Fishing Reports

Rutland Water has given anglers a sensational week of memorable fish, including personal bests for a number of individuals. Season ticket holders Graham Bayliss of Earl Shilton and Tony Grey from Sheffield had a couple of days to remember. Graham caught five browns averaging 6lb, the best at 10lb+ being a personal best for Graham who returned all the browns to the water. He also caught a few of the nine rainbows brought to the boat which averaged 3lb. However Tony was not to be out done and the following day saw the pair with another good haul of rainbows to 4lb+ with Tony also taking a superb brown of 6lb 4oz. The trick was to fish the bottom of the south arm at anchor with floating lines and buzzers. Graham said "it’s been the best fishing that I’ve ever experienced at Rutland, a very memorable day".

Phil Brown from Langham (former Rutland retail assistant) also recorded a personal best brown at 8lb 4oz whilst fishing a morning session in the south arm. Phil also recorded browns of 6lb 8oz and 5lb 2oz and a rainbow of 4lb. Phil said "the 6lb+ was a personal best and then the 8lb+ came next, but with two browns already in my limit the fish was safely returned". The keen staff at Rutland Lodge also chipped in with good fish. Senior Warden, John Seaton taking a 6lb 3½oz brown in his Hunts Servants match. Paul Shaw, retail assistant, had a 6lb+ brown and rainbows to 5lb. Meanwhile Nigel Savage, Warden, had a 7lb brown.

Best rainbow 7lb by Paul Kirkup of Leicester fishing the above competition. Best brown 10lb+ returned by Graham Bayliss of Earl Shilton on floating line & buzzers, bottom of south arm.Best boat areas main basin, Barnsdale creek, Old Hall, bottom of south arm.Best bank areas Normanton, three trees on the north arm, disabled bay, Old Hall. Best methods Fish are still feeding hard on daphnia, and the big buzzer hatches have turned on the fish down both arms, making floating lines with nymphs and weighted lures the best method from bank and boat. Boat anglers can also try lures on sinking lines.

Grafham Water This has been another busy week at Grafham Water with the water fishing well. All methods are productive, with anglers who enjoy fishing nymphs and buzzers catching as well as the anglers who want to fish mini lures such as blobs and sparklers.
Best rainbow 4lb 5oz taken by Robert Edmunds of Ringstead on a blob whilst fishing the AWFMI Midland heat.Best boat areas Hill Farm, G buoy, hedge end and church bay Best bank areas G buoy, Hill Farm, the stumps, south dam, deepwater and pylon points Best methods fast sink lines with boobies, sparklers cats and vivas or floating lines with buzzers and diawl bachs

Pitsford Water is on fine form and with recent strong winds it has certainly sturred things up in the reservoir. Peter Bills of Papplewick, Notts has had a good run of sport. His 6 fish on Saturday weighed 21lb he then fished on Sunday to bag 4 fish which weighed 18lb. Not satisfied with that Pete fished again on Monday this time his 4 fish weighed 16lb. Pete is using his favourite method of rudder fishing, out in the middle of the main bowl using a DI 7 line. Grant Roberts of Motherwell and Donnie Mc Phail had a wonderful time both catching 8 fish from Brixworth Bay and the Cliffs on buzzers, from an anchored boat. The sixteen fish weighed just under 40lb and included in the bag were 8 fish of 3lb+. The fish contained shrimp, corixa black, olive and brown buzzers and daphnia. Grant said "these were the finest fighting fish I have encountered and I am amazed at the amount of natural food in our reservoirs. I am very impressed with the staff at Pitsford Lodge who couldn’t have been more helpful, all in all a very enjoyable visit".


Robert Barton of Baldock, Herts travelled to Grafham Water, only to find out the wind was to strong so he travelled on to Pitsford to fish there for the first time. Robert fished the gorse bank with a Montana and landed a brown of 5lb 8oz. Pitsford stalwart Nick Nickleson (Northampton) and partner Richard Hayes (Solihull) both season ticket holders, caught a limit of fish on Sunday. They boat fished close to Rigby’s point using nymphs to catch 12 cracking condition rainbows, Nick said "the quality of these fish is as good as the fish I catch in new Zealand"! Best boat areas pines, dam, small half Best bank areas pines, Rigby’s point, gorse, Stilton point Best methods buzzers and tubes during the day and for the evening rise use buzzers/dries

Reservoir The "Scots Ruled" at the Reservoir this week. Hugh Collins brought a party of six
anglers down on the popular boat package ticket to record 86 fish on Wednesday. A slow start to the day saw a few fish coming to black buzzer and bloodworm but cloud and a good ripple at lunchtime saw many fish taken on small dry olive imitations and diawl bach fished sub-surface. Steward Drummond of Paisley was amongst the big fish on Saturday, taking rainbows of 9lb 2oz and 7lbn. Bloodworm on a floater and a black blob on a Di3 working well from a rowing boat anchored off Hickmans spinney.

Regular bank expert Bob Drape of Northampton waited patiently for the weed to be cut on platforms 11 & 12 and was soon rewarded with four super overwintered rainbows to 8lb 12oz. Bob’s fish came to a self tied dry olive drifted round on the wind.Kevin Dakin (Hollowell) and Rob Allen (Northampton), both took fish over 8lb. Mark Salt of High Cross and boat partner N Rapson fished the Coten end from a boat on Friday to take 34 rainbow – green buzzer and damsel patterns taking most fish. Best rainbow 9lb 2oz taken by Steward Drummond of Paisley using bloodworm pattern on a floating line. Best boat areas Coton end to islands Best bank areas dam wall Best methods small static buzzers in green or black taking most fish from the boats. Damsel patterns from both boat and bank working well. Green emergers, cracklebacks and small parachute tops in overcast ripple conditions.

Coarse fishing Ardleigh It has been a very good week for a number of carp anglers, especially season
ticket holder Paul Southgate who had 5 carp out while fishing at Pine Point. These included a Common of 16lb 3oz, 2 Mirrors of 18lb 12oz and 22lb 6oz plus 2 fully scaled Mirrors of 24lb 13oz and 31lb 4oz. Another season ticket holder Peter Lambert had 4 fish out in a 2 hour session on the western arm, top weight was 33lbs. The bream have started to show up more often especially on the northern arm. Chris Leverett, Colin Wanswell and Dean Cullen all had good bags with fish up to 7½lb but Archie Millar landed the biggest bream of the week, one which tipped the scales at just over 10lbs. The pike anglers are still finding conditions a bit challenging but Tim Parker And Clark Templeman managed to land 5 fish while here fishing from a boat, while Mick Scutter had 2, one of which was 21lbs.

River Ribble Some nice trout being caught on both dry flies and nymphs, an angler fishing Edisford Hall syndicate water lost a good seatrout. Poaching by coarse anglers is a problem at the bottom end of the Ribble where they are targeting chub and barbel under the excuse of I'm fishing for trout. Today the river had a nice lift of water which was badly needed. Conditions looking good for corase fishing on June 16th though I havent seen any barbel spawning.

River Aire some nice brown trout being caught Skipton - Gargrave. Klinkhammers, Greenwell's Glory Medium Olives, Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear, Olives and Buzzers. I don't feel anglers are using buzzers to their full potential on our rivers. Bradford City AA water is being targeted by poachers, beware as they could turn violent. Please notify bailiff if you see any person spinning. river level good after rain this week. Bradford City AA have vacancies Telephone Arthur Padgett 01274-617419

River Eden Well worth a visit good brown trout both on nymphs and dry flies. There are several day ticket stretches available. Tel the Eden Rivers Trust 01768-353992 If your a member of Prince Albert AS, there stretch on the Eden is well worth a visit.

River Lune Some good brown trout fishing, but it isn't easy Drybeck worth a visit. 20 and 22 size suspended black buzzers with 7X tippet on a 12 foot leader can cause the downfall of a good trout. Both sedges and olives will often elicit a take. No seatrout reported on the Prince Albert AS lengths.

Wye & Usk Foundation With low summer flows during the last 2 or 3 weeks the lower ends of both rivers came to the fore for salmon fishing with the Lower Wye in particular witnessing some quite exceptional May salmon catches by today's standards. These fish should move up on the next decent rise in water and with rain forecasted to be imminent, the middle and upper Wye and Usk beats are rubbing their hands with anticipation. Call the Booking Office for the latest updates on conditions - 01982 551 520 - or to reserve your rod. With June 16th nearly upon us the Foundation is once again launching 'The Catch & Release' scheme for Wye salmon. You will find attached all the details and we urge everyone to take a little time out to read through these. Also attached is the form you need to claim your free 'Saving Wye Salmon' sweatshirt.

After a slow March and April, trout fishing has been outstanding recently with plenty of 2lb+ wild brownies appearing on both rivers. Good hatches of mayflies, olives and sedges have encouraged the fish to look upwards although nymphs have still accounted for the best catches on both the main rivers and tributaries. One angler had a nymphing bonanza on the Llynfi Dulas yesterday with 43 trout in an afternoon, 60% of which were 9" or above. May and June usually offers the best of the trout fishing, especially on the smaller streams.

If you have been struggling to catch on the rivers and are growing weary of hearing us go on about these sorts of catches then we do recommend a few hours with one of our trained guides. Changing from lakes to rivers does require quite different tactics and often the quickest way to success is learning from an expert. Call us if you want to book or find out more about the various Guides and Instructors who offer their expertise.