Jon had fished the Derbyshire Wye once before and even though he’d caught some quality Brown Trout, the fabled wild rainbows had eluded him.

Armed with my findings from the previous day, we spent the earliest and (in theory) the coldest part of the day exploring the river as he was planning to make it a regular venue.

 

Cressbrook & Litton Fly Fishers have made one of their beats of the Derbyshire Wye available on day ticket.
It isn’t the easiest fishing you’ll ever do but the rewards can be truly spectacular.

Yet again, our task was made all the more challenging by the conditions but Jon’s focus and determination coupled with his desire to christen his many lockdown acquisitions was impressive.

 

Jon’s first encounter with a rainbow ended in disappointment as he’d clearly underestimated the strength of the little fellow and we were left to reconstruct what would be the first of many nymph rigs with frostbitten fingers.

My cunning plan to try and capitalise on the warmest part of the day for fishing went seriously awry when it started to snow.

But neither wind, hail, rain nor snow was going to deter him and in addition to a couple of drowsy brown trout, he finally got to closely inspect not one but two quality wild rainbows.

He also hooked and landed a huge rainbow that put up an epic 10 minute battle and tested his new outfit to its limit. Whilst it was probably a ‘grown on’ stocked fish, it was in fantastic condition.

All in all, a tough but excellent day.