Currently the Yorkshire Derwent receives little attention and it is not unusual to have a stretch of the river completely to yourself. I thought TFF members may like to know a little about the Yorkshire Derwent. The Derwent has some wonderful unspoilt sections which would certainly be appreciated by traditional anglers.
I’ve had some fine catches of fish from the river over the years but today I thought I would have a few hours trying for chub and had what I would class as a fairly typical day with nothing of any note but pleasant enough. I chose to fish a free stretch of the river and opted to ledger with bread and worm. It is unlikely that there was anyone else on the river up or downstream for many miles.
This is the view looking downstream from my swim
Here’s the upstream view
Once settled in my swim and waiting for a bite I glanced around the trees and listened hoping to see some wildlife. It was a surprisingly quiet at first but after a while I heard some tits peeping in the willows and at first saw a blue tit but this was followed by a flock of long-tailed tits. It would be pretty unusual to spend any length of time on the tree-lined sections of the Derwent without seeing these charming little birds. A little later a moorhen swam across the river just downstream. I had a few views of a Kestrel which perched in the trees on the far bank and came over to my side and hovered about 30 yards away. I’d heard the odd tapping in the trees and sure enough a great spotted woodpecker appeared and shimmied up a couple of branches before flying up stream. A buzzard flew overhead a little later and my last spot of the day apart from the numerous rooks and gulls flying over to the nearby wetlands was a jay which emerged from the trees on the far bank and flew across the river upstream of me. I didn’t see a kingfisher which is fairly normal on most stretches of the Derwent and there were no otters about which were present on the last two visits to this stretch.
I did spot this print a few feet from my swim which looks like otter.
I only had two bites, one on bread flake and the other on worm which produced two chub both around 2lb. Another day they may have been around 3lb or even 4lb but I was pleased enough to get a day out between the storms and before the river goes into flood again.
