Kevin Harrison takes us to his home water, the Dove, and tells us why he likes it so much.
Staffordshire and Derbyshire are blessed with trout and grayling fishing, on rivers such as the Wye, Manifold and Churnet, and small streams like the Henmore, Hamps, Ecclesbourne and Sutton Brook.
The fishing is varied and wonderful. I’ve fished them all but there’s one I keep coming back to: my home river, the Dove. My Dove. In the film Ghost there’s a scene where Patrick Swayze goes to a New York subway and a poltergeist flies at him in a fit of rage shouting “get off my train”. That’s pretty much how I feel on the rare occassion I find someone fishing my intended swim. The contradiction is I like nothing more than to share a river with others, just on my terms.
Fortunately, my choice is varied. As a member of Leek and District Fly Fishing Association (www.ladffa.com) I get to fish over seven miles of the Dove, from the beautiful upper reaches above Hartington, middle sections near Milldale and the majestic Dovedale, and a lower section downstream of Rocester. Over that distance it ranges from being small enough to leap over, to a broad powerful river in its lower reaches. Being limestone spring-fed and not heavily rain affected until the Churnet joins below Rocester, it’s fishable and often at its best when other rivers are over their banks. LADFFA also has great beats on the Churnet, Hamps and a little gem called the Bentley Brook.
There’s an undefinable quality to the Dove and I never tire of fishing it. Each season it generously provides trout and grayling to 3lb plus, though they’re well earned. It’s not an easy river, keeping me on my toes and making me think about presentation, drag and cracking the code.
It’s a river steeped in history and angling folklore, not least for its connection with Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton. Their fishing temple can still be found upstream at Beresford Dale. In The Compleat Angler, Viator considers the Dove to be “the best trout-river in England, and am so far in love with it, that if it were mine … I would not exchange that water for all the land it runs over”. Dovedale itself, a picturesque gorge between Milldale and Ilam, is the most iconic of fly fishing beats and was a mecca to the Victorians. It remains a popular venue for tourists, though there are always secluded sections where solitude is found.
A favourite quote from Dove literature is from a 1905 book by Walter Gallichan: Fishing in Derbyshire and Around. Gallichan reckoned that "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".
Not so sure about kudos, clever anglers or real fishermen, but the Dove remains my home river.
For information on Leek and District Fly Fishing Association, visit their website www.ladffa.com email admin@ladffa.com or phone the secretary (Graham) on 07882 147863. Kevin Harrison is an LADFFA committee member and sells his own-tied flies at www.emerger.co.uk