DATE: Saturday 31st March
REPORT AUTHOR Ben
NOTABLE CATCH: 27 fish for Ryan Feber
NOTABLE BAG James Vann 5 fish for 14lb
BEST RAINBOW: 7lb for Mathew Pritt
BEST BROWN: 3lb 5oz for Andrew Swinglehurst
BEST BLUE: 4lb 6oz for Doddy
BANK ROD AV: 5.2 fish per angler.
BOAT ROD AV: 5.7 fish per angler.
SPORT: There was a noticeable drop in temperature today and I expected to the sport to really reflect this. However we saw some great catches and some really nice fish caught with a mixture of rainbows, blues and browns all taking the fly. Fifteen anglers fished in our Spring Sweep Competition and this morning and when they left the jetty the conditions were great; overcast and almost flat calm. Fish could be seen rising out over open water sipping emerging buzzers from the surface. Some anglers were quick to take advantage of this and trout were caught on wet flies and mini lures drawn back through the surface film. After a short while a cool easterly wind built in strength, the buzzer hatch subsided and the trout moved from the surface. One angler in particular was on fire today. Ryan Feber started out with a midge tip line, cormorants on the droppers and a small booby to hold everything up on the point. Ryan retrieved with a steady figure of eight and fished around Gull Island and Curry’s Cast. He was catching steadily away all morning but as the wind picked up things slowed down, so he switched the same cast of flies to an intermediate line and started a slow roly poly retrieve. This was an inspired move as other anglers were trying to relocate the feeding trout Ryan was building a substantial lead over the other competitors. He finished the day with 27 trout successfully netted, which earned him 1st place in the Spring Sweep and £200. Well done Ryan brilliant angling. In second was Steve Smalley who had also followed the fish down, this time with a Di5 sinker. Steve finished with 11 trout and won £100. In 3rd place winning £70 and also with 11 trout was John Hood who stuck with nymphs all day. There were a lot of fish caught today out in open water as well as around the margins, this is a pattern that I would say is about a month ahead of time.
On the shore there were also some great catches. Dave Flitcroft took eight trout from Bell Point on buzzers. He started around in Newclose where he said that there were loads swimming for meters at a time with their dorsal out of the surface feeding right off the top, but they proved very tricky to catch. I think that this was probably because when they are so high in the water their window of vision is very small and it’s difficult to get them to see you fly. One trick is to slightly over cast your flies in front of them and then draw your chosen patterns across their path. Small wets such as bibios or spider spiders can be deadly fished this way.
The top rod off the shore today was John Lord who tempted 10 fish. He too was fishing buzzers from Bell Point.
Neither of the two fugitive trout were caught today and bounty for the next one brought to lodge has risen to £424.00. Tight Lines Ben
Double click the images below to see them full size.
- Richard Hood with his cracking Stocks double
- The Winners of the Spring Sweep: From Left to right: John with 11 trout won £70, Ryan Feber with a staggering 27 trout Won £200, Steve Smalley 112 trout won £100. Good angling guys