Sheffield River Don

[mspaddler]

Well it looks like I'm in for a 'Donathon'.  I was on the River today, this coming Sunday is SPRITE Grayling survey day, Monday is S Yorks S&T Assn meeting with Stuart Crofts so that means including last Sunday I will get to fish the Don 5 times in 9 days.  A great river which always seems to produce for me.   Today I was on a stretch of the river I had not been on before.  As usual I was both nervous and excited.  There is always the worry that I will blank, but thankfully I didn't have to wait too long before this nice Grayling came to the net.  Two more Grayling and 5 very healthy looking OOS WBT later I made my way home knowing that I will be back to this new stretch of the river again.

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[mspaddler]

Day 3 of my 'Donathon'   Annual SPRITE Grayling survey of an industrialized stretch of the River.   In a little over 2 hours the 6 anglers landed 74 Grayling.  An excellent indication of the state of the River.   I fished Tenkara landed 7 Grayling and 2 very acrobatic WBT OOS.   We had a lecturer from Hillsborough College as a first time SPRITE participant and first time Tenkara fisher along this morning, he may have been the happiest of all of us as he landed 4 Grayling including his first ever fish.  Conditions were not ideal with a strong wind and heavy showers,including a smattering of sleet, but another great morning on the River was enjoyed by all.






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[mspaddler]

The Donathon continues!   On Monday we got to the Holiday Inn Express on Blonk St, Sheffield around  2.45 pm and I quickly changed into my Waders and headed outside for what I thought would be a couple of hours fishing.  Wrong, it was totally dark well before 4 pm so just 1 hour fishing on a somewhat coloured River Don.   I caught 2 Grayling both around the 12 inch mark.

The evening talk at the South Yorkshire Salmon & Trout Association was given by Stuart Crofts a very well respected fly fisherman who is no slouch with a Tenkara Rod.

This morning I knew I would only have an hour on the water and what a great hour it turned out to be  First cast a 12 inch Grayling came to the net, followed quickly by another this time definitely 16 inches or maybe more.   Another 2 Grayling about 10 inches and a fine out of season Wild Brown Trout finished the session.  It is wonderful to see such good quality fish in this post industrial river.  However, I need to develop my photography skills so I can show off the bigger fish like the experts do!   I couldn't get my hand around it so you have to be content with another net photo.

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The 'Donathon' continues this coming Friday before the SPRITE AGM at the Hillsborough Hotel.......

[mspaddler]

OK my 'Donathon' ran into a bit of a hitch. I was hoping to fish before the SPRITE AGM but the rain on Thursday put an end to that plan. However, although this morning the river was still higher than I had fished it but was now dropping and the thought of driving to Sheffield and staying the night without fishing at all was to hard to handle. 9 am breakfast eaten, car scraped I headed for the river. -3C it was chilly but no wind so really not bad at all. Just over two hours on River produced 4 trout and 1 nice grayling. The grayling and all but one of the trout came from the inside of a bend close to a stone wall. Actually I had those 3 trout in successive casts and 3 casts later the Grayling came to the net. Another wonderful winter day on the Don.


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[daves]

Well done & great photos.

[mspaddler]

I love this River! When I am not catching Grayling on other waters I fish I can always rely on the Don for a few of the ladies of the stream. Spent the night in Derby area with my Sister. Updated her computer for 3 hours so I felt a stop off in S Yorks on the way home to York was deserved. Slow start and quite chilly but ended up with 8 grayling and one nice OOS WBT. Most were 9 inches 2 were 12 inches and good to find this little chap, the first of this year's crop I have caught on this stretch of the River.
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[mspaddler]

Another great day (well 4 hours) yesterday on the River.   I have never been 'blanked' on the Don that I can remember.  Not a lot of fish to hand, but 2 very fit looking WBT and 3 Grayling.  One of the Grayling was this year's model, good to see for the future, and the other two were nicely over 12 inches.  See the eye of the last Grayling of the season below.



Also of note I didn't loose any flies or leave any line/flies in the trees.  I'm getting better at recovering the flies with a homemade device which fits on the end of the rod (I collapse several sections, wouldn't be good balancing on the tip!) it enables me to pull the branch/twig to within reaching distance.  A member of SPRITE had made one, mine is not as sophisticated but seems to work.

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[Deleted]

Good to see you are enjoying the river as much as i have. Posted elsewhere this morning but will keep posting on this thread. Winn Gardens and Coopers Bridge this morning, 0700hrs to 0900hrs. One OOS trout and a bright silver lady.

Can you still contribute to SPRITE via PayPal. ??
I have contributed a number of times but as there is no confirmation I'm wary of continuing.
Don't need a thanks, just confirmation that my money is going to the right group.

[mspaddler]

Anyone who wishes to make a donation to SPRITE may do so via this link. Donations are always welcome but if you can spare a couple of hours on the first Sunday of the month why not join us for a few hours work and afterwards some great urban fishing.

www.sheffieldsprite.com/index.asp?slevel=0z0z142&parent_id=142

[mspaddler]

Back in Yorkshire from a couple of months in Florida,  I'm a free spirit as my wife went on to our house in Minnesota.   I will be taking full advantage and getting as much fishing in as I can.  

A 'secret' stream on Sunday produced 12 WBT and 2 nice size grayling.  

Yesterday I tried a section of the River Don owned by Tin Mill Angling Club.   I was quite surprised to see another fly fisherman when I arrived as Tin Mill is basically a coarse fishery with two lakes adjacent to the River. Very pretty valley.  I fished about 1/2 a mile or so of the middle section.   Tough going.   Fish were rising but only on the slow shallow sections so my log rod short line technique was probably not the best choice of weapon!  I persevered and eventually took 2 very nice WBT from a seam just downstream of a rapid.  Beautiful spring day in a fabulous part of South Yorkshire.


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[daves]

Nice fish. I must confess that with the desperately low water recently in East Yorks. I've been fishing Italian Style rather than Tenkara because of the problems of getting close enough to the fish. I'm desperate for some rain to liven up the flows & to get back to some Tenkara.

[dbl]

A morning well spent on a pretty tributary in the west end of the city only minutes from our host's house. The stream descends through numerous falls and, with allowances for the heavy cover, it is perfect for tenkara. An SK version of a Partridge and Orange was the most successful fly. Cast into the eddies and streamy water, it captured about 6 WBT, and I lost at least as many more. None were large, but most were between 5 and 7 inches.
The occasional shower hardly penetrated the leafy cover, and the communal feeling was boosted by the many friendly walkers passing by. Even the nearby roar of traffic and the large dog that leapt into the run I was
just about to descend to could not spoil the mood!

[dbl]

A second morning yesterday on the tributary was less productive, partly because I walked further and fished less. I missed a couple and caught one, but it was one of those days when if it can go wrong it will, so I cast into every snag the river provided!
At last I saw a rise in the tail of a small pool I was fishing unsuccessfully with an SK . I switched to a dry but that was ignored, so I drowned the fly and the just sub surface bug was accepted at once by an 8" WBT. Dainty little feeders at times!

[mspaddler]

I had a couple of days on the Don this week, before and after the South Yorks S&T meeting, a fascinating insight into cane rod construction by Gary Marshall.  

Plenty of fish available in all locations but I thought this anecdote would amuse?

I was fishing on the Urban Don near a bridge when a couple of runners stopped and asked me what I was hoping to catch.  Grayling said I and one of the runners said "OK you have 45 minutes to catch a Grayling and I will give you a pound"  Off they went on their run and by the time they got back to the bridge I had caught and released 2 Grayling and a WBT.   "OK, I owe you a pound"  They then went on to talk about the River and how pleased they were that it was recovering from the ravages of the industrial age.  The conversation went on for a while and I told them about the grant the Don Catchment Trust had got to install fish passes with the aim of having Salmon back in Sheffield for the first time for 200 years.  Then an expectant silence.  I said "I suppose you want to see me catch a fish?"  Sure enough one lucky cast and a beautiful WBT performed aerobatics for the watchers. 

This photo is of a 14 inch Grayling with unusual fin markings from the Urban River Don.

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[dbl]

Long delayed and highly necessary renovations to our pile having started recently, I have been in river purdah, but a short visit to Sheffield a couple of weeks ago to visit friends gave me one opportunity to wet a line, so I escaped for a few hours to the Don in the northern suburbs. JP had kindly introduced me to this public stretch a while back on a guided trip and I enjoy it partly because as mspaddler mentions above, someone always takes an interest, usually sceptical, in what you are up to!
I had not time to walk far so I entered the river near my parking spot and started to fish up a shallow, streamy, rocky stretch. I waded in rather gingerly as I was wearing new rubber soled wading boots, that I had spent the previous evening studding to make up for them not being felt soles!
Almost immediately I lost my first, showy dry fly to a tree. I had come with a vague hope of some small grayling, and I was now fishing with a small, unassuming, parachute dry which I cast upstream at intervals determined by a fitfully gusting breeze coming downstream from the north. Locating the fly amongst the fallen, drifting leaves was problematic, but, luckily, the trout could see it better than I, because a plump 8" WBT seized it quite soon. I say luckily, because when a passerby shouted "Caught owt?" I could say yes, a trout, which seemed to somewhat dispel his evident opinion that I was a complete idiot.
Over the next couple of hours a further 10 trout, mostly of similar size, seized the little dry with utter confidence. Though some were released at a distance, most came to hand and were admired and released thankfully back into this prolific stream. Well, not a grayling did I see, but I now venerate that little fly!