocking or do they grow to that size? naturally eating stuff in the lake. ( including smaller fish).

Cheers Mick.

PS why is there no brown trout but blue backs are in there.?

Hi Mick,
never fished the Derwent for years, the big rainbows will be stockies.
Tell you a tale, A mate of mine years ago, about 1981, knew a bailiff on there, they were out in a boat, the bailliff pulled out from his box, what he called a "Drop minnow hook", and livebaited it with a minnow, let it sink on a handline, Guy reckons it was taken by a huge brownie, over 12 pounds, which was released. There are some huge brownies in there, just rarely caught mate.
My earliest memory of trout fishing, with my dad, was at Espa Sheilds, a small place which was flooded during the construction of the Derwent Resevoir.

[mark]

there are a few rainbows which have grown on, but not many, most will be stockies, the brownies are a different matter, wild and wary, and are almost never caught by the 'allowed' methods

cow green is the same, I know of one person that has pulled some huge brownies out of there 'unofficially' with minnows, rigged to 2 small trebles... nuff said

got some great pics of the derwent from a couple of years back when the water was at an all time low, part of the old village was showing and there was a hump back bridge appeared in the middle complete with road markings and cats eyes, will try dig em out

[Hiram.A.Biff]

there are a few rainbows which have grown on, but not many, most will be stockies, the brownies are a different matter, wild and wary, and are almost never caught by the 'allowed' methods

cow green is the same, I know of one person that has pulled some huge brownies out of there 'unofficially' with minnows, rigged to 2 small trebles... nuff said

got some great pics of the derwent from a couple of years back when the water was at an all time low, part of the old village was showing and there was a hump back bridge appeared in the middle complete with road markings and cats eyes, will try dig em out

Digging cats eyes out mark??? tut tut..............

[mick dunn]

Saw that bridge before i started the fly fishing. The dams just down the road and a nice drive out when the bairn was little.

The big house is also on my old patch of Consett. Once the alarms went off and we had to check it out. It is a lovely place.

I heard the new owner invented the plastic bag which surrounds the rolled hay in fields.

[MickA]

Used to fish Derwent a lot years ago (20+ yrs) and early season, which is now as it used to only open for fishing on 1st of May, we used to fish the dam wall with very fast sinking or lead core shooting heads. Used to latch on to some good quality fish by fishing right on the bottom with streamer type flies. Muddlers on a very short trace worked well aswell as the bouyancy of the deer hair would keep them just off the bottom. Basically if you could not feel the flies bumping the bottom you weren't fishing deep enough. Best area then used to be the tower end of the wall as thats where all the foodstuff would end up being washed down to. Also there was, probably still is, a strong undertow there. Bit of a problem casting due to steepness of the wall behind you but thats where the shooting heads come into their own.

[pete]

got some great pics of the derwent from a couple of years back when the water was at an all time low, part of the old village was showing and there was a hump back bridge appeared in the middle complete with road markings and cats eyes, will try dig em out

Woot, would love to see them. Was that the year before last Mark? I remember it being realy low but never saw the bridge in the middle.