The results are in for yesterday’s match between The English Fly Fishers and The Bowlanders. It was a very close fought affair with just 5lbs 11oz separating the two teams of 17 anglers. The anglers had to keep their first two fish, they could then catch and release up to six more, each of which would add 2lbs onto the weight of their first two.
The total weight caught by the English Fly Fishers was 252lbs 12oz. The total weight caught by the Bowlanders was 258lbs 6oz.
Thank you to all those who fished for the Bowlanders and helped us retain the trophy. A full set of results are shown below. (Double click the image to enlarge)
DATE: Tuesday 21st May.
REPORT AUTHOR Paul.
NOTABLE CATCH: 19 trout for Steve Ottridge.
NOTABLE BAG 4 trout for 12lbs for Mr ?
BEST RAINBOW: 12lbs 4oz for Ian Peberdy, 12lbs John Clarke, 12lbs Ian Greenwood and 10lbs 4oz Chris McCloud.
BEST BROWN: 4lbs 14oz Ben Dobson.
BEST BLUE: 3lbs 8oz Ben Dobson.
BANK ROD AV: N/A.
BOAT ROD AV: Over 8 fish per angler in competition..
SPORT: Today we hosted the annual competition against the English fly fishers. This is a great competition, very friendly and nice and chilled out. The rules were to take 2 fish then release a further 6. You could carry on fishing after catching your 8 fish. Most anglers caught their 8 fish but i don’t have the results as they are to be announced at a dinner this evening. We will let you know tomorrow. Thanks for a great comp fellas. Also out on the water today and enjoying good sport were Russel McLaren and Mick Tarbet who tempted 21 fish between them. They found boobys their best flies and the causeway to be the best spot. Sam Allen was another angler to record a good catch with 12 fish. Steve Berry and Colin Furness both landed 8 fish with Steve catching well on an orange buzzer and Colin catching on an orange booby. See you on the water Paul.
John Clarke caught this lovely rainbow, estimated at 12lbs, on a dabbler from The Causeway. It was his third fish and he was on a two fish ticket so it was returned to fight another day.
Chris McCloud with a lovely 10lb 4oz Rainbow
Ian Peberdy with the heaviest fish of the day at 12lbs 4oz
DATE: Monday 20th May.
REPORT AUTHOR Paul.
NOTABLE CATCH: 23 for Ricky Newbolt. Several anglers caught 10+ fish.
NOTABLE BAG 5 fish weighing 20lb for Alan Southern.
BEST RAINBOW: 9lb 8oz “Tim” for Alan Southern.
BEST BROWN: 4lb for mike Carr.
BEST BLUE: 8lb 8oz for Paul Davison.
BANK ROD AV: 3.09 fish per angler.
BOAT ROD AV: N/A.
SPORT: Just a quick report tonight, missing loads of return slips so i cant give much boat info. Very warm today with just enough breeze and lots of good catches made. Ricky Newbolt had his best ever day at Stocks landing 23 fish. Ricky caught on several different flies and caught fish from all over the lake, well done Ricky. Alan fugitive hunter Southern was out today and after a few attempts managed to track down “Tim” Tim has been at large for quite a while now but Alan found him lurking in the quiet little corner known as Cooks creek. Tims down fall was a black and red hopper that was taken right off the top and brought Alan the bounty of £5oo. See pic below. Tomorrow we host a competition against The English fly fishers team, its great to see you all again and fingers crossed the fishing will be just as good tomorrow. The comp starts at 10.00 am. See you on the water Paul.
Alan Southern and tagged fish Tim.
DATE: Sunday April 14th
REPORT AUTHOR Paul.
NOTABLE CATCH: Loads of good catches recorded.
NOTABLE BAG 4 fish weighing 11lb 8oz for Ged Fish.
BEST RAINBOW: 13lb for David Auld-12lb for Duncan Watson.
BEST BROWN: 3lb for Bryn.
BEST BLUE: 6lb for Alban Horrocks.
BANK ROD AV: 3.92 fish per angler.
BOAT ROD AV: 11.30 fish per angler.
SPORT: What a day! Great weather and great fishing. There is a lot to go through so here goes. On the bank today was Andy Berry who landed 8 fish with both rainbows and blues falling to his fritz Montana. Andy found an intermediate line to be his best and caught all his fish from Davids drain on the east bank so the long walk was worthwhile. Also on the bank this time in Hollins bay next to the jetty was L Rennberg who caught 12 fish. He caught his fish on an apps bloodworm with a mixture of both rainbows and brownies. Although the bank fishing was good the boat fishing was exceptional. The Boarder Bears fished for a second day and enjoyed some super fishing. Between them they caught even more than yesterday with a combined total of 114 fish between them. They caught on various flies and tactics and caught fish in all areas. They said it has been their best week here so far, thanks for that fellas. They all caught well but here are some of their best catches. Alec Neachy-14 Jim Youngman-12 David Auld-18 including the biggest fish of the day, a 13lb rainbow Jonathan Scott-12 Steve Bird-15 but their top rod went to James Inkpen who caught 21 fish. Good angling guys, great to see you again and hope to see you again soon, thanks. Also out on the boats today were a group from a forum, the Northern monkeys. They too had some super catches. Here are some of their best scores. John Kay caught 8 fish from the Northern shallows on a muddler, Ged Fish landed 11 fish also around the Northern shallows, Anon caught 13 fish all on buzzers from the same area, T Cleary caught 17 and their top rod went to Kevin Dinning with a grand total of 24 fish, once again from the northern shallows. Top angling chaps, glad you all enjoyed your day with us. Thanks. Out of these two groups there were even more good catches recorded, here are some of them. Duncan Watson and Steve Bland had a day afloat and caught 32 fish between them with their biggest fish being a super 12lb rainbow that was caught by Duncan. Both anglers fished all over the top end of the water and found their best tactic was fritz boobys on a di3 sinking line. Jim Hockenhull caught 17 fish also on a booby and he caught well all over the lake. Tom Speak landed a round dozen from the northern shallows with all his fish being caught on buzzers. Ken and Elliot Horrocks caught 48 fish between them. They found willow island to be the hot spot. Sorry if i have missed any one but as you can see it has been a good day to be out fishing. The end. See you on the water Paul.
DATE: Sunday April 14th
REPORT AUTHOR Ben
NOTABLE CATCH: 23 trout for James Inkpen
NOTABLE BAG 4 trout for 12lbs for Mr ?
BEST RAINBOW: 13lbs 8oz for Derek Moore
BEST BROWN: 7lbs to Glen Dolby
BEST BLUE: 10lbs 12oz Derek Moore
BANK ROD AV: 6.25 Fish per angler
BOAT ROD AV: 7.85 Fish per angler
SPORT: It was another brilliant day at Stocks. The place is on fire at the moment. The trout were right up in the water taking dries when it was calm and bow-waving after stripped lures when it was windy. Great fishing! The rain that was forecast never really materialised so it was pretty pleasant out on the water.
It was great to see Jim Youngman and crew down from the borders, they were their cheery selves this morning and they caught a few fish too. They had 89 trout between 9 of them. Their top boat was James Inkpen and Jim Youngman who successfully netted 35 trout. They caught most of them from around the boulders and Curry’s cast on tequila blobs stripped back in the top foot of water. Davey Auld fished the same area to take 16 trout, and he was on a similar method, however a cat cormorant accounted for a fair few of his.
Derek Moore had an absolute red letter day. He was fishing down the Willows and over the northern Shallows with Bob Fitzpatrick. Bob had had some early success with 6 fish on dries and Derek was targeting rising fish with mini lures and stripping it back to induce the take. When I went out on the rib to check on everyone, I caught up with Derek and Bob on the Northern Shallows. Derek was into what was obviously a big fish. His rod was bent double and there were no signs of the head shaking that you associate with the smaller trout. The big fish ran him on a merry dance; I had to tow them back into deeper water twice so that he could continue the fight. The fish did finally succumb to the net. It was a cracking rainbow of 13 to 14lbs. After a quick photo it was returned to fight another day. Shortly after I left them he caught his second double of the day, this time a blue of 10lbs 12oz. This one was bleeding so it was dispatched and taken home for the pot. (See pictures below) Derek and Bob landed 34 trout between them on a mixture of dries and mini lures.
James Dolby was out with his dad Glen once again, and this time they introduced another youngster Jonathan Richardson to our wonderful sport. It was a pretty successful visit Glen had a lovely brownie of 7lbs, Jonathan caught his first ever trout and James added 2oz onto his PB with a rainbow of 3lbs 2oz. (he caught a few others as well including a nice blue). Well done guys.
On the shore Dennis Doogan was top rod and he achieved it in a frantic 2hr session this morning. He fished along Hartley’s and Barn Quarry with static Shipman’s buzzers fished dry at first and allowed to sink. Amongst his 12 fish catch were 4 brownies to two and half pounds. Tight Lines Ben
Scroll down to see all three pictures
Derek Moore caught this 13-14lb rainbow on a cormorant overb the Northern Shallows. It was returned to fight another day.
Amazingly, Derek followed his big rainbow with a blue trout of 10lbs 12oz. This one was not able to be returned.
James Dolby (right) and Jonathan Richardson (Left). James added 2oz onto his PB and Jonathan caught his first trout today on fly.
DATE: Sunday April 14th
REPORT AUTHOR Ben
NOTABLE CATCH: 16 trout for Dennis Doogan and 15 trout for Stuart Pounder
NOTABLE BAG 5 trout for 14lbs for Dennis Doogan
BEST RAINBOW: 10lbs 0oz Paul Ashcroft
BEST BROWN: 2lbs to Rob Shelton
BEST BLUE: 2lbs 9oz to Stuart Pounder
BANK ROD AV: 5.11 Fish per angler
BOAT ROD AV: 5.86 Fish per angler
SPORT: It was mild and overcast, a cracking day for fly fishing. The best catch was made from the shore at Grindy’s Lawn. Dennis Doogan took a total of 16 trout over the day, 14 of which fell to small black CDC hoppers fished dry.
Other anglers also caught well on dries today. Stuart Pounder took to the water by boat and headed towards the calm waters near the Causeway. There were lots of fish rising taking small black buzzers off the surface. Stuart fished a single black F Fly on the surface and over the next hour or so he tempted five trout included a nice blue. He then headed to Gull Island; the wave was bigger here so he opted for a hot headed damsel twitched back fished subsurface. It was a good call and he took another 10 fish to round off great half day session.
Also out on the boats were Ray Bentham and Paul Ashcroft. It was only Paul’s second time fly fishing and with time almost up he hadn’t managed to get hold of anything. They anchored their boat just off Hollins Point and Paul tied on a small Montana. As he was retrieving he got the most gentle of takes and his line slowly tightened and slid away. Fish on! He turned to Ray and said “it’s only a little one” but 10 minutes later they still hadn’t seen it! They were over deep water and the fish kept drilling down under the boat. At one point Ray thought Paul was going to follow it as his whole rod disappeared under the water. Eventually it came up and Ray managed to get the net under a belting rainbow. It tipped the scales to exactly 10lbs. (see pic below)
There were lots of good catches today; Nigel and Andy Percival took 16 trout on washing lined diawl bachs. He caught on both the booby and the diawl bachs. His best areas were Willow Island and the Dam.
Pete Morris took nine on diawl bachs and buzzers whilst bank fishing from Bell Point and Martin Cotton took 7 from the East Bank on buzzers. Long may the good sport continue. Tight Lines Ben
Paul Ashcroft caught this 10lb rainbow on a montana from Hollins Point. Ray Bentham expertly netted it!
DATE: Thursday 16th May.
REPORT AUTHOR Paul.
NOTABLE CATCH: Lots of good catches. See below.
NOTABLE BAG 5 fish weighing 15lb 8oz for Steve Mountain.
BEST RAINBOW: 9lb 8oz for David Notman.
BEST BROWN: 7lb 8oz for Steve Mountain.
BEST BLUE: 3lb for Ian Butterworth.
BANK ROD AV: 6.36 fish per angler.
BOAT ROD AV: 7.50 fish per angler.
SPORT: Today started off very good with light winds some cloud cover and warm then this afternoon we saw a mixture of sunshine, hail and rain. There were good catches made again today with both bank and boat anglers enjoying good sport. On the bank was Ian Butterworth who caught 10 fish including some good blue trout. Ian fished opposite the fishing lodge in Hollins bay to take his fish with his best pattern being a black and green fritz lure. Also on the bank landing 8 fish each were Bernard Helsby and Mick Whiteside. They fished from Bens beach and Hollins bay with both anglers finding a variety of lures effective. Also enjoying good sport from the bank was Steve Mountain who caught 15 fish with the biggest being a brownie weighing 7lb 8oz. Steve caught all his fish on a snatcher with his best areas being along Hartleys and Bell point. Out on a boat today were Neil Parkinson and David Notman who caught 21 fish between them including a super rainbow that tipped the scales to 9lb 8oz, almost a double. They fished in the northern shallows and found washing lined diawl bach to be their best tactic. Today Derek Moore, Paul Davison, Bob Cooper and Bob Fitzpatrick decided to have a dry fly competition with Derek in with Bob F and Paul in with Bob C. They fished all around the northern shallows with various dry flies and guess what? Both teams landed 23 fish! Great fishing and nice to see such good catches on dry flies, hopefully this will continue. See you on the water Paul.
DATE: Wednesday 15th May
REPORT AUTHOR Dan
NOTABLE CATCH: 15 fish for Andrew Bentley
NOTABLE BAG
BEST RAINBOW: Several weighing 3lb
BEST BROWN: 2.5lb for Bernie Hartnett
BEST BLUE:
BANK ROD AV:
BOAT ROD AV: 9.5 fish per angler.
SPORT
Cold, wet and at times wintery first thing this morning with the odd dash of hail which begs the question are we actually in May?! We saw a change around at approx 2.30pm as skies cleared leaving a dry spring-like atmosphere and with the delightful chorus of a cuckoo heard in the trees behind the jetty area.
Six brave adventurers went out in search of fish from the boat today and here is how they got on…..
Peter Kirby-Smith had three fish to the boat using buzzers on a floating line.
Bernie Hartnett had his best day thus far at Stocks taking a 5 fish bag away with him (weight unspecified). Bernie tempted them on a hot headed damsel fished on a floating line in newclose and off the east bank at Currys I believe. Well done.
Stewart McCaughey had 10 fish to the boat using a DI3 line with a yellow/green fritz type fly. Nice work.
Andrew Straton came in next with 11 fish to the boat in total. He was fishing a silver humongous, a green/black lure and a cats whisker all on a sink tip line. Good angling the Andrew!
Peter Andrews had 13 fish today and was using buzzers and two boobies fished on an SSI. Great stuff another good result!
Andrew Bentley was top rod today by two fish with 15 in total. He used a cats whisker and diawl bachs fished on a DI3 and a Cortland blue. Well done Andrew another good days sport for you also.
Things are still as they have been it seems, despite the rough cold weather the fish are still fighting fit and there to be had in excellent numbers. Tomorrows weather looks good, fingers crossed!
Tight Lines…
Dan
DATE: Tuesday 14th May.
REPORT AUTHOR Paul.
NOTABLE CATCH: 5 fish for Mike Barber.
NOTABLE BAG 2 fish weighing 5lb for Mike Barber.
BEST RAINBOW: Several weighing 2lb 12oz.
BEST BROWN: N/A.
BEST BLUE: 2lb 12oz for Alex Blore.
BANK ROD AV: 3.00 fish per angler.
BOAT ROD AV: 2.66 fish per angler.
SPORT: It was a day of two halves with the weather. This morning we saw sunshine and hail and sleet then this afternoon the sun shone and it was quite pleasant. I think the weather this morning kept a few anglers away but those that did venture out enjoyed some reasonable sport. Out on a boat today were Mike Barber and Bob Swann who headed off to Newclose bay for a short half day session and as well as the 8 fish they landed, they lost and missed others. Both Mike and Bob found an olive damsel to be their best fly. Fishing from the bank today was Alex Blore who caught 3 trout from between Bell point and 2 trees. Alex tried a variety of flies but found his best to be the ever popular cats whisker. The phones are down at Bank house so any one wanting to fish tomorrow should just turn up, it is fishing well at the moment and hopefully the phone will be fixed by tomorrow morning. See you on the water Paul.
DATE: Monday May 13th
REPORT AUTHOR Ben
NOTABLE CATCH: 5 fish for Keith White, Ray Bentham, L Young and K Giblin
NOTABLE BAG 3 trout for 6lbs 15oz L Young and K Giblin
BEST RAINBOW: 3lbs for Jack Leyland
BEST BROWN: 2lbs 15oz Mr G Sutherland
BEST BLUE: 2lbs 8oz Mr A Brown
BANK ROD AV: 2.5 Fish per angler
BOAT ROD AV: 2.9 Fish per angler
SPORT: It was very windy on the reservoir today, with the odd hail storm thrown in as well and this determined where the anglers could comfortably fish. Just about everyone opted for the west side of the lake, particularly Newclose Bay, Hollins to Barn Quarry and Grindy’s Lawn.
It was the Ferry Fly Dresser’s last day at Stocks and as they had a long journey this afternoon they were all on half day tickets. Between them they fished a variety of lines and flies but the one consistent thing I kept hearing them say was that the fish were tight into the margins. They caught a total of 30 trout between them, not bad at all considering many of them stopped fishing when they had reached three. It was a shame their trip was accompanied with such poor weather but they have caught plenty of fish and have been a pleasure as always. Safe travels fellas. Their result are shown below.
K Giblin 3 fish for 6lbs 15oz
A Brown 3 fish for 6lbs 15oz
G Sutherland 3 fish for 6lbs 8oz
J Wood 3 fish for 6lbs 6oz
D Borthwick 3 fish 6lbs 5oz
L Young 3 fish for 6lbs 0oz
E Bonar 3 fish for 6lbs 0oz
W Thompson 3 fish for 5lbs 10oz
K Dickinson 2 fish for 4lbs 4oz
D West 2 fish for 4lbs 0oz
A Laurie 1 fish for 2lbs 3oz
J Doyle 1 fish for 2lbs 2oz
Outside the fly dresser’s party Ray Bentham took his boat to Grindy’s Lawn and took five good rainbows on a black cat fished on a floating line. Once again this was in just a short session.
Just four anglers fished the shore today once again all were on half day tickets. They caught a total of 10 fish between them.
The best catch went to Keith White who tempted five trout to red headed diawl bachs fished on a floater, whilst fishing his way back from Newclose.
Dave Fitton landed three rainbows whilst fishing the same area and he too caught them all on diawl bachs.
PS. If you would like to accompany Bob Swan from Castle Feathers Fly Tying Materials in a boat tomorrow, he’ll be in lodge at around 9:30am. He’s looking for a boat partner for the day. Tight Lines Ben
