Crayfish in sheffield

[chidorii]

I remember as a young lad, getting on my bike and going up to the woods opposite the Abbeydale Ind Hamlet - Ran Wood I think, and in the little stream there I found many a crayfish. Even as a kid I was always looking after nature so I didn't disturb them much and always put them back in the same place.

 

Now I get to thinking a few things, what's the stream called? I know it attributes to the Sheaf as I used to fish the S bend where it trickled in (IIRC). Are the cray still there? Are they native or American? I can't remember exactly!

 

After all that's said, do you think they have made it to the Don? Seems a strange question, but it's little things like that they may produce a huge chub and gets the imagination reeling (no pun intended!).

 

Anyone live in that neck?

[craigs]

i dont know about the crayfish but huge chub already exist in the Don - Ive had em over 4lb without specifically targetting them and I know others have had em over 5lb.

 

I've caught several chub coughing up minnows, Ive had trout and perch do the same - theres so many minnows that theres a good chance of big chub, trout and perch

[chidorii]

The Don is pretty exciting to me right now, well maybe not exactly now due to the Russian weather but you know what I mean.

 

A 5lb chub would be awesome. I had a 4lb2oz September and was obviously chuffed with that.

 

I 'caught' a dead trout late November (somehow hooked it off the bottom), it was huge - we actually thought it was a salmon until I rubbed the silt and skeg off the fish and we realized we were looking at it upside down! That was well over 3lbs.

 

Seen a pic of a 4lb6oz perch from the Rother recently, and I hear the Rother is minnow rich! So hopefully when we get outta this ice age I can beat some of my weak PBs hehe!

 

No-one knows about the crayfish?

 

Cheers, chid

[Gav1986]

What stretch of the don is good for chub? Might have a little go myself.

[chidorii]

I don't have enough experience of the Don to be shelling out definite advice, but will chuck in the meadowhall stretch. In autumn I had about 10 ranging from 2-4lb+ over a few weekends. (from a range of pegs).

[craigs]

theres chub all way through Sheffield and Rotherham but you've got to find em - i find pockets of course fish in certain swims where as others just produce grayling and trout, in these pockets I believe you get resident fish and strong chances Ive caught the same fish on occasions - the upper reaches of the Don arent really somewehere to set your stall out for the day in one swim, I like to rove around and fish stick float rather than ledger as the bottom is snaggy and you lose loads of hooklengths and bombs etc

[chidorii]

wow great post craigs, you pretty much summed my entire experience of the Don up in 3 lines!

 

It's interesting you said about resident fish, a nice incite into the life of a gill-bearer, sticking in a position they know is safe and brings them food. When I used to the fish the Sheaf behind the hamlet I caught the same trout from the same pools week in week out - those were my 'bankers' - in some cases I'd recognize the individual markings. (this was before I had any kind of computer/console, so had very little to do haha!)

 

We had a roving session as you outlined the other week, had some grayling and perch, it was perhaps too cold for much else. We started on that little wooden platform near on burton weir (grayling city) and went down to the next weir (which I'd like to call Barbel City, but I am yet to catch one...).

 

As for the crayfish, I'm going to suggest it to a friend as a weekend activity, perhaps when it warms up..