DATE:                             Wednesday May 31st
REPORT AUTHOR         Ben
NOTABLE CATCHES:    8 trout for Richard Wincer and Ken Whiteside
NOTABLE BAG:            2 fish for 15lbs 8oz for Richard Wincer
BEST RNB: 15lbs (est) Alban Horrocks, 13lbs Richard Wincer, 9lbs 10oz Ian Creighton, 8lbs for Jim Creighton & 7lbs 14oz for Derek Moore
BANK ROD AV:            4.3 fish per angler
BOAT ROD AV:            3.0 fish per angler
Sport: It was another BIG fish day on Stocks with several anglers either landing specimen trout or losing them.
The first of the day was caught by Alban Horrocks whilst he was boat fishing near the spillway. It took a Dawson’s Olive nomad and ran him on a merry dance. It took twenty minutes to land and after a quick snap on his phone it was released back to the water. Alban estimated it to be 15lbs+ and he’s no stranger to big fish.
The second was caught by Jim Creighton who stripped a black booby to send out ‘noise’ through the water, not bad tactic in bright conditions. Jim Line went tight and he knew he was into something heavy. The fish went for the depths but Jim was patient and a cracking 8lb rainbow came to the net.
The next one was from the shore. Richard Wincer had got four in his bag from Bell Point when a monster rolled over his foam daddy. He knew as he struck into it that it was a serious fish. It motored off for part unknown and put up a brilliant and tiring 20 minute battle before he could finally steer it into the shallows. You can see why it put up such a fight from the picture below….look at that tail! On a dry as well! Good angling Richard.
Derek Moore was at it again, out with the mid-week drifters. Derek put another good fish in the bag, a rainbow of 7lbs 14oz. Pictured below. Derek won a £20 tackle voucher for being the Drifter with the best brace.
To finish off the big fish day, Ian Creighton wasn’t going to let his son Jim have all the glory bagging a big rainbow for himself. Ian’s fish weighed 9lbs 10oz.
We did see some good catches too even though it was very bright. From the shore Ken Whiteside took eight trout on a half day ticket. Ken caught them on a white and orange UDF. He said that he had to watch his line as some of the takes were very gentle. Good Angling Ken.
Richard Wincer also finished on eight trout, all caught on dries off bell Point.
Out on the boats Bob Fitzpatrick took seven trout to 4lbs on a sink tip line and a booby /diawl bach combination.
A totally different Ken Whiteside had six fish in half a day this afternoon, whilst drifting over Haigh’s Hollow. I thought this was impressive as Ken fished over a period when the sun was very high in the sky and most anglers had felt the fishing had gone harder. Ken used claret hoppers twiddled back on a floating line. Well done Ken.
Derek Moore added another five trout to his big one giving him a final tally of six. I think Derek was on dries. Tight Lines Ben

DATE:                                Monday May 29th
REPORT AUTHOR           Ben
NOTABLE CATCHES:       10 trout for Jim Hunter
BEST RNB:                        Several @ 3lb
BEST BROWN:                 2lbs Jane Turner
BANK ROD AV:                3.0 fish per angler
BOAT ROD AV:                5.4 fish per angler
Sport: The best action was off the top today. Jim Hunter and Eddie Clarke had thirteen trout to their boat over a five hour session. They said that they many more chances as well and could have come in with more. They only did two long drifts, one from Halstead’s Hike to the Dam and one out of Black House Bay. The caught fish along both drifts all of which came to dries.
Bernard McBride had six trout to the same tactics over the Northern Shallows.
On the Shore the top rod was Colin Riley with nine trout taken from along the east bank near the Spillway. Colin caught his fish on a cat booby fished static on a floating line. Below are two more pictures of big rainbows that were yesterday. Tight Lines Ben

DATE: Sunday 28th May
REPORT AUTHOR Pete
NOTABLE CATCHES: 20 trout for John Brown, 12 fish for Derek Moore, 10 fish for Andy Hargreaves, Bob Fitzpatrick and Dermot Speight
NOTABLE BAG: 5 fishing 12lb 13oz for Dermot Speight
BEST RNB: 11lbs Ian Gaskell, 9lbs 10oz & 10lbs Graham Bell, 9lbs 8oz for George Ashton & 9lb 2oz Tom Connor
BEST BLUE: 5lbs 3oz Dermot Speight
BEST BROWN: 5lb 4oz Ian Gaskell
BANK ROD AV: 6.26 fish per angler
BOAT ROD AV: 6.00 fish per angler
Sport: Today we hosted the final round of the RIO 4’s where 5 teams of 4 anglers took to the water to decide this three stage competition. With £1400 of prize money up for grabs this was always going to be a hottly contested match. After the first two events The Tannahill Raiders held a commanding lead of 9 points with the next nearest team 11 points behind them on 20 points. After 8 hrs of intense competition angling and the fish had been weighed in the 20 anglers had caught 133 fish thats an average of 6.65 fish per angler todays result were as follows
1st- Stocks Harriers with 26 points
2nd Stocks Falcons with 27 points
3rd Tannahill Raiders with 39 points
4th The Hairy Ospreys with 53 points
5th The Merlins with 65 points
But this was only half the story as the main event was the collective scores of all three events. In amongst this was some great individual results John Brown of the Tannahill Raiders was the individual top rod with an absolute cricket score of 20 fish, John found a black snake on the point with an orange blob on the dropper fished on an intermediate line with a fast roly poly retrieve was the recipe for success. There has also been some big fish caught today in the competition Graham Bell had the biggest rainbow tipping the scales at 9lb 10oz and released one at 10lb. Ian Gaskell had a stunning brown trout of 5lb 4oz and released one at 11lb, Dermot Speight had a blue of 5lb 3oz and George Ashton also released a rainbow of 9lb 8oz But back to the overall results of the competition. With a stunning comeback in the last heat and a great team performance and retaining the Rio 4’s title was the Stocks Falcons with 47 points. The Tannahill raiders were pipped into 2nd place with a difference of only 1 point and a total of 48 points unlucky guys. In third with the a superb last heat the Stocks Harriers with 51 points so a really close competition with only 4 points separating the top 3 teams.
1st Stocks Falcons 47 points
2nd Tannahill Raiders 48 points
3rd Stocks Harriers 51 points
4th Hairy Ospreys 74 points
5th The Merlins 100 points
Outside of the competition there were some good catches Phil Rawback and Mark Cromar had 16 fish to the boat all on dries and from the bank Andy Hargreaves caught and released 10 fish from the dam all on crunchers fished on a washing line set up. Stocks continues to fish well with plenty of good catches and big fish coming out think ill be wetting a line tomorrow. See you out there Pete.

DATE:                                Saturday May 27th
REPORT AUTHOR            Ben
NOTABLE CATCHES:       10 trout for David Saville
NOTABLE BAG:                5 fish for 11lbs 8oz David Saville
BEST RNB:                        3lbs fort David Saville
BANK ROD AV:                 N/A
BOAT ROD AV:                 2.80 fish per angler
Sport: The forecast kept a lot of anglers away today. I didn’t get e return handed in from the bank anglers and the boat anglers spent a fair bit of their day in the lodge avoiding the thunder and lightning. We got plenty of thunder and lightning today but only a few heavy showers of rain.
The top rod was David Saville of Oldham Fly Fishing Club who fished superbly to catch ten trout. David fished home tied black buzzer patterns on a floating line and midge tip to catch all ten of his fish. He caught in Newclose, along the Northern Shallows and on the East Bank. David is pictured below with his well-earned trophy for winning top bag from Oldham Fly Fishers. Good Angling.
In second place with four fish all caught on dries was Chris Bradshaw and his boat partner Neil Higham took two on damsel patterns.
It was a very unsettled day with multiple wind changes and weather changes so I am sure it will resettle tomorrow. Tight Lines Ben

From Left to Right: Chris Bradshaw, David Saville & Neil Higham. Good angling guys.

The Air Ambulance Blind Pairs Charity Match that was due to take place on Sunday June 4th has been postponed to a future date yet to be confirmed. Stocks is currently fishing really well and will be open for business as usual on Sunday June 4th. If you would like to reserve a boat call the lodge on 01200 446602. Tight Lines Ben