The Club is a private one, founded in 1877, of approximately sixty-four members and six Town Rod subscribers. The Club's waters consist of about 7 miles of wild brown trout & grayling fishing in the main River Frome, River Cerne and River Piddle, together with attendant carriers and side streams. The waters extend both above and below the town of Dorchester and the Club employs a part-time keeper.
If you have any news or a fishing trip report please email to admin@grhe.co.uk
Latest Post
Strange Mayfly Season
I agree with comments made by others , it has been a strange mayfly season this year , requiring more effort and covering more water to find a hatch and more importantly rising fish . I found this lovely wild one in an out of the way lie , and made the usual hash of playing and landing it without a net which was safely in the boot of my car . I slipped it back and in my excitement did not measure it , so have no real clue what it might have weighed .. though that seemed and still does rather immaterial , it was a beautiful though !
Andrew
A Brace of Big Fish
To catch one big fish in the Frome may be considered fortunate, but to catch a brace the same size on the same day borders on the miraculous.
The first was in the morning on a carrier, in a difficult place (aren’t they always ?), but I saw it in a shaft of sunlight, nicely balanced just under the surface very quietly sipping flies as they slid past. I could hardly believe my eyes. One of the famously big ones that I had heard about but never quite believed. I like to fish that river fine and far off, particularly in a breeze which makes everything just a bit harder and more fun. The fish are always very wild, so it is first cast or nothing.
It took a small parachute Adams, and then just swam quite slowly and steadily round and round it’s own pool, as if it didn’t really believe it had been hooked, with me, heart in mouth, applying as much pressure as I thought a 7X cast could stand. This went on for quite some time and my wrist was getting more tired than the fish. Eventually I netted it and measured it carefully at 21 inches before putting it back, when it swam away apparently unconcerned. By far the biggest fish I have caught this year.
The second was in the late evening on the same day. It was feeding spectacularly all around the tail of the pool, smashing at spent mayfly in an apparent frenzy and sending swirling ripples from bank to bank. The difficult bit was to judge which way it was travelling in between bites. If I could put the fly anywhere near it would certainly take.
It took a big detached body Mayfly and gave a wonderful aerial display all around the weir pool, worthy of a Marlin, with me just hanging on and wondering how I was going to land it, given that I was casting from the wrong side of the fence. Eventually it calmed down and I could climb the fence one-handed to get into the water. It measured 22 inches and was definitely exhausted after all the leaping and whizzing around the pool. I propped it upright between some weed and my net, and it took five minutes to recover and swim slowly away, shaking its head.
No photo. I had forgotten to take the iphone.
Tight lines to all.
Colin Anderson
Mayfly Shenanigans
Had some fun last night with a rather large trout. The fighting and landing spot could have been a tad easier; it behaved well initially and shot straight up into the pool, then behaved very badly and shot back down and under the barbed wire fence. Had to drop the rod and walk (run!) round to the stile, picked up the rod and lo and behold still on, and sitting nicely in the ford. A little more shenanigans under the lower fence but forced back up and into the net!
The net is 20 inches which it fills rather nicely so I reckon about three and a half pounds. The spot pattern looks suspiciously stockie like but it has a few red spots and decent tail (although well rubbed on the underside). I think if it is a stockie it’s been holed up there for quite a while. What do you think?
A very odd mayfly season (if we are coming to the end of it..?) with sporadic hatches and not as many trout in the usual places. The bigger ones I’ve had have pretty much all been in hidey hole places and in shallower water – I had a pound and a half fish from right under the metal bridge just before catching this big one. Very few flies on the wing yesterday evening until about 8.30pm and then they all appeared in a rush and had quite a few fish up and at them. Several members complaining about lack of fly and fish – talking to Charles Rangely – W yesterday, he says they’ve had comparatively poor sport at Frampton – but I think it’s been one of those years when the fly has come off at odd times (the evening falls have been great on some evenings, so they must have hatched at some point the previous day..) and having to look into all the little backwaters / bushes.
All best
Richard (Hon.Sec)
Slow Start
What a slow start to the season we have had with high flows in April and very little activity generally. Thankfully things seem to be waking up a little now with the mayfly making an appearance and river temperatures really rocketing in all this warm, sunny weather we have been enjoying. After arriving at the river recently there was very little in the way of hatching duns but I stuck with a French partridge mayfly pattern and after a couple of pound-plus trout, was rewarded with this lovely 20” fish; I did quickly weigh him in the net and he came out at 3lb 7oz.
Later in the day the fields were swarming with spinners and I was hopeful for a busy evening but despite plenty of fly on the surface and several rising trout, the fish were refusing to take mayfly patterns. It became obvious after a while that another hatch was in progress; the fish were locked on to this other hatch and on the whole ignoring the feast of mayfly. After a lot of head scratching and working through my fly box I couldn’t work out exactly what the hatch was but despite this I did manage to land a couple more fish.
Very much looking forward to the rest of the season.
Kind regards,
Hoot
Fishy Art
Just wondering if the members would be interested in knowing that in among the landscape paintings I will have a couple of fishy linocut prints available to buy during Dorset Art Weeks which runs from 26th May – 10th June. They are original, signed, monochrome linocut prints, in an edition of 100, and cost £80 unframed and £120 framed. www.merrilyharpur.co.uk
Obviously I would love to meet any DFC members who would care to visit me and my pictures during DAW… 😊
All best
Merrily
Lost Forceps
A Member has lost a pair of Orvis patterned forceps lost at Southover or Affpuddle beats (hardly used!).
If found please contact Rob on 07771801194
Glimmer of Hope
Nothing quite like talking about the weather, a slightly damp spring, let’s leave it at that!
Yesterday there was a glimmer of hope…
In slightly extreme river conditions, despite the height, the water clarity on the Piddle is lovely and, now this is important, the sun was out, there were Grannom and Olives hatching and a little fall of Hawthorne all drifting down bubble lines to rising fish!!!!!
Ian Stirling called by and suggested we take a look and even better take a rod, I managed to open this seasons account with a stunning Piddle fish of about half a pound that sipped down an Olive cast over flooded river bank.
Reading between the lines, Ian caught one or two earlier in the week.
If you head down to the river, take your time and be careful, these little flurries of activity are short lived, right place right time springs to mind..
Regards
River Keeper
April 1st 2018
After some torrential rain a few days ago, the rivers burst their banks and there was little hope of casting a fly on the opening day. But after just 24 hours the smaller streams were running clear and fishable.
I opened my season on the River Cerne, saw large dark olives & a few grannom hatching. But the trout had their heads down, which called for a small weighted PTN, it did the job and my 2018 seasons account was open.
I was joined by Trev & Rob and Trev was also soon into fish (photo by John Aplin).
With the forecast rain this week, I would check the river levels before venturing out. (links on the right) or if you are on Twitter :-
Maiden Newton twitter.com/riverlevel_0241
Louds Mill twitter.com/riverlevel_0242
New Members day
We had a great morning showing three new members the delights of the DFC waters, starting on the river Cerne, which is a great plan B if the main river is carrying extra water, then heading over to the main Frome.
Starting at our upstream limit at Gasgoyne then leap frogging downstream (via the Wolfeton beat) to the lower water for another walk along the river.
We then headed over to our Piddle beats for a look, Southover and Affpuddle.
All the beats are very well topped up after our wet winter (please be careful wading) and the growth of Ranunculus looks very promising.
I will be holding a pre season casting and tackle talk morning for members at 10am Friday 30th March here at the Dairy House West Stafford, please come along, coffee and cake provided!
Regards
John Aplin
River Keeper
Not Long Now
Saturdays work party was rather chilly, a biting gale force easterly followed with a blizzard. A good turnout, we successfully moved back parts of the fence, that were in the river spoiling a number of good fish holding runs… John Aplin
Don’t forget to buy your Fishing Licence https://get-fishing-licence.service.gov.uk/buy/licence-length
Cormorant Watch
Angling’s representative body, the Angling Trust, has a web site for anglers to record sightings of cormorants, goosanders and mergansers throughout the UK: www.cormorantwatch.com The site is easy to use and will gather vital data to help persuade government of the need for action to protect fisheries. Friends
