Date: Sunday March 28th to Sunday April 4th
Report Author: Ben
Best Catch: 15 trout for Mr P Johnson
Heaviest Bag of 4: 16lbs 8oz Bob Fitzpatrick
Best Rainbow: 10lbs Bob Fitzpatrick
Best Brownie: 13lbs Mr P Johnson
Bank Rod Av: 4.41 fish per man
Sport: On Sunday 28th we held our annual Trout Masters fish off. This year three juniors and 12 seniors took to the water to win the opportunity to represent Bank House Fly Fishery in the grand final at Grafham Water.
There were fish caught right from the off with Ian Ritchie, Bob Fitzpatrick, Dave Watts and Ian Rose all catching well. Ian Ritchie fished an apps worm on a long leader to take a fish off his first three pegs, Bob worked an orange hackled cats back on a floater to temp four fish by lunch and Dave was catching well on an egg under the bung. In the afternoon a late surge from Martin Crombie meant that he, Bob, Ian and Dave were all going into the last peg with six trout a piece. It was a nail biting finale which ended in a weigh off between Ian Ritchie and Bob Fitzpatrick who had both landed a total of eight trout. Ian’s bag included a 6lb brownie, but Bob’s included a 10lb rainbow that saw him into first place. However due to a clash of dates for Bob Ian will be the well deserved Bank House representative at Grafham in May. We wish him the best of luck.
The junior match was also very closely contested Alex Preston did very well with two fine trout by lunch time. However Brandon Mellie’s two tipped the scales that bit further and that saw him through to the grand final. Good angling.
The fishing has been very good this week the trout are now coming well to black buzzers, hare’s ears and small black wets. Roger Masefield had a great day with 13 trout to a Black Pennel but the best catch went to Pete Johnson who fished a Minkie on a floater to take 15 fish. His catch included a 13lb brownie and a 7lb rainbow.
If you are planning to visit us this week don’t rule out dries we are starting to see a lot more surface action. Tight Lines Ben
Date: Sept 14th to Sept 23rd Report by Ben
Best Rainbow 16lbs caught by Tim Hudders
Best Brown 7lbs caught by Mr P Baines
Heaviest 4 fish 4 fish for 35lbs by Colin Gibbons
Best Catch (No. Fish) 12 fish for Steve Carter
Rod Average 3.33 fish per angler
Sport: Bank House has fished really well over the last week or so with a variety of methods producing good bags of fish. The trout are mainly feeding on small black buzzers that have been hatching off at regular intervals. But they are also taking a variety terrestrials that are falling with the autumn leaves and sedges that have been emerging mainly in the evenings. The variety of food stuffs available may explain why such a variety of different methods are working. I have been targeting the buzzer feeders with a variation of the washing line rig. A small black dry such as a Griffith Gnat replaces the usual booby on the point and small black buzzers take the dropper places. If the gnat on the point sinks that I just try to fish it static as it slowly sinks through the water. This is a deadly method that will probably continue work well throughout the winter months.
The best catch taken over the last week was caught by Steve Carter who used a completely different tactic. Steve used a bibio blob to pull the trout away from their regular food supply and it was very effective. Steve found feeding trout under patches of floating leaves. However they were difficult to target as his flies were easily lost amongst the litter. The disturbance made by a bushy fly, like the bibio blob, pulled back just under the surface was too much for 12 fine trout to resist and many others considered it as they chased it in.
The best bag was taken by Colin Gibbons whose first fish of the day tipped the scales to 14lbs content with his first Bank House double Colin returned to the water to take a second trout of 13lbs 8oz! He then added to more rainbows of 4lbs 8oz and 3lbs to lift his four fish bag weight to a staggering 35lbs! Colin’s bumper bag fell to mini cats whisker and sunk daddy long legs. Colin caught two of the 7 double figure trout to be caught since September 14th.
Tight Lines Ben
Date April 1st to April 23rd
Report by Ben
Best Catch 32 trout for Mr R Taylor from Leyland
Best Rainbow 16lbs for Mr Duncan Cannon
Best Brown 8lbs for Mr B Little from Carlisle
Rod Average 4.2 fish per man
Sport: Bank House has fished really well over the past three weeks. The water visibility is very good so a stealthy approach has paid off. It is possible to actually sneak round the water and do a spot of stalking at the moment. Buzzer and bloodworm have both fished well, either on a long line, under the bung, or my personal favourite, on a washing line rig. The best catch by Mr Taylor was caught on the ever-effective cat’s whisker.
Over the last couple of days we have seen a change with daddy long legs and CDC buzzers have taking some cracking catches and sub surface damsels have scored well. If you fancy a go on the dries a couple of my favourite patterns for Bank House are Whikham’s Fancy and Cochy Bondu. I had a quick dip net into margins and the lakebed is wick with aquatic insects. The most abundant species were, caddis nymphs, bloodworm, alder fly larva, chironomid larva, damsel nymphs, freshwater shrimps and corixa. Alderfly larva are particularly numerous so for those that tie it might be worth tying up an imitation or two. Lastly, we stocked some belting fish today check out the photos below. Tight Lines Ben
Date: February 18th to 25th Report by Ben
Best Rainbow 13lbs for Mr J Waghorn
Heaviest 4 fish 13lbs 4oz Mr D McAllister
Best Catch (No. Fish) 19 trout for Mr David Harrison
Rod Average 3.7 fish per man
Sport: Bank House has fished well over the last week. The stats above don’t really show the full story as there has been a lot of big fish returned on sporting tickets. We have been getting quite a few over-wintered brownies caught and returned, the best of which was estimated around the14lb mark. Lytham’s ever consistent Mr David Harrison took the best catch of the week with 19 trout. David kept on the move working his way around the fishery with a cat’s whisker fished on an intermediate line. On this day (24th) the fish were in the mood for chasing and it was a fast strip retrieve that did most damage. Joe Spence from Lancaster used a similar method to take 16 trout just a few days earlier.
As the water in Bank House turns over every 48hrs or so, it responds very quickly to changes in the weather and the water temperature can fluctuate quite considerably over the course of a week. This means that the trout’s behaviour changes too so it important to vary your retrieve and the depth that your flies are fishing until you find the killer method. Last week in the calm conditions we even had some great catches on small black dries! I will be stocking some more specimens before the weekend so the sport should be exciting. Finally Ken Whiteside also had a good catch last week, he took 15 fine trout on a fly he calls the bugs bunny. I have no idea what that looks like so “that’s all folks” tight lines Ben
The best tactics at Bank House Fly Fishery at the moment depend upon the water clarity. If the water is very clear and then buzzers and nymphs will score well. In cold, frosty conditions the bung will probably out fish other methods but on the more mild days you will catch well just free ling them or fishing them on the washing line. If there is some colour in the water then brighter beaded flies are a better substitute for the nymphs or another method is black n green lures tweaked along the bottom on floating lines. I will be stocking some cracking specimens before the weekend so I wouldn’t recommend fishing less than 6lb tippet.
Have a look at the new virtual tour on the bank house page. If it doesn’t open first time re-click the side link whilst the black pop up is being displayed.
Tight Lines Ben Dobson
