The rivers of the Derbyshire Peak District are the Wye, the Dove, the Lathkill and the Derwent, plus numerous smaller streams and brooks. The rivers are fed by the winter rains that fall on to the hills and peaks of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, percolating down through the limestone rocks and flowing out through the river valleys. The temperature and quality of the water is ideal for brown trout and grayling, and the clarity perfect for fly fishing.

The limestone rivers of Derbyshire have a very special place in the history of fly fishing as the first detailed writing about the sport comes in two chapters of Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, which were actually written by his friend Charles Cotton, and described the fishing in the Derbyshire.

Cotton (1630-1687) was far more than a fisherman; he was one of the most illustrious academics of the 17th century, famous as a poet,translator and writer. Born at Beresford Hall, Cotton learnt to fly fish on the River Dove, which flowed through the Beresford Hall Estate. Fishing of all types was his passion and in the gorge of the Dove he made a private garden ‘with a delicate clear river about it, where the world is reduced to its simplest and best essentials’. It was in this garden in 1674 that he built the Fishing House.