Fishing the River Don

[gremlin_mick]

Does anyone here fish the River Don regularly?

 

Specifically, the stretch that runs past Donny prison...

 

Any tips, info would be appreciated...

[Lehrerid]

The best advice i can give regarding fishing the river don ANYWHERE is get your walking boots on, take a machete and you will find angling Utopia. This regions best kept angling sectret.

 

Look for the features that will naturally hold the fish and chuck in 5-6 BIG balls of groundbait, dense enough to get them to the bottom, and set up your rod with a simple ardsley bomb with a couple of maggot on your hook. Then hold on.......because you could hit absolutely anything from roach to monster carp and barbel.

 

The fish may not come straight on to the feed but if you continue to ball in the groundbait each time you fish or even prebait this hole the day before, the fish will come and you will catch.

 

I have just finished filming anglers on sections of the upper Don for the DVD i produce here in Sheffield called 'Bankside Madness'. We have caught everything from Minnow to large Barbel and the River up here is really shallow. It is stuffed full of Trout and Grayling and is definately worth a chuck for all fly fishermen out there. An ex-international flyfisherman came to do the filming around the Oughtibridge area in Sheffield and has transformed my catch rate for flyfishing on this river. I have gone from catching a couple of Trout to 40 fish in an hour and a half. Amazing.....when you know what you are doing?!?

 

That DVD will be out early next year but if you are interested in some of the regions fisheries the Bankside Box Set covers 10 venues and numerous angling methods and is available at http://www.floatingbones.co.uk

 

Let me know how you get on and if i can come along with the camera and film it.....even better.

Cheers

[Halibut]

Interesting post.....any thoughts on float tactics anyone?

[Lehrerid]

Yeah.....Stick Float fishin (about 6-8 ft deep) near meadowhall.

 

This was another day we filmed on the river and it just wasn't happening........only had 6lb mixed bag of small Roach, Dace and Chub in 3 hours. Should have cleared 10-15lb easy on a good day. (There was a ton of fish there....my angler just wasn't hitting 'em)

 

There are some very big Trout around here and fishing light for the Roach and Dace will see you needing a lot of hook lenghts. Once the Trout are in you can either pack in or gear up and try and get em out......most anglers know better and find a different hole to fish.

 

Travel light