A Guide To Fishing In Derbyshire
Even for those who have never considered angling as a sport in the past, fishing in Derbyshire may convert the most sceptical (or simply uninitiated) into keen and committed anglers.

Picture a secluded and lush valley cradling 50 acres of breathtaking Derbyshire Peak District countryside and you’ll have a good sense of the superb Barlow Fishery, just ten miles from Sheffield City Centre and only four miles from Chesterfield.

Open the whole year round from dawn to dusk for trout and coarse day tickets, the fishery boasts not only a fresh water brook bursting with brown trout but four generous coarse lakes, not to mention the holiday cottages and camping site. Fly fishing is available (£10 for a day ticket) and you can spend a full day on the coarse lakes for just £5. The fishery has its own hatchery and the trout lakes are restocked on a weekly basis, with fish being introduced typically at between 1.5 and 2lbs (but you’ll find plenty of fine fish well into double figures).

There’s ample car parking and a lakeside snack bar, and disabled anglers will find easy, flat access to the lakes. General advice is freely available and, for beginners, there’s some excellent fly fishing tuition.

Fishing in Derbyshire will also bring you the spellbindingly beautiful Dove Cottage Fishing Lodge. Sitting sedately in the gorgeous little hamlet of Lode Mill – a spellbinding patch of Wolfscote Dale in the wild and unspoiled White Peak Area of the Peak National Park - Dove Lodge is a beautiful, 3-bedroomed Victorian fishing cottage which can comfortably accommodate five people.

Located only six miles from the market town of Ashbourne, it was refurbished very recently to stunning specifications. With its generous (and exquisitely well-tended) garden and breathtaking view of the River Dove, it presides majestically over an exclusive 2¾-mile stretch of the river, where you can catch some the very best wild and stocked brown trout in the UK.

The trout fishing here is positively premier league: you have access to 1087 yards of single bank fishing and 3697 yards of double bank fishing (a stretch of river mentioned in the famous seventeenth century angling classic “The Compleat Angler”).

The river is known to have healthy hatches all year long, and an 8’ rod rated for a size 4 (or possibly 5) line should be ideal, although please note that barbless hooks are recommended here, as well as fine mesh landing nets, so that fish can be easily returned to the river when necessary.

Whilst there are waters galore for anyone looking for fishing in Derbyshire, the Derbyshire Railway Angling Club (originally set up in 1895 for employees of Midland Railway) offers some superb waters, which are every bit as diverse as they are comprehensive. With 40 acres of lakes and pools, 3 miles of canal, 2 miles of brook/small river fishing, and 13 miles of coarse river fishing, this club has something irresistibly tempting for you whether you’re a fly-fisher, specimen angler, still water- or all-rounder.

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