Fishing Reports April 18th 2006

Rutland Water The best fish of the week, and season so far, was taken by Robert Armstrong. Robert boat fished the main basin and tempted a superb 9lb 13½oz brown using a cats whisker and sinking line. Another notable large over wintered fish was a 7lb 2oz brown, caught by Mick Perry from Cold Overton, who enjoyed his day so much he bought an additional permit to take 16 in total, averaging 2½lb. Oakham season ticket holder Rick Broome has started the season well with the best rainbow of the week weighing 6lb 4oz. Rick followed up with a cracking bag of rainbows two days later, one weighing 5lb, another at 4lb and two weighing 3lb. Anglers have enjoyed an excellent week at Rutland Water with good numbers of fish caught. Plenty of limits have been recorded with lots of over wintered fish also showing. The banks are fishing very well with several limits recorded. The best rises are later in the evening. Boat anglers have had superb sport with an excellent rod average of 5.3 for the week.

Grafham Water has been in top form this week with plenty of anglers catching their bag limits from mainly the boats as the vast majority of the fish are feeding around 100-200 yards from the shore on daphnia and buzzers. Bank anglers are having some cracking sport from the bowl of the dam and Deep Point on floating lines with buzzers. Two regular anglers Andy Taylor (season ticket holder) from Stretham, Ely and Paul Haskey from Rugby enjoyed an arm wrenching session from the bowl of the dam to Deep Water Point returning 62 fish between them all on black buzzers and black blobs fished on slime lines on the drift. Chris Faulkner of Keysoe took the best rainbow of the week at 8lb 4oz. He boat fished off Q buoy with a gold tube. Dave Doherty held the first of the mid week beginners courses on Wednesday with a full house. After the course the group fished the harbour for an hour or two and each angler caught at least a fish apiece.

The fishery is getting busier now with rising temperatures and the boats can roam to all parts of the lake and try different areas. Anglers are reporting the fish gorging themselves on the vast quantities of daphnia in the lake as well as increasing numbers of buzzer so prospects for the new match season look good.

Pitsford Water One of the best browns of the season was caught by Jim McGuigan from Co Durham at Pitsford this weekend. Jim fished from a boat at Duffers Reach to land this fin perfect fish at 9lb. He used a black tadpole on an intermediate line. Paul Haskey and Ian Pow had a great day on Saturday. They caught 12 rainbows and returned lots more from a boat. They used lures at the Pines and later went to North Farm Bay and caught on floating line and buzzers. The bank sport has been hectic this weekend, plenty of anglers are taking limits. The best method by far is buzzers on a floating line. Stilton Point, the Gorse and Stone Barn Bay are the hot spots.

Troutmaster held the Pitsford 2005 fish off finals at the weekend. Michael Loy from Peterborough caught six fish for 18lb 4oz including a brown of 5lb. Matt Byrne of Hemel Hempstead was rewarded with 6 fish for 17lb 7oz. Nathan Clayton instructed a group of beginners on Saturday. With overcast weather and a nice left to right wind fishing conditions were good. The method on the day was floating lines and a booby on the point with a buzzer on the dropper. Tuition in the morning included theory on tackle and entomology and some casting practice. In the afternoon the group put their newly learnt skills into practice with four out of the six beginners catching fish.

Ravensthorpe Reservoir Both boat and bank anglers are enjoying superb sport with fish feeding heavily on buzzer and daphnia. Some large bags of fish have been taken by the boat anglers. Janet Church took 35 and R Brown 31. Other anglers catching large bags included Graden Smith, G Simpson, N Mead, C England and B Woodbridge. Top boat angler was B Brown with a 10lb 7oz rainbow on an orange blob followed by Dick Haynes with a 10lb fish falling to a diawl bach and Nick Lever took a silver over wintered rainbow of 8lb 14oz and Steve Flint with a 7lb 12oz fish. Reg Bellham safely returned an 11lb 6oz rainbow on a black/green lure fishing the bank.

BRISTOL WATER FISHERIES
Much milder weather and gentler winds have made fishing far more comfortable, enjoyable and successful this week.
The recent heavy rains have filled Chew and Blagdon to top level. Water temperature is rising steadily and has reached 9°C at the time of writing CHEW: Bank anglers have been reporting success from many different areas of the lake, depending on the wind strength and direction. Good bags have come mainly to nymphs such as Diawl Bachs, Black Buzzers, and Montanas fished slowly on floating lines, albeit often with a goldhead or other weighted fly on the point of a long leader. Some success has also been had with Vivas, Fritz tadpoles and other small lures fished on medium sinking lines, and also with Boobies fished on fast sinkers such as Di7s. Best banks have been Wick Green, North Shore, Woodford and

Nunnery. JOHN GREGORY caught a splendid 5lb 3oz brown trout from North Shore on a goldhead Viva. The boats are also doing particularly well, using similar flies and tactics, especially in the area between Spring Bay, Wick Green and Herriotts.

BLAGDON:The banks at Butcombe, Green Lawn and Peg’s Point continue to reward the patient nymph angler with good bags of fish, and some good sport with sinking lines and lures has also come from North Shore. Goldhead Damsels, Superglue Buzzers, Montanas and the usual Diawl Bachs are the best medecine.The boats have been concentrating on these same areas, but there has recently been a move to explore Top End, and some excellent sport is coming from there too.

BARROWS: Some good bags of fish have come from No3, both to traditional floating line and nymph tactics and to the static ‘Barrow Mouse’ on a fast sinker technique.

LITTON:The two lakes at Litton have been going really well this week. Although fish are not yet showing, many have been caught fishing small nymphs and buzzers just below the surface. R. CURRELL took a 5lb 4oz brown trout.

PROSPECTS.With warmer, less windy conditions forecast for the next week things should continue to improve. Cold clear nights are still possible so early morning fishing is not so likely to be very productive. Try fishing around mid-day with small black goldheads – Viva, Tadpole or Montana, but don’t be tempted to pull too quickly. Boobies are also worth trying fished slowly deep down. In sheltered areas and on calmer days there have been large hatches of black buzzer and the fish are feeding well on these so don’t ignore the small flies. Evening fishing should get better with warmer days.

Bristol Water fisheries, Woodford Lodge, Chew Stoke, Nr Bristol, BS40 8XH. Tel 01275 332339, Fax 01275 331377, email [email protected]

Barnsfold Water Chipping Fishing
has continued to improve now the water is warming up, good hatches
of buzzers, with good rises in the evening.Best bag Ray Johnson 16 fish on various buzzers.
Best fish Eric Sayers 8lb 4oz on buzzer most of the fish coming out are being taken on buzzers. Olive being the best colour at the moment, fish also being taken on Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear and Damselfly Nymph. Fishery details Tel Frank Casson 01995-61583.

Wye & Usk good salmon catches from the Wye as high up as Hay, Usk salmon fishing has been slower to get started although a few fish have been reported from the beats around Usk town itself. The trout fishing is starting to really pick up now with good hatches of large dark olives and the first hawthorns appearing. A 3lb+ brown trout was caught from the upper river. Good grannom hatches have been seen on the Wye in the past couple of days with the trout switching on to them.

River Ribble The big news this week must be the capture of two seatrout from Red Scar wood area estimated at 6 and 8lbs caught on legered worm bait. by Liverpool angler Shaun Smith who was trout fishing. Shaun decided to go trout fishing as he couldn't fish for the barbel until June 16th.

The water temperature is still low, today it was 50 degrees F. Some nice brown trout have been caught from Edisford Hall water. Beaded pheasant tail and Richard Walker mayfly nymphs fished near the bottom have proved the best method. Only the odd fish seen rising to the occasional large dark olive. Cormorants are still being seen on the river around dawn. A brown trout weighing 3-6-0 was caught from Bradford City AA water at Preston Deeps. The best news I have heard in a long time is the 2 fish limit on salmon during the season. Hopefully it want be long before the netting of salmon at the Ribble Estuary was banned.

Good news on the Irish seas fishing situation Stop Salmon Drift Nets Now welcomes the Government's reaffirmation of its commitment to manage salmon stocks in accordance with scientific advice from 2007. The clear, logical outcome of this commitment is that mixed stock fishing for salmon will end with the 2006 season. This means that all drift netting and some draft netting will cease for good.

In the various statements issued on 24 March the Government commits itself to “fully align with the scientific advice from the Standing Scientific Committee of the National Salmon Commission in 2007”. The Government acknowledges that “if the scientific advice is followed and the precautionary approach fully implemented, then it will have serious implications for drift net fishing”. The Government have set up a three person Expert Working Group on Salmon the purpose of which is to “make recommendations on the options available to address any financial hardship arising for individuals involved in commercial salmon fishing from full compliance with the scientific advice by 2007”.

Coarse fishing Ardleigh Wick Lane Lake is now fishing really well for silver fish and a number of early season tench have appeared. Peter Banks had 4 tench with 3 between 4½ and 6lb and also 4 bream. Chris Dyall had a 4½lb tench, Nigel Pamment had a 5lb tench and Kevin Chamberlain also caught one of 1½lb. Several anglers including David Gray, Dean Culham, Malcolm Higgins and Steve Carter all report good mixed bags of roach, rudd and hybrids. Further stocking with quality bream is expected over the next few weeks. The bream have also started to show at Alton Water just in time for the Open on Sunday 23 April. There are still some tickets left. Please leave names with Simon on 01473 589105.

Taverham More carp are now showing. Thomas Smith had a new personal best with a 22lb mirror. Fourteen year old Danny Prigg from Newmarket had a 22lb Mirror. Top spot went to Martin Dolby from Stockton who managed to break two personal bests during his stay, with a common of 26lb 8oz and then a mirror of mirror of 29lb 12oz.

Pendle View Lancashire Main Lake Mr.Haworth of Blackburn using feeder method and maggots caught 68 roach along with some rudd, skimmers and gudgeon. Perch and Bream have also shown in large numbers. Perch up to 3lb and bream up to 5lb. Mr. Payne of Burnley caught 20 roach, 6 bream, 1 perch and a 5lb common carp using feeder and white maggot. Mr.Burnie of Nelson caught 39 bream, 15 roach, and one small carp using feeder/float on mixed maggot and pellet. Mr. Pickard caught a 25lb of fish using feeder method with worm and maggot. His bag consisted of 30 skimmers and one carp. On Sunday Mr. Evans had a great day and he landed 30 plus roach, some perch and gudgeon using swim feeder/float with a combination of worm, corn and maggot.
Carp have started to show, a 33lb 12oz common caught by Gavin Anderson on a strawberry boilie. J. English caught a 24lb 12oz mirror using a pineapple pop up. Thomas Edwards caught a 22lb 8oz two toned mirror and 16lb common. Several other double figure carp have been caught. .

The charity match for Joe Geeling, the 11 year old lad from Bury who was tragically murdered was held on the match lake with a good turn out. Jason Crook who organised the match was well pleased at the support for the event. Sadly it was a very cold day and fishing results were disappointing. The winner caught an 8lb bag of fish. All proceeds from the match were donated to the the parents of little Joe Geeling. Well done Jason Crook for organising the match and Pendle View for hosting it.