THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 FISHING IN DERBYSHIRE 
 AND AROUND
 
 FISHING MAP OF WATERS. 
 (DRAWN BY \v. M. G.)
 
 FISHING IN DERBYSHIRE 
 AND AROUND 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTER M. GALLICHAN 
 
 ('GEOFFREY MORTIMER') 
 AUTHOR OF ' FISHING IN WALES ' 
 
 LONDON 
 
 F. E. ROBINSON & CO. 
 
 20 GREAT RUSSELL STREET 
 
 1905
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 FISHING IN WALES. A Thorough Guide 
 for the Angler. Crown 8vo., cloth gilt, 
 3s. 6d. net. 
 
 Standard. ' No angler can afford to go to Wales without 
 putting this modest but compendious little book into his pocket.' 
 
 Field. ' No more excellent guide-book to the fishing to be 
 obtained in Wales than this by Mr. W. M. Gallichan has yet been 
 produced.' 
 
 FISHING AND TRAVEL IN SPAIN. Illus- 
 trated. Crown 8vo., cloth gilt, 5s. net. 
 
 Field. ' This is the kind of work that is too little done. It is 
 the result of personal experience, and contains all that valuable in- 
 formation which can only be acquired on the spot.' 
 
 LONDON: 
 F. E. ROBINSON & CO, 20, GREAT RUSSELL ST.
 
 TO 
 MY FRIEND 
 
 DOCTOR SIDNEY HILLIER 
 
 (Stowmarktt) 
 
 AN ENTHUSIASTIC FLY-FISHERMAN 
 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
 
 PREFACE 
 
 SOME years ago I used to find myself inquiring, 
 in the 'ever-returning spring,' 'Where shall I go 
 to fish ?' In those days there were but few books 
 for anglers containing directions as to the finding 
 of fishing waters, and descriptions of the streams 
 in a stated district. For example, one might have 
 read diligently all that had then been written upon 
 the Derbyshire Derwent or Wye without learning 
 whether those rivers were open or private fisheries, 
 where one could stay upon their banks, and how 
 much a fishing holiday would cost. There are a 
 number of fishermen still in this plight. How 
 many of us have travelled more than once to a 
 far corner of the kingdom, with mingled expect- 
 ancy and misgiving, to fish in a river about which 
 we have been able to gather little or nothing 
 in the way of practical information ! Such 
 expeditions, as I know from experience, frequently 
 end in disillusionment and waste of time.
 
 x Preface 
 
 The gratifying assurances of fishermen that 
 my ' Fishing in Wales ' has proved acceptable 
 and useful, and the generous commendation 
 accorded to that book by reviewers, have encour- 
 aged me while writing the present volume. 
 Perhaps I may here say that the collection and 
 arranging of material for such a book is not unac- 
 companied by peculiar difficulties. My aim is 
 to strike the happy mean betwixt overstatement 
 of the sport that may be expected in a given 
 stream and the peril of a pessimistic view. 
 
 There is an old-standing accusation against 
 anglers that they are, to express it politely, 
 prone to extravagance of statement. It matters 
 not if the fishing writer is by nature severely 
 dispassionate and impartial. He will not escape 
 the charge, let it be facetious or spiteful. Some- 
 one will tell him that he has drawn the long-bow. 
 In order to guard against inaccuracy, I have not 
 remained satisfied with relating my own experi- 
 ence of rivers in this district. My personal 
 investigation has been supplemented by many 
 interviews and a considerable correspondence 
 with the secretaries and members of fishing 
 societies, riparian owners, and water-bailiffs 
 Probably I have erred now and then on the side
 
 Preface xi 
 
 of cautiousness. If so, I may be pardoned for a 
 shrinking from that not altogether kindly banter 
 to which anglers are exposed. At any rate, I 
 may state that I have been at much trouble to 
 impart trustworthy information. 
 
 I hope that there is no omission of any of 
 the names of those friends and correspondents 
 who have assisted me in writing this book. My 
 thanks for obligations are due to Mr. A. P. 
 Payne-Gall wey, to Sir Thomas Wardle, to Mr. 
 T. C. Jeffrey, of the Midland Railway Company, 
 to Dr. S. Warneford, to Mr. W. H. Foster, of 
 Ashbourne, and to several fishermen whose names 
 will be found in the text. From out of the large 
 number of authorities from whom I sought know- 
 ledge only two ignored my request. To these I 
 accord my free absolution. The interest shown 
 in my project convinces me that the great majority 
 of resident Derbyshire anglers welcome viators 
 in the cheery and fraternal spirit of Izaak Walton. 
 
 WALTER M. GALLICHAN. 
 
 THE CRIMBLES, 
 
 YOULGREAVE, BAKEWELL, 
 
 DERBYSHIRE, 
 M 'arc/i, 1905.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. A GENERAL CHAPTER I 
 
 II. THE UPPER DOVE - 25 
 
 III. FISHING IN DOVEDALE - 35 
 
 IV. THE DOVE : ROCESTER TO UTTOXETER - 44 
 
 V. THE MANIFOLD - 48 
 
 VI. RUDYARD LAKE : COARSE-FISHING - 57 
 
 VII. THE UPPER WYE - 64 
 
 VIII. THE WYE : BAKEWELL TO ROWSLEY - 68 
 
 IX. THE LATHKILL AND BRADFORD - 8O 
 
 X. AROUND SHEFFIELD - 86 
 
 XI. NOTTINGHAM-ON-TRENT - "91 
 
 XII. THE DERWENT : FROM THE SOURCE TO 
 
 GRINDLEFORD - 98 
 
 XIII. THE DERWENT : THE CHATSWORTH FISHERY 109 
 
 XIV. THE DERWENT: ROWSLEY TO MATLOCK - 117 
 XV. THE DERWENT : FISHING AROUND MATLOCK - 1 25 
 
 XVI. THE DERWENT : WHATSTANDWELL TO DERBY 133 
 
 XVII. THE AMBER - - 138 
 
 xiii
 
 xiv Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XVIII. DERBY AND AROUND - 142 
 
 xix. COMB'S RESERVOIR FISHERY - 147 
 
 XX. GRAYLING-FISHING IN DERBYSHIRE - 151 
 
 XXI. HINTS UPON FISHING IN DAMS AND POOLS - 164 
 
 APPENDICES - - 1/8 
 
 INDEX - - - - -182
 
 FISHING IN DERBYSHIRE 
 AND AROUND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A GENERAL CHAPTER 
 
 IT is scarcely necessary to extol the attractions 
 of rivers rendered classic by association with the 
 names of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton. The 
 pleasant task that I have set myself is to direct 
 the fisherman to the streams and angling waters 
 of a beautiful district, comprising the county of 
 Derbyshire and some parts of the adjoining shires. 
 Other writers, in the past, have described the 
 rivers of this region from the point of view of 
 the tourist in search of the picturesque ; while, 
 here and there, amongst angling volumes that are 
 out of print, one finds a few accounts of Walton 
 and the Dove, and an occasional reference to the 
 Derwent, Wye, and other trout-streams. 
 
 During the past thirty or forty years, one or 
 
 I
 
 2 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 two interesting books have been added to the 
 scant collection of angling literature appertaining 
 generally to the Midlands. The veteran who 
 writes so charmingly under the name of ' The 
 Amateur Angler ' has given us his impressions of 
 Dovedale, and in his book on ' The Trout,' the 
 Marquess of Granby has told us of enticing sport 
 by his own lengths of the Lathkill and Bradford. 
 When I chose Derbyshire for my home, after 
 some years of wandering, it was suggested to me 
 that I should endeavour to set forth the claims 
 of that county upon the angler, in the same way 
 that I have described sport with the rod in Wales 
 and Spain. Falling in with the hint, I sit down 
 to-day, with the song of a trout-stream in the dale 
 below borne across the garden, to begin the survey 
 of familiar stretches of rivers endeared to me, and 
 to lead the brother of the angle to runs and pools 
 where he may cast his ' Derbyshire bumble ' in 
 the wet style of fly-fishing, or stalk the well-pro- 
 portioned trout in translucent water, and drop 
 his dry fly in the dimple of a rise. Nor shall I 
 forget to disclose to the bottom-fisher the exact 
 points where he may expect to find pike, roach, 
 chub, barbel, grayling, and other fish in the 
 proper seasons.
 
 A General Chapter 3 
 
 Nature has provided kindly for both the fly- 
 
 * 
 
 fisher and bottom-fisherman in this district. 
 Most of the large and small tributaries of the 
 Trent contain chiefly trout and grayling in their 
 higher waters. Where the game fish are scarce 
 in these rivers that is to say, in their lower 
 lengths coarse fish are in some instances very 
 abundant. This is a most excellent provision, 
 for reaches that harbour chub, perch, and pike 
 can be avoided by the fly-fisherman. 
 
 In another respect the rivers in Derbyshire and 
 around claim the attention of visiting anglers. 
 The means of communication from the chief 
 towns of the North and South, and within the 
 district itself, enable the visitor to reach the 
 riverside within a few hours. For instance, 
 fishermen residing in Manchester and its sur- 
 rounding towns, or in Derby and Nottingham, 
 can leave home at a reasonable hour in the morn- 
 ing, spend a day by the Derwent or Dove, and 
 return by an evening train. The quick service 
 of trains on the Midland Railway enables the 
 fisherman to travel by a fast morning train from 
 St. Pancras to Matlock or Bakewell, in plenty 
 of time for an afternoon and evening with the 
 trout and grayling of the Derwent and Wye ; 
 
 12
 
 4 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 while week-end tickets on this line, at reduced 
 fares, are issued to all the chief fishing stations. 
 The district under our consideration is, therefore, 
 easily accessible, and compares very favourably 
 in this matter with Wales or the West of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 As to the cost of fishing, and board and lodging, 
 I shall refer to the charges in describing the 
 various rivers and the towns and villages upon 
 their banks. Some of the fishing lengths in 
 private hands can be fished by permission of the 
 land-owners or tenants holding rights of angling, 
 and portions of the rivers are fishable by taking 
 quarters at comfortable hotels. There are also 
 preserved waters, which are controlled by asso- 
 ciations, and daily, weekly, and season tickets can 
 be purchased at a moderate cost. The Con- 
 servators of the Trent issue licenses to fish with 
 rod and line for trout and char in the main river 
 and its tributaries at half a crown for the season, 
 and one shilling for one week. This license covers 
 almost the whole of the rivers mentioned in these 
 pages. 
 
 The streams of Derbyshire and the bordering 
 counties offer considerable diversity both in the 
 character of their scenery and their waters. In
 
 A General Chapter 5 
 
 the limestone regions watered by the Dove, the 
 Wye, the Lathkill, the Manifold, and the middle 
 lengths of the Dei went, the streams are normally 
 clear, and have the transparent quality of the 
 Hampshire rivers and the chalk streams of Berks 
 and Bucks. The Lathkill has water of remark- 
 able limpidity, and almost the same may be said 
 for the Wye during dry weather. In the Dove 
 the angler will find a very slight colour, but it is 
 still, in its reaches from the source to the lower 
 end of Dovedale, a bright stream, with scarcely 
 a perceptible stain in a fine summer. 
 
 Surface water soon colours these rivers, but 
 fairly heavy rain is required to render them turbid 
 for some days together, and I have seen the upper 
 Lathkill quite clear when the stream had over- 
 flown its banks at several points. A brown stain 
 in the Wye is an advantage, but occasionally 
 during rainy seasons the stream is much swollen, 
 and the water remains muddy for a few days. 
 
 The Derwent takes a tint from the peat in its 
 upper waters, and after rain it is tinged with 
 ' woodland water ' from the woods that clothe 
 its banks above Chatsworth. Under ordinary 
 summer conditions this river is not so limpid as 
 its tributary the Wye, and from Matlock down-
 
 6 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 wards it is discoloured with drainage for some 
 distance, to assume a clearer character in the 
 swift shallows of Cromford and Whatstandwell. 
 Lower down, in the neighbourhood of Ambergate 
 and Belper, the Derwent is less impetuous, and 
 its water is somewhat deeply coloured through- 
 out the rest of its course to the Trent. 
 
 The trout and grayling rivers of Derbyshire 
 differ in certain essential characteristics from the 
 rushing, boulder-strewn streams of North Wales 
 and the Scottish Highlands. Limestone deter- 
 mines their clearness, and the springs whence 
 some of them arise are among rocky uplands. 
 We may perhaps say that the trout-streams of 
 the High Peak Country are far wilder than those 
 of the South of England, but not so wild generally 
 as the rivers of Scotland and Wales. They possess 
 an intermediate character, with certain resem- 
 blances to the clear southern streams and the 
 boisterous, peat-stained rivers of the North. 
 Picturesque is the word that describes the dales 
 watered by these crystal streams. 
 
 In Narrowdale and Milldale, on the Dove, and 
 in the gorge of the Wye above Monsal Dale, the 
 banks of the streams approach the stern and gray 
 order of river scenery. Here the waters have
 
 A General Chapter 7 
 
 forced a channel betwixt limestone cliffs, with 
 beetling crags and sheer escarpments. Amid 
 surroundings more pastoral, the rivers flow on 
 to the Trent, but in these lower lands there are 
 spots of exceeding charm, and no lack of interest 
 in the banks whereon the coarse-fisherman stands 
 to watch his swan-quill, or to swing the bait for 
 pike. 
 
 And like the country and the rivers, the trout 
 and grayling fishing has a quaint fascination all 
 its own. For Derbyshire angling is not quite the 
 same affair as fly-fishing in the Test and Avon, 
 nor is it exactly comparable with fishing in York- 
 shire and the Northern Border streams. It is my 
 conviction that the trout in question are better 
 worth the angler's perseverance in attempting to 
 lure them than the hungry, uneducated ^-pounders 
 of less-fished streams in Scotland and elsewhere. 
 
 If your object in fly-fishing is to make heavy 
 baskets, with the minimum of skill, there are 
 brooks in other parts of the United Kingdom 
 where you may cast your three wet flies almost 
 at random, and expect to hook a wee troutlet at 
 about every other cast. This is one kind of trout- 
 fishing, and I personally do not despise it upon 
 occasion. But the well-earned, wary fish of
 
 8 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 pound in weight, which I have marked rising 
 in the Dove, and hooked at the third or fourth 
 transit of my olive dun on the outer ring of his 
 dimple, gives me a keener satisfaction in the out- 
 witting, and a livelier joy in the capture, than a 
 dozen little trout from a burn. 
 
 This is not saying that fishing with the wet fly 
 is impracticable in the rivers of Derbyshire. In 
 the spring months, and at any time when the 
 rivers are coloured, very good sport may be 
 obtained by sinking the fly. Many of the local 
 anglers never use the wet fly. They have been 
 reared in the tradition of dry-fly fishing, and they 
 profess ignorance of the methods of the sunk fly, 
 while some of the craft hold such fishing in con- 
 tempt. 
 
 Is this a reasonable prejudice ? The two 
 oldest fly-fishermen in the county, Sir Thomas 
 Wardle and John Fosbrooke of Hartington, 
 water-keeper to the Trent Conservancy, both 
 fish with the wet fly. Sir Thomas Wardle owns 
 a length of the Dove above Dovedale, where the 
 water is usually pellucid, and yet he makes heavy 
 baskets with the wet fly. Fosbrooke ' never 
 tinkers his fly,' to use his own phrase, but adheres 
 valiantly to the older mode of fly-fishing. Both
 
 A General Chapter 9 
 
 of these anglers could undoubtedly hold their 
 own against dry-fly fishermen on their local 
 streams. Therefore, if anyone informs you that 
 no one can take trout with the wet fly in the 
 Derbyshire rivers, do not heed him, but adapt 
 your fishing to the water, the season of the year, 
 and the general conditions. 
 
 In the Manifold I have had better sport with 
 the wet fly than with the floating fly. I do 
 not believe in that bigoted orthodoxy which 
 announces that only the dry fly shall be used 
 all the season round. What of chilly days in 
 April, when one may look in vain for the rings 
 of rising trout, and fail to discern any standing 
 fish? 
 
 Will you go home with an empty creel merely 
 because you deem it heretical to throw a brace of 
 small hackle flies off the edges of the streams ? 
 If so, I am afraid that in certain seasons you will 
 have very little fishing until the end of May, 
 while in times of spate you will be forced to leave 
 your rod at home in its canvas case. By changing 
 my style of fishing from wet fly to dry fly, I can 
 usually contrive to catch trout from the beginning 
 of April until the end of September, and grayling 
 from mid- June till Christmas.
 
 io Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 I willingly agree that there is something 
 extremely alluring and unique in dry-fly fishing. 
 It is the finest poetry of fly-fishing. But I do 
 not neglect the finest prose because I am fond 
 of poetry. There is, to my mind, a curious 
 warp in the angler who rigidly refuses to use 
 the wet fly when the floating fly fails to attract 
 fish. If it is a question of skill, I will go so far as 
 to say, that in the limpid Wye it is easier to catch 
 trout and grayling with the dry fly than with 
 the sunk fly. Unless the water is thickly stained, 
 wet-fly fishing is by no means a despicable art 
 in these streams of the limestone region. 
 
 What, then, should be the fisherman's guide 
 as to the mode of fly-fishing in Derbyshire ? 
 My answer is that you should try either method, 
 wet or dry, on the same day if need be. This is 
 my own plan under certain conditions. For 
 example, in the open length of the Wye, between 
 Bakewell and Rowsley, I caught four brace of 
 fish one day in the spring of 1904. Five out of 
 the eight fish were taken with the wet fly. Some 
 of these were hooked at the tail of runs, and the 
 others in pools rippled by a breeze. You can 
 soon discover whether trout are feeding near the 
 surface.
 
 A General Chapter 1 1 
 
 If the duns are frisking prettily down a glide, 
 and the trout are sucking them in, by all means 
 oil your fly, stalk up, and let your lure float on 
 the surface. The wet fly will hardly avail here 
 unless the water is coloured. But if few flies or 
 none can be seen, what do you propose to do ? 
 You may peer about for standing fish, and try 
 to tempt them with a floating fly, or you may 
 pack up and go home. I do not propose to give 
 up simply because I cannot use the dry fly. It 
 is an easy operation to change the cast, and to 
 fish with a couple of small flies in the sunk 
 fashion. The trout may be feeding greedily on 
 the larvae under water. I would rather catch 
 them on the surface, but I am not going to lose 
 a half-day's sport because the trout will not rise 
 to my floating blue dun or olive. As a keeper 
 on the Dove remarked to me : ' This is the sort 
 of day when you can make 'em rise to the wet 
 fly.' ' 
 
 We will suppose, however, that you find your- 
 self on the bank of the stream on a warm day 
 at the close of June. The water is bright and 
 rather low, and the sunshine is somewhat glaring. 
 Here and there, on the stills by the boughs, good 
 trout arid grayling are rising to surface insects.
 
 12 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 This is not a wet-fly day. You may get a brace 
 or two with wet fly late in the evening by fishing 
 in the runs, but the dry fly will be the only 
 effective method of tempting fish in the full 
 daylight. Therefore, mark your trout, and cast 
 the floating fly over them. If you have graduated 
 upon wet-fly rivers in the North, do not be dis- 
 couraged at the prospect. With a steady perse- 
 verance you will soon acquire the knack of 
 dropping your dry fly prettily, and in the right 
 spot. 
 
 I have watched a Scot, used to rough rivers 
 and wet-fly fishing, learn the trick of dry-fly 
 casting in one day by the Wye. Every wet-fly 
 angler has the root of the matter in him, and it 
 is only a question of practice to change from one 
 style to the other. 
 
 I have endeavoured to make clear that the 
 wet-fly fisherman need not be dismayed when 
 he is told that ' there is only dry-fly fishing in 
 Derbyshire.' There is almost any kind of fishing 
 which you may please to select. You may even 
 use the worm and minnow in certain parts, and 
 fish with float tackle for big trout at Matlock. 
 If you are already a dry-fly angler, well and good ; 
 you will need no tuition. If you cannot throw
 
 A General Chapter 13 
 
 a dry fly, you have a better chance of learning 
 here than in the chalk streams of the South, and 
 at much less cost. And should you ever have 
 the fortune to fish the famous Hampshire rivers, 
 you will assuredly derive profitable experience 
 from dry-fly fishing in Derbyshire. 
 
 As compared with the rivers of Wales and the 
 West of England, the streams of Derbyshire and 
 Staffordshire must be described as ' late.' 
 Although the Trent Conservators have fixed 
 February i as the opening day for trout-fishing 
 in the tributary streams, there is not much 
 chance of successful fly-fishing until the second 
 or third week in April. From that time onwards 
 until the end of June the trout-fishing is usually 
 at its best, though it happens in some years 
 that spring frosts and east winds combine to 
 mar sport in April. One cannot, however, 
 prognosticate with any certainty as to good 
 fishing days. 
 
 My best basket from the Dove last year was 
 made on a day of bitterly cold wind in April, when 
 snow seemed in the air, and I could scarcely keep 
 warm in my winter clothes and a mackintosh. 
 I have seen a good rise to fly early in March in 
 the Lathkill, but that was upon one of those days
 
 14 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 of exceptional mildness that often precede a spell 
 of cold, cheerless weather in the early spring. 
 
 July is a poor fishing month almost every- 
 where. Conditions often improve in August, and 
 September may be even better. October is con- 
 sidered the best month for grayling-fishing, and 
 in mid winter grayling can still be induced to rise 
 to the fly between the hours of 12 p.m. and 3. 
 With the sport of grayling and coarse-fishing 
 in the drear months, and trout-fishing in the 
 spring and summer, there is full scope for the 
 fisherman in this locality to pursue his pastime 
 throughout the year. 
 
 The Mayfly appears upon most of the lengths 
 early in June, in favourable seasons. It is often 
 plentiful on the Derwent, Wye, and Dove. Some 
 years ago the erratic drake was not seen over the 
 Manifold. Now, thanks to John Fosbrooke, who 
 ' planted ' a number of the pupae in that stream, 
 there is an annual hatch of the imago in the length 
 near Hartington. In ' The Trout,' the Marquess 
 of Granby refers to the disappearance of the May- 
 fly upon theLathkill for some seasons past, though, 
 oddly enough, the fly is very abundant over the 
 tributary Bradford stream. So far as my obser- 
 vations go during 1904, the drakes hatched out
 
 A General Chapter 15 
 
 in fair numbers on the lower lengths of the Brad- 
 ford, but very few were seen upon the dams near 
 Middleton. On the Upper Dove last season there 
 was a good show of Mayflies for about ten days, 
 and on two or three occasions trout rose to them 
 with huge avidity. 
 
 A few words upon tackle and flies may be of 
 use to the stranger in this district. An all-round 
 fly-rod, let it be of split cane or green-heart, should 
 be brought to Derbyshire. By an all-round rod 
 I mean one that will cast a dry fly as well as a 
 wet fly. A lissom weapon of n or 12 feet, 
 which may be admirably adapted for wet-fly 
 fishing, is not the rod for these rivers. What is 
 needed is a fairly stiff, but not stubborn, rod of 
 10 feet or even 9 feet in length. This will serve 
 for either style of fly-fishing. The line may be 
 fairly heavy, and if tapered so much the better. 
 Casts must be fine for clear-water fishing. They 
 may also be tapered. And it is well to have one 
 or two casts of the finest drawn gut in readiness. 
 
 Reels may be of any make favoured by the pre- 
 dilection of the fisherman, and the same may be 
 said for landing-nets. Wading-stockings, and for 
 preference wading-trousers, are necessary ad- 
 juncts to fly-fishing in the Derwent from What-
 
 1 6 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 standwell to the higher lengths. Wading is not 
 allowed in the Duke of Rutland's length of the 
 Wye, nor is it essential to wade in parts of the 
 Dove nor in the Manifold. Anglers who kneel 
 to make their casts should protect the knees with 
 pads or wading-stockings. These protections may 
 prevent a case of rheumatism. 
 
 The subject of flies provides a theme of uni- 
 versal interest to trout and grayling fishermen. 
 Derbyshire, like other parts of the kingdom, has 
 its ' local patterns ' of artificial flies. For wet- 
 fly fishing hackle flies are to be preferred, and 
 they should be dressed on rather small hooks. 
 I have used the Yorkshire hackles with success 
 in the Wye, Derwent, Dove, and Manifold. For 
 the last river, Fosbrooke ties some quaint and 
 killing patterns, much resembling the insect as 
 it emerges from the pupa. One of his lures, 
 which may be used wet for trout and grayling, 
 he has dubbed the Golden Earwig. It is a good 
 general fly for the Manifold and Upper Dove. 
 Messrs. Foster and Co., of Ashbourne, have a 
 number of specialities for the Derbyshire streams, 
 which they guarantee to kill fish. Eaton, of 
 Matlock, can be relied upon to dress flies for the 
 Derwent and Wye. He is a good fisherman of
 
 A General Chapter 17 
 
 long experience. Allen, who watches the Darley 
 Club length of the Derwent, is another fly-tier 
 who can be recommended. He lives at Rowsley. 
 Lock, the keeper, Load Mill, Alstonefield, ties 
 excellent flies for the Dove. Wood and Co., of 
 Pinstone Street, Sheffield, who turn out good fly- 
 rods at reasonable prices, can advise as to the 
 best patterns of flies for the higher Derwent and 
 its tributaries, and the streams over the York- 
 shire border.* Such flies as the yellow dun, olive 
 dun, ash dun, apple green, gravel bed, iron-blue 
 dun, furnace bumble, and claret bumble are tied 
 locally, and have points of their own differentiat- 
 ing them from the patterns known commercially 
 by these names. The best flies are not always 
 the most lovely to look upon, and the cheapest 
 flies are usually the dearest in the long-run. I 
 do not wish to restrict the experimental fisher- 
 man to the use of the flies that I have enumerated. 
 Let him try anything and everything. But I 
 think he will waste his time if he tries to tempt 
 the Derbyshire trout with big palmers, zulus, 
 coch-y-bonddus, stone-flies, and daddy-long-legs. 
 Upon the whole, the visitor may be guided by 
 
 * Sec complete list of local fly-tiers at the end of the 
 book.
 
 1 8 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 the experience of local anglers. Pale and dark 
 olive duns, used dry, account for many good fish 
 in Derbyshire. A little later on the yellow dun 
 may be used in two sizes. The larger fly serves 
 well about dusk, or upon very windy days, and 
 in heavy water. A capital emergency fly is the 
 iron blue. On dull days by the Wye I have seen 
 the naturals come out in processions between 
 fitful batches of olive duns. At such times 
 nothing but the iron blue will tickle the palate 
 of the fastidious trout. Olives are then scorn- 
 fully refused. It is, therefore, advisable to carry 
 a supply of the useful iron blue at all times. 
 
 As to Mayflies, do not use them very big or 
 very gaudy in the dressing. They should float 
 and cock well, and resemble the natural fly as 
 closely as possible. The spent gnat should not 
 be forgotten. Do not be surprised, however, if 
 your cunningest Mayfly is rejected, even in the 
 midst of a big flight of the real insect. Trout are 
 apt to exhibit singular caprice in the Mayfly 
 season. But as a rule fish are on the look-out 
 at this carnival time, and you may confidently 
 use any other fly which is in season if the drake 
 is refused. 
 
 I think I have generalized quite enough con-
 
 A General Chapter 19 
 
 cerning the flies for this district. The rest may 
 well be left to the fisherman's judgment. I will 
 now reply to the possible query as to whether the 
 rivers are over-fished. My answer is that this 
 may be true of one or two lengths close to towns, 
 but, upon the whole, fishermen certainly do not 
 jostle one another upon the banks. Naturally, 
 the trout of much-fished waters are more intelli- 
 gent than those of lonely lochs and unfrequented 
 mountain burns. Personally, I would describe 
 the fly-fishing in Derbyshire as extremely fasci- 
 nating by reason of the conditions which I have 
 endeavoured to make plain in the preceding pages. 
 It is the kind of fly-fishing that has attracted a 
 very large number of men whose names are well 
 known at the Fly-fishers' Club and among anglers 
 generally. I need only mention the Marquess of 
 Granby (whose preserves on the Lathkill and 
 Bradford afford splendid fishing), Lord John 
 Manners, Sir Thomas Wardle, Mr. William Senior 
 (Editor of the Field], Mr. John Bickerdyke, Mr. 
 Rolt, Mr. R. B. Marston, Mr. Paul Taylor, and 
 Mr. Longman. 
 
 The system of fish preservation in Derbyshire 
 is generally good. There are trout hatcheries on 
 the Dove, two on the Lathkill, and one on the 
 
 2 2
 
 20 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 Matlock Association length of the Derwent. A 
 number of private ponds have been stocked with 
 rainbow and Loch Leven trout, but the latter 
 species has not thrived when introduced to the 
 Lathkill. Two or more water-keepers are em- 
 ployed constantly on the several club waters of 
 the Derwent. The Wye is well watched from 
 below Buxton to its junction with the Derwent 
 at Rowsley, and all the private lengths are care- 
 fully protected. The upper Dove and the Mani- 
 fold are free from coarse fish, except a few eels, 
 and scaly enemies of trout are not abundant in 
 the Derwent above Cromford. A few pike find 
 their way into the Derwent from the Cromford 
 Canal, but they are wired or netted at sight, and 
 every means is taken to prevent their increase in 
 trout waters. In the Wye, below Haddon, I 
 have seen a few perch ; but in this well-stocked 
 river they work but little damage, and are said 
 to return periodically to the pond where they are 
 bred. Chub are scarce in the Derwent above 
 Matlock, and are not often seen in the Wye. 
 Here, as elsewhere, herons and aquatic birds 
 account for the destruction of a certain number 
 of fish and of the ova. Dabchicks are rather too 
 abundant on the upper Bradford.
 
 A General Chapter 21 
 
 Pollutions from mills and manufactories work 
 some measure of mischief along parts of the mid 
 and lower Derwent, and drainage and contamina- 
 tion below Buxton have affected a portion of the 
 Wye. The Dove and Manifold are free from 
 pollution in their trout and grayling yielding 
 reaches. A long length of the Churnet has been 
 mined by mill pollution. 
 
 Poaching fish is a rather uncommon offence in 
 Derbyshire rivers. There is but little tampering 
 with trout on the spawning redds, as the rivers 
 are too well guarded. The nefarious fishing is 
 almost entirely confined to the laying down of 
 night-lines, and this is not a very common 
 practice. Some years ago the upper Dove was 
 poached with nets a few miles below its source, 
 and I have heard stories of trout-spearing by 
 night in this quarter. But as compared with 
 Wales, fish-poaching in Derbyshire is almost 
 harmless. 
 
 In the last report of the Trent Conservators 
 reference is made to sewage pollution at Bake- 
 well. It is difficult to say whether the crude 
 sewage works real harm among the trout and 
 grayling of the Wye. The water has been care- 
 fully analyzed at the mouth of the sewer, and
 
 22 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 also a hundred yards below the effluent, and the 
 analyst pronounces it free from elements noxious 
 to fish. A brook at Cromford is described as 
 ' very bad,' and an order has been made for a 
 sewage scheme at Matlock. 
 
 The Earl of Harrington has recently received 
 damages from the Corporation of Derby for 
 pollution of certain fish-ponds upon his estate. 
 At Belper new sewage works are in the course of 
 construction. The report states : ' The district 
 has been especially free from serious pollutions 
 and offences. Some old-standing pollutions are 
 being dealt with, and upon others pressure is 
 being brought to bear.' 
 
 The heaviest penalty imposed for illicit fishing 
 during the year 1903 was 5 and i 55. costs. 
 This was a case of night-lining heard at Ash- 
 bourne. 
 
 The owners of private fisheries on the Dove, 
 Manifold, Wye, Lathkill, and Bradford constantly 
 restock their waters. Some lengths of these rivers 
 literally swarm with well-fed, takeable trout 
 from about 7 ounces up to a couple of pounds 
 in weight. There are, of course, bigger trout in 
 all these rivers. Perhaps 8 to 10 ounces is a 
 fair average to fix upon for the trout of the
 
 A General Chapter 23 
 
 district. In the Manifold the average weight is 
 probably less, but trout and grayling are there 
 very abundant and free-rising. A little length 
 of the Bradford, which I am privileged to fish 
 through the kindness of a neighbour, holds trout 
 of an average weight of over f pound. 
 
 It is curious, upon looking through my fishing 
 diary, to find how many of the trout from this 
 length weigh just under i pound. My biggest 
 fish caught this year (1904) scaled 2|- pounds, and 
 a few trout of 2 pounds were taken last year from 
 this part of the Bradford. In this stream one 
 rarely catches a trout weighing less than 9 ounces. 
 
 In my account of the various rivers, I will refer 
 to the captures of big trout and grayling. There 
 are some veritable monsters in the Wye, and each 
 year the Matlock waters yield about a score of 
 fine trout well over 2 pounds in weight. 
 
 The close times for fish in the Trent Fishery 
 District are as follows : 
 
 Salmon, with nets, between September i and Feb- 
 ruary i, both inclusive. 
 
 Salmon, with rod, between November 2 and February i, 
 both inclusive. 
 
 Trout and char, between October 2 and February i, 
 both inclusive. 
 
 Grayling and coarse fish, between March 15 and June 
 15, both inclusive.
 
 24 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 Licenses must be produced when demanded by 
 a conservator, water-bailiff, constable, or licensee, 
 under a penalty of i, and the holder can require 
 anyone he finds fishing to produce his license, 
 which cannot be transferred. All unseasonable 
 fish and young fry taken accidentally must be 
 returned to the water with the least possible 
 injury, or the taker will be liable to a penalty. 
 The clerk to the Trent Fishery Board is Mr. 
 C. K. Eddowes, 2, The Strand, Derby.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE UPPER DOVE 
 
 SWEET is the name of this stream in the ear of 
 the angler. The Dove ! Who among the fra- 
 ternity of piscators has not longed to roam in 
 Walton's footsteps, and to cast his fly upon 
 the gently-swirling flood between the gray crags 
 of Dovedale ? Sooner or later every fly-fisher 
 feels impelled to make a pilgrimage to the Dove. 
 
 ' Oh, my beloved Nymph ! fair Dove ! 
 Princess of rivers ! How I love 
 Upon thy flowing banks to lie, 
 And view thy silver stream ! 
 When gilded by a summer's beam ! 
 
 And in it all thy wanton fry 
 Playing at liberty ; 
 And, with my angle upon them, 
 The all of treachery 
 I ever learned industriously to try.' 
 
 So sang Charles Cotton in his ' irregular 
 stanzas ' addressed to Mr. Izaak Walton. Other 
 pens, in poetry and prose, have written in praise 
 
 25
 
 26 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 of Cotton's ' beloved Dove,' and many deft 
 painters have depicted the beauties of Derby- 
 shire's most famous dale. 
 
 Is it from the burden and coo of its flow that 
 the Dove derives its name ? It is more probable 
 that Dove is a modernized form of the old Celtic 
 dur, meaning water. We find the root in D^rwent 
 and Dart, and, according to Dr. Isaac Taylor, in 
 Dover or Durbeck in Nottinghamshire. Then 
 why not in Dove ? From its source, on the 
 slope of Axe Edge, down to the confluence with the 
 Trent, the Dove is a charming and a fishful 
 stream. In its stripling career the river meanders 
 from the uplands to water a green vale below the 
 shapely hills of Chrome, Hollins, and Parkhouse, 
 and on by High Wheeldon to the bridge at 
 Crowdecote. Thus far the Dove yields only 
 small trout here and there in times of rainy 
 weather. From its first mill onwards the volume 
 of water increases, and there are, no doubt, a 
 few good trout in some of the dubs. There is, 
 however, little fishing until the stream emerges 
 into the secluded valley below Crowdecote. Here, 
 for about three miles of its course, on the right 
 bank, the Dove is owned by Mr. Charles Finney, 
 of Broadmeadow Hall, the representative of an
 
 The Upper Dove 27 
 
 old yeoman family who have occupied the 
 ancient manor-house for many years. The fishing 
 and shooting rights were in the market in the 
 spring of 1904, and were let to a Leicester 
 gentleman. 
 
 Opposite Broadmeadow is one of the Duke of 
 Devonshire's farms, called Pilsbury, and now in 
 the hands of Mr. Bunting. The farm doubtless 
 derives its name from Pilsbury Castle, an ancient 
 fortification, with a mound, ditch, and vallum, 
 which overlooks the winding stream, and com- 
 mands an enchanting view of the cluster of sharp 
 hills near Longnor. The Pilsbury right extends 
 on the left bank for about a mile and a half. I 
 was part lessee of this length during 1904, which 
 proved to be one of the dryest summers known 
 in Derbyshire for many years past. At the time 
 of writing I cannot say who will rent this water 
 during 1905, but the lessor reserves to himself 
 the right of granting fishing leave to anyone 
 staying at Pilsbury, where there is comfortable 
 accommodation in a large homestead. The 
 nearest railway - station is Hurdlow, on the 
 Buxton and Ashbourne line, but for driving 
 Hartington is the better point of arrival. 
 
 The Dove in this quiet vale of Pilsbury is a
 
 28 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 narrow winding stream, with some pools of from 
 3 to 5 feet in depth, occasional scours, and a 
 number of shallow broken runs. It is rather 
 thickly overgrown on the banks, which have, 
 for some distance, the disadvantage of being a 
 few feet above the level of the brook. This 
 necessitates crouching and stalking up to rising 
 fish, or very cautious wading up-stream. Some 
 good fish, especially grayling, haunt the deep 
 pools. I saw a remarkable rise on this length 
 during the Mayfly season, when fish appeared 
 to be in every part of the stream. When the 
 water is low and bright only a few trout and 
 small grayling venture to show themselves on the 
 shallows. I discovered that the fish in this stream 
 make habitual use of the numerous water-vole 
 holts under the water. Very often a hooked 
 trout bores away for one of these holes, and 
 gets his snout into it before you can check him. 
 There is plenty of harbourage, and no lack of 
 bottom food for both trout and grayling in this 
 part of the Dove. John Fosbrooke tells me that 
 these are about the best-fed fish in the Dove. 
 
 The exceptionally low state of the stream 
 prevented me from forming a very precise 
 opinion upon the sport that one should expect in
 
 The Upper Dove 29 
 
 a normal season. I took some fair grayling with 
 the fly up to i pound in weight, and rather fewer 
 trout. The trout average 6 ounces, and occa- 
 sionally one gets a fish of f pound. They rise 
 pretty freely to the wet fly in April during dull, 
 windy weather, but as the season wears on the 
 dry fly is more effective. The best flies are the 
 iron-blue dun, blue dun, olive dun, yellow dun, 
 and small black gnat. Fosbrooke's golden earwig 
 will kill here after a spate. Any of the ordinary 
 grayling flies will serve in October. There is a 
 good run for grayling at the bend at the top of 
 Bunting's length, near a partly-submerged fallen 
 tree, and also in the tails of the pools below it. 
 Near the old camp there is a pool, with a sunken 
 rock in it, which is generally good for a trout or 
 two. Lower down is a deep hole, which I 
 christened the Rock Pool. It is difficult to fish 
 from the bank, but easy to cast into from the 
 shallow tail end. This pool, which has a high 
 bank on the Pilsbury side, is full of grayling, and 
 it is seldom that one fails to see the rings of rises. 
 A wide run below, near a cattle drinking-place, 
 is a favourable spot for trout. There is a strip 
 of island at the end of the run. Some good 
 grayling and trout frequent the runs above the
 
 30 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 ford and the wooden foot-bridge. We have now 
 reached the end of the Broadmeadow and Pilsbury 
 lengths. A fair number of the turned-in trout, 
 including a few rainbows, work their way up 
 to this water from Hartington and Beresford 
 Dale. There are some good spawning-grounds 
 in this part of the river. To sum up, I may say 
 that baskets of eight or a dozen trout of a take- 
 able size may occasionally be made in this length 
 with the fly. I have not used the worm here for 
 trout, but preceding tenants have done so, and 
 no doubt accounted for good catches. The best 
 catch which I inspected last season was taken 
 with the Mayfly, partly in this length and the 
 length just below. It numbered fifteen trout, 
 some of them weighing over \ pound. The biggest 
 grayling recorded last year scaled i-|- pounds, and 
 it was taken with the fly. I have little doubt that 
 there are some trout of 2 pounds in some of the 
 deeper dubs hereabouts. I am told that a trout 
 weighing 3 pounds was caught half a mile below 
 during 1904. 
 
 Very much depends upon the volume of water 
 in this part of the Dove, and unless there is a good 
 stream running, the day's take to the fly will 
 probably not be more than two brace. At any
 
 The Upper Dove 31 
 
 rate, these will not be the insignificant trout or 
 grayling of a mountain burn. 
 
 After the ford below Pilsbury and Broad- 
 meadow, the Dove roams in a serpentine course 
 down to Ludwell Mill and Hartington Village. 
 There are perhaps more fish in this length, as the 
 river is wider and deeper, and parts below have 
 been heavily stocked. The fishing here is let by 
 the farmers by the season, and short reaches 
 can sometimes be secured early in the spring. 
 Intending lessees may communicate with me. 
 
 At Hartington, a charming village, with a hotel, 
 an inn, a post-office, and some boarding-houses, 
 the fisherman will find very pleasant head- 
 quarters. The village is about a mile from the 
 station, and the hotel omnibus meets all trains. 
 For the upper Dove and parts of the Manifold 
 Hartington is a good centre. Fishermen should 
 write to John Fosbrooke, who lives in this village, 
 and inquire as to the state of the rivers. This 
 veteran is in a position enabling him to give 
 valuable advice, as he has fished these waters for 
 very many years, and acted as water-bailiff to 
 Sir Vauncey Crewe and the Conservators of the 
 Trent District. 
 
 The Charles Cotton Hotel at Hartington is a
 
 32 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 well-known house for visitors and anglers. It is 
 three-quarters of a mile from Beresford Dale, and 
 close to the Dove. The proprietor has the right 
 of fishing upon a short length, containing trout 
 and grayling. No charge is made for the fishing 
 to visitors at the hotel. Day tickets for non- 
 residents at the house cost half a crown. Dry or 
 wet fly can be used.* 
 
 From Hartington down to the romantic defile 
 of Beresford Dale the Dove meanders through 
 pleasant meadows. We now reach a long portion 
 of strictly preserved private water, abounding 
 with trout and grayling. The riparian owner of 
 the right bank is Sir Vauncey Crewe, and the left 
 bank belongs to the Challoner family, who let the 
 water to Mr. Frank Green. This gentleman has 
 repeatedly stocked the water with rainbow and 
 other kinds of trout. 
 
 At Beresford Dale we come in sight of Charles 
 Cotton's famous fishing-house, which stands on 
 an island at the head of the charming little ravine. 
 The public footpath is on the left bank, but we 
 soon cross the bridge at the Pike Pool, and follow 
 
 * Accommodation can also be obtained at the Hart- 
 ington Hall boarding - house (with fishing), and at 
 Mr. Low's comfortable farm-house close to the village.
 
 The Upper Dove 33 
 
 the right bank for awhile. This little dale is 
 reminiscent of Walton and Cotton, and every 
 fisherman should visit the spot, even though he 
 may not fish the stream. 
 
 Crossing again to the left bank at the end of 
 Beresford Dale, we reach the fine gorge of Narrow 
 Dale, a gray scene on a dull day, but at no time 
 devoid of beauty. The river has been artificially 
 dammed here, and it would be hard to find a 
 prettier length for fly-fishing. We shall see plenty 
 of fish rising in the tails of the pools, and may 
 catch sight of some very plump grayling and 
 goodly trout. Sir Thomas Wardle owns the 
 fishing here on the right bank, and below, on the 
 opposite side, the water is rented by Mr. Hall. 
 
 These enthusiastic anglers have done much to 
 improve the fishing in this length. Sir Thomas 
 Wardle has a stock pool, in which he successfully 
 breeds rainbow, Loch Leven, fontinalis, and 
 native brown trout. The average weight of the 
 trout in this length is from 9 to 10 ounces, and 
 the grayling average rather more in weight. 
 
 About two miles down we come to wooded 
 slopes, and banks of a more diversified character. 
 Sir Thomas Wardle's luncheon-hut is on the 
 right bank, and his preserve is continued down 
 
 3
 
 34 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 t > below Load Mill. We have now entered Mill- 
 dale, at the head of Dovedale. 
 
 A length of about one mile on the left bank can 
 be fished by visitors at the New Inn Hotel, Alsop- 
 en-le-Dale,* a comfortable house on the Buxton 
 and Ashbourne Road, and about one and a quarter 
 miles from the river. 
 
 There is a good stock of trout and grayling in 
 this pretty stretch, and the banks are fairly open. 
 Day tickets are issued at is. 6d. 
 
 Mounting a cliff path above a deep pool, we 
 soon come in view of Ham Rock and the uppsr 
 part of Dovedale. The queen of the Derbyshire 
 dales deserves a chapter to herself. 
 
 * The proprietor is Mr. Colin Prince. Station 
 (L. N.W.R.) close to the house.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 FISHING IN DOVEDALE 
 
 DOVEDALE proper, the holiday elysium of anglers, 
 tourists, and amateur photographers, is that fine 
 ravine stretching betwixt rock, wood, scree, and 
 steeply-sloping sward from Ham Rock to the two 
 sentinel hills of Thorpe Cloud and Bunster. The 
 dale is about two miles long, and within that 
 distance is concentrated all that makes the varied 
 beauty of a Highland glen, a Welsh mountain 
 gorge, and a Devonshire cleave. 
 
 ' Bless me ! what mountains are here ! Are 
 we not in Wales ?' cried the delighted Viator in 
 Charles Cotton's portion of ' The Complete 
 Angler.' 
 
 ' No,' answered Piscator, ' but in almost as 
 mountainous a country.' 
 
 Undoubtedly, the view looking up the gully, 
 from the knoll upon which stands the Izaak 
 Walton Hotel, is fairly comparable with many 
 
 35 32
 
 36 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 gorge scenes in North Wales. But Dovedale has 
 a character all its own. The river is charmingly 
 adapted by Nature and aided by art for the sport 
 of fly-fishing. In this two-mile length of re- 
 nowned water there is but little rough scrambling 
 for the wielder of the rod. The banks are dry, 
 and of firm turf, pleasant to tread upon, while 
 only a few bushes in the lower length impede 
 casting. A weir here and there breaks the course 
 of the merry, sparkling stream, and an occasional 
 boulder makes a twin current beloved of trout. 
 For such as like to wade among rocks and to cast 
 in the shadow of trees there is scope at the upper 
 end of the dale. The more sedate angler, the 
 votary of the dry fly, who stalks his trout and 
 grayling, will find stretches to his fancy in the 
 middle and lower lengths of the dale water. 
 Nature has made this stream for the fisherman. 
 It is perhaps the most tempting river in all 
 England. 
 
 Dovedale is owned by two or three families. 
 The Hanburys of Ham Hall possess a share on 
 the Staffordshire side, and the Fitzherbert family 
 claim a part of the Derbyshire (left) bank. The 
 fishing is granted on the right bank to the Izaak 
 Walton Hotel, which we shall presently visit, and
 
 Fishing in Dovedale 37 
 
 on a length of the left bank to the Peveril of the 
 Peak Hotel. The latter hostelry is a little dis- 
 tance from the river, on the way to Thorpe Cloud 
 Station. It is a big house, providing entertain- 
 ment for a large number of guests from Easter 
 till the autumn. Day tickets for the left bank 
 from the Stepping Stones up to Dove Holes are 
 issued at the Peveril and the Dog and Partridge, 
 near Thorpe Station, at is. 6d. a day. 
 
 On the right, or Staffordshire, side the whole of 
 the fishing from Ham Rock to the junction of the 
 Dove and Manifold is in the privilege of Mr. W. 
 Evans, proprietor of the Izaak Walton Hotel. 
 The river, upon entering Dovedale, flows between 
 high cliffs, and is of a rushing and broken char- 
 acter. To fish here wading is necessary, but the 
 stream soon emerges and widens out to pretty 
 runs and pools, where casting is comfortable, not 
 to say luxurious. A broad ' flat,' containing 
 some fine trout and grayling, succeeds the series 
 of weirs, until we reach the Stepping Stones. 
 This slowly-moving pool provides good fly-fishing 
 when agitated by a breeze. Near the Stepping 
 Stones, where the stream takes a sudden bend 
 to the right, there is a formidable barrier, known 
 as the Iron Gate. The gate is closed to the
 
 38 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 day-tripper, as there is no public footpath on 
 this bank of the stream, but the key is kept at 
 the Izaak Walton Hotel. 
 
 We have now reached the lower stretch of this 
 water. The Dove flows swiftly, in a straighter 
 course, through a deep gully with bare, rocky 
 slopes, much frequented by rabbits. Every yard 
 of this reach is fishable with the fly, and fish lurk 
 by almost every stone in the river's bed. When 
 the water is low, in times of long drought, scores, 
 if not hundreds, of trout and grayling may be 
 counted. Passing under a wooden foot-bridge, 
 the Dove takes leave of the rugged dale, and 
 winds through meadows down to the junction 
 of the Manifold. This part is less open, but 
 with wading-stockings one can command almost 
 all the fishable corners. 
 
 The left bank of the river in the gully belongs 
 to the Okeover Fishing Club, who also own the 
 fishing on the opposite bank of the Manifold from 
 Ham Bridge down to below Mappleton on the 
 Dove. This water has been stocked with rain- 
 bow trout. The preserve is only open to members, 
 and at the present time I believe that the club is 
 restricted to seven anglers. 
 
 The fishing from the left bank of the Manifold,
 
 Fishing in Dovedale 39 
 
 from Ham Bridge to the confluence with the 
 Dove, belongs to the Izaak Walton Hotel. There 
 is another stretch of the hotel water on the Dove, 
 a short distance below the mouth of the Manifold, 
 and on the left bank. This is known as the Broad- 
 low Ash length. It is well stocked with fish, but 
 the overgrown banks necessitate wading. With 
 these lengths on the Dove and Manifold the 
 water in the hotel right affords about five miles 
 of fishing. 
 
 And now a few words as to the quality of the 
 fishing. Frankly, this is not the place for the 
 man who fishes only for the basket, nor for the 
 raw beginner possessed of scanty patience. No 
 one expects to fill a creel with the singularly wary 
 fish of this much-fished and pellucid water. It is 
 a sportsman's length, the scene of careful stalking 
 and cunning casting on the part of those highly- 
 proficient habitues who make their home at the 
 Izaak Walton for a month or longer at a stretch. 
 
 I do not mean to lay it down as an axiom that 
 a fair hand with a couple of flies, fished wet in 
 the more broken streams, will be utterly out- 
 classed by the mediocre artist with the dry fly. 
 In early spring, and in the winter - grayling 
 season, fish can be taken here with the wet fly.
 
 4O Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 It is, however, a matter of creed with certain of 
 the regular visitors at the ' Walton ' never to 
 stoop, even at the worst of times, to the usage of 
 a sunk fly. If the trout or grayling distinctly 
 refuse to rise, these stern devotees prefer not to 
 catch fish. They apply themselves to golf, or to 
 gossip in the garden, and speculate upon the 
 chance of an evening rise. 
 
 Dovedale is an excellent school for the fly- 
 fisherman. Every member of the gentle craft 
 should go thither at least once or twice in the 
 course of his life. He will learn what education 
 does for trout, and even for the less diffident 
 grayling, and he will see some of the cleverest 
 anglers to be found in the British Islands, men 
 who can outwit the knowingest old wiseacre of a 
 fish. Here you may win kudos, and gain your 
 claim to recognition as a real fisherman. 
 
 Sooner or later, if you make a study of this 
 advanced fishing, you will meet with success. 
 Then great will be your triumph, far excelling 
 that of the wet-fly man, who carries home 6 or 
 8 pounds of trout from a peat-stained, broken 
 river. For you have entered into competition 
 with trout that know the look of an artificial 
 fly as well as you do, and you have taken, by the
 
 Fishing in Dovedale 41 
 
 employment of the finest of piscatorial art, a 
 couple of brace of handsome, distinguished, 
 cultured fish. You may flatter yourself that you 
 are now no fool at this engrossing game. You 
 have pitted your skill with trout worthy of your 
 art and perseverance. At night, in the cosy, old- 
 fashioned smoking-room, you will be received 
 into the innermost circle of the adepts. 
 
 If once an angler falls in love with the fair 
 nymph Dove, he will court her favours with a 
 supreme ardour. His heart will stir at the sound 
 of her name, and he will long to heed again the 
 tender burden of her song. She is a sweet 
 mistress, though she has her moods and wayward 
 spells. You must woo her with ardent persistence. 
 
 Are you weary of the ' desk's dull drudgery ' 
 and the fierce scramble for subsistence in the 
 dingy town ? Then hie to Dovedale, and dream, 
 and fish, and seek right good company at the 
 Izaak Walton. The moorland air will recuperate 
 you, and send sound slumber by night, and the 
 stalking and casting from ten in the morning 
 till six in the evening will give you tone in less 
 than a week. Are you past the years when a 
 man can climb rocks, and stand all day up to his 
 waist in a strong rush of cold water ? Then take
 
 42 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 your pleasure with the angle upon a stream 
 with open, level banks, and mark your trout as 
 they rise on the shady opposite side of the gently- 
 swirling pools of the Dove. 
 
 With what flies shall we seek to tempt these 
 lusty fish of Dovedale ? Wait until you are 
 upon the scene, and ascertain then what the 
 adepts are using. Yet I would impress upon you 
 that no hard-and-fast laws need cumber your 
 mind. The host will sell you the flies that have 
 proved ' killers.' For the rest, employ your 
 own discretion, remembering what I have written 
 on this subject in the opening chapter. 
 
 The trout in this water average rather over 
 pound. Fish of i pound are fairly common. 
 The grayling, which appear to be more abundant 
 than the trout, average 9 or 10 ounces. Trout 
 have been caught up to i pound 10 ounces, 
 grayling up to if pounds. Pound grayling are 
 numerous. Some time ago the gully-length 
 yielded fourteen brace of fish to one rod in a day. 
 Eight brace is reckoned a capital catch for a day's 
 angling. During the last Mayfly season four 
 rods made an average total catch of fifty-four 
 brace in about ten days. 
 
 Bait and minnow fishing are forbidden in this
 
 Fishing in Dovedale 43 
 
 preserve, and no fish measuring less than 10 inches 
 may be retained. 
 
 The comfortable Izaak Walton is in an amphi- 
 theatre of picturesque hills. It stands on a 
 knoll, washed at the foot by the Dove and 
 Manifold. Thorpe Station is about two miles 
 away. The postal address is ' Ham, near Ash- 
 bourne,' and the telegraph-office is at Fenny 
 Bentley. Tickets for trout and grayling fishing 
 are is. per day for the Dove only, and 2s. for the 
 whole length of water. By the week the charge 
 is 35. 6d. for part of the preserve, and 73. 6d. for 
 the Dove and Manifold. Fishing permits are 
 only issued to visitors at the hotel. 
 
 ' Well, go thy way, little Dove !' quoth Viator ; 
 ' thou art the finest river that ever I saw, and 
 the fullest of fish.' 
 
 The trout-fishing in Dovedale and on the 
 Manifold is generally at its best from April till 
 the end of June. Grayling begin to rise well in 
 August and September, and better still in October. 
 In November they are in the pink of condition, 
 and will take either a dry or wet fly between mid- 
 day and three o'clock. A fair hatch of duns and 
 other flies may often be seen upon the Dove, 
 on mild days, up to Christmas.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE DOVE I ROCESTER TO UTTOXETER 
 
 WE have traced the Dove from its source to below 
 Dovedale and the confluence of the Manifold. 
 Between this point and Rocester, on the North 
 Staffordshire Railway, a portion of the stream 
 is rented by the limited Okeover Club, while 
 other lengths are in private hands. Rocester is 
 a small village close to the junction of the Churnet 
 with the Dove.* It is twenty minutes' walk to 
 Dove Bridge at Rocester, where, on the east side, 
 three fields below the bridge, is the boundary 
 of the Uttoxeter Angling Association water. 
 The Dove length extends to one field above 
 Dove Bridge, Uttoxeter, on the east side, on the 
 Eaton Estate. 
 
 This club has the fishing right over more than 
 eight miles of the Dove, Churnet, and Tean Brook. 
 The entrance-fee to the association is i, and the 
 
 * Accommodation at Railway Hotel, near station. 
 
 44
 
 The Dove : Rocester to Uttoxeter 45 
 
 annual subscription 2 2s. Sergeant-Major Gar- 
 wood, Uttoxeter, is the honorary secretary. The 
 length limit for trout and grayling is 7 inches, 
 and there is no restriction upon the size of coarse 
 fish. Trout-fishing begins March i, and the fly 
 and artificial minnow can be used on the brooks 
 after June 30. All-round fishing is permitted in 
 the Dove. Day permits, obtainable from Messrs. 
 Foster, Ashbourne, or the Secretary, Uttoxeter, 
 cost 2S. 6d. per day. These tickets are not 
 available for the Tean Brook during June. 
 
 This is a pleasant length to fish, as the banks 
 are open almost throughout the preserve. It 
 contains more grayling than trout, the former 
 being abundant. Maggot-fishing in the autumn 
 accounts for some fair baskets of grayling from 
 this water, and there is often a good rise to fly. 
 The Tean Brook, which affords sport when there 
 is a good supply of water, joins the Dove about 
 midway between Rocester and Uttoxeter. It 
 rises above Cheadle, in Staffordshire. 
 
 The character of the water is varied ; there 
 are sharp bends with scours, and rather long pools 
 of deep water. Below the inflow of the Churnet 
 the river is wider, and has at most times a good 
 current of water. Uttoxeter is perhaps the most
 
 46 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 convenient centre for fishing this length.* This 
 is a quiet market-town, with pastoral sur- 
 roundings. 
 
 The Churnet has fallen upon evil days. From 
 Leek downwards throughout its course, which 
 lies amid some of the prettiest scenery in England, 
 the river is badly polluted by dye-works and 
 paper-mills. There is a steady decrease of fish 
 in this stream, and for angling purposes it is 
 practically ruined. Before this contamination of 
 a beautiful and sport-giving tributary, trout bred 
 abundantly in its waters, and fish up to 3^ pounds 
 in weight were caught with the fly in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Cheddleton. Local anglers deplore 
 this despoiling of a charming river, but up to the 
 present there does not seem to be any proposal 
 for removing the nuisance. 
 
 The wet fly is employed in the Uttoxeter 
 water, some fishermen using three flies on a long 
 cast. This is a profitable method of fishing in 
 the late autumn, when grayling are on the feed, 
 and it is more successful, upon the whole, than 
 dry-fly angling. There are, however, resident 
 fishermen who prefer the dry fly all the year round. 
 
 * Accommodation : White Hart Hotel ; Talbot Inn 
 (clean and old-fashioned).
 
 The Dove : Rocester to Uttoxeter 47 
 
 The coarse fish in this part of the Dove are 
 pike, perch, and chub. Roach and very fine 
 dace are abundant in some portions of the 
 association preserve. The Uttoxeter club have 
 also the right over a length of the Churnet in its 
 lower part, where it is unaffected by pollution. 
 Sergeant-Ma] or Garwood informs me that he 
 takes good grayling and dace from this length. 
 
 The association water on the Tean Brook 
 begins at Fole Mill, four miles from Uttoxeter, 
 on the Cheadle Road, and extends to within 
 two miles of Uttoxeter. 
 
 These waters are being restocked (1904) with 
 many hundreds of two-year-old trout. This will 
 no doubt restore the balance between the trout 
 and grayling in the preserve. It will be seen from 
 these notes on the lower Dove and its tributaries 
 that there is varied sport for fishermen in the 
 neighbourhood of Uttoxeter.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE MANIFOLD 
 
 THIS stream, the sweet companion of the Dove, 
 is the offspring of the bleak, high moors of Stafford- 
 shire, near to the isolated village of Flash. It 
 rises from a hillside, nearly 1,500 feet above the 
 level of the sea, and runs down through wild 
 country to the green and more cultivated vale 
 of Longnor. Born close to the source of the 
 Dove, the Manifold may be said to bear that 
 river company until it merges its waters with 
 the ampler Dove below Ham Hall. At Longnor 
 the two streams are only one mile asunder, while 
 they are even nearer at certain points in the 
 lower reaches of the Manifold. 
 
 This delightful river receives more tributaries 
 than the Dove in its higher lengths, while its 
 water is rather more tinted, except in the dryest 
 seasons. It is a less ' difficult ' river than the 
 
 48
 
 The Manifold 49 
 
 Dove, both by reason of its slight colour, and the 
 fact that its trout are, upon the whole, less 
 educated and cunning. 
 
 My own experience proves that the Manifold 
 will yield, at any time of the trout and grayling 
 seasons, about twice the number of fish that one 
 may reasonably hope to catch from the Dove 
 in a day's fishing. I think there is little doubt 
 that the Manifold, from Longnor down to the 
 confluence with the Dove at Ham, breeds more 
 trout and grayling than the latter river. In 
 weight the fish of the Manifold will be found 
 to average rather less than those of the Dove. 
 Therefore, generally speaking, the Manifold will 
 be preferred by those anglers who think that 
 quantity compensates for quality. 
 
 In the upper Manifold the trout are perhaps 
 the freest rising fish in the district under survey. 
 I do not claim that they come quite so wildly to 
 the artificial fly as the troutlets of certain Scottish 
 or Welsh mountain brooks, but upon occasion the 
 Manifold trout rise almost recklessly either to a 
 sunk or floating fly. As for the grayling, they are 
 bigger in the average than the trout, and when 
 they are on the feed, you will find very few 
 dull intervals during the day. Unfortunately the 
 
 4
 
 50 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 grayling often take the fly eagerly during the close 
 time, and frequently remain obdurate to the 
 fisherman's wiles in the open season. 
 
 On April 27, 1904, I fished the Manifold for 
 a few hours, when very few natural flies were 
 visible on the surface of the stream. The water 
 was rather low, the wind blew from the north- 
 west, and the day was dull and chilly. My 
 basket was nine grayling and six trout. The fly 
 most favoured by the grayling was the blue dun. 
 Almost all the grayling excelled the trout in 
 weight, and had it not been the close season, I 
 could have carried home a very pretty sample 
 of Manifold grayling. Upon my next visit to 
 this stream, on May 10, I took eleven fish ten 
 trout and only one grayling. Such is the vari- 
 ability of the elusive thymallus ! As the spring 
 wears on the grayling do not rise quite so freely, 
 but with the coming of August they begin to 
 feed again upon surface-food. 
 
 The Manifold is an earlier river than the Dove. 
 It sometimes gives sport with the fly in March, 
 and as the grayling will rise all the year round, 
 there is always fishing in the Manifold. John 
 Fosbrooke, who has had many years on this 
 stream and its tributaries, says that he has
 
 The Manifold 51 
 
 1 pulled out grayling hand over hand,' while 
 standing nearly up to his knees in snow. 
 
 When casting on the Manifold I am always 
 reminded of two Welsh streams which it resembles 
 in the character of its water and its productive- 
 ness. These are the Ceirw and the Ceiriog. But 
 the Manifold has this advantage over the Ceiriog : 
 that throughout most of its course it is fairly 
 free from impeding branches and undergrowth. 
 The Manifold is, indeed, a very fishable stream 
 from Longnor down to Hartington, the hin- 
 drances in casting being rarely insurmountable. 
 For this reason it is a good school for the moder- 
 ately experienced fly-fisherman, and even for the 
 beginner. 
 
 Almost the whole of the Manifold is in the 
 fishing right of Sir Vauncey Crewe, Bart. Sir 
 Thomas Wardle rents a length below Hartington, 
 and there are one or two short pieces of freehold 
 land on its banks, whose owners claim the fishing. 
 There is, however, an excellent stretch open to 
 visitors who stay at the Crewe and Harpur Arms 
 at Longnor. This outlying village, or small town, 
 is seven miles from Buxton and about three from 
 Hurdlow Station. I agree with Baddeley's 
 ' Guide to the Peak District ' that Longnor 
 
 42
 
 52 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 should be ' a much more favourite halting-place 
 for tourists than it has hitherto been.' It is a 
 quaint townlet, perched high on the ridge dividing 
 the valleys of the Dove and the Manifold, and 
 surrounded by wild and beautiful country. The 
 air is bracing and cool in summer, and there are 
 the charms of seclusion and serenity about the 
 place. 
 
 The Manifold Valley Railway will open up 
 this Arcadia, which has hitherto remained un- 
 explored, save by a few pedestrian or cyclist 
 tourists. It will be many years, let us hope, 
 before the commercial speculator erects mills 
 and factories in the sequestered vales of this 
 thinly-peopled district. The ancient savour of 
 days when Charles Cotton lived at Beresford 
 Hall, and Izaak Walton wandered by the Dove, 
 still clings to these dales and moorlands. One 
 meets with natives whose dialect is archaic and 
 unfamiliar to the ears of townsmen. Primitive 
 customs prevail among these sturdy folk, whose 
 bluff, independent demeanour must not be mis- 
 taken for rudeness. The women wear sun- 
 bonnets and clatter along on clogs. At the old 
 farm-houses you will be well served from an ample 
 larder. Hot cakes of various sorts appear at
 
 The Manifold 53 
 
 the tea-hour ; the home-cured ham is tender, 
 and the cream fresh and delicious. 
 
 Except in the height of the holiday season 
 there is no rush of fishermen to the open lengths 
 of the Manifold. It is not a river for the day 
 angler, who comes in the morning and goes by 
 rail in the evening, but for the more leisurely 
 fisherman who can spare a week or so. The more 
 famous Dove allures a larger number of fishermen. 
 
 In the Wye and the ticket lengths of the Dove 
 the trout have a trick of rising with extreme 
 caution and scornfully refusing the fly. The 
 Manifold trout rise with more boldness, but for 
 all that they are not the easiest of prey. At 
 any rate, on the poorest day you will not fail to 
 excite a few fish into rising, and under propitious 
 conditions you may expect a pretty basket. 
 Seven grayling, including one of i pounds, in 
 half an hour, from one little pool, is not a bad 
 score, and it is not an unusual one on the 
 Manifold. 
 
 I would choose to be by this merry little river 
 at the latter end of April, on a dull warm day. 
 Spring fly-fishing is charming here. A large 
 variety of flies are hatched out from the Manifold. 
 In one day I have noted ten different insects
 
 54 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 flying over the stream. April brings the blue 
 dun, and a little later the olive dun appears. 
 I have not seen March browns in any abundance. 
 If the wind changes to a cold quarter during the 
 day, by all means put on the iron-blue dun, 
 dressed by Fosbrooke of Hartington. Bumbles 
 and small hackles may be used wet in the early 
 months. I have taken fish on the dry fly in 
 April, but, as a rule, the trout do not rise steadily 
 to the floating fly until the middle of May. 
 
 Those who despise the method of ranging and 
 trying the tails of the runs with two or three 
 wet flies should wait until a spell of warm weather 
 has brought the fish well to the surface. Grayling 
 are to be sought almost everywhere in summer, 
 but the biggest are usually taken from the deeper 
 pools fringed with alder-bushes. None of the 
 quiet pools should be passed by on a breezy day. 
 I have taken some good fish from the long stills 
 on windy days by letting my flies sink and 
 working them slowly under water. 
 
 In some lengths the banks are three or more 
 feet above the level of the stream. Do not 
 stand on the edge of the bank with the sun 
 behind you, and wave an n-feet rod across the 
 streamlet. In that 4-inch deep run there are
 
 The Manifold 55 
 
 at least a dozen standing fish, and every one of 
 them will see your silhouette against the sky, 
 unless you climb down and stalk upstream to 
 them. Here, as in the upper Dove, you will put 
 down scores of fish if you are too lazy to get on 
 a level with the river. You need not fall in, as 
 I did one day last spring, after dancing for half 
 a minute on a slimy stone. 
 
 They breed bulls hereabouts. It is just as 
 well to keep a corner of your eye on the near 
 pasture. I was once compelled to beat a strategic 
 retreat across the river to avoid the pleasantries 
 of an agile young bull, who warned me with a 
 thundering bellow after quietly stalking up to 
 within a couple of yards from me. No doubt it 
 was ' only play,' but what is sport to bulls is 
 sometimes death to men. 
 
 For the Manifold use the blue dun, iron-blue, 
 olive dun, cocked-wing yellow dun, alder, and 
 golden earwig. All but the last-named fly should 
 be winged. Grayling will take any of these 
 flies, but it is as well to have a few apple-green 
 duns and some of Fosbrooke's specialities. A very 
 small black gnat is useful when the river is low. 
 
 The Mayfly comes upon the Manifold early in 
 June. It was introduced by John Fosbrooke,
 
 56 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 who collected a number of caddises from the 
 Dove some years ago and ' planted ' them in the 
 Manifold. The experiment was signally success- 
 ful, for the green drake now appears regularly 
 in due season, and is much appreciated by the 
 trout and grayling. This example might be 
 followed in other localities. 
 
 Between Longnor and Brund Mill, where the 
 hotel water ends, there is not even a hamlet 
 close to the river. There are, indeed, but few 
 houses within sight. Below Brund, where there 
 is a weir and bridge, the Manifold flows on 
 through green meadows by Warslow and Ecton 
 Bridge. A mile or two below Wetton the Hamps 
 joins the Manifold. As it approaches its con- 
 fluence with the Dove, the Manifold disappears 
 below the ground, in a ' water swallow,' to 
 emerge again in the beautiful estate of Ham Hall. 
 The last length of the Manifold is described in 
 the Dovedale chapter of this book. All efforts 
 to prevent the burrowing propensity of the 
 Manifold have failed. The river floweth at its 
 own sweet will, and in one of its vagaries it 
 chooses to flow underground for some miles. 
 A similar phenomenon is seen in the Lathkill, 
 about two miles from its source.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 RUDYARD LAKE : COARSE-FISHING 
 
 THIS beautiful sheet of water is in North Stafford- 
 shire, about three miles from the little silk town 
 of Leek. It was made as a reservoir to feed a 
 canal by damming up one end of a valley, and 
 collecting the water of sundry small streams. 
 With the exception of this dam there is no 
 suggestion of artificiality about Rudyard Lake. 
 Turning your back upon the dam, you may fancy 
 yourself in Scotland or the Lake Country, for 
 the shores of the mere are broken into pro- 
 montories, bays, and steep banks of rock and 
 fern, and are well clothed with Scotch firs, 
 birches, and brakes of gorse. There is quite 
 enough wildness in the scene to make one forget 
 that this is an artificial lake not far from the 
 Potteries. 
 
 Rudyard is being ' developed.' It is now the 
 property of the North Staffordshire Railway 
 
 57
 
 58 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 Company, who will find no difficulty in making 
 the place into a favourite holiday resort. Upon 
 public holidays excursion trains, bearing 
 thousands of trippers, draw up one after another 
 at Rudyard Station, and the water is dotted with 
 pleasure-craft, and the banks fairly sprinkled 
 with fishermen. At other times, and especially 
 in late autumn and winter, when the fishing 
 is usually at its best, Rudyard is one of the 
 quietest pools in England, and the angler will 
 find only one or two brethren of his craft upon 
 the shores. 
 
 A five minutes' walk from Rudyard Station 
 brings the visitor to the Hotel Rudyard at the 
 bottom end of the lake. This is a comfortable 
 house of the first class, with several bedrooms, 
 and it stands in a remarkably picturesque 
 position below fir-clad hills. Lodgings can also 
 be obtained in the village. The surrounding 
 district is full of beauty ; the scenery of the 
 Churnet Valley below Leek down to Alton 
 Towers is very delightful, and there are wild, 
 shaggy uplands within easy distance of the 
 village. Anglers can soon reach the Dove and 
 the Blythe at Uttoxeter. 
 
 The lake is nearly three miles in length, and
 
 Rudyard Lake : Coarse^Fishing 59 
 
 in its widest part it is about half a mile across. 
 On the east side, the Churnet Valley Branch of 
 the North Staffordshire Railway skirts the water 
 below heights of about 700 feet, and on the west 
 shore are woods and broken ground, through 
 which runs a footpath. There are no trees or 
 growth to interfere with fishing from the banks. 
 The depth of the lake varies from 2 to 20 feet or 
 more, and the water takes a stain from the 
 sandstone bed, being neither turbid nor clear, 
 but a good colour for bottom-fishing. 
 
 Almost every kind of coarse fish swim in this 
 lake. Roach are very abundant, and fish of 
 i pound are frequently taken. There are plenty 
 of carp, and no doubt some of them are weighty, 
 but I have not heard of any over 2\ pounds 
 being captured.* Bream can also be taken in 
 warm weather, and there are large shoals of 
 perch. The heaviest perch caught within recent 
 years was one of 2 pounds, and pound perch are 
 fairly common. Roach were taken last year up 
 to i^ pounds. Pike are also distributed through- 
 out the water. They are caught by trolling a 
 
 * A carp, weighing over 14 pounds, was turned in by 
 the North Staffordshire Railway Company in January, 
 1903. This enormous carp came from Swynnerton, and 
 is said to be about a century old.
 
 60 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 natural or artificial bait from a boat, or by live- 
 baiting with float-tackle from the shores. Small 
 pike appear to haunt the east side. A pike of 
 n pounds was captured off the west shore 
 during the autumn of 1904. 
 
 I do not give these weights as representing the 
 heaviest fish taken from Rudyard Lake during 
 the past fifty years, but merely as a hint to the 
 angler concerning the sort of catches which he may 
 justly expect to make. No doubt many good 
 fish are caught and not recorded. I have cited 
 captures which can be authenticated. It would 
 be useful if the North Staffordshire Railway 
 Company could keep a register of notable fish 
 taken from Rudyard. No doubt anglers would 
 co-operate in recording their fish to the keeper 
 or some other official. 
 
 There is no restriction as to the length of fish 
 which may be retained by fishermen, and a 
 considerable number of under - sized fish are 
 carried away. Unless the water is overstocked 
 this is to be regretted, and I commend the matter 
 to the notice of the management. I think that 
 the minimum scale should be : Pike, 20 inches ; 
 carp, ii inches ; bream, 10 inches ; perch, 
 7 inches ; roach, 7 inches. Pike anglers might
 
 Rudyard Lake : Coarse^Fishing 61 
 
 be permitted to retain six roach per day under 
 the 7 inches limit for live-baiting purposes 
 only. 
 
 I am informed by the North Staffordshire 
 Railway Company that they have restocked 
 Rudyard Lake with several thousands of fish 
 from the Caistor Fisheries, including carp, bream, 
 perch , pike, dace, and roach . Before this stocking, 
 the water had a reputation amongst anglers, so 
 that there is now no scarcity of fish of all sorts 
 in Rudyard Lake, and every promise of their 
 increase in the future if large quantities of 
 immature fish are not taken from the water by 
 ' pot-hunting ' fishermen. In short, this water 
 should be regarded as excellent for coarse- 
 fishing. 
 
 I cannot indicate every hole and corner of 
 the lake where the visitor may hope to bring 
 perch or carp to the net, but I will divulge one or 
 two haunts of fish. On the west side, just 
 above the boat-house below the dam, many big 
 perch have been caught. Sometimes the hungry 
 pope swarm about here, and hardly give the perch 
 a chance ; but there is good water for perch from 
 the dam right up to the sandy bank above the 
 bay. All around this bay is a capital stand for
 
 62 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 the roach and carp angler. It is one of the best 
 points on the west shore for almost any kind of 
 fish. One fisherman tells me that he took fifty 
 roach in two hours from this bay during the 
 summer of 1904. 
 
 With a long rod you can command from 3 to 
 5 feet of water all along this bank from the dam 
 up to the second boat-house. The bottom is 
 firm, and mostly clean. This part of the water 
 is pretty well ground-baited during the summer 
 and autumn, and there is always the chance of 
 catching a few big carp and roach. In the winter 
 it is not quite so easy to find the feeding- 
 grounds of the roach. Perch may be looked 
 for close to the dam and inshore during cold 
 weather. 
 
 The east shore can be worked from a boat with 
 trolling tackle, though pike-fishing is quite 
 practicable from the bank. Foster's ' kill-devil ' 
 spinner is a good artificial spinning-bait for this 
 water. No lead is necessary when using the 
 ' kill-devil ' unless the deeper parts of the lake 
 are fished. Fishermen must bring their live- 
 baits, or catch them as required. 
 
 The charge for day tickets, which must be 
 obtained at Rudyard Station, is is. a day.
 
 Rudyard Lake : Coarse^Fishing 63 
 
 Boat charges are about 55. per day, and 2s. 6d. 
 for half-day. 
 
 I think that I have written enough to make 
 clear that the fishing in Rudyard Lake is well 
 worth the attention of anglers.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE UPPER WYE 
 
 ' THE river Wye, then,' writes Charles Cotton, 
 ' has its source near unto Buxton, a town some 
 ten miles from hence, famous for a warm bath, 
 and which you are to ride through in your way 
 to Manchester : a black water, too, at the 
 fountain, but, by the same reason with Dove, 
 becomes very soon a most delicate, clear river, 
 and breeds admirable trout and grayling, reputed 
 by those who, living upon its banks, are partial 
 to it, the best of any ; and this running down 
 by Ashford, Bakewell, and Haddon, at a town a 
 little lower, called Rowsley, falls into Derwent, 
 and then loses its name.' 
 
 The limpid Wye still ' breeds admirable trout 
 and grayling,' and has to this day many devotees 
 of the rod who are ' partial to it.' Travelling by 
 the Midland Railway from Monsal Dale to Buxton 
 one crosses and recrosses this charming river, 
 
 64
 
 The Upper Wye 65 
 
 which sparkles in its course between the rugged 
 limestone crags of a remarkably picturesque 
 gorge, provides motor power to sundry mills, and 
 presents a series of reaches delightful alike to the 
 eye of the painter and fisherman. 
 
 Buxton* used to be a good centre for fishing the 
 upper waters of the Wye, and it may still serve 
 the angler for headquarters. He will, however, 
 have to visit the Manifold at Longnor, or the Dove 
 at Alsop-en-le-Dale, or Thorpe, if his object is 
 trout and grayling fishing. For those who 
 require bracing air, comfort, and plenty of 
 society, Buxton offers every advantage. There 
 is a good train service to Dovedale, and there is 
 trout and coarse-fishing in Comb's Reservoir, 
 elsewhere described in this book. 
 
 Buxton is 1,000 feet above sea-level in a hollow 
 of wild uplands. The Wye conies down from the 
 moors, and at one time there were fish in it close 
 to the town. But with the growth of Buxton 
 the town sewage has polluted the river for nearly 
 five miles down. It is lamentable that such a 
 lovely stream should be the receptacle for poison. 
 The beauty of the scenery, when one is well away 
 
 * Hotels : Crescent, Shakespeare ; many boarding- 
 houses.
 
 66 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 from the town, is unimpaired, and the Wye flows 
 merrily through Ashwood Dale, Wye Dale, and 
 Chee Dale. But the fish have taken leave of its 
 tainted water, and several miles of fine fishing 
 have been lost to the angler. Some day corpora- 
 tions will learn that trout-fishing is a valuable 
 asset, and that the mediaeval system of disposing 
 of town garbage by pouring it into streams that 
 often run low in summer must be abandoned for 
 better and more sanitary methods of sewage 
 disposal. Here is a river that would undoubtedly 
 attract a large number of fishermen to Buxton. 
 It was once noted for the number and the weight 
 of its trout. Fish of 2 pounds were common, 
 and good baskets could be made near to the 
 town. This is all past history. The Wye has 
 been prostituted to the service of a drain. In 
 the Report of the Annual Meeting of the Trent 
 Conservators for 1903 it is stated : ' Buxton : 
 Additional works completed ; can't say whether 
 they will be satisfactory.' 
 
 Visitors to Buxton requiring tackle or flies for 
 the surrounding streams should call upon Mr. 
 Banks, a practical angler of long experience, who 
 lives in Spring Gardens. 
 
 The Wye throughout the greater part of its
 
 The Upper Wye 67 
 
 course is in ducal hands. In the next chapter I 
 shall describe the open length below Bakewell, 
 which belongs to the Duke of Rutland. The 
 river from Miller's Dale downwards is sublet to 
 five gentlemen, who claim several miles of trout 
 and grayling fishing. Those who desire to ex- 
 plore the Wye in its most charming lengths may 
 walk from Miller's Dale Station (Midland) to 
 Bakewell through Monsal Dale and Ashford. 
 They will wander for most of the way by the 
 side of an ideal trout-stream, and enjoy the ever- 
 varying scenery of the dales. 
 
 At Ashford the stream is widened out to a lake, 
 which has been stocked with rainbow trout. 
 This is a part of the estate of the Duke of Devon- 
 shire, and the fishing right is rented by Mr. 
 Clifford-Smith. Below Ashford the Wye enters 
 another pretty ravine, and soon emerges into the 
 meadows above Bakewell Bridge. 
 
 52
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE WYE : BAKEWELL TO ROWSLEY 
 
 I SUPPOSE that most fishermen are, like the writer, 
 addicted to loitering on bridges. Very much may 
 be learned of the habits of fish by peering from 
 the parapet of a bridge when the stream is bright 
 beneath the rays of the summer sun. Bake well 
 Bridge invites to fish-gazing. The Wye comes 
 down from a little weir, bounded on one side by 
 the town, and on the other by a mead below 
 Castle Hill, passes under the stone arches of the 
 picturesque old bridge, and spreads out below in 
 a wide shallow. An island, tenanted by water- 
 hens, small birds, and voles, stands almost in the 
 centre of the stream, and beyond are the green 
 fields of Haddon Hall and the wooded ridges 
 towards Chatsworth. 
 
 Peep over Bakewell Bridge, and you will see 
 representatives of the three varieties of trout 
 that thrive in these waters. Very bonnie and 
 
 68
 
 The Wye: Bakewell to Rowsley 69 
 
 tempting are some of these learned trout and 
 experienced grayling. They are quite used to 
 the spectacle of a row of human heads peering 
 from the bridge. That light-coloured fish, look- 
 ing almost as semi-transparent as a live prawn, 
 is one of the Wye ' ghosts.' Why is it he is so 
 white ? I assume that this is a case of the adapta- 
 tion of colour to environment, though it is curious 
 to remark that one of his neighbours is almost 
 as black as a troutlet from a Welsh mountain 
 peat-hole. These weird fish are fairly distri- 
 buted up and down the river hereabouts. You 
 may often see one or two of the ' ghosts ' just 
 above Wye Bridge, near to Haddon Hall. I 
 have never succeeded in catching these or any 
 other sort of ghosts, though it is my ambition 
 to secure a closer inspection of these mysteries. 
 
 The black trout to be seen from Bakewell 
 Bridge are almost as dark as tench. Then there 
 are some handsome golden-brown trout of a 
 more familiar hue and species, and several heavy 
 grayling, low down in the water, and looking 
 somewhat listless upon this hot day. This 
 natural aquarium provides a very interesting 
 sight to the angler who has just come down the 
 hill from the railway-station. Mr. Paul Taylor
 
 7O Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 says it is worth while to go to Bakewell only to 
 look at these big fish that live about the bridge. 
 Now, to look is to desire, and the fisherman who 
 marks these fine fish in this lovely river will 
 yearn to try his skill upon them. 
 
 The owner of this alluring stream is the Duke 
 of Rutland, who kindly throws open a long 
 stretch for the enjoyment of visitors to the two 
 hostelries at either end of the preserve. The 
 hotel at Bakewell is the well-known Rutland 
 Arms, the resort of many good anglers for years 
 past. The house overlooks the main street of 
 the quiet little town of Bakewell, and it is about 
 three minutes' walk to the bridge. Here you 
 will chance to meet some of the most expert 
 of fly-fishermen ' regular men,' who have fished 
 the Wye all their lives.* They come every year 
 to revisit the scenes of lively encounters with 
 trout and grayling, for the Wye, like the Dove, 
 takes a grip of you when you have spent a day 
 or two upon its banks. 
 
 Not even the Dove in its open lengths can vie 
 with this stretch of the crystal Wye for the 
 
 * Four tickets daily are granted to each hotel the 
 
 Rutland Arms, Bakewell, and the Peacock, Rowsley. 
 
 In the height of the season visitors should inquire before- 
 
 hand when a ticket is available at either of the hostelries.
 
 The Wye: Bakewell to Rowsley 71 
 
 facility which it affords for casting. It is the 
 pleasantest of all the rivers upon which I have 
 cast a dry fly. Scarcely anywhere are you 
 obstructed by overhanging boughs and grown-up 
 banks. There are runs and pools in delightful 
 alternation, and slow glides, which are ringed 
 with the rises of fish upon a warm May evening. 
 In a word, the water is perfect for fly-fishing. 
 
 It would be too much to expect that the trout 
 of such an accommodating stream are free risers 
 to the artificial fly. The fish of this length ' take 
 some catching.' No one will deny this statement. 
 But let your basket be three brace, or twice that 
 number, at the end of the day, you will keenly 
 enjoy the hours spent between Bakewell and 
 Rowsley. I have accompanied fishermen to this 
 water who have angled in all sorts of rivers 
 in many parts of the kingdom, and almost invari- 
 ably they have exclaimed, ' What a lovely stream 
 it is to fish !' 
 
 You cannot get angry with this siren Wye. 
 She may be in a tantrum, and refuse to yield 
 any of her rich store of fish, but you will still 
 love her, and continue to flatter her with your 
 attentions. How smiling and bright she is on 
 a soft day at the latter end of April, when the
 
 72 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 duns are dancing down one of her glides, and the 
 trout are quietly and steadily rising along by 
 grand old Haddon Hall ! The cuckoo has just 
 arrived, and the swallows are flashing up and 
 down the stream, which shimmers in blue and 
 silver between meads of spring green, where cows 
 are placidly staring at the angler as they graze 
 among the cowslips and cuckoo-flower. 
 
 See that workmanlike fisherman, with pads 
 upon his knees, how he stalks up to the cover of 
 a low alder-bush, and gently flicks out his olive 
 dun into the tiny swirl of a rising trout. At the 
 third cast the rod-top bends prettily, there is 
 commotion in the water, and a struggling trout, 
 the gamest of the game, makes a noble fight for 
 the centre of the pool ere he drops in the landing- 
 net a handsome fish of about pound, or 
 maybe of I pound in weight ; there are many 
 such in the river. 
 
 Six weeks or so later and the Mayfly is up. 
 The day is one of intermittent sunshine, and the 
 breeze is damp and westerly. At ten o'clock the 
 graceful green drakes begin to appear on yonder 
 length. By twos and threes they come tripping 
 and fluttering and trying high flights in the air. 
 The swallows dart and swoop, and you hear the
 
 The Wye: Bake well to Rowsley 73 
 
 plop, plop of hungry trout. It is the beginning 
 of the ten days of high carnival. Get to work, 
 on with your drake, and standing or stooping 
 well back from the margin of the pool, cast into 
 those rises. 
 
 Ye gods, what a splash ! The biggest trout in 
 the pool rose to your fly, changed his mind after 
 one swift pluck at it, and went down like a flash 
 to the depths. Try again ; the water is boiling 
 with rises. Ah, you have him ! A good trout, 
 one of the lusty golden fish that haunt this 
 place. What do you think now of the Wye ? Is 
 she not a sweet, fickle, fond temptress ? 
 
 Again, the month of October, and the sedge 
 is brown, and the swallows have departed. 
 Trout are spawning, but grayling are full of the~ 
 joy of life, and feeding greedily upon surface-food. 
 They rise with a splash, leaving two or three 
 bubbles on the water. Take your bumble, and 
 cast it deftly among those bubbles. A rise ! 
 Cast again and again. It is not easy to put 
 down even the Wye grayling when they are 
 rising in this fashion. Yes, you have him ! 
 The tenth cast proved irresistible. Your fish 
 is in fine condition, and almost as bonnie as a 
 trout. For my part, I would as soon eat him
 
 74 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 as a trout, and I deny that he is a poor-spirited 
 fish to catch. 
 
 Once more : let us suppose that you have found 
 the river in half-flood during April or the earlier 
 part of May. The water is fining down to an 
 amber tint, and the trout are mostly busy search- 
 ing for bottom food. Probably you will see very 
 few rises to-day, for flies appear to be scarce 
 over the water. Never mind tradition ; put a 
 couple of small hackle flies on your cast, and I 
 will promise you sport. Fish near the bank in 
 the pools, cast upstream off the edges of the 
 runs, and work all holes, eddies, and likely corners. 
 By this method I have taken trout up to a pound 
 from the Wye early in the season. It is possible 
 that a hide-bound pundit of the dry-fly cult may 
 affect to sneer at your style of fishing. Take no 
 heed of him. I assume that you do not wish 
 to spend your day watching for phantom rises. 
 You wish to get a trout or two for your pains. 
 
 If the slow pools are rippled by a breeze, you 
 may catch some nice fish with the wet fly, even 
 when the trout are not rising to natural insects. 
 But should the trout be in a rising humour, by 
 all means use the dry fly. If you find a hatch 
 of flies on a length of the river, do not leave that
 
 The Wye: Bakewell to Rowsley 75 
 
 length and go ranging the banks. It is quite 
 probable that this is the only length where flies 
 are in evidence at this time of the year. You 
 may rest assured that if two or three trout are 
 rising in this place there are plenty of fish on the 
 watch for surface insects. 
 
 The size-limit for trout on the Duke of Rutland's 
 water is 10 inches. You will catch fish of less 
 than that length, but as a rule the Wye trout 
 are of good proportions. There are some big and 
 wily trout in this length, and it is even within 
 the bounds of probability that you may capture 
 a trout of over 2 pounds. Heavier fish than 
 this frequent the water. In the Rutland Estate 
 Office at Bakewell is a fine specimen of a Wye 
 trout weighing 5^ pounds. 
 
 The rule as to the length of grayling is not 
 quite so rigid. Grayling fairly swarm in this 
 stream. Hundreds were netted out a few years 
 ago, in the hope of lessening the struggle for 
 existence among the trout, and yet grayling still 
 thrive and increase here, as they do in the Dove 
 and Manifold. I cannot enter now into the 
 controversy concerning grayling versus trout. If 
 grayling threaten to outnumber trout in a river, 
 it is a mistake to allow a decimation of the trout.
 
 76 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 Still, the grayling is a sporting fish, and I have an 
 affection for him. 
 
 It is really astonishing to mark the large 
 number of grayling which may sometimes be 
 seen in shoals on the shallow reaches. They lie 
 quite close together, almost motionless, and are 
 often wholly apathetic to any fly that you may 
 present to them. At other times the grayling 
 all seem to be in the deeper pools, and the bubbles 
 of their rises are visible almost everywhere. You 
 may see them flash up to a floating fly, and sink 
 down again out of sight. The trout in the same 
 pool will be noted nearer to the surface of the 
 water. This limpid Wye is one of the best 
 streams known to me for observing the habits 
 of trout and grayling. 
 
 We may now traverse the left bank of the 
 Wye from its junction with the Derwent up to 
 Bakewell Bridge. The confluence is close to 
 Rowsley Station,* on the Midland Railway, which 
 is a four hours' journey by fast train from London. 
 This last length of the Wye is private water. 
 Just above the bridge and the mill, about half a 
 
 * Hotel : The Peacock (high class). Visitors can fish 
 the Wye hence to Bakewell. Four tickets only available 
 per day.
 
 The Wye : Bakewell to Rowsley 77 
 
 mile from the junction, is the first field bordering 
 the Duke of Rutland's preserve. Some broken 
 runs, rather overgrown with trees, hold fish, but 
 we soon reach more fishable and delightfully 
 open water. Just below a footbridge and a weir 
 is a good pool, and there are many grayling in 
 the still above the weir. We pass on to more 
 open reaches and charming bends with rushing 
 shallows. Some of the slow glides abound with 
 both trout and grayling, and if the fish are feeding, 
 it will be some hours before you reach Wye 
 Bridge, on the main road. Near the bridge 
 there is a fine run of broken water, and fish may 
 be found in the pool below. On the right bank, 
 just below the bridge, the Lathkill, sometimes 
 called the Dakin, pours into the Wye. You 
 can fish from either bank, and a fish or two may 
 be taken just off the outflow of the Lathkill. 
 
 The direction in which the wind is blowing, or 
 the position of the sun, will determine which 
 bank you will fish from. Haddon Hall is on the 
 left bank, about half a mile above Wye Bridge.* 
 This historic mansion should be visited by the 
 angler. 
 
 Close to Haddon Bridge there is an island, and 
 * Called sometimes Fillyford Bridge.
 
 7 8 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 above it is a renowned stretch of water much 
 favoured by dry-fly experts. Above this length 
 are many excellent pools, which I need not 
 describe in detail. One may be better than 
 another, but the best pool on the river is where 
 trout are rising pro tern., and that is the pool to 
 discover when you are on the riverside. Trout, 
 and especially grayling, change their haunts 
 according to the season of the year. As David 
 Foster, of Ashbourne, used to say : a casual inspec- 
 tion of a stream will give no knowledge of the 
 fish within its waters. I suppose most fishermen 
 have observed that trout appear to quest for 
 lurking-places where flies are wont to be found in 
 different seasons. Therefore the run where the 
 trout are likely to rise in April may be deserted 
 at the end of June. 
 
 In some of the shallows of the Wye you will 
 notice a large number of grayling. During the 
 spawning time they lie inert on the gravel, and 
 may be seen by the score. Grayling are more 
 readily observed than trout, and are not so shy. 
 Sometimes they lie very near to the riverside, 
 and are not easily scared by a shadow as are their 
 companions the trout. At other times the gray- 
 ling are in the pools, and it is then that they
 
 The Wye: Bakewell to Rowsley 79 
 
 rise most freely to the fly. Some of the Wye 
 grayling weigh over a pound, and the proportion 
 of small fish caught is not a large one. You are 
 not much troubled here with the attentions of 
 shoals of little grayling, which prove a trial in 
 certain rivers. 
 
 No Sunday fishing is allowed on this preserve, 
 and no night fishing. The use of bait or the 
 minnow is strictly prohibited, and rightly so, 
 for this is a fly-fishing stream. The river has 
 been lately restocked with native trout, reared 
 in the hatcheries of the Marquess of Granby, on 
 the Lathkill stream. 
 
 R. Hensbergh, the river-keeper, who lives near 
 Haddon Hall, provides flies for this length of the 
 Wye. They are tied by his father, and the 
 patterns are known as ' killers ' among Wye 
 fishermen. The casts should be fine and the 
 flies rather small for this river.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE LATHKILL AND BRADFORD 
 
 As a survey of the angling streams of Derbyshire 
 and around would be incomplete without more 
 than a mere reference to the Lathkill and Bradford, 
 I propose to write a short description of these 
 famous waters. It must be understood, however, 
 that the fishing in these streams is only open to 
 those favoured anglers who are among the personal 
 friends of the riparian owners andthe lessees. 
 Permission to fish is not granted to strangers. 
 
 But fishermen who are interested in trout- 
 streams, whether they may fish in them or not, 
 should not fail to walk through the beautiful 
 dales of the Lathkill and the Bradford, and inspect 
 the various artifices which have been designed 
 with the object of improving upon the natural 
 advantages that the rivers possess. Provided 
 that the visitor follows the public footpaths 
 through the dales, there is no restriction upon his 
 
 80
 
 The Lathkill and Bradford 81 
 
 exploration of two of the finest trout-streams 
 in England. 
 
 The true source of the Lathkill is in a limestone 
 cave about one and a half miles from the village 
 of Monyash, but in dry weather no water will be 
 seen to issue from the rock-springs. A spring 
 on the right bank, just above Cales Dale, which 
 may be described as a tributary valley to Lathkill 
 Dale, is usually active, and from this point the 
 Lathkill has the character of an upland burn. 
 Few trout will be noted in its waters until we 
 reach the mill below Haddon village, on the left 
 bank. Here there is a fishing lodge belonging to 
 Mr. Symington, who owns the angling right down 
 to Conksbury Bridge. 
 
 On this length, wh ich is dammed into a series 
 of pools, there is a trout hatchery and all the 
 accessories of a model fishery. The pools reflect 
 the limestone crags and the trees of the rugged 
 banks, and the pellucid stream breaks into white 
 falls at the weirs. Trout may be seen everywhere 
 in this clear water. In autumn it is a pretty 
 sight to watch them leaping up the falls, and 
 on a fine spring day, when the duns are out, the 
 rise makes one's fingers tingle for a rod. 
 
 In about a mile we reach Conksbury Bridge on 
 
 6
 
 82 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 the Bakewell and Youlgreave Road. This is the 
 limit of Mr. Symington's preserve, and here we 
 bid farewell to the most enchanting scenery in 
 the course of the Lathkill. 
 
 Below the bridge is the Marquess of Granby's 
 water, which teems with trout, and gives very 
 excellent sport with the fly. The footpath is on 
 the right bank. We pass a hatchery, and come 
 to a horseshoe weir, a stone bridge, and the 
 keeper's lodge. On the opposite bank is the 
 Marquess of Granby's fishing pavilion. Looking 
 from the bridge, we shall not fail to see several 
 good trout standing or rising. 
 
 A walk of a few minutes brings us to Alport, 
 a pretty little village at the confluence of the 
 Bradford and Lathkill. The Lathkill tumbles 
 over several little falls, rushes through the road 
 bridge, and absorbs the waters of the Bradford 
 in its swift current. A charming thoroughfare, 
 known as the Duke's Drive, conducts us by the 
 Raven's Tor, or Rainstor Rock, up the valley 
 of the Bradford. The stream is ducal property, 
 and strictly preserved, like the Lathkill. It is 
 dammed here and there, and we shall see trout 
 in every run. The average weight of the fish is 
 over pound.
 
 The Lathkill and Bradford 83 
 
 A road on the left, above the Raven's Tor, leads 
 to Harthill Pond, sometimes called ' Spar Lake,' 
 or the ' Miners' Lake.' This pool, which is very 
 deep towards the middle, is fringed at one end 
 with rushes, where coots breed and waterfowl of 
 several kinds resort in the winter. Harthill Pond 
 is full of trout ; indeed, it may be described as a 
 ' stew.' It is used as stock-pool by the Marquess 
 of Granby. There are trout of 4 or 5 pounds in 
 weight in this water. Upon calm summer 
 evenings the pond is ringed with the rises of 
 big trout, and I have seen fish taking the natural 
 fly madly as early as March 8. The whole lake 
 is sometimes alive with rising trout. 
 
 Returning to the Bradford, we cross a bridge, 
 and pass below the gray village of Youlgreave, 
 where the writer has his domicile. At a stone 
 footbridge we cross the stream, pass a little white 
 house, known as the ' Fisherman's Cottage,' and 
 pursue our way up Bradford Dale. The village 
 of Youlgreave, or Youlgrave, straggles along the 
 steep bank on the opposite side of the stream, 
 recalling certain Spanish hamlets that I have 
 seen. Keep your eyes on the pools, and you 
 will see some of the finest trout that swim in 
 Derbyshire waters. Fish of a pound and heavier 
 
 62
 
 84 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 may be counted by the score in the open parts of 
 the weedy dams. Some are remarkably red on 
 the underside, and all are handsome and well 
 spotted. It is like looking into an aquarium. 
 
 A ruined mill and a stone bridge mark the end 
 of the Marquess of Granby's preserve on the 
 Lathkill. The three dams above, and a part of 
 the stream that feeds them, are in the fishing 
 right of Miss M. Melland, of Middleton Hall. 
 Here I have spent many pleasant hours and some 
 very exciting moments, for the trout are big, 
 though distinctly wary. The third or top dam 
 is fed by a clear spring called the Wishing Well. 
 Above this dam the Bradford is a mere brook, 
 which one may leap across. I have, however, 
 caught, with the fly, trout of over a pound in the 
 stream. 
 
 Retracing our steps to Alport, we may follow 
 the road by the Lathkill, through a narrow valley, 
 down to the next road bridge. This is the lowest 
 point of the Marquess of Granby's preserve. 
 Below the bridge, down to the junction with the 
 Wye, the Bradford belongs to Major McCreagh 
 Thornhill, Stanton Hall. That part of the stream 
 is sometimes called the Dakin River. It is more 
 overgrown than in its upper length, and is stocked
 
 The Lathkill and Bradford 85 
 
 with trout of a goodly weight. Grayling occa- 
 sionally ascend a short distance up this stream. 
 
 In writing upon these clear and fishful streams 
 Charles Cotton remarks : ' Lathkin is, by many 
 degrees, the purest and most transparent stream 
 that I ever yet saw, either at home or abroad, 
 and it breeds, 'tis said, the reddest and the best 
 trouts in England.' 
 
 An idea of the kind of sport enjoyed by the 
 privileged owners of these little rivers may be 
 gained from a passage in ' The Trout,' by the 
 Marquess of Granby, who records that, on June 8, 
 1897, ' Mr. T. D. Croft and I killed between us 
 sixty-nine trout, of which number he claimed 
 forty-nine. These forty-nine were caught with 
 the Mayfly in a little Derbyshire stream called 
 the Bradford ; the twenty I killed were taken 
 with the ash dun and blue dun on the Lathkill, 
 into which river the Bradford flows.'
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 AROUND SHEFFIELD 
 
 I WILL admit that the title of this chapter does 
 not sound inviting to the fisherman. There is a 
 popular conception of the cutlery town likening 
 it to a species of seething inferno, surrounded by 
 gruesome wastes of coal ashes. Sheffield, to many 
 persons in the United Kingdom, simply spells 
 smoke and grime. But this is not quite correct. 
 Few cities in England, perhaps none, can compare 
 with Sheffield in the matter of situation amidst 
 wide moors and rolling hills. On all sides the 
 busy town is surrounded by beautiful country ; 
 indeed, some of the finest scenery of the North 
 Midlands lies within a few miles of the heart of 
 Sheffield. 
 
 This bustling hive is scarcely the place that 
 one would choose for a quiet holiday. Neverthe- 
 less, there are villages hard by that have preserved 
 all the beauty and quaintness of rusticity, and 
 there are pools and streams wherein the angler 
 
 86
 
 Around Sheffield 87 
 
 will find a good store of fish. Sheffield can boast 
 of an Anglers' Association numbering no less 
 than 15,000 members. Think of it. Here is 
 combination, here is the unity born of strength ! 
 The patrons of this powerful association in- 
 clude five members of Parliament and a Mayor. 
 It has a president, vice-presidents, committee, 
 secretary, and trustees. Every year this organi- 
 zation issues an imposing ' Year- Book ' of some 
 eighty odd pages, containing angling records, 
 tide-tables, rules, maps, and particulars as to 
 railway fares to various waters. 
 
 Space will not allow me to mention all the 
 lengths of well-stocked rivers rented by this big 
 club. Much of the water is in Lincolnshire, in 
 the meres, drains, rivers, and dykes of that 
 well-watered district. The balance-sheet for 
 1903-1904 shows the enormous expenditure of 
 5,869 135. 5^d. The water rents are nearly 
 200 per annum, and the salaries of officials and 
 keepers amount to over 100, while a very good 
 balance stands over in the treasurer's hands. 
 Such is the large sum that Yorkshire enthusiasts 
 are willing to expend for the pursuit of the recrea- 
 tion of angling. It is certainly an object-lesson 
 in the power of intelligent co-operation.
 
 88 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 Almost all the water rented by this association, 
 which is an amalgamation of a large number of 
 large and small fishing clubs, is stocked with 
 coarse fish. The size-limit for pike is 16 inches, 
 perch 6 inches, roach, rudd, and tench 7 inches, 
 dace 6 inches, chub and bream 8 inches, and 
 barbel 12 inches. 
 
 In the winter the association arranges for the 
 delivery of lectures upon piscatorial subjects and 
 natural history, and in the summer there is a big 
 match or gala day. In 1903, 960 fishermen com- 
 peted in the match, and the prize was won by a 
 capture of 5 pounds 14! ounces of fish. 150 were 
 distributed in prizes. 
 
 The best fishing lengths of the association 
 are within fairly rapid railway journeys from 
 Sheffield. There are many canal swims near the 
 town, which can be fished by payment of is. a 
 day. The secretary is Mr. J. R. Walker, 82, Blake 
 Street, Upperthorpe, Sheffield. The rendezvous 
 and headquarters of the club is at the Three 
 Cranes Hotel, Queen Street. Full information 
 will be found in ' The Sheffield Anglers' Associa- 
 tion Year-Book.' 
 
 We may now make our bow to this highly 
 commendable and powerful association, and
 
 Around Sheffield 89 
 
 inquire into the prospects for fly-fishing in the 
 vicinity of Sheffield. The trout - fishing is 
 restricted almost entirely to the Corporation 
 Reservoir at Damflask, about seven miles from 
 the town. This fine pool holds a large number 
 of native trout. It is fed by the little river 
 Rivelin. The season begins on March 28, and 
 ends on September 30. In March, April, and 
 September the hours for fishing are from 8 a.m. 
 until 8 p.m. During May and August fishing is 
 allowed up to 9 p.m., and in June and July 
 until 10 p.m. Twenty day tickets cost i us. 6d., 
 and a single day ticket 2s. 6d. Sunday fishing is 
 prohibited. All fish caught under 9 inches in 
 length shall be immediately and carefully restored 
 to the reservoir. 
 
 Each ticket-holder is entitled to take away 
 six brace of fish per day. One rod only is allowed 
 to each fisherman, and the bait is confined to 
 fly, worms, gentles, wasp-grub, or artificial 
 spinning-bait. The permits can be obtained from 
 Mr. William Terrey, Waterworks Office, Town 
 Hall, Sheffield. 
 
 A trout of 2 pounds, which adorns the window 
 of Messrs. Wood and Company's fishing-tackle 
 shop in Pinstone Street, is, I believe, the record
 
 90 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 fish from the Damflask Reservoir. Fish of 
 i pounds and a good many i-pound fish are 
 taken now and then. The average weight is 
 about % pound. For artificial flies for this water 
 the visitor should consult Messrs. Wood and Co. 
 
 There is another sheet of water within access 
 of Sheffield. This is the Doncaster Corporation 
 Reservoir at Thrybergh. Tickets for a day's 
 fishing are to be obtained at the Mansion House, 
 Doncaster. The water holds trout, and the 
 limit is 10 inches. Fishing opens on March i, and 
 closes on October 10. Minnows and all artificial 
 spinning-baits are interdicted, except for members 
 of the Corporation. Before July 10 no bait- 
 fishing with worms, grubs, or gentles is allowed, 
 and at no time is ground-baiting permitted. If 
 required by the water-keeper, every person 
 fishing in the reservoir must show the contents 
 of his basket, and state, after fishing, the number 
 of fish retained. Only one rod may be used at 
 one and the same time. 
 
 By the Dore and Chinley line from Sheffield 
 the angler can reach the upper lengths of the 
 Derwent described in the section of this book 
 dealing with that river.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 NOTTINGHAM-ON-TRENT 
 
 NOTTINGHAM is famous for its lace and its fisher- 
 men. This goodly town always impresses the 
 writer as one of the brightest and most cheery 
 of industrial centres. As a rule, the angler wishes 
 to leave bustle and commerce behind him when 
 he starts forth on fishing bent, but Nottingham 
 has peculiar, if not unique, claims upon the 
 fisherman. It is the university of distinguished 
 adepts in the art piscatorial. We have all heard 
 of ' the Nottingham style,' ' Nottingham floats,' 
 and ' Nottingham lobs.' You cannot walk for a 
 few yards from the handsome Midland railway- 
 station without realizing that Nottingham folk 
 are as keen upon fishing as upon commerce. 
 Tackle-makers abound, and almost every other 
 inn is the headquarters of a fishing club. If you 
 want to talk ' fish ' with the illuminati, go to 
 cheerful Nottingham town. 
 
 91
 
 92 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 The Notts Anglers' Association numbers 2,000 
 members, and rents many miles of excellent 
 coarse-fishing water. Another powerful club is 
 the Wellington, and then there is the Notts 
 Piscatorial Society, to say nothing of smaller 
 clubs, and a host of unattached fishermen. 
 
 If you live in or within access of Nottingham, 
 and wish to enjoy the many benefits of organiza- 
 tion, I advise you to join one of the big clubs. 
 Daily and short-period tickets are not issued by 
 the three big angling societies. You must have 
 a season ticket or nothing. Without venturing 
 to criticise this policy, I may say that clubs in 
 other parts of the country find it advantageous 
 to grant facilities to visiting anglers. There are, 
 however, some anglers who would willingly pay 
 303. or 2 2s. a year for the privilege of an 
 occasional visit to well-stocked waters. But this 
 is not for the fisherman of very modest means. 
 
 Is it, then, useless to visit in the neighbourhood 
 of Nottingham with a view to fishing ? Certainly 
 not. There are miles of open water on the 
 Trent, besides canal lengths. Go to Burton Joyce, 
 and you may fish to your heart's content in free 
 water, or pay twopence a day for the right of 
 angling from one bank of the river Trent. The
 
 Nottingham'OivTrent 93 
 
 tickets can be obtained at the inns at Burton 
 Joyce and Radcliff Ferry. On the towing-path 
 side also, in certain reaches, the fishing is free to 
 the public. Below Gunthorpe there is a long 
 stretch of free water. 
 
 The fish of the Trent in this district are barbel, 
 chub, bream, pike, roach, perch, dace, and eels. 
 Mr. C. Jackson, Piscatorial Depot, Drury Hill, 
 Nottingham, a practical angler and tackle manu- 
 facturer of sixty-five years' experience in Trent 
 fishing, will supply you with any kind of tackle 
 and bait, and give you the benefit of his extensive 
 knowledge of the river and its tributaries. To 
 Mr. Jackson I am indebted for much assistance 
 in writing these notes on the Trent. In years 
 past this ardent fisherman has taken as much 
 as ii stone of coarse fish from the river in a day's 
 fishing. 
 
 ' Is this all past history ?' asks my reader. 
 No, not quite. There are still as many good 
 fish in the Trent as ever came out of it, but every 
 angler will agree with me that even coarse fish 
 are nowadays becoming almost as wily as trout. 
 The Trent still yields big baskets. It is closely 
 preserved and guarded by zealous and sportsman- 
 like fishermen. In the open lengths there are
 
 94 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 plenty of bream, some of them up to 4 pounds in 
 weight, good roach, and big chub, and shoals of 
 dace. The dace and chub take an artificial fly 
 in the Burton Joyce water. Wheat is a favourite 
 Trent bait for roach. 
 
 For the bream-fishing August is about the best 
 month of the year. Pike begin to take in August, 
 and they may be legally captured then, but the 
 Notts clubs do not fish for pike until September. 
 
 Thirty-five years ago Mr. Jackson could catch 
 a couple of brace of grayling from the Trent, with 
 the fly, before breakfast. Now and again a solitary 
 grayling comes to hand, but the species is practi- 
 cally extinct, except near the mouth of the Dove. 
 At this point there is still the chance of obtaining 
 a grayling or two with an artificial fly. 
 
 I will now disclose an interesting matter con- 
 cerning the Trent. Mr. Jackson tells me that in 
 January, 1905 (the year in which I write), an 
 extraordinary quantity of salmon ascended the 
 Trent in the Nottingham district. Mr. Clements, 
 while spinning for pike, ran a very big salmon, 
 reckoned at over 40 pounds in weight, and brought 
 it to the bank after a severe fight. The fish was 
 immediately released and returned to the water, 
 as it was then the close season. This same angler
 
 Nottingham'OivTrent 95 
 
 counted, in one day in January, eleven large 
 salmon jumping the weir at Averham. Salmon 
 have always travelled up the Trent in favourable 
 seasons, but such a run as that of 1905 is probably 
 unprecedented, and fishermen will watch with 
 interest for the results during the spring and 
 summer. 
 
 The Trent salmon are unfortunately proof 
 against the attractions of a ' butcher ' or ' Jock 
 Scott.' There is probably no single fly known 
 to anglers which has not been offered to these 
 obdurate salmon. Wealthy riparian owners have 
 tried their shrewdest arts to tempt the salmon of 
 this river with the fly, but in this matter the 
 power of wealth has failed to triumph over the 
 wisdom of fish. It is good for the rich man that 
 he cannot always have his own way. But the 
 spinning-bait proves dangerous here, and by- 
 spinning or bait-fishing only can the Trent 
 salmon be taken. 
 
 It seems, then, that 1905 may prove a great 
 salmon year on the Trent. At Shardlow, some 
 years ago, eight salmon were taken by spinning 
 during one day's fishing. 
 
 The Grantham Canal, which flows through 
 Lord Manver's estate, can be fished with day
 
 96 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 tickets issued by the keeper, Coleman. This 
 water contains chub, perch, pike, bream, and 
 eels. At other places along the canal-side fishing 
 leave may be obtained from the farmers. Near 
 Belvoir the Grantham Canal is rented by the 
 Bottisford Fishing Association, which issues daily 
 tickets. 
 
 There is excellent trout-fishing at no great 
 distance from Nottingham, though most of it is 
 in private hands. The Dover Beck, near Oxton, 
 holds some big trout, up to 5 pounds in weight, 
 and the water has been well stocked by a riparian 
 owner. There are also large chub and plenty of 
 dace in this stream. Now and again there is the 
 opportunity for acquiring a length on this river 
 from the occupants of small freeholds. A day's 
 fishing in some stretches may sometimes be 
 obtained by an introduction to land-owners. 
 
 Another, and perhaps better, trout-stream is 
 the Greet at Southwell, which is well preserved by 
 an angling society. I understand that a day's 
 fishing is occasionally obtainable on some stretches 
 of the Greet, through the favour of owners. This 
 tributary unites with the Trent at Fiskerton. 
 
 The Trent is usually rated the best river of 
 England for coarse-fishing. It is certainly an
 
 Nottinghani'OivTrent 97 
 
 angler's river, abounding with many kinds of fish, 
 and providing recreation for thousands of all 
 classes. Izaak Walton states that the river is 
 ' so called from thirty kind of fishes that are 
 found in it, or for that it receiveth thirty lesser 
 rivers.' It is, however, very doubtful whether 
 the Trent ever bred as many as thirty kinds of 
 fish. Perhaps twenty would be nearer the truth. 
 This theory as to the derivation of the name Trent 
 must have originated very early. Spenser, in 
 the ' Faerie Queene,' writes : 
 
 ' And bounteous Trent, that in himselfe enseames 
 Both thirty sorts of fish and thirty sundry streames.' 
 
 Charles Cotton also alludes to the origin of the 
 naming of the river, although he does not lean 
 to one supposition or another. ' Be it how it 
 will,' he writes, ' it is doubtless one of the fmest 
 rivers in the world, and the most abounding with 
 excellent salmon, and all sorts of delicate fish.'
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE DERWENT : FROM THE SOURCE TO 
 GRINDLEFORD 
 
 THIS is the chief river of Derbyshire, and from its 
 fountain to its junction with the Trent it is the 
 main artery of the county. Rising in the desolate 
 moors to the north of Ashopton, the Derwent 
 forms the boundary between Yorkshire and 
 Derbyshire for a few miles of its course. At 
 Hathersage the river flows almost through the 
 centre of Derbyshire, and, with a slight trend to 
 the east, it pursues its way to the south through 
 Baslow, Chatsworth, Rowsley, Matlock, Crom- 
 ford, Belper, Duffield, and Derby to the Trent. 
 
 In its higher waters the Derwent receives a 
 number of hill tributaries, and soon becomes a 
 wide stream, with deep pools here and there. The 
 Westend Stream, the Abbey Brook, the Ashop, 
 and the Noe, all contribute to swell its current 
 before the main river reaches the little town of
 
 The Derwent : Source to Grindleford 99 
 
 Hathersage. Below this point the Derwent is 
 joined by Highlow Brook and Burbage Brook. 
 In rainy weather these upper waters are soon 
 tinged with a peat stain from the moors, and this 
 colour is often perceptible as far down as Rowsley. 
 At this point the crystal streams from the lime- 
 stone region, the Wye, the Lathkill, and the Brad- 
 ford, mingle their united flood with the Derwent. 
 
 With the exception of a few brooks there is no 
 tributary of importance below Rowsley until we 
 reach the junction of the Amber at Ambergate. 
 Lower down, on the right bank, the Ecclesbourn 
 Brook flows in at Duffield. Below Derby there 
 is no subsidiary stream of any size. 
 
 Derbyshire folk of the passing generation call 
 the river ' the Darrent water.' There is little 
 doubt that the name of the stream is derived from 
 the ancient British dwr, water, and wen, white. 
 In summer the Derwent is a ' white water,' except 
 in times of spate, so that the appellation is fairly 
 correct. But the river is never quite so trans- 
 lucent as the limestone streams of the country. 
 
 There are few reaches on the Derwent, above 
 Belper, which can be described as uninteresting 
 from the scenic point of view, and there are none 
 without their store of trout and grayling. The 
 
 72
 
 ioo Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 lower reaches of the river through Darley Dale, 
 above Matlock, have perhaps the least charm of 
 any length until we approach Derby, but these 
 ' flats ' are not devoid of quiet, pastoral features. 
 
 In its more mountainous course from the source 
 to Ashopton, the river has several small cascades, 
 and affords a beautiful facsimile of a Scotch up- 
 land burn. Lower down the Derwent flows in a 
 deep vale, with imposing and well-wooded slopes, 
 and at Chatsworth art has perhaps added to the 
 natural beauty of the stream. 
 
 The Matlock gorge is remarkable ; the limestone 
 cliffs rise sheer above the water, and the river 
 hurries and tumbles in its confined and rocky 
 channel. Thence, down to the town of Belper, 
 the Derwent alternately glides and meanders 
 dreamily amid less wild but picturesque surround- 
 ings of wooded ridges and green meadows. At 
 Derby the river is turbid and unlovely. 
 
 James Croston, who wrote an interesting 
 account of a journey, ' On Foot through the Peak,' 
 in 1862, says, concerning the scenery of this river : 
 ' Though not possessing those features of wild 
 desolation and stern sublimity which characterize 
 and give interest to the Dove, the Derwent may 
 nevertheless challenge comparison with any river
 
 The Derwent: Source to Grindleford 101 
 
 in the kingdom for the rich and varied character 
 of the scenery throughout its course. Generally 
 its banks are well wooded ; the stately oak, the 
 towering elm, and the wide-spreading sycamore, 
 mingling their rich verdure with the more light 
 and graceful foliage of the tall ash or silvery 
 birch.' 
 
 Charles Cotton alludes once or twice to the 
 Derwent, and calls it ' a black water.' I have 
 shown that the Derwent is liable to deeper dis- 
 coloration than the limestone rivers of the dis- 
 trict, but it is scarcely a ' black water ' under 
 normal conditions. As a rule, the river is quite 
 clear, and, in fact, almost too clear, during the 
 greater part of the season. Cotton is, therefore, 
 incorrect in his statement that the stream is 
 darkly stained ' quite through its progress.' 
 Rising in a humid and hilly region, the Derwent 
 is subject to floods, which sometimes overflow the 
 banks and submerge the low-lying fields. In 
 high spate the river floods the racecourse and 
 environs of Derby. It would be a fairer descrip- 
 tion to say that the Derwent is a brown water 
 after heavy rain and a clear one in dry weather. 
 
 At the end of Derwent Dale, the first of the 
 dales, with an appellation, watered by the
 
 102 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 ' Darrent,' the Ashop Stream flows in on the left 
 bank. The Ashop has two forks, one rising on 
 Glossop Moor and running down Ashop Clough ; 
 the other flowing down from Alport Moor. These 
 brooks unite near the Snake Inn on the elevated 
 road between Sheffield and Glossop. 
 
 We are here in the very heart of the High Peak. 
 Kinder-Scout, which rises to a height of 1,981 feet, 
 is reared among the lonely uplands to the south- 
 west of the inn. The Snake itself stands over 
 1,000 feet above the sea-level, in a region of wind- 
 swept grouse-moors, bogs, and deep ravines. 
 Glossop, a busy little town, lies seven miles away 
 to the north-west, and marks the confine of 
 modern civilization. 
 
 This is an ideal resting-place for the town- 
 weary fisherman, who loves moorland scenery and 
 the company of a prattling hill-stream. Sheffield, 
 about seventeen miles away, lies at the other 
 extremity of this wild tract of country, and is the 
 postal town. In the winter letters are only 
 delivered at this mountain hospice upon three 
 days in the week. Here is real seclusion, rugged, 
 impressive scenery, and bracing air, with good 
 brook-trouting to boot. 
 
 The Snake Inn, in spite of its remoteness,
 
 The Derwent: Source to Grindleford 103 
 
 provides well for guests. There are six miles of 
 trout-fishing for a guinea per season or half a crown 
 a day. Bait-fishing is allowed, as well as the 
 artificial fly. Up to August 10 there are eight 
 bedrooms to let, but after that date the house is 
 usually full of grouse-shooters. Terms are quoted 
 as ' moderate.' 
 
 Close to the village of Ashopton, on the Der- 
 went, the Ashop runs into the main river on the 
 right bank, while the Lady Bower Brook flows in 
 a little lower down on the left bank. The high- 
 road is here carried across the Derwent. Ashop- 
 ton is a diminutive village amidst heath-clad hills, 
 the principal height being Win Hill, whence there 
 is a remarkably fine and wild view. 
 
 The river and brook fishing hereabouts is attrac- 
 tive, and the Ashopton Inn caters well for anglers. 
 The inn is now one of the ' model public-houses ' 
 under the direction of the People's Refreshment 
 House Association, whose president is the Bishop 
 of Chester. Having experienced, from time to 
 time, considerable trouble in obtaining reasonable 
 refreshment other than beer and spirits at licensed 
 houses in various parts of the kingdom, I hail the 
 scheme with pleasure. There are occasions when 
 a cup of tea is more enjoyable than a glass of ale,
 
 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 or when one wishes for a light meal. How often, 
 in spite of the law, have I been refused victuals by 
 licensed victuallers ! I trust that we shall soon 
 have an end of this abuse of houses of entertain- 
 ment by license-holders. The insane conserva- 
 tism of the innkeeper who refuses a customer food 
 is incomprehensible. 
 
 At the Ashopton Inn you will find a good cook, 
 decent meals, and a bath-room with hot water. 
 There are seven bedrooms, and plenty of stabling. 
 Three miles of trout-water are open to visitors at 
 half a crown a day, with a reduction to guests 
 staying in the house. Bait-fishing is allowed. 
 The nearest station is Bamford, and vehicles will 
 be sent to meet any train, if notice is given to the 
 Manager, Ashopton Inn, Derwent, which is the 
 postal and telegraphic address. 
 
 May and June is a favourite time for trout- 
 fishing in these higher reaches and tributaries of 
 the Derwent. The casts should be fine and the 
 flies dressed rather small. 
 
 About half a mile below Ashopton the Lady 
 Bower Brook flows into the Derwent on the left 
 bank. This is a charming little rivulet, running 
 down a delightful dale. It contains a fair number 
 of trout, and has one open length in its course.
 
 The Derwent : Source to Grindleford 105 
 
 This is at the Lady Bower Inn, beautifully placed 
 on the highroad from Sheffield, which is about ten 
 miles distant. The highway descends from a 
 height of over 1,100 feet to the dell of the Lady 
 Bower Brook, which it crosses at Cut-throat 
 Bridge before reaching the inn. 
 
 There are two bedrooms to let at the inn, and 
 the fishing is free to visitors for about a quarter of 
 a mile. Worm-fishing is allowed. The surround- 
 ing scenery is very typical of the wilder parts of the 
 Peak Country. About two miles from Bamford, 
 in a lonely and beautiful part of the Peak District, 
 is the old hostelry of the Yorkshire Bridge Inn. 
 The proprietor, P. Bradley, owns the fishing right 
 for three quarters of a mile of the Derwent. 
 There are three bedrooms and two sitting-rooms 
 at the inn. The cost of a season ticket for this 
 length is i. Day tickets are issued at 2S. 
 
 Two fields above Yorkshire Bridge, below 
 Ashopton, is the upper limit of the Derwent Fly- 
 fishers' Club length, which is continued on one 
 side of the river, in certain parts, down to New- 
 bridge, and nearly to Calver Weir, above Baslow. 
 This club rents about ten miles of water. Mem- 
 bership is limited to twenty rods. The entrance- 
 fee is 10 ios., and the yearly subscription
 
 io6 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 10 IDS. The Derwent Fly-fishers have their own 
 trout hatchery, and they also purchase trout for 
 turning in from other trout farms. This beautiful 
 stretch of the Derwent is well stocked, and the 
 average weight of the trout is three to the pound. 
 Grayling are abundant, and run a little larger on 
 the average. 
 
 The season here for trout begins on April i, and 
 closes on October i. Grayling afford best sport 
 in the autumn. Most of the members fish habitu- 
 ally with the dry fly. The secretary is Mr. 
 Herbert Barber, Dore, near Sheffield. T. Outram, 
 the water-bailiff, lives at Grindleford village. 
 There is a new and comfortable hotel near the 
 railway-station, and also the Commercial in the 
 village, one mile from the station. The surround- 
 ings of Grindleford are delightfully picturesque, 
 the heights being clad on their lower slopes with 
 Scotch firs and birches. There is a fine view of the 
 Derwent Valley from the village, which stands 
 high above the right bank of the river. 
 
 We will now retrace our steps up-stream from 
 Grindleford. About two miles below Yorkshire 
 Bridge is the village of Bamford, a little wide of 
 the Derwent. The river is broader here, and there 
 are many good runs for trout and grayling. Here,
 
 The Derwent: Source to Grindleford 107 
 
 as in the district generally, the scenery is 
 charming, and the sense of isolation from the 
 crowd complete. By shifting from one inn to 
 another the roving angler can enjoy some 
 pleasant days by these brawling streams, and fish 
 with either the dry or wet fly. Nor is he debarred 
 from the use of the worm and minnow. 
 
 At Bamford there is a large hotel, with twelve 
 bedrooms, called the Marquis of Granby. The 
 proprietor has the fishing right over one mile of 
 the Derwent, and the length is noted for trout and 
 grayling. Half a crown a day is the charge for 
 fishing. 
 
 At Mytham Bridge, about a mile below Bam- 
 ford, the little river Noe or Now joins the Derwent 
 on the right bank. This tributary, which flows 
 through charming country, rises on the slopes of 
 Kinder Scout, the chief height of the group of 
 hills forming the Peak of Derbyshire. Flowing 
 through the quiet Vale of Edale, the Noe passes 
 the village of Hope, where it is joined by a rivulet 
 known as Peaks Hole Water, which comes down 
 from the hills above Castleton. Lower down, on 
 the right bank, another stream flows into the Noe. 
 This is the Bradwell Brook, which rises close to 
 the village whence it derives its name.
 
 io8 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 A third tributary of the Noe joins that stream 
 close to its confluence with the Derwent at 
 Mytham, and it waters the secluded valley called 
 Otter Dale. The Noe is a good trout and grayling 
 stream, but it is not open to the visiting angler, 
 unless he has the privilege of belonging to the 
 club of six members owning the fishing rights. 
 The society is known as the Peak Forest Angling 
 Club, and the secretary is Mr. P. Rhodes, who 
 resides at Rotherham. A rather high rent is paid 
 for the water, which extends from Edale to 
 Mytham Bridge on the Derwent, and includes 
 lengths on the Peaks Hole Water and Bradwell 
 Brook. The water-bailiff to the club is George 
 Ashton, who lives on the riverside, close to Hope. 
 He is an experienced fisherman and a fly-tier. 
 
 Hathersage, a small town, is on the left bank 
 of the Derwent, about three miles down from 
 Mytham Bridge. The fishing for a length here 
 is in the right of Colonel Shuttleworth, of Hather- 
 sage Hall, to whom inquiries should be addressed.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE DERWENT : THE CHATSWORTH FISHERY 
 
 WE have now reached a very attractive and well- 
 stocked length of the Derwent. The chief 
 riparian owner hereabouts is the Duke of Devon- 
 shire, and the water is preserved by an influential 
 club of fishermen, numbering twenty-five mem- 
 bers, who pay an entrance-fee of 5 53. and a 
 yearly subscription of a like amount. 
 
 Let us first make our survey of this fishery, 
 starting from the termination of the Derwent 
 Fly-fishers' Club water at Newbridge Weir. The 
 valley of the river winds below Curbar Edge and 
 the high grouse-lands of East Moor, dividing the 
 region of heather from the limestone hills of Stoney 
 Middleton and Calver. Streams and pools alter- 
 nate, and in a mile or so we reach Calver, a little 
 village with an inn and bridge. The weir here is 
 a good spot for trout, and the water, varying in its 
 
 109
 
 no Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 character from run to still, is adapted for both wet 
 and dry fly fishing. 
 
 The next village below is picturesque Baslow, 
 with the Rutland Arms Hotel on the left bank, 
 close to the bridge. Above the bridge is a weir, 
 and above the weir is a stretch of quiet water, 
 which holds many good trout and grayling. This 
 is a favourable pool for dapping with the natural 
 fly in the summer, or for dry-fly fishing in the 
 evening. Below the bridge at Baslow the Der- 
 went spreads out into a number of pretty runs, 
 offering water for the wader, which should keep 
 him well employed during a rise of trout. 
 
 Baslow has several hotels and a hydropathic 
 establishment. It nestles below the moors, and 
 has an air of prosperity and comfort in its 
 hostelries and solid stone cottages. For the 
 Chatsworth length this is the best place for head- 
 quarters, as the village is practically in the middle 
 of the preserve. Travellers from the North may 
 book to Grindleford Station, and drive hence to 
 Baslow, while those coming from the South may 
 alight at Bakewell, and proceed hither by 
 carriage. 
 
 Soon after passing through Baslow Bridge, the 
 river enters Chatsworth Park. On the right bank
 
 The Chatsworth Fishery in 
 
 is Edensor village, and on the left the imposing 
 mansion of the Cavendish family, with its fine 
 gardens, conservatories, fountains, and sheet of 
 ornamental water. An ornate bridge spans the 
 river here, and below there are several artificial 
 dams across the stream, which have been con- 
 structed for the benefit of the fly-fishermen. 
 
 The Derwent leaves Chatsworth Park beneath 
 another bridge, and flows on to Beeley, where the 
 mill-stream is full of trout. About two miles below 
 Beeley we come in sight of Rowsley Bridge, where 
 the Chatsworth Fishery ends and the Darley Dale 
 Club length begins. 
 
 The beautiful stretch of water which we have 
 hurriedly traversed may be said to provide the 
 finest trout-fishing in the whole course of the 
 Derwent. It offers in its nine miles an abundance 
 of pools and broken streams, and it is also well 
 supplied with tributaries. A water so diverse in 
 character can be fished in some parts from the 
 banks, and in others by wading. If the pools are 
 the object of attack, deep wading is necessary 
 in certain places, but ordinary thigh-wading 
 stockings will serve as a rule. The fisherman who 
 wades up-stream, and fishes with a couple of wet 
 flies, will find many runs to his liking ; while the
 
 1 1 2 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 votary of the dry fly will not seek far for water 
 in which he may note rising trout and grayling. 
 
 I will here describe the conditions upon which 
 visiting anglers can obtain fishing for trout and 
 grayling in this portion of the Derwent. Although 
 this is a club water, the visitor is not debarred 
 from angling. Temporary residence at the Rut- 
 land Arms, or the Peacock at Baslow, or at the 
 Chatsworth Hotel, Edensor, entitles the stranger 
 to fish in the preserve. The day fisherman, who 
 is not a guest at these hotels, can buy a ticket for 
 35. It is, however, necessary to note that these 
 day tickets are limited in number.* 
 
 During the past sixteen years this length has 
 been restocked annually. In 1903, 10,000 trout 
 fry were turned into the tributaries. In 1904 
 3,000 yearling Loch Leven trout were distributed 
 in the main river ; and in February, 1905, 5,000 
 more Loch Levens were purchased for restocking. 
 Besides this replenishing from year to year, the 
 brooks are periodically netted, and the fish con- 
 veyed to the river. Five hundred brace of 
 
 * The following hotels have each season a limited 
 number of day tickets for non-resident fishermen : 
 Rutland Arms, 40 ; Peacock, 40 ; Wheatsheaf , 1 5 ; 
 Chequers, 1 5 ; Baslow Hydro, 1 5 ; and the Chatsworth 
 Hotel, Edensor, 15.
 
 The Chatsworth Fishery 1 1 3 
 
 takeable fish were returned from the tributaries 
 in 1904. This restoration of trout from the brooks 
 lessens very greatly the risk of damage by poach- 
 ing, and tends to keep up a plentiful supply of 
 fish in the main stream. These affluents produce 
 a large number of trout. 
 
 The fishery is fairly free from predatory fish. 
 There are a few chub, and one has been taken with 
 the fly, weighing 3 pounds. Dace are to be found 
 here and there, and also some barbel. The water 
 is entirely free from pike. Travelling otters occa- 
 sionally visit the water, and a few have been 
 trapped during the past twenty years ; but Bacon, 
 the head-keeper, informs me that there are no 
 holts on the preserve, and that otters do not lie 
 up in this part of the Derwent. 
 
 ' How many brace of trout may a fairly good 
 angler expect to catch here in a day's fishing ?' 
 is a query that I anticipate from the reader. Such 
 a question is never easy to answer without a 
 knowledge of the interrogator's capability with 
 the rod. Much depends also upon the time of 
 the year, and the state of the weather and the 
 water. I will, however, set down some ' takes ' 
 made in the fishery by expert fishermen. 
 
 Mr. Moon, a member of the club, caught in one
 
 1 1 4 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 day with the fly, in May, sixteen brace of trout 
 and seven brace of grayling. The grayling, being 
 out of season, were returned to the water, and so 
 were some of the trout, being undersized. This 
 angler has occasionally averaged ten to eleven 
 brace of fish per day during a visit to Baslow. 
 Another angler, Mr. Brookes, fishing with the fly 
 after a thunder-shower, captured twelve brace of 
 trout and grayling in one short length of the river. 
 Some of the fish were f- pound, and none weighed 
 less than \ pound. 
 
 Mr. Thompson, a visitor, fishing below Chats- 
 worth late in the season, caught on the first day 
 of his visit ten and a half brace ; on the second 
 day, thirteen and a half brace ; and on the third 
 day, ten brace. Mr. Pitt, the station-master of 
 Rowsley, has taken eight and a half brace of fish 
 in a day from this water. These are the occa- 
 sional records of adepts, and they may be repeated 
 or even bettered by experienced fly-fishermen. 
 But it would be rash to 'promise such sport to 
 anyone who visits the Chatsworth Fishery. Three 
 to six brace may be said to be the kind of basket 
 which rewards the less skilful and sagacious anglers 
 in this water. However, all generalizations are 
 risky, and I now quit the dangerous topic with
 
 The Chatsworth Fishery 1 1 5 
 
 the remark that there are plenty of fish and very 
 pretty fishing from Newbridge down to Rowsley. 
 
 In the spring wet-fly fishing will be found the 
 most profitable method. The middle of May often 
 brings out a show of flies on the water, and trout 
 begin then to rise in earnest to surface insects. 
 Still, taking one year with another, June is a 
 better month for dry-fly fishing in this length. 
 Before May the iloating fly is decidedly less 
 alluring than the sunk fly. Therefore in April 
 and May rely chiefly on your two sunk flies, 
 fished up-stream. September often proves a 
 fortunate month on this length. It is then that 
 grayling begin to rise most freely. 
 
 There is not a very large hatch of Mayfly here, 
 but sport may be had when the drakes make their 
 appearance. In the still water some good fish 
 may be attracted by fishing with the natural May- 
 fly, or by dapping the blue-bottle. These modes 
 of fishing are allowed by the club. For general 
 use in the Chatsworth water the following flies 
 are recommended : ash dun, olive dun, March 
 brown, claret bumble, furnace bumble, apple 
 green, and black midge. In a coloured water the 
 March brown kills at any period of the season. 
 The trout in this preserve average a little under 
 
 82
 
 1 1 6 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 i- pound, but plenty over i pound are caught. 
 Grayling are perhaps a trifle heavier as an average. 
 
 The secretary of the Chatsworth Club is Mr. C. 
 F. Fieldsend, Edensor, Bakewell. A. Bacon, the 
 chief water-bailiff, lives at Baslow. 
 
 Minnow-fishing is entirely prohibited by the 
 club rules, and only members are allowed to fish 
 with the worm. No worm-fishing is permitted 
 until June i. All undersized fish must be 
 returned to the river.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE DERWENT : ROWSLEY TO MATLOCK 
 
 THIS length of the Derwent is rented by the Darley 
 Dale Angling Club of thirty members. The club 
 water begins about three quarters of a mile above 
 Rowsley, and ends just above Matlock Bridge 
 Station, covering a distance of nearly eight miles. 
 Fishing is permitted from either bank, and 
 wading is allowed. 
 
 To become a member of this club, it is necessary 
 to wait for a vacancy, and to secure a proposer 
 and seconder, who must belong to the association. 
 Members are elected by ballot, and the subscrip- 
 tion is 4 45. a year. 
 
 There are certain distinct advantages connected 
 with membership. The whole of the water is 
 open to clubmen ; they have a voice in the 
 management of affairs, and receive annually 
 twenty transferable tickets, which they can give 
 to friends. Twelve of these tickets are for fly- 
 
 117
 
 ii8 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 fishing, and eight are for bottom-fishing. Only 
 members are allowed to fish with the minnow. 
 
 Failing to obtain membership, anglers may 
 purchase for 2 per annum a ticket enabling 
 them to fish about half of the length i.e., from 
 Darley Bridge to Matlock. The secretary may 
 use his discretion in the granting of these season 
 tickets. The visiting fisherman, whose leisure is 
 scanty, can fish, with artificial fly, the whole 
 length (about four miles) of this water for 2s. 6d. a 
 day. These day tickets can be purchased at the 
 Square and Compass Inn, Darley Bridge, or from 
 the secretary, Mr. J. H. Dawson, Darley Dale, 
 near Matlock. The season for trout opens on 
 March 25, and ends October i ; and for grayling 
 the close season is from March 15 to June 15. 
 The size-limit for fish is 9 inches. Season and 
 daily ticket-holders must not fish before 6 a.m. 
 nor after 9 p.m. There are two bailiffs upon 
 the length. One of them, Allen of Rowsley, is a 
 good fly-dresser. 
 
 Such are the essential points in the rules issued 
 by the Darley Dale Angling Club. I will now 
 conduct the fisherman to the water, starting from 
 Rowsley Bridge, and give him such counsel as I 
 may be entitled to offer from my own experience
 
 Rowsley to Matlock 119 
 
 of two seasons on this length, together with valu- 
 able information kindly supplied by members of 
 the club. 
 
 Below Rowsley Bridge is a large and deep pool, 
 breaking at the tail end into two streams, parted 
 by an island of pebbles and bushes. Assuming 
 that the stranger is provided with wading- 
 stockings, let him enter the water from the right 
 bank, and try his dry fly over the fish which one 
 rarely fails to see rising in this pool. I have had 
 both trout and grayling from the pool, and also 
 from the runs below. On a summer evening, 
 from 7 till 9, the fisherman may often note a 
 number of good fish on the feed off the right bank 
 of the bridge-pool ; and I am convinced that there 
 are two or three heavy trout in this corner, besides 
 a large number of trout and grayling of over 
 pound. In a stained water, I have taken fish 
 here with the wet fly. 
 
 Below the tumbling run is a rather long still, 
 which yields a fish or two occasionally, and at 
 the outflow of the Wye is another double stream 
 and an island. These runs are always likely, and 
 at times fine grayling may be taken here. Unless 
 the Wye is in high flood, it can be crossed by the 
 wader near its mouth. Following the right bank,
 
 i2o Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 we reach a straight, rather deep stretch, contain- 
 ing a fair number of fish, especially at the lower 
 end. The next run is a strong one, and in the pool 
 above it are some heavy grayling, while the run 
 itself usually affords a trout or two. 
 
 Lower down bushes somewhat obstruct the fly- 
 fisherman for a short length ; but it is well to 
 watch this part for rises, as it is a quiet harbourage 
 for fish. Above the next bend, where the river 
 is broken into several tumbling runs, is a deep pool 
 which fishes well at most times. It is always 
 worth while to watch this pool, especially in the 
 evening. Flies seem to favour this length, and 
 there is often a good rise along the right bank 
 and at the tail of the pool, just off a steep clay 
 bank. 
 
 Stanton Wood House, a shooting lodge of the 
 Marquess of Granby, is among the trees on the 
 right bank. There is a seat under a big tree, and 
 the wide pool below should not be passed by. A 
 shallow lower down can be crossed when the water 
 is low, and it is as well to make for the left bank 
 of the river, as the right bank is overgrown and 
 high almost all the way down to Barley Bridge. 
 
 The water from Stanton Wood House to the 
 bridge is varied in character, and has one or two
 
 Rowsley to Matlock 121 
 
 long deeps, where fish may often be seen on the 
 rise. There are also some runs which will tempt 
 the wet-fly fisherman after a freshet in the river. 
 Only a small number of anglers hereabouts use the 
 wet fly, but I know, from my own experience, that 
 it is effective early in the season and at dusk in 
 summer time. But, as a rule, it is better worth 
 one's time to mark rising or standing fish, and 
 throw a dry-fly over them. 
 
 Having reached Darley Bridge, it is a matter 
 of comparative unimportance whether the angler 
 elects to follow the right or the left bank. There 
 is some streamy water for about a quarter of a 
 mile, and then a pool, which is best fished from the 
 sandy left bank. There is a fording place at the 
 tail of this pool, where a little green island and 
 a big sunken tree will be noted. Good trout and 
 grayling feed under the alders on the right bank, 
 and by wading in a yard or two from the left bank 
 you can reach them. I have seen this pool fairly 
 ringed with rises on a warm evening in June, just 
 upon dark. 
 
 Cross again to the right bank, and try down the 
 runs and the long, straight, slow pool below it. 
 At a bend, where the river narrows, and a brook 
 flows in on the left bank, there is a likely stand
 
 122 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 for both trout and grayling. The latter often 
 feed off the outlet of the brook in winter. 
 
 There is a long scour lower down, flowing into 
 another of the characteristic deep pools. This 
 pool is favoured by bottom-anglers, who fish here 
 for trout and grayling with float tackle. Below, 
 where the railway touches the left bank, there is 
 a double run and an island. The tail of these 
 streams should be watched for rising fish, and 
 there is good fly-water down to the next bend. 
 Grayling are perhaps more abundant in the next 
 deep than in any other reach of the club water. 
 It is a bad day indeed when fish are not rising in 
 this length. There are some big grayling here, 
 especially under the boughs on the left bank, and 
 in Mayfly time this is an excellent stand for trout. 
 The water is too deep for wading, except at the 
 top of the pool, where there is a firm gravel 
 bottom. 
 
 We now come to Oaker Bends, below Oaker 
 Hill, made immortal by Wordsworth in a poem 
 upon the two brothers who planted the tree on 
 the summit. These sharps contain trout, and 
 they are best fished with the wet fly. Below them 
 are several deep pools succeeding each other down 
 to the railway bridge just above Matlock.
 
 Rowsley to Matlock 123 
 
 The Derwent is not an ' early ' river in this 
 valley, therefore it is as well to postpone fly- 
 fishing until the middle or end of April, unless 
 that month is especially mild. There are days in 
 early spring when you may enjoy a few hours' 
 sport by fishing with two or three small hackle 
 flies in the tails of the runs. But this is a snowy 
 country, and winter sometimes lingers on till May. 
 
 May and June are good months for the dry fly, 
 and later on in the season, during hot weather, 
 there is usually a fair evening rise of trout and 
 grayling in most of the pools which I have 
 mentioned. October is the best time for gray- 
 ling. 
 
 There are fortunately very few predatory fish 
 in this length. Some heavy barbel haunt some 
 of the deeps and eddies, but they are very rarely 
 fished for. I think that the barbel fisherman 
 might have sport here if he baited two or three 
 swims. The parts where I have noted big barbel 
 are in the tail of the pool below Rowsley Bridge, 
 in the slow water above Darley Bridge, and in the 
 pool below, and also at the top of the pool above 
 Oaker Bends. A barbel of 7 or 8 pounds brushed 
 against my leg one evening while I was wading 
 near the right bank at the bottom of Rowsley
 
 124 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 Bridge Pool. I have also noted big barbel just 
 above Matlock Bridge. 
 
 Among the Daiiey Dale Clubmen there are 
 some very keen and clever dry-fly anglers, as well 
 as two or three ladies, the wives of members. 
 There is no bottom-fishing allowed in the upper 
 water above Darley Bridge, and the minnow is 
 rarely used in the club water. 
 
 The trout-flies most generally favoured on this 
 preserve are the gravel-bed, green drake, red- 
 spinner, iron-blue, yellow dun, and claret bumble. 
 For grayling try the fiery bumble, apple-green 
 dun, red-tag, and Foster Brothers' specialities 
 for Derbyshire rivers. The yellow dun, dressed 
 by Eaton of Matlock, is a good summer fly, and 
 should be used during a late evening rise. 
 
 While these pages were passing through the 
 press, I learned that one club is turning in 
 several hundreds of trout this season, 1905.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE DERWENT : FISHING AROUND MATLOCK 
 
 FOLLOWING the course of the Derwent down from 
 the boundary of the Darley Dale Club water, we 
 reach a short length of free fishing at Matlock 
 Bridge. ' The Matlocks ' are three overgrown 
 villages, known to-day as Matlock Bank, Matlock 
 Bridge, and Matlock Bath. On the Bank are 
 the principal hydropathic establishments, with 
 Smedley's dominating all of them. The Bridge 
 part of the Matlocks has a street of shops, and 
 two or three hotels close to the river. In about 
 a mile, following the Derwent by the imposing 
 High Tor, we enter Matlock Bath, where there 
 are hotels, boarding-houses, pleasure-grounds, and 
 another thoroughfare of shops. 
 
 Matlock is a convenient centre for the fisherman. 
 It has two stations on the Midland main line, 
 which, from Derby to beyond Miller's Dale, runs 
 first in the valley of the Derwent, and afterwards 
 
 125
 
 126 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 follows the course of the Wye. There is accom- 
 modation to suit all pockets in the Matlocks, and 
 the fishing is of a varied character. From Mat- 
 lock Bridge downwards the Derwent contains very 
 big trout. For heavy fish of this species, through- 
 out the course of the Derwent, there is perhaps no 
 better length than this. 
 
 The record trout, taken with the fly, was cap- 
 tured by Mr. J. G. Eaton, the local fly-tier and 
 angling correspondent. It weighed 6 pounds 
 
 2 ounces, and was killed near the iron footbridge 
 below Matlock Bridge in the free water. Heavier 
 trout than this have been caught at Matlock with 
 bait. During last season (1904) the expert 
 Mr. Eaton captured four handsome trout from 
 this water. The heaviest scaled 4^ pounds, and 
 the smallest 2\ pounds. The biggest was taken 
 on a yellow dun. 
 
 These big trout at Matlock are not simpletons. 
 They are fairly harried by anglers throughout the 
 season. Notwithstanding, the score of large trout 
 taken at Matlock every year is a high one, and it 
 is no exaggeration to say that trout of 2 and 
 
 3 pounds are plentiful in the deep pools of this 
 length. The monsters usually rise to fly about 
 dusk, and if the fisherman is on the spot at the
 
 Fishing Around Matlock 127 
 
 right time, he stands a fair chance of securing 
 one or two fine trout in an evening's fishing. 
 
 The Derwent tumbles through Matlock Bridge 
 in a strong stream, forming a capital run below. 
 At the iron bridge its course is slow, and the water 
 is deep for some distance. Big trout may be 
 seen rising* here on any warm evening in the 
 summer, and there are also grayling and coarse 
 fish in these deeps. The biggest grayling from 
 this water was taken by Mr. Eaton's father, 
 fishing with a worm. It weighed 2| pounds. 
 
 Most fishermen will wish to go a little further 
 from the town reach at Matlock, and a day ticket, 
 obtainable for is. from Mr. Hartley, near the 
 tramway terminus, will give them license to fish 
 with bait or fly nearly down to Cromford. Below 
 this the charge is 2S. for the day, and the artificial 
 fly only is allowed. 
 
 This length is preserved by the Matlock and 
 Cromford Angling Club. A considerable part of 
 the water is deep, and some stretches have wooded 
 and steep banks. But, by hook or by crook, the 
 fisherman should endeavour to fish these long, 
 deep, overgrown pools, for they abound with good 
 trout and grayling. Here and there one finds an 
 excellent run of broken water, where the fly can
 
 128 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 be used with effect early in the summer, or at 
 twilight in July and August. 
 
 Bottom-fishermen, whether they pursue trout, 
 grayling, or roach, will find many likely corners 
 and deep holes in this part of the Derwent. Below 
 the High Tor, on the left bank, is a big weir, and 
 the streams below it are favourite haunts of trout. 
 The natural minnow, on a spinning flight, is an 
 attractive bait in these rough streams. 
 
 At Matlock Bath the river is wider and more 
 placid in its flow. In the summer this reach is 
 much disturbed by boats, but it contains big 
 trout, and abounds with roach. There are also 
 pike, perch, and barbel in this length, but they are 
 more abundant below Cromford and at What- 
 standwell, where the coarse-fishing is well worth 
 attention. 
 
 There are many other attractions besides fishing 
 at Matlock, but of these I need not speak here, as 
 they are more correctly in the province of a book 
 for the general tourist. I may say, however, that 
 there is a wealth of fine scenery in and around 
 each of the Matlocks, and that the place is well 
 situated for excursions to many charming and 
 interesting places in the High Peak District. 
 
 Before we proceed further down the Derwent,
 
 Fishing Around Matlock 129 
 
 I will draw the trout-fisherman's attention to 
 three dams in the neighbourhood of Matlock 
 Bridge. These pools are at Tansley, under two 
 miles from Matlock Bridge Station. They are 
 owned by the proprietor of a large mill, who issues 
 day tickets at 2s. 6d. The upper dam is about an 
 acre in extent, and contains some good trout, but 
 it is rather too overgrown for fly-fishing, and the 
 water is apt to sink in hot weather. There is a 
 better depth of water in the larger dam below it, 
 the pool that we first see upon leaving the mill. 
 The banks are fairly open, and the water can be 
 fished with the fly. By wading you can command 
 almost the whole pool. 
 
 I have caught some fair trout here, but nothing 
 remarkable in the way of weight, though I am told 
 that there are heavy fish in these dams. 
 
 The third dam is the prettiest of the group. It 
 is surrounded by trees, and it is almost impossible 
 to fish it without wading, except at the sluice end. 
 This pond literally swarms with small trout of 
 about 3 ounces or pound, which rise freely 
 enough to a wet fly on a dull, windy day. I have 
 caught fish here with the dry fly during a rise 
 to the naturals. A good point is from the bank 
 near the sluice. At the upper end of this dam is 
 
 9
 
 130 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 a shallow, where a brook enters, and this is a 
 favourite feeding-place for trout. 
 
 These pools are worth trying with the fly on a 
 breezy day in May or June. Bottom-fishing is 
 permitted. 
 
 There are two more dams at Two Dales, very 
 prettily situated with woody and rocky banks. 
 They are private, and rented by that good angler, 
 Dr. S. Warneford, of Two Dales. There are a fair 
 number of trout in these pools, up to i pound in 
 weight, but the average is lighter. The fish are 
 not very free risers to the artificial fly, though 
 they can be taken with the sunk fly about dusk 
 and on dull, windy days. 
 
 The lower length of the Matlock and Cromford 
 Angling Club water is better stocked and more 
 easily fishable than the upper length. It begins 
 at Cromford Bridge, with a good streamy flat, 
 which can be waded. The railway crosses the 
 river just below, and from the rail-bridge down- 
 wards for about half a mile the water is deeper 
 and broken, and has several fine pools. Further 
 down, where the Derwent bends to the railway, 
 there is a noted run for trout and grayling, and 
 good wading water. 
 
 After the middle of May this water yields the
 
 Fishing Around Matlock 131 
 
 best baskets to the dry-fly anglers, but before 
 then the wet fly may be used with advantage. 
 Eaton of Matlock dresses flies for this water, and 
 can direct visitors to the likeliest runs for trout 
 and grayling. The fish here do not attain the 
 weight of the well-fed trout and grayling of the 
 Matlock deeps, but they are more abundant, and 
 less worried by anglers. 
 
 In this preserve bait-fishing is allowed from 
 Cawdor Bridge to the Collingwood stream. Below 
 that point the artificial fly is only permitted. The 
 Cromford length contains some heavy barbel, but 
 the coarse-fishing is reserved for members only. 
 Barbel-fishing is not pursued here as a fine art, as 
 in the Thames and Trent. Nevertheless, good 
 sport awaits those who care to bait a swim. 
 
 During about two hours' fishing in the month of 
 September 175 pounds of barbel have been taken 
 from this length. The heaviest fish weighed 
 9! pounds. This catch was made in water 3 feet 
 in depth, and the bait was the tail of a lob- 
 worm. Barbel of over 7 pounds are not un- 
 common in this part of the Derwent. 
 
 From Leawood Deeps down to Ambergate the 
 Derwent holds some of the biggest perch to be 
 found in any river of the United Kingdom. 
 
 92
 
 132 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 Perch from 2\ pounds to 3^ pounds have been 
 taken here, and in one day's fishing, some years 
 ago, a baited swim afforded over I hundred- 
 weight of perch. Minnows will prove an attrac- 
 tive lure for these big perch, which may be col- 
 lected together by a liberal ground-baiting of 
 worms. I cannot promise a successful day with 
 the perch, if they are sought for without dis- 
 crimination. The water must be studied and the 
 haunts of perch discovered before the ground-bait 
 is thrown in. A little trouble in the selection of 
 two or three holes and corners will repay the fisher- 
 man, for the perch hereabouts are remarkably 
 heavy, and give excellent sport. 
 
 Below the limit of the club water is a private 
 preserve, known as the Homesford Cottage water, 
 which is free to visitors at this house of entertain- 
 ment. The length is noted for grayling, and 
 contains a fair number of trout. There is good 
 coarse-fishing here for perch, roach, and barbel, 
 with the chance of taking pike. Although war is 
 waged against pike in the club length, a moderate 
 number of these enemies to trout survive and 
 breed. Homesford Cottage is about a mile 
 from Whatstandwell Station, on the road from 
 Derby to Buxton.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE DERWENT : WHATSTANDWELL TO DERBY 
 
 ALTHOUGH we have left the finest scenery of the 
 Derwent behind us, the river valley has still much 
 beauty and attractive serenity. The banks, with 
 their background of wooded heights, are typical 
 of the High Peak region, and the stream, though 
 less impetuous in its course, is varied with long 
 deeps and rippled shallows. 
 
 Whatstandwell is built on the slope of a steep 
 hill, on the left bank of the river. The village 
 has a station on the Midland main line, and hard 
 by, close to the old stone bridge, is the snug 
 Derwent Hotel,* in the charge of Mr. Mountney, 
 a keen sportsman and good host. 
 
 If we have passed the best trout lengths on the 
 Derwent, it may be said that we have reached the 
 beginning of the finest stretch for all-round 
 
 * Accommodation for visiting fishermen, and leave to 
 fish in private water. 
 
 133
 
 134 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 fishing. The water is, however, by no means 
 devoid of trout, and it has some very productive 
 grayling runs. From this village down to Belper 
 the Derwent holds some of the biggest trout to be 
 found in its course, though it is not the best of 
 lengths for fly-fishing. For grayling, however, it 
 can hold its own with some of the higher lengths. 
 The coarse-fishing for perch, roach, and barbel 
 is good, and pike are moderately plentiful. What- 
 standwell is, therefore, a rendezvous of bait- 
 anglers rather than fly-fishers ; but there is fly- 
 fishing for grayling from the railway-bridge down 
 to the deeps below the road-bridge, a distance of 
 about one and a quarter miles. This stretch is 
 full of grayling, and most parts of it can be fished 
 by wading. 
 
 The Derwent Hotel water extends from the 
 railway-bridge on the left bank down to about 
 three-quarters of a mile above Ambergate. The 
 upper part is mostly swift and broken water, and 
 adapted to fly-fishing or swimming the worm for 
 grayling. In the lower lengths the river is slow 
 and deep, and more attractive to the bottom- 
 fisher than the wielder of the fly rod. When the 
 river is fairly high, and clearing after a spate, very 
 good takes of coarse fish may be expected, pro-
 
 Whatstandwell to Derby 135 
 
 vided that places are properly ground-baited 
 overnight. 
 
 A short reach below Mr. Mountney's water is 
 private, but just past the Wire Works we come to a 
 well-stocked water. Nearly all the fishing in the 
 Ambergate vicinity is in the hands of Mr. Alton, 
 the Hurt Arms Hotel, close to the station. Per- 
 mission is granted to visitors to the house. 
 
 Here the Amber joins the Derwent, and the 
 lower part of this stream is also preserved by 
 Mr. Alton. The Amber has its source on the 
 moors above Darley, and, flowing south-west of 
 Ashover, unites with a branch running by Clay 
 Cross and Stretton. These combined brooks 
 pursue a course through Alfreton down to Amber- 
 gate. The Amber breeds trout and coarse fish, 
 and in parts affords moderate fly-fishing. 
 
 Mr. Alfred E. Coates, who has an intimate 
 knowledge of the Derwent in this length, has 
 kindly furnished me with some useful notes on 
 the fishing above and below Ambergate. ' Imme- 
 diately below the Wire Works W T eir is the best 
 length about here,' says Mr. Coates. ' It contains 
 a few large trout and pike, many large chub, 
 barbel, dace, and a fair lot of perch and roach.' 
 Mr. J. Glossop, Ambergate, has the fishing from
 
 136 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 a few fields on both the Amber and Derwent, and 
 would probably grant permission to fair and well- 
 conducted anglers. Mr. Coates informs me that 
 the river here is well fished in the summer by 
 visitors from Derby, Ripley, Chesterfield, and 
 elsewhere. In the winter, when the fishing is 
 perhaps at its best, very few anglers frequent this 
 water. The big chub here are somewhat coy. 
 They are heavy fish , and it is worth some trouble 
 to catch them. I surmise that systematic baiting, 
 and the use of ox-pith for bait, would account for 
 some of these fine chub in severe weather. 
 
 At the termination of the Hurt Arms length 
 we come to the upper boundary of the Belper 
 Angling Club preserve. This length has about 
 five miles of water, extending from Ambergate 
 through Belper to Milford. The most convenient 
 stopping-place is Belper, a pleasant little town on 
 the Midland Railway, on the outskirts of the Peak 
 District.* 
 
 In this stretch there is very deep water, half a 
 mile of the river having a depth of twenty-two 
 feet. Some heavy fish swim in these deeps, and 
 throughout the length the coarse-fishing is good. 
 
 * Hotel : Red Lion. Inn : The Beehive (landlord 
 member of angling club).
 
 Whatstandwell to Derby 137 
 
 The fish are roach, perch, dace, chub, bream, pike, 
 and trout. Barbel are fairly plentiful. Roach 
 up to i pound 10 ounces, and perch up to 
 2f pounds, have been taken from this water, 
 besides many big bream. Ground-baiting is, of 
 course, essential to success. 
 
 There are some very fine trout here. The 
 biggest trout, of which I have authentic record, 
 weighed 6| pounds. Trout of 2 to 3 pounds 
 are frequently captured, especially in the early 
 part of the season. The method of fishing is with 
 float-tackle, with worms or wasp-grub for bait. 
 In February, 1905, three trout, averaging 2 pounds, 
 were caught in an afternoon's fishing. 
 
 Perch-fishing is at its best in January and 
 February. Dace are abundant, and they take 
 the artificial fly during the summer. 
 
 The secretary of the Belper Club is Mr. John 
 Lee, 21, Nottingham Road, Belper. Members 
 are elected, and the season subscription is los. 6d. 
 Visitors may obtain tickets at is. for the day. 
 
 The length below the Belper water, extending 
 almost to Derby, is in the hands of the Duffield 
 Angling Club. My query whether visiting fisher- 
 men can obtain tickets has not elicited a reply.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE AMBER 
 
 I HAVE briefly referred to this stream in the last 
 chapter, and I will now inform the visitor to this 
 district where he may find fishing in the Amber. 
 The trout of this river have to contend with coarse 
 fish in the struggle for existence. They are, 
 therefore, not so abundant as in the tributaries 
 higher up the course of the Derwent. Still, there 
 are good trout in the Amber, and the average may 
 be set down at pound. 
 
 A considerable stretch of this stream is rented 
 by the Ripley and District Angling Association, 
 who have lately turned in about 200 two-year- 
 old trout into the club water. The Amber length 
 is from Ball Bridge up to Pentrich wire-mills, 
 and as three miles have lately been added in 
 Wingfield Park, making altogether a long pre- 
 serve, there is plenty of available water for fly 
 and bait fishing. Visiting anglers are made 
 
 138
 
 The Amber 139 
 
 welcome, and the charge for fishing is very 
 moderate. One shilling is the cost of a day ticket 
 for all the waters rented by the society. 
 
 The coal and iron industry in this part of the 
 country has led to the rapid growth of the town 
 of Ripley, which is conveniently situated for the 
 visiting fisherman. There is no scarcity of accom- 
 modation in Ripley, or, if the angler prefers 
 quietude, he may seek lodgings at Pentrich or 
 Ambergate. In spite of the near encroachment 
 of mines and ironworks, the valley of the Amber 
 is still secluded and rural, and in it will be found 
 some very charming reaches of the little stream. 
 
 The growth on the banks is somewhat dis- 
 advantageous for fly-fishing, but the Amber can 
 be fished with the fly by anyone accustomed to 
 cope with obstructions to casting. As many as 
 fifteen brace of trout have been taken in one day 
 from this river. But this is probably the record 
 catch, and the average take is very much less. 
 Three to four brace of trout may be caught by a 
 fairly persevering fly-fisherman, and it is probable 
 that the bait-fisher will add a fish or two to this 
 number. The trout are not diminutive. 
 
 Besides the Amber, the Ripley Society has the 
 right of fishing in a large part of Butterley
 
 140 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 Reservoir, a sheet of water within ten minutes' 
 walk from Ripley, and close to Butterley Station. 
 This pool is not overgrown, the banks being 
 meadowland, sloping gently to the water. It 
 contains pike, perch, roach, and carp. The pike- 
 fishing is best in September and October, and live- 
 baiting from a boat is the usual method. Two 
 rods have taken 70 pounds of pike from the 
 reservoir in a day's fishing. The boat-hire is 
 is. a day. 
 
 Roach are abundant in Butterley Reservoir, 
 and but little ground-baiting is necessary to 
 bring the fish together. There is good bank 
 fishing. The water is never quite clear in this 
 pool. Some big carp have been caught here. 
 
 At Codnor Park the society has another 
 reservoir, which also gives very fair baskets of 
 coarse fish of several kinds. There is, therefore, 
 variety in the fishing to be obtained in the 
 neighbourhood of Ripley, while the Derwent at 
 Ambergate and Belper is within a short railway 
 ride. 
 
 Fishermen must observe the following rules of 
 the Ripley Angling Association : Fair angling is 
 only allowed, and not more than one rod is per- 
 mitted to a ticket-holder. Pike under 18 inches,
 
 The Amber 141 
 
 trout under 8 inches, and perch under 8 inches, 
 must be returned to the water. Members of the 
 association pay an entrance- fee of 55., and a 
 quarterly subscription of is., payable in advance. 
 Visiting anglers can obtain day permits from 
 Mr. George Slater, Secretary to the Angling 
 Association, Ripley. 
 
 Fishermen are requested to avoid passing 
 through standing corn and growing grass, and to 
 close all gates by the riverside.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 DERBY AND AROUND 
 
 DERBY is a convenient point of approach to most 
 of the fishing waters described in these pages. 
 Visiting anglers from London and the South of 
 England will pass through the town en route for 
 the Derwent and its numerous tributaries, and 
 should they wish to break their journey, they will 
 find good hotel accommodation and a pleasant 
 angling atmosphere in the old town. Derby has 
 about fifty fishing clubs, and many miles of river 
 and canal fishing are accessible by rail and road. 
 In bygone days the Derwent was fishable close to 
 the town, but with the spread of population, and 
 the increase of sources of pollution, the times have 
 changed, and anglers are now compelled to go 
 further afield for their recreation. 
 
 The most influential angling society in Derby 
 is that of the Midland Institute. All the members 
 are in the employment of the Midland Railway 
 
 142
 
 Derby and Around 143 
 
 Company. Those who belong to the admirable 
 Institute pay 75. 6d. a year for membership of the 
 Fishing Club, while non-members pay los. This 
 strong association owns the fishing in many miles 
 of the Trent and several canals, besides a con- 
 siderable acreage of ponds. The rents of these 
 waters amount to 100 a year, and the cost of 
 preservation represents a still further sum. 
 
 Naturally, the Midland Institute Fishing Club 
 desire to retain exclusive right over their own 
 fishing lengths and pools. Visitors must, there- 
 fore, pay for the privilege of access to these 
 waters, and the charge for ' outsiders ' for the 
 season is 2 2s. No short-period tickets are 
 issued to strangers. The secretary is Mr. Ban- 
 nister, Midland Railway Offices, Derby. 
 
 From all that I have seen and heard, I do not 
 consider the cost of a season's fishing exorbitant. 
 Some of the best coarse-fishing water in England 
 is owned by the club. The perch and roach of the 
 Trent are no mean fish, and the waters contain 
 plenty of chub, bream, and pike. An evening's 
 fishing in the Trent last summer yielded six 
 roach, weighing 7 pounds ; and early in Septem- 
 ber, 1904, a brace of roach, scaling 3 pounds, were 
 lured by the attraction of wheat. Very heavy
 
 144 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 catches of roach and bream are sometimes recorded 
 from the club waters. 
 
 Certain canal reaches belonging to the Midland 
 Institute Club can be fished by the public, on 
 payment of 6d. a day. These lengths are on the 
 North Staffordshire Canal, the Derby Canal, and 
 also on the Cromford Canal from Langley Mill to 
 Cromford. This stretch, which is amid very 
 charming scenery in the neighbourhood of What- 
 standwell, is thirteen miles long. Here and there 
 good bream are to be found in these canals, but 
 the commonest fish are roach and gudgeon. This 
 canal is mostly shallow. 
 
 Anglers should venerate Derby, for there lived 
 Herbert Spencer, one of the greatest thinkers and 
 teachers of our age, and one of the keenest and 
 most scientific of fishermen. Derby is sadly 
 deficient in the pride of venerating this illustrious 
 son. As a boy, Spencer spent most of his holiday 
 time in fishing in the Derwent and the canals. 
 He made his own ' hair tackles,' and exhibited, in 
 his recreation of angling, the same ardour and 
 originality that he displayed in philosophy and 
 sociology. In later years, Herbert Spencer 
 became a salmon fisherman, and an enthusiast of 
 sea-trout angling in Scotland. But it was in the
 
 Derby and Around .145 
 
 waters around Derby that he acquired rudimen- 
 tary knowledge of the gentle craft. 
 
 From the Midland railway-station at Derby the 
 visiting angler can reach over a score of fishing- 
 places by short railway journeys. The whole 
 lengths of the Derwent and Wye are easily acces- 
 sible at almost any point from the Midland 
 stations. Coarse-fishermen can travel hence to 
 the best swims on the Trent and Dove, while the 
 fly-fisher, bound for mid-waters of the Dove, can 
 approach that river from Ashbourne via Derby, 
 or visit the upper lengths of the Manifold and Dove 
 from the charming town of Buxton. 
 
 Chellaston and Swarkestone Station, a rail-ride 
 of ten minutes from Derby, is within one and a half 
 miles of the Trent. Swarkestone is a pretty village 
 on the riverside,* close to the handsome stone 
 bridge. The Trent is here a fine wide stream, 
 with deeps and scours and open banks for the 
 greater part. It has many tempting swims for 
 the bottom-fisher both above and below Swarke- 
 stone. Mr. R. Sale, Repton, near Derby, has the 
 right over the length on the left bank. 
 
 Pike, perch, roach, chub, bream, dace, and a 
 very few trout frequent this stretch. The dace 
 
 * Hotel: Crewe and Harpur Arms; several bedrooms. 
 
 10
 
 146 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 rise to an artificial fly, and chub may be taken by 
 the same means. Bream feed most readily in 
 August. In half a day's fishing, to three rods, 
 20 pounds of roach, dace, and bream have been 
 caught here. Fletcher, the water-bailiff, Barrow- 
 on-Trent, Derby, provides live-bait, and will 
 procure some large Trent gudgeon for anglers who 
 give him a few days' notice. 
 
 Chellaston is also the station for a long canal 
 length belonging to the Midland Institute Club. 
 Tickets are issued at 6d. a day. 
 
 The Foremark Fishery, above Swarkestone, is 
 in the hands of Mr. Newbold, The Elms, King's 
 Newton, Derby, who issues season tickets at 2is. 
 This is a well-stocked length of the Trent, and 
 I am told that it gives good sport to roach, 
 perch, and pike fishermen.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 COMBS RESERVOIR FISHERY 
 
 THIS large sheet of water, which covers eighty 
 acres, lies in a valley between Chapel-en-le-Frith 
 and Whaley Bridge. The first-named town is 
 situated among the heights of the Peak Country, 
 twenty-three miles from Manchester. The Mid- 
 land station at Chapel-en-le-Frith is within two 
 miles from the reservoir. Close to the water is 
 the quaint little inn, with the sign of the Hanging 
 Gate, a house much frequented by fishermen 
 throughout the year. Among the names of 
 visitors to the inn, in the visitors' book, is that of 
 Sir Henry Irving, who testifies to the kindness 
 of the host. 
 
 On Sundays there is often a great gathering of 
 anglers at Combs Reservoir, for the fishing is 
 within a short railway journey from Sheffield and 
 Manchester. There is beauty in the surroundings 
 of this pool, and a fair number of fish in the water. 
 
 M7 102
 
 148 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 The reservoir is very deep in parts. In places it 
 is said to be 50 feet deep, but the shores are 
 shallow in most parts. One side of the pool is 
 fringed with withes, which grow from the swamps 
 bordering the water, and there are two or three 
 arms which can only be fished from a boat. To 
 reach the deeper water from the banks, a leger is 
 useful, but many fishermen use float-tackle. 
 
 Some years ago the lake was private property, 
 and at one time it contained a fine head of trout. 
 Being well supplied with feeders from the hills, 
 native trout from the brooks took up their 
 quarters in the pool, and soon grew to the propor- 
 tions of loch trout. In an evil hour pike made 
 their appearance in the water, and it is hinted that 
 they were introduced by a malicious person. 
 Whatever may be the reason for the advent of 
 the pike, it is a fact that the trout-fishing declined 
 after the introduction or immigration of these fish 
 of prey. 
 
 I am informed that a former proprietor once 
 took 40 pounds of trout from the pool in a day's 
 fishing. Nowadays the reservoir is stocked with 
 coarse fish, though trout are not uncommon, and 
 many have been turned in. Five hundred two- 
 year-old trout were turned in lately, and they
 
 Combs Reservoir Fishery 149 
 
 will no doubt give sport in coming seasons. If 
 the pool was well stocked with trout, and the 
 coarse fish greatly diminished in number, Combs 
 Fishery would give very excellent sport to the 
 fly-fisher, for it has all the features of a trout-lake. 
 The secretary informs me that in 1902-1903, 1,800 
 trout were turned in, and in 1903-1904, 1,500. 
 These were all two-year-old fish. 
 
 The reservoir is rented by the County Palatine 
 Anglers' Association, one of the biggest of the 
 Northern clubs. Mr. T. Driver, 44, Bury Street, 
 Salford, is the secretary. Season tickets are 
 issued at 53. Day tickets cost is. Tickets are 
 sold at the Hanging Gate Inn. The charge for 
 boats for two persons is is. per day ; for three 
 persons, 2s. 6d. ; for four persons, 35. ; and 
 tickets must be purchased by boat-hirers. 
 
 One rod and line is allowed to each angler, but 
 an extra rod may be used for pike. The close 
 season is from October 2 to February i for trout, 
 and from November 15 to June 15 for coarse fish, 
 except pike, which may be taken at any time. 
 All fish under the following scale must be returned 
 to the water immediately : Trout, 8 inches ; 
 roach, 6 inches ; rudd, 6 inches ; bream, 8 inches ; 
 tench, 7 inches ; perch, 6 inches. Pike and
 
 150 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 gudgeon may be taken any length. A large 
 number of coarse fish have been turned in. 
 
 Perch have been caught up to 3 pounds in 
 weight. Pike do not give the sport that might be 
 expected, though there is reason to suppose that 
 there are many in the water. Good trout are 
 captured now and then by bottom-fishermen, and 
 in the summer some sport might be obtained by 
 fly-fishing or trolling the minnow from a boat. 
 The water is well fished, especially on Sundays. 
 Boat fishing might prove successful in some of the 
 quieter and deeper parts of the reservoir, especi- 
 ally if places were baited overnight. There is 
 sleeping accommodation at the inn, which is a 
 few steps from the pool.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 GRAYLING FISHING IN DERBYSHIRE 
 
 I CONFESS that I grieve to hear of the disrepute 
 into which the grayling appears to have fallen of 
 late. Here is a game fish, say what you will, and 
 one that will show sport long after the close of 
 the trout season. He is handsome, bold, inter- 
 esting, and intelligent, and knows well how to 
 survive in the struggle for existence. In this 
 matter the grayling seems to be more astute than 
 his companion the brown trout. Grayling are 
 prolific ; they replenish the waters rapidly too 
 rapidly from the point of view of certain trout 
 preservers. 
 
 It is a vexed question. I fear that I have no 
 new argument in defence of the grayling. One 
 intelligent observer will inform you that these fish 
 are as mischievous to trout as eels or chub ; other 
 equally enlightened authorities absolve the gray- 
 ling from the sin of ova-eating, and declare that
 
 152 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 trout eat the spawn of grayling with avidity. 
 Who shall decide when pisciculturists disagree ? 
 Is universal war to be waged on the grayling ? 
 Is he really a ' vermin ' ? 
 
 There is something weird and inscrutable about 
 grayling. Why do they increase quicker than 
 trout ? Why do they show themselves almost 
 everywhere in a river on some days, and keep 
 entirely out of sight on other days ? Why do 
 they avoid small tributaries and spawn in the 
 main streams ? Why do they often rise twenty 
 times to an artificial fly before deciding to swallow 
 it ? Why are they one day coy and the next 
 reckless in rising to a fly ? Verily, the grayling 
 appears to me a more bewildering fish than the 
 wily trout. 
 
 Cotton seems to have set the fashion of sneering 
 at the grayling or umber. He calls him ' one of 
 the deadest-hearted fishes in the world.' This is 
 a libel. I have caught grayling in the Dee, 
 Derwent, Dove, Wye, Manifold, Yore, and Tees, 
 and had many a good fight with fish of a pound 
 and less. Let us grant that a grayling has not 
 quite the pluck and strength of a trout. He does 
 not tear out your line from the reel in such furious 
 rushes as those of a well-conditioned trout, nor
 
 Grayling Fishing in Derbyshire 153 
 
 does he often hurl himself three or four times from 
 the water in his endeavours to escape from the 
 hook. But he does undoubtedly show fight, and, 
 what is more, he has the wit to free himself more 
 frequently than the trout. 
 
 Even Cotton admitted that the umber is a 
 pleasant fish on the table : ' For his flesh, even in 
 his worst season, is so firm, and will so easily calve 
 (sic) that in plain truth he is very good meat at 
 all times ; but in his perfect season, which, by 
 the way, none but an overgrown grayling will 
 ever be, I think him so good a fish as to be little 
 inferior to the best trout that I ever tasted in my 
 life.' True, most excellent Piscator. And I 
 would add that the sport-giving quality of the 
 grayling is quite equal to his edible virtue. ' In 
 my humble opinion,' says Edward Jesse, ' they 
 are a much better fish than a trout.' 
 
 George Agar Hansard, in his book upon Welsh 
 fishing, also lauds the gastronomic charm of 
 Salmo thymallus. Izaak Walton, on the other 
 hand, declared that the grayling is ' not so good 
 to eat or to angle for ' as the trout. Mr. R. B. 
 Marston, in his little work upon ' Walton and the 
 Earlier Fishing Writers,' says of Cotton's state- 
 ment about dead-hearted fish : ' I have killed a
 
 154 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 fair show of these beautiful fish in almost every 
 grayling river of this country, and have often found 
 them fight better than a trout, especially in the 
 Test and the Costa.' In the late autumn a 2-pound 
 grayling, or even a pounder, will often contend 
 with the angler quite as valiantly as a trout of those 
 weights, and even more so, as Mr. Marston testifies. 
 
 There is little doubt that grayling exhibit a 
 truly marvellous fecundity in the length of the 
 Wye between Bakewell and^JRowsley. Netting 
 out seems only to check the increase, and it would 
 probably be an impossible matter to banish the 
 grayling from this productive stream. In the 
 Upper Dove I am fairly well assured that the 
 grayling threaten to outnumber the trout, and it 
 is an undoubted fact that they are more abundant 
 than trout in the Rocester and Uttoxeter stretches 
 of that river. 
 
 The Manifold teems with grayling, and I should 
 say that they are bigger, on an average, in this 
 stream than in the Derwent. From Ashopton 
 down to Belper there are hosts of grayling in the 
 Derwent, and I believe that in certain reaches 
 they are more numerous than trout. The Derby- 
 shire rivers have, therefore, special claim upon 
 grayling anglers.
 
 Grayling Fishing in Derbyshire 155 
 
 The effects of education upon the Derbyshire 
 grayling are not so marked as upon the trout of 
 this county. Notwithstanding, the grayling of 
 the Wye are very far from unacquainted with the 
 wiles of fishermen. They are much warier than 
 the grayling of the Welsh Dee and the Yore. The 
 grayling of Derbyshire also differ somewhat in 
 their habits from the grayling of Wales and York- 
 shire. I doubt whether our grayling could be 
 enticed from the Wye, in any numbers, by the 
 method of float-fishing pursued in Yorkshire. 
 Rocester, on the Dove, seems to be the only place 
 where bait-fishing for Derbyshire grayling is 
 followed in the Yorkshire style. I have never 
 seen a Derbyshire angler wade into the Derwent 
 during a hard frost in January, and ' swim the 
 worm ' with float-tackle, as anglers do in the Yore 
 in midwinter. This is not saying that there is 
 no winter bait-fishing for grayling in the Derby- 
 shire rivers. But few anglers, if any, work in the 
 Yorkshire style. 
 
 I have not often tried the worm or maggot for 
 grayling in Derbyshire. My few essays in this 
 direction have been made in the mid-reaches of 
 the Derwent, and I have not captured many fish. 
 But I have seen other fishermen rewarded with
 
 156 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 good catches from October till Christmas, and 
 especially during sharp weather. Elsewhere in 
 these pages I have described the favourite winter 
 and summer haunts of grayling, and I refer the 
 reader to the index. 
 
 Grayling probably spawn in April. Unfortu- 
 nately, as far as my experience serves, that is just 
 the time when they are inclined to take the wet 
 fly in the Wye, Dove, and Manifold ; so that a 
 day's excursion may result in the capture of gray- 
 ling at the very season when their attentions are 
 least welcome. 
 
 About the end of June grayling begin to haunt 
 the pools, and to lurk near the surface. The tails 
 of pools are their favoured positions when flies 
 are about. They rise voraciously on certain days, 
 as I have pointed out, and appear to put down the 
 trout. 
 
 Derbyshire grayling will almost jostle one 
 another to snatch at the iron-blue dun on cool 
 days in the early summer ; and later on they take 
 the olive dun with extreme avidity. Last year 
 on the Dove I noted that on one day, in the height 
 of the Mayfly time, the grayling seized upon every 
 green drake that appeared on the water, while 
 the trout scornfully rejected these tasty flies, and
 
 Grayling Fishing in Derbyshire 157 
 
 stubbornly regaled themselves on the tiniest of 
 black midges. 
 
 All kinds of wonderful artificial flies are used by 
 Derbyshire grayling anglers. I have nothing to 
 say against any of these lures. My own experi- 
 ence is that grayling, when feeding on the surface, 
 prefer the natural fly that is in evidence. Still, 
 far be it from me to lay down any hard-and-fast 
 rule upon the use of flies. Last June a friend of 
 mine caught a grayling of ij pounds, with a 
 coch-y-bonddu a fly never seen in the natural 
 state upon Derbyshire rivers ; and I know another 
 angler who finds this fly attractive to the grayling 
 of Dovedale. I have caught grayling with at least 
 a score of different flies, and I have no favourite. 
 But the apple-green, the fiery bumble, the golden 
 earwig, and other local patterns should be carried 
 by the fisherman. 
 
 Grayling appear to find attraction in gaudily- 
 dressed flies with tinsel bodies. Green is a colour 
 that they appreciate, but they will often exhibit 
 a preference for sober-coloured flies. I think that 
 in winter fishing, especially with the sunk fly, the 
 lure should be fairly bright. Such flies are used 
 in Dovedale during October and November. 
 
 Franck, an old angling writer, confesses great
 
 158 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 faith in natural flies and grubs as baits for gray- 
 ling. ' But of all natural insects which accommo- 
 date the art,' says this quaint writer, ' the green 
 drake is that sovereign ophthalmic that opens his 
 eyes, and shuts them again, with the hazard of 
 his life, and the loss of his element. Yet for this 
 fly admirer there is another bait, and that is the 
 munket, or a sea-green grub, generated, as I take 
 it, amongst owlder trees. The like product issues 
 from the willows, so does it from the sallow ; nor 
 is the primp force denied this vegetable animal, 
 save only they are different in splendour and 
 colour, as also as different in shape and propor- 
 tion.' 
 
 I cannot identify that fearsome creature, ' the 
 munket of the owlder trees,' but I assume that it 
 is a species of caterpillar highly relished by the 
 umber or grayling. Green is certainly a hue that 
 attracts grayling, and the green grasshopper is 
 therefore a very good bait for thymallus. Walton 
 also notes the fondness of the grayling for lively 
 colours. From his ' Observations of the Umber 
 or Grayling,' it would seem that this fish was not 
 very highly esteemed by the author of ' The 
 Complete Angler.' 
 
 In the Welsh grayling streams I have noticed
 
 Grayling Fishing in Derbyshire 159 
 
 that this fish is not so disposed to take the fly in 
 frosty as in mild weather during the autumn. I 
 remember an excellent rise of grayling to duns, 
 in the Dee, on a mild Christmas Day. Frost is 
 said to sharpen the appetite of grayling, and I 
 believe that is a fairly established fact ; but I 
 think that bait-fishing is the method for hard 
 weather. 
 
 Grayling have a tantalizing habit of flashing up 
 to a floating fly, taking a quick pluck at it, and 
 expelling it instantly from their mouths. Small 
 grayling of J pound will play this trick again and 
 again. I have often taken fish that must have 
 felt the hook several times, for a pricked grayling 
 does not appear to be greatly perturbed. It is 
 curious, too, how confiding grayling often prove 
 to be when the angler is wading up-stream. They 
 will rise under the very point of the rod, if the 
 water is not much disturbed. It is, therefore, 
 as a rule, easier to stalk a grayling than a trout. 
 
 In some rivers shoals of little grayling, scarcely 
 bigger than minnows, congregate in certain parts, 
 and rise five or six at a time to an artificial fly. 
 I have not been much troubled in this way in the 
 Derbyshire streams, though I cannot account for 
 the reason. In the Upper Dove one day I cer-
 
 160 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 tainly noted an immense number of diminutive 
 grayling on the feed, and I have seen a rise of these 
 fingerlings in the Wye. But the grayling that rise 
 most freely in these waters are fish of a presentable 
 size. 
 
 After the spawning season grayling resort to 
 every part of the rivers. You are as likely to take 
 them in the trout runs as in the pools ; but I 
 believe that the biggest grayling prefer the pools 
 and long stills during the summer and autumn. 
 They often lie quite close to the banks, especially 
 under the boughs of alders, where, no doubt, they 
 await the ' munket ' and other grubs that drop 
 from the trees. The extreme end of long, fairly 
 deep shallows, such as are frequently found in the 
 course of the Derwent above Whatstandwell and 
 in Darley Dale, are parts that should be watched 
 by the grayling fisherman in summer and autumn. 
 In the deeper pools of the Wye, especially in 
 eddies, grayling gather in large numbers when 
 flies are coming down the river. 
 
 Persistency is one of the secrets of success in 
 fly-fishing for grayling. You need never fear that 
 feeding grayling will retire disgusted with your 
 attentions. They will come up again, if you give 
 them a few minutes' rest, and the thirtieth cast
 
 Grayling Fishing in Derbyshire 161 
 
 may take the biggest fish in the pool, after he has 
 repeatedly rejected your ash dun or claret 
 bumble. Amid a hatch of natural flies, you will 
 often obtain a rise to every cast of your fly, but 
 you may only capture a brace of fish from that 
 spot in the end. 
 
 Only in certain lengths of the Derwent is bait- 
 fishing for grayling commonly practised during 
 the autumn and winter months. Bait is pro- 
 hibited in Dovedale, in the Wye, and private 
 lengths generally, but the worm and maggot may 
 be used in the Dove at Rocester. Derwent bait- 
 fishermen sometimes use ordinary roach-floats and 
 fine tackle, and fish from the bank, remaining 
 stationary in one place for some time. This is a 
 different method from the ranging and wading 
 adopted in other parts of the kingdom. In severe 
 weather the red worm is the best bait in the 
 Derwent, and under milder conditions gentles may 
 be used. A few worms or gentles are thrown into 
 the top of a run before the fisherman swims his 
 bait down. 
 
 October is considered the best month of the year 
 for grayling fishing in Derbyshire, though the fish 
 are usually in condition, and begin to rise well, in 
 August. The artificial fly will take grayling up 
 
 ii
 
 1 62 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 to Christmas, but, as a rule, these rivers do not fish 
 well with the fly after November. In January 
 there is not a great chance of making a basket 
 with the fly, though it is often a favourable month 
 for the bait fisherman. During hot weather 
 grayling frequently rise freely at dusk, but as soon 
 as darkness sets in they appear to leave the surface 
 of the pools, and to give place to those trout of 
 the warier order, which feed chiefly at night. 
 
 That grayling enjoy a touch of north wind 
 during the summer is shown by experience. When 
 trout are ' off ' upon cool days in July or August, 
 grayling are often hungry, and on the quest for 
 surface food. A change of wind will often bring 
 grayling on the feed. They will rise greedily at 
 times when snow or hail are falling, and especially 
 in intervals of sunshine between such showers. 
 Snow-broth in the streams does not affect them 
 if the temperature sinks below the freezing- 
 point. 
 
 Grayling of I pound are fairly common in the 
 Derbyshire waters, and heavier fish are taken 
 every season. The fish of pound and upwards 
 give good sport, and rise with boldness upon 
 favourable days. Whether you seek to entice the 
 umber with the sunk fly, dry fly, natural fly, or
 
 Grayling Fishing in Derbyshire 163 
 
 red worm, you will find him responsive in the 
 rivers of Derbyshire. 
 
 ' Umber or grayling in the streams he'll lie, 
 Hovering his fins at every silly fly ; 
 Fond of a feather, you shall see him rise 
 At emmets, insects, hackles, drakes, and flies.' 
 
 I shall be sorry to hear of the doom of this 
 sport-giving fish. Will not one of our scientific 
 fish culturists determine, once and for all, whether 
 the umber deserves the evil character that has 
 been attached to him ? Since the days of Walton 
 the grayling has kept company with the trout in 
 the rivers of Derbyshire, and the trout are 
 certainly not on the point of extinction. It is 
 pleasant to vary one's fishing from trout to gray- 
 ling as the seasons come round. 
 
 n-
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 HINTS UPON FISHING IN DAMS AND POOLS 
 
 THE term ' dam ' is generally applied in Derby- 
 shire and the adjoining counties to any sheet of 
 still water, whether or no it is connected with a 
 mill. Thus reservoirs, constructed for supplying 
 water to the towns, are usually called dams, and 
 the same word is used to describe a still pool on 
 a river. Some of the dams in the district have 
 been designed for the purpose of affording water- 
 power to mills, and in such cases small streams 
 have been widened out and deepened to form a 
 series of pools. In other instances, as on the 
 Lathkill and Bradford streams, dams have been 
 artificially constructed in order to convert a 
 sluggish water into alternate pools and runs 
 suitable for fly-fishing. 
 
 The straight, the horseshoe, and the half-weirs 
 on some of the private lengths of the Derbyshire 
 trout-streams are ingenious contrivances for im- 
 164
 
 Fishing in Dams and Pools 165 
 
 proving the water, and providing those sharp, 
 broken runs that trout love. The Dove, for 
 example, in Narrow Dale, has been made into an 
 excellent stretch of fly-fishing water by the 
 system of damming. At Chatsworth the Derwent 
 affords another instance of the utility of dam- 
 making in slow and unbroken reaches of a river. 
 A very elaborate series of weirs may be seen on 
 the Lath kill, where Art has aided Nature in the 
 interest of the fly-fisherman. 
 
 As these pools, which often abound with big 
 trout, are hardly comparable with any other kind 
 of water in the kingdom, I propose to give a few 
 words of counsel upon the most profitable mode 
 of fishing in them. A Derbyshire dam is not like 
 the pool of a Yorkshire or Welsh river. Except 
 in high floods, there is scarcely a perceptible 
 current through some of these dams, and, more- 
 over, they are usually quite clear, the bottom of 
 the river being visible in 6 or 7 feet of water. 
 
 Now, a casual inspection of one of these pools 
 on a hot, bright day in June would lead the 
 inexperienced visitor to suppose that fly-fishing 
 in such translucent and dead water is next to 
 useless, and it is probable that he would pass on 
 to the next run. And yet how enticing are these
 
 1 66 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 pools when a good hatch of fly brings the trout 
 up to the surface, and the water is ringed here 
 and there with rises. You may see trout of a pound 
 and heavier quietly ' standing ' in all parts of the 
 water, awaiting the alders or ash duns that come 
 tripping along with fairy feet. Undoubtedly this 
 is a rise that one does not care to pass by ; but the 
 difficulty is to stalk up to within casting distance 
 of this all too visible trout, and to throw a dry fly 
 without putting down half the fish in the dam. 
 
 The circumvention of the goodly-proportioned 
 trout of these river dams is certainly no easy 
 matter. But it is a most fascinating pastime to 
 try one's skill against these wary fish. The 
 chances are that no favouring wind disturbs the 
 surface of the water in ripples, for this dam is 
 sheltered by wooded heights and cliffs of limestone. 
 Now and then an up-stream breeze, gaining 
 strength in the gully, sweeps across the pool, and 
 troubles the water for a brief half-hour. Yet all 
 too soon it subsides, and in the dead calm, the 
 fisherman sits down in despair to smoke a pipe, 
 and to covet those lovely trout that constantly 
 break the surface just off that fringe of willow- 
 herb and meadow-sweet. Watch that red-and- 
 golden fellow, how he placidly sucks in the little
 
 Fishing in Dams and Pools 167 
 
 pale duns that pass over his snout. He is at least 
 i pounds in weight, and in the very pink of 
 condition and beauty. What a fight he would give 
 on this little g-f eet rod and that finely-tapered cast ! 
 
 And here, in this corner, where the beech-tree 
 droops to the water, you may see at least a dozen 
 plump trout, poised on the look-out for insects 
 that drop from the boughs. What a tempting 
 spectacle ! Yet you dare not approach them, for 
 no sooner does your shadow touch the water in 
 their vicinity than the whole dozen sink down out 
 of sight. Ten to one are the chances of success, 
 if you could only drop a blue-bottle over their 
 noses. But the sun is behind you, and it is well- 
 nigh impossible to pass your rod through the 
 branches of that beech-tree. 
 
 ' It is no good !' murmurs the visiting angler, 
 as he turns away from the dam. ' If I dare to cast, 
 I scare every fish in the place.' Quite so, my 
 friend ; I have known the same trial. But, believe 
 me, the case is not hopeless. What do you say 
 to a brace of pounders from this still, transparent 
 water ? Impossible ? No, I have done it, and 
 I will do it again, please the Fates. Have patience, 
 and listen for awhile. 
 
 There 4 are four ways of getting on terms with
 
 1 68 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 those big trout in the dam. One of them I do not 
 consider legitimate in this water, and that is wait- 
 ing for a flood, and fishing with worm-tackle and a 
 float. I only mention this plan to bar it, for it 
 would be a sin to haul out those noble fish on 
 bottom tackle. If you will have patience, I will 
 promise you finer sport than that. The second 
 method is fishing with a live fly, which I consider 
 to be permissible under certain restrictions. For 
 example, the day is glittering, and you have tried 
 the artificial fly in vain ; and yet the trout are 
 taking anything that comes along, and enjoying 
 a feast of surface insects. Do not imagine, how- 
 ever, that it is child's play to fish with a natural 
 fly in such water. It is by no means easy. First 
 of all, there is very little cover around the pool. 
 Moreover, having put your live fly on the hook, 
 it is extremely difficult to keep it there until such 
 time as you drop it gently in the swirl of a rise. 
 To reach that pertinacious trout by the little patch 
 of arrow-head , you will have to cast your natural fly. 
 To succeed in this sort of fishing, one must be 
 systematic. Provide a small butterfly-net and a 
 tin box for your flies. Pull out about a dozen 
 yards of your reel-line, and rub it well with 
 vaseline. Treat your fine-drawn cast in like
 
 Fishing in Dams and Pools 169 
 
 manner, and attach a small bronzed hook. If the 
 day is dull, you will find flies of various sorts 
 reposing upon the reeds and nettles.* Alders, 
 drakes, daddy-long-legs, house-flies, blue-bottles, 
 and small beetles should be promptly secured at 
 sight. Place your fly on the hook without 
 injuring him, which is, of course, easier said than 
 done. Try to transfix him through the least 
 vital part of his body. Remember that this is 
 not dapping. It is casting with a live fly. 
 
 I maintain that this is the most difficult kind of 
 angling extant. It is at least three times as 
 intricate and worrying as dry-fly fishing against a 
 stiff breeze. But, for all that, casting the dry fly 
 on still water is a mighty interesting sport when 
 big trout are the object of your patient cunning. 
 Nothing can be prettier in the whole art of fishing 
 than this process of casting your live fly over a 
 trout in 2 feet of bright water, and seeing the 
 wily victim take it with a splash. A trout rarely 
 rises to a dry fly in this hearty, jubilant fashion. 
 But this is the real thing, the very fly that he is 
 taking, wing for wing, and leg for leg. He takes 
 it with a dash and a swirl, with no hint of hesi- 
 tancy. Always ? No, not quite always. You 
 * Insects are usually on the wing upon bright days.
 
 1 70 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 may have crushed and mutilated your fly in 
 putting it on the hook. You may easily drown 
 your fly, especially in making a long cast, and a 
 drowned natural fly is worse than useless. Again, 
 you may thrash the water with your reel-line in 
 your anxiety to reach your fish. 
 
 These and other mishaps will inevitably add 
 variety to this mode of dam- fishing. Neverthe- 
 less, if you persevere, I promise that you will 
 meet with your reward in the capture of some of 
 the biggest trout in that dam. I have caught 
 trout by this means up to i pounds in weight 
 upon days when they would not look at a dry fly, 
 let it be presented ever so lightly in the circle of 
 their rises. Success in this kind of fishing depends 
 upon several essentials. You must look as much 
 unlike a man as possible. Crawl, grope, wriggle, 
 emulate the snake, adopt any method of locomo- 
 tion other than upright, straightforward walking. 
 You have to get that fly alive over your fish 
 before he can see you or your waving rod. Set 
 your teeth, and swear that you will accomplish 
 this stalk, and after some failures you will learn 
 the knack of effacing yourself and keeping the 
 fly on the hook. 
 
 There is nothing more absolutely irresistible to
 
 Fishing in Dams and Pools 171 
 
 a big trout on the feed than a live insect. And, as 
 I have said, there is nothing more difficult than to 
 get that fly to him alive and in a natural manner. 
 Your fly must drop and flutter. If it flops and 
 remains motionless, send a tiny shudder from the 
 wrist along your rod, and let it be no more than a 
 shudder. By this ruse you may convey a sem- 
 blance of life to your expiring fly. Dapping is 
 a boy's game compared with casting a live fly on 
 calm water. 
 
 We will suppose that a breeze has found its way 
 to the sheltered pool, and that no trout appear to 
 be rising. The wind is cool, and there are very 
 few flies visible. Take a Wickham's Fancy or a 
 March brown, with a little gold twist to the body, 
 and fix it to a fine cast. Stalk up to the bank, 
 and kneel down. Before you is a nice patch of 
 rippled water. Throw into it, let your fly sink, 
 and work it slowly under water. In May and 
 June, in dull, windy weather, I have often taken 
 from two to three brace of dam trout by wet-fly 
 fishing. At dusk the wet fly is often taken almost 
 fiercely by trout that have been sluggish through- 
 out the day. If you have leave to fish after dark, 
 which is against the rules in most club waters, you 
 may use a rather bigger fly, with a tinsel body.
 
 1 72 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 Foster's ' woolly bear ' may be often used with 
 success in dam fishing. 
 
 Wet-fly fishing in the Derbyshire dams is not 
 like loch-fishing, because, as I have said, the pools 
 are usually in sheltered dales. Upon a loch you 
 have the advantage of a large sheet of water, well 
 searched by the wind. Here you have only an 
 acre or less of water, which the wind rarely ruffles 
 into billows. For these reasons wet-fly fishing 
 often fails in dams. Still, as I have said, there 
 are occasions when a sunk fly will bring several 
 good trout to the creel. After a spate, for instance, 
 when the water is tinted, there is a fair chance 
 for the wet-fly angler, and also upon days of excep- 
 tional storm and wind. In the Tansley Dams, 
 near Matlock, the wet fly is, to my mind, more 
 effective than the floating fly. 
 
 Dry-fly fishing in dams and pools without a 
 stream is quite possible. It is, indeed, a far more 
 successful method of lake-fishing than most anglers 
 imagine. Hitherto most dry-fly fishermen have 
 insisted that this form of fishing can only be prac- 
 tised upon moving water. This is a mistake. 
 You can catch trout with a floating fly in any sort 
 of water except very turbulent streams. The 
 slightest breath of wind on a dam gives a lifelike
 
 Fishing in Dams and Pools 173 
 
 motion to your fly, and deceives trout. I have 
 proved this over and over again. Besides, it is 
 possible to give such a gentle twitch to your fly 
 that no drag is perceptible. When trout are 
 rising in still pools, very careful stalking is neces- 
 sary, and your fly must not be cast recklessly into 
 any rings that you may see. Mark a fish that 
 means business, one that steadily snaps up every 
 fly that passes near to him, and try him with an 
 imitation of the natural insect. If a favouring 
 puff of wind bears your oiled fly near his range of 
 vision, it is almost certain that a feeding trout will 
 at least rise to it. 
 
 In a dam which I often fish with the dry fly 
 there is no current whatever in the height of 
 summer. The water most frequented by trout is 
 not more than a foot deep, and is much shallower 
 near the bank. I have marked trout here in water 
 so shallow that their back fins were almost in the 
 air, and yet, strange as it may appear, these trout 
 will often take a dry fly with eagerness. But all 
 is lost if one of them catch sight of the angler. At 
 this place there is a capital natural screen of tall 
 nettles. My face and hands are so often stung 
 while landing trout here that by the end of the 
 summer I am quite inoculated to nettle-stings.
 
 174 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 I will now reveal a lure which has often served 
 me well in dam-fishing. This is the imitation 
 coch-y-bonddu made by Mr. Kennedy, Solihull, 
 Warwickshire. I have praised this beetle else- 
 where, and I do so here because it does what its 
 inventor claims for it. This insect, which Mr. 
 Kennedy has so well imitated, is called the fern- 
 web in Devonshire, and the bracken-clock in the 
 North. I have never seen the natural insect in 
 Derbyshire, yet upon dams it is a very good lure. 
 The little beetle floats right side up, no matter 
 how you cast it ; and even when trout refuse it, 
 they rarely fail to come up for a look at the strange 
 beast. The floating coch-y-bonddu can be cast 
 like a fly. It will float better if the cast is 
 greased, but I do not always trouble to vaseline 
 my cast when fishing with this beetle. I consider 
 the use of the coch-y-bonddu to be quite as legiti- 
 mate as the use of the dry fly ; indeed, it is just 
 as artistic to fish with this counterfeit as with an 
 ash dun. On slow streams the coch-y-bonddu 
 beetle should be cast like a dry fly, and allowed 
 to float down to a rising fish. To avoid damaging 
 the beetle when extracting it from a fish's mouth, 
 it is well to use the bone disgorger which is 
 supplied with each of the baits.
 
 Fishing in Dams and Pools 175 
 
 Fishing for trout in the large reservoirs of the 
 North Midlands may be likened to lake-fishing in 
 Scotland or Wales. The wet fly is usually em- 
 ployed, and some anglers have two or three flies 
 on their cast. A breeze is necessary for this sort 
 of fishing, and on calm days fair success may 
 attend the use of the dry fly, if the angler can 
 watch the fly upon the water, and avoid showing 
 himself to the trout. 
 
 Big trout in pools are often shy of the shallow 
 water until dusk, when they come inshore to 
 search for small fry, or flies that flutter from the 
 banks. The bottom-fisher stands the best chance 
 of taking one or two large fish during the daytime, 
 provided that he can throw his bait into the deep 
 water. This is practicable by using a leger tackle 
 and a free-running reel ; but the leger in still 
 water is not always so deadly as float-tackle. It 
 is not easy to swing out a light quill or cork float, 
 especially against the wind. Northern bottom- 
 fishermen sometimes employ an ingenious plan 
 for getting their worm or wasp-grub well out from 
 the bank, though I do not know whether the 
 method has been tried in this district. 
 
 Instead of a cork float, use a small medicine- 
 phial, round in shape, and about three parts filled
 
 1 76 Fishing in Derbyshire and Around 
 
 with water, and well corked. This glass float can 
 be fastened to the line with elastic bands, and 
 adjusted to the proper depth. The bait should 
 swim clear of the bottom, and may even be in 
 mid-water. With such a float you can cast twice 
 as far as with a cork or quill. I am not a devotee 
 of bait-fishing for trout, but in certain waters it 
 is next to impossible to lure big trout with the fly, 
 and the humble angler, who has no opportunity 
 for learning the use of the fly-rod, naturally wishes 
 to enjoy his sport upon his infrequent holidays. 
 Gentles, wasp-grub, dock-grub, and worms of 
 various kinds are good baits for the big trout of 
 reservoirs. 
 
 In dams or pools with weedy bottoms, it should 
 be your endeavour to keep a hooked trout as near 
 the surface as possible. If he dives down into the 
 submerged jungle, it is a twenty-to-one chance 
 that you will lose him, though by giving slack line 
 and waiting for your fish to shift from his harbour 
 you may sometimes outwit his desperate tactics 
 for obtaining liberty. With care and firmness, 
 you may often rush a big trout along the surface 
 of a weedy pool and into the net before he can 
 quite make up his mind concerning his course of 
 action.
 
 Fishing in Dams and Pools 177 
 
 I have never tried the blow-line on the Derby- 
 shire dams and reservoirs. Life is too short and 
 leisure too scant to achieve all that one desires in 
 the piscatorial art. But why should not the blow- 
 line method succeed on the Damflask and other 
 pools of the Peak Country ? It is well worth a 
 trial in June, when flies are fairly abundant over 
 the water. I fancy that this mode of fishing 
 might have good results on breezy days at the 
 proper season of the year ; for, as I have said, 
 there is no more tempting bait for a lake trout 
 than a live fly skilfully presented during a rise. 
 
 I know one or two fishermen who appear to 
 disdain fly-fishing for trout in still water. Now, 
 if it is a question of skill, I will assert that such 
 angling is quite as difficult as fishing in rivers. 
 It is, to my mind, a triumph to take a big trout 
 from a dam on a bright, calm day, whether the 
 means be wet, dry, or live fly-fishing. If you 
 neglect the dams, you will certainly lose the 
 chance of trying terms with some of the heaviest 
 trout that swim in Derbyshire waters. Try 
 your dry fly on a calm day in June or July, 
 and tell me whether this fishing does not 
 require even more skill and delicacy than casting 
 in moving water. 
 
 12
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 I. 
 
 DISTRIBUTORS OF LICENSES UNDER THE 
 TRENT CONSERVANCY, 1904. 
 
 AMBERGATE . . W. Alton, Hurt Arms. 
 
 [D. and W. H. Foster. 
 ASHBOURNE .. J Mrs. Grindey, Dovedale Hotel, 
 
 ( Dovedale. 
 
 fT. Tyack, Rutland Arms Hotel. 
 1 ' \ J. Carrington, Bridge Street. 
 BASLOW . . . . J. Eades, Peacock Hotel. 
 BELPER . . . . John Lee, Nottingham Road. 
 BUXTON . . . . John Banks, Spring Gardens. 
 CHESTERFIELD . . James Armistead, 16, Knifesmith 
 
 Gate. 
 CROMFORD . . S. C. Cooper, Greyhound Hotel. 
 
 (8. Thomson, 15^-, Friargate. 
 T. Hinton, East Street. 
 T TT O T J -D 1 
 
 J. H. Saxton, London Road. 
 C. K. Eddowes, 2, The Strand. 
 
 DOVEDALE . . W. Evans, Izaak Walton Hotel. 
 
 DUFFIELD . . E. Barnes, Railway Terrace. 
 
 ETWALL , . . . W. Argyle. 
 HARTINGTON . . J. E. Fosbrooke. 
 HATHERSAGE . . Mrs. Ibbotson, Post Office. 
 HOPE . . . . Geo. Ashton, Junior. 
 LONGNOR . . Mrs. Gould, Crewe and Harpur 
 
 Arms. 
 178
 
 Appendices 
 
 179 
 
 LEEK 
 
 MILLER'S DALE . . 
 MATLOCK BATH . . 
 MATLOCK BRIDGE 
 
 NOTTINGHAM 
 
 ROWSLEY 
 
 ROCESTER 
 
 SHEFFIELD 
 
 UTTOXETER 
 
 WIRKSWORTH 
 
 Blakemore and Chell, 3, Sheep- 
 market. 
 T. R. Holmes. 
 
 W. J. Hackney, South Parade. 
 H. G. Hartley, Crown Square. 
 C. Jackson, n, Drury Hill. 
 E. West, 28, Sussex Street. 
 J. Theaker, 2, Broad Marsh. 
 Miss S. Cooper, Peacock Hotel. 
 T. Titley, Post Office. 
 G. Wood, 117, Pinstone Street. 
 J. Stanley, Carter Street. 
 Mrs. Allen, Post Office.
 
 180 Fishing in Derbyshire 
 
 II. 
 
 TACKLE MAKERS, FLY DRESSERS, ETC. 
 
 ASHBOURNE . . Messrs. Foster Bros., Midland 
 
 Works. 
 Steel-ribbed rods and special 
 
 floating flies for the district. 
 BUXTON . . . . J. Banks, Spring Gardens. 
 
 General tackle. 
 DERBY . . J. Hinton, East Street. 
 
 Coarse-fishing tackle and bait. 
 DOVEDALE . . W. Evans, Izaak Walton Hotel. 
 
 Flies for the Dove. 
 HARTINGTON . . John Fosbrooke. 
 
 Fly-tier. 
 MATLOCK . . J. G. Eaton. 
 
 Fly-tier for Derwent. 
 NOTTINGHAM .. C. Jackson, n, Drury Hill. 
 
 A)l angling accessories and 
 
 baits. 
 SHEFFIELD .. Messrs. Geo. Wood and Co., 117, 
 
 Pinstow Street. 
 
 Every class of rods. Flies for 
 local dams and Derbyshire 
 and Yorkshire rivers.
 
 Appendices 
 
 181 
 
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 INDEX 
 
 ABBEY BROOK, 98 
 Alport, 82-84 
 Alsop-en-le-Dale, 34, 65 
 Amber River, 99, 135, 138 
 Ambergate, 6, 134, 139 
 April, fishing in, 13, 50, 53, 
 
 72, 115, 123 
 Ashbourne, 145 
 Ashford, 64, 67 
 Ashop Stream, 98, 102, 103 
 Ashopton, 98, 100, 103 
 
 Bakewell, 3, 21, 64, no, 154 
 Ball Bridge, 138 
 Bamford, 104, 106, 107 
 Barbel, 88, 113, 123, 128, 
 
 131, 132, 135, 137 
 Baslow, 98, no, 114 
 Belper, 6, 22, 98, 99, 134, 
 
 136, 140 
 
 Beresford Dale, 32 
 Books on Derbyshire fishing, 
 
 i, 2 
 Bottom-fishing, 3, 59-63, 88, 
 
 94, 122, 127, 128, 130, 131, 
 
 134- 136, 137. US- 147. J 75 
 Bradford Stream, 15, 22, 23, 
 
 80-85, 99' I( H 
 Bradwell Brook, 107 
 Bream - fishing, 59, 94, 96, 
 
 143, 146, 149 
 Broadmeadow fishery, 27 
 Burbage Brook, 99 
 Burton Joyce, 92 
 
 182 
 
 Butterley, 139 
 Buxton, 65, 66, 145 
 
 Calver, 105, 109 
 Canals, 20, 95, 144, 146 
 Carp, 60, 62, 140 
 Casts, 15, 169 
 Chapel-en-le-Frith, 147 
 Chatsworth, 68, 98, 100, 109- 
 
 116, 165 
 Chellaston, 145 
 Chub, 20, 94, 96, 113, 135, 
 
 136, 143, 146 
 Churnet, 44, 58 
 Close season, 13 
 Coch-y-bonddu, Kennedy's, 
 
 174" 
 
 Comb's Reservoir, 65, 147 
 Cotton, Charles, i, 25, 32, 35, 
 
 52, 64, 85, 97, 101, 152 
 Crewe, Sir V., 32, 51 
 Cromford, 98, 128, 130, 144 
 
 Dace-fishing, 47, 94, 113, 135, 
 
 137. 146 
 
 Dakin River, 84 
 Damflask Reservoir, 89 
 Dapping, 1 1 5 
 
 Darley Dale, 100, 117, 160 
 Derby, 3, 98, 142 
 Derwent, 3, 15, 19, 90, 98- 
 123, 133, 145, 152, 160, 165 
 Devonshire, Duke of, 67, 109 
 Doncaster Reservoir, 90
 
 Index 
 
 183 
 
 Dove, i, 3, 8, 13, 19, 22, 25- 
 34, 44-47. 48-50. ioo. J 45. 
 152, 159 
 
 Dover Beck, 96 
 
 Dry fly, 10, 36, 74, 78, no, 
 112, 115, 119, 131, 172 
 
 Duffield, 98 
 
 Eaton (fisherman), 16, 126, 
 
 131 
 
 Ecclesbourn Brook, 99 
 Edale, 107 
 Edensor, 1 1 1 
 Eels, 96 
 
 Fishing clubs, 38, 44, 87, 92, 
 96, 106, 108, 109, 117, 127, 
 130, 137, 138, 142, 146, 149 
 
 Fishing in dams, 89, 90, 129, 
 164 
 
 Fiskerton, 96 
 
 Flies, 9-12, 16, 17, 29, 55, 74, 
 85, 115, 124, 157, 171 
 
 Flies, tiers of, 16, 17, 79, 108, 
 118, 131, 172 
 
 Foremark Fishery, 146 
 
 Fosbrooke, J., 8, 14, 28, 50, 
 
 54 
 
 Foster, David, 78 
 Franck (angling writer), 157 
 
 Glossop, 1 02 
 
 Granby, Marquess of, 2, 14, 
 
 19, 79, 82, 84, 85 
 Grantham Canal, 95 
 
 Grayling-fishing, 14, 22, 28, 
 
 29, 33. 42, 45. 49. 54, 73. 
 99, 106, 112, 115, 116, 122, 
 127, 130, 134, 151-163 
 
 Greet Stream, 96 
 
 Grindleford, 106, no 
 
 Gunthorpe, 93 
 
 Hamps Stream, 56 
 Harthill Pond, 83 
 Hartington, 31, 51 
 Hatcheries, 19, 81, 82 
 Hathersage, 98, 108 
 
 Homesford Cottage water, 1 32 
 Hope, 107 
 
 Ham, 39, 48, 49, 56 
 Jackson, C. (angler), 93, 94 
 ' Kill-devil,' Foster's, 62 
 
 Lady Bower Brook, 103-105 
 Lathkill, 13, 14, 22, 80-85, 
 
 99, 164 
 Leek, 57 
 Licenses, 23 
 Live bait, 146 
 
 Live-flyfishing, 115, 168, 177 
 Longnor, 27, 48, 49, 51 
 
 Manifold, 9, 22, 38, 48-56, 
 
 65. 75. 145- IS 2 
 Mappleton-on-Dove, 38 
 Marston, R. B., 153 
 Matlock, 3, 12, 20, 23, 98, 
 
 100, i 17, 128-132, 172 
 Mayfly, 14, 18, 28, 30, 42, 
 
 55, 72, 85, 115, 122, 156 
 Miller's Dale, 67, 125 
 Minnow-fishing, 128, 132, 150 
 Monsal Dale, 64, 67 
 Mytham Bridge, 107 
 
 Narrowdale, 165 
 
 Noe Stream, 98, 107, 108 
 
 Nottingham, 3, 91-97 
 
 Oxton, 96 
 
 Peaks Hole Water, 107 
 Perch, 47, 59, 61, 62, 96, 128, 
 
 132, 140, 143, 150 
 Pike, 20, 47, 59, 62, 94, 96, 
 
 128, 132, 137, 140, 149 
 Pilsbury, 27-31 
 Poaching, 21 
 Pollution of rivers, 20-22, 46 
 
 Reels, 15 
 Ripley, 138
 
 1 84 
 
 Fishing in Derbyshire 
 
 Roach, 47, 59, 62, 94, 128, 
 132, 135, 140, 143, 144, 146 
 
 Rocester, 44, 154, 161 
 
 Rods, 15 
 
 Rowsley, 10, 64, 71, 76, 98, 
 99, 117, 118, 154 
 
 Rudyard Lake, 57 
 
 Rutland, Duke of, 16, 70, 77 
 
 Salmon, 94, 95, 97 
 Shardlow, 93 
 Sheffield, 86-90, 102, 147 
 Snake Inn, 102-103 
 Southwell, 96 
 Spencer, Herbert, 144 
 Swarkestone, 145 
 
 Tansley Dams, 129, 172 
 Tean Brook, 44 
 Thrybergh Reservoir, 90 
 Trent, 3, 6, 7, 94-95- US 
 Trent, Conservators of, 21, 
 24, 66 
 
 Trolling for pike, 62 
 Two Dales, 130 
 
 Uttoxeter, 44, 154 
 
 Walton, Izaak, i, 25, 97, 153, 
 
 158, 163 
 
 Walton, Izaak, Hotel, 35-43 
 Wardle, Sir T., 8, 19, 33, 51 
 Wet-fly fishing, 8, 39, 46, 54, 
 
 115, 119, 121, 129, 156, 171 
 
 !7 2 > !75 
 Whatstandwell, 128, 133-137, 
 
 144, 160 
 
 ' Woolly bear,' Foster's, 172 
 Worm-fishing for grayling, 
 
 155. 161 
 Wye, 5, 6, 10, 18, 21, 53, 64- 
 
 79, i 19, 155, 160 
 
 Yorkshire Bridge, 105 
 Youlgreave, 83 
 
 THE END 
 
 BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFOKD
 
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