Fly Fishing Reports

Date                                     Friday 1st May
Report by                          Matthew
Best Catch                         16 fish for Peter Holland
Best Bag Weighed in      Five fish for 24lb Peter Holland
Best Rainbow                  15lb 8oz Peter Holland
Best Brown                       Ian King for 4lb 8oz
Bank Average                 4.87 fish per angler
Boat Rod Average        5.73 fish per angler
Sport:  Despite the dismal weather forecast things panned out pretty nicely indeed. Peter Holland and Craig Tattum had a good day with various flies doing the trick, most notably white boobies and traditional wets. Pete thought he was into a good fish drifting the east bank and he was right. However his initial estimate when it turned on the surface of 7lb, fell very short indeed! After a good battle the stunning rainbow tipped the scales at 15lb 8oz. Pete found the fish keen to chase his booby fished on the Di 7 with the first couple of pulls producing the takes. Between them they finished with 23 fish. (Photo to follow of Pete’s lovely Rainbow). Elsewhere on the water our very own Peter had a good session with 12 fish again willing to chase his orange blob. Pete found fish in Newclose.  Newclose bay has seen few boats recently while the shallows have been fishing so well, it’s very likely to turn back on again as things continue to get warmer. Steve Hilton had a good 15 fish to his boat with a combination of Olive Nomads and Black fritz patterns doing the trick. Steve took the most of his fish from Hollins Bay. Another good score from the boats came to Peter Hill with a very credible 12 fish in a half-day session. Peter found that there is still plenty of fish to be had drifting on to Willow Island. Good Angling Pete!
On the bank today another double! Mick Whiteside had an incredible fish of 16lb.
Mick tempted the specimen rainbow from Bell Point to a Zonker pattern fished slowly on a floater. Mick has a canny way of always catching big fish, come to think of it so does his brother Ken! Must be in the blood!
The little clip below is of another chap who catches big fish a staggering four doubles in one half-day session!!
Tight lines Matthew

Mick and his 16lb rainbow

Peter Holland 16lb rainbow

Date                                          Thursday 30th April.

Report by                               Paul.
Best Catch                              14 fish for Alistair Beaumont.

Best Bag Weighed in          1 fish weighing 15lb for Bill Orell.

Best Rainbow                       17lbs for Bill Orrell (one of six double caught today!)

Best Brown                           10lbs for Bill Orrell

Best Blue                                Several weighing 2lb 8oz.

Bank Average                      2.9 fish per angler.

Boat Rod Average             4.7  fish per angler.

Sport: Although the weather wasn’t very good here today the fishing certainly was, with some good catches recorded and some huge fish landed. On the bank today was Stocks regular Bill Orrell who landed not 1 but 4 double figure trout. Bill caught a total of 11 fish including a 10lb brownie and rainbows weighing 13lb, 15lb and17lb, an impressive catch in just half a days fishing. Bill caught his fish from Hollins bay with the deadly pattern being an orange lure, well-done Bill! Another angler to land a Stocks double was Roger Dandridge who caught a super 14lb 7oz rainbow that also came from Hollins bay. Roger caught his giant fish using a floating line and a home tied white cats whisker. On the boats Alistair Beaumont took the top catch with a credible 14 fish. Alistair caught his fish on a floating line and various wet flies with several areas being productive for Alistair including the northern shallows and the willows on the east bank. Hywel Morgan was out on the water today with Paul Davidson and they too had great sport whilst taking photos for a magazine article. They caught fish on allsorts of methods and in many areas with dry flies taking their fair share of fish.

On a sad note it is with regret that I give you the news of the passing away of a great friend and great angler, Mr Duncan Hesketh. Duncan will be much missed by all the staff here at Stocks and I am sure many of the anglers that had become great friends with him over the many years that Duncan came fishing here. Duncan was known for his angling prowess and his cheery disposition, there was always time for a chat and a joke with Duncan. Our thoughts are with his family at this time. Duncan Hesketh, a gentleman and a friend… See you on the water Paul.

Bill Orrell 15lb 2oz Rainbow

Date    Wednesday 29th April
Report by    Matthew
Best Catch    17 fish for Paul Davison
Best Bag Weighed in    2 fish for 7lb Michael Tat lock
Best Rainbow
Best Brown
Best Blue    5lb Michael Tatlock
Several for 2lb 8oz
Bank Average    2.48 fish per angler
Boat Rod Average    3.42 fish per angler
Sport: Generally speaking things have been a little trickier today.
The heavy rains have altered the Ph slightly and that coupled with a new wind direction adds up to tougher conditions. Never the less things started to pick up in the afternoon. Paul Davison had 17 fish drifting the middle basin. The bulk of his catch came to dries and nymphs.
Peter Andrews wasn’t too far behind with 15 good fish. Peter found the fish eager to chase his cats whisker with the Northern Shallows been the top spot.
Buzzers and Cormorants doing the trick from the shore with Bens Beach and Hartley’s fishing well. This afternoon Ben stocked some more amazing specimen fish with a good number of them at 15lb +!  The weather forecast looks pretty promising at the moment so it is certainly worth wetting a line.
Tight lines Matthew.

Date                                      Monday 27th April
Report by                           Paul
Best Catch                          22 Fish by Geoff Thomas
Best Bag Weighed in       2 fish for15lb 4oz by Elliot Horrocks
Best Rainbow                   13lbs by Elliot Horrocks
Best Brown                       3lbs 2oz Ian Porman
Best Blue                            several @ 2lbs
Bank Average                  6.0 fish per angler
Boat Rod Average         To follow

Sport: Today saw the annual fire service competition with 42 anglers taking part and there were some excellent catches recorded and some cracking fish landed. The top pair were the Isle of Man anglers Geoff Thomas and Ian Gregson who landed a staggering total of 37 trout between them. Geoff and Ian found fish in several areas but their most productive spot was the Willows on the East bank. Both anglers found orange blobs and damsels effective, but they did say that the trout were lying within just a few feet from the shore. Unfortunately we do not have the full set of results, however we will post them tomorrow. The biggest fish taken was a super 13lb rainbow that tempted by junior angler Elliot Horrocks. Once hooked this giant fish flew out of the water and took off making Elliot jump out of his skin. A tense 15-minute battle followed before it was finally netted. Good Angling! (See the picture below)
The bank fished well today the best areas were Newclose Bay, Bell point and Hollins Bay with Cats whiskers, olive fritz lures and boobies all taking there fair share of fish. See you on the water Paul

Elliot Horrocks with a cracking 13lb rainbow

Date                                   Sunday 26th April
Report by                       Ben
Best Catch                       18 Fish by Geoff Thomas
Best Bag Weighed in    5 fish for18lb 12oz by Dave Jones
Best Rainbow                    10lbs 4oz Dave Jones
Best Brown                      3lbs John Ashworth
Best Blue                         4lb 8oz by Geoff Thomas
Bank Average              2.7 fish per angler
Boat Rod Average      5.2 fish per angler

Sport: Today we hosted a bank match between Horwich and Windermere fishing clubs. The conditions weren’t perfect this morning, there was bright sunshine and a stiff breeze. As we all say “bright ‘n’ breezy never easy”. However the cloud did come after lunch and even though the air temperature dropped there was some good sport to be had. Brian Grey from Horwich anglers showed everyone how it was done with 10 trout to the net over the course of the day. Brian opted for the East Bank and took most of his fish on a damsel. Also fishing for Horwich was Dave Jones who built up a cracking bag of fish that tipped the scales to 18lbs 12oz and included a rainbow of 10lbs 4oz. This helped Horwich to an average weight of 4lbs 5oz per angler and to a victory over Windermere whose average weight was 3lbs 10oz. Also on the bank were Steven Lind and Rich Murray who landed 18 trout between them. Blobs were their best patterns and they caught from various areas.
Out on the boats the sport was a bit hotter, but like on the bank, we had some mixed results with some anglers catching loads of fish whilst others struggled. Best boat was Geoff Thomas and Ian Gregson from the Isle of Mann who landed a staggering 33 trout of the day. I am not sure of their tactics but they fished all over the Northern part of the reservoir. In the Northern Shallows was John Ashworth He to was amongst the fish with 13 brown and rainbows to 3lbs. Once again I missed him leaving so I am not sure of his tactics. Tight Lines Ben

Dave Jones with his 10lb 4oz Rainbow

Date    Saturday 25th April
Report by    Pete
Best Catch    17 Fish by Carl Nixon
Best Bag Weighed in    18lb 4oz by John Whitham
Best Rainbow                8lb by Peter Tozer
Best Brown                     16lb 4oz by John Whitham
Best Blue                         4lb by Mr Hornsby
Bank Average    4.38 fish per angler
Boat Rod Average    4.17 fish per angler
Sport: I think we’ve had it all today windy this morning a short spell of rain and a beautiful afternoon and evening. The sport has been good throughout with some cracking scores coming from both the boat and the bank. On the boats Stocks G-Tec anglers Carl Nixon and Steven Welsh had a cracking days angling catching and releasing 27 trout between them with Carl taking top rod with 17 fish both Carl ans Stevie found black Diawl bachs their top pattern and Newclose Bay the best area to fish. Also in Newclose Ian Gaskell had a good days angling with a total of 11 fish he also found the trout eager to take his diawl bachs and boobies fished on a washing line. The honours on the boat today have to go to John Whitham who whilst fishing the alders on a Cortland blue intermediate with a yellow and black tadpole hooked into the fish of a lifetime and when after a hard battle he managed to land the leviathan he found he had caught the second largest brown trout ever caught in stocks which tipped the scales at 16lb 4oz a record for an over-wintered fish and just 8oz short of the official record, excellent angling John!!! On the bank today Gary Carruthers  was amongst the fish again landing eleven trout from Bell Point hoe found a black fritz his top pattern. Top Bank Angler though goes to George Waters who had a haul of 12 fish including a five fish limit of 13lb 8oz. George found a damsel pattern his top pattern. With the temperature staying warm tomorrow and only slight winds forecast the fishing should be excellent again with hatches of daddies and large hatches of large black buzzers on the water this evening. Tight lines Pete

John Whitham 16lb 4oz brown

Date    Friday 24th April.
Report by    Matthew
Best Catch    23 for Geoff Thomas
Best Bag Weighed in    5 fish for 13lb Anthony Jones
Best Rainbow
Best Brown
4lb 2oz Anthony Jones
Several for 2lb 8oz.
Bank Average     6.2 fish per angler.
Boat Rod Average     8.5 fish per angler.
Sport some amazing sport once again with the fish continuing to chase flies. It seems that you get loads of interest stripping them across the surface but as soon as you get the flies just under a little the fish chase and hook up! Fishing buddies Dave, Steve, and Frank had 36 fish to the boat! they too found the fish on the chase with the bulk of the fish coming from the Northern Shallows.
Scores of 8 plus pretty common today, with everyone enjoying the frantic action on either blobs or boobies.
Ged Oxley had them up in the water from Bell Point with mini Cats boobies landing him 14 trout. Although pulling has had the Lions share today Crunchers, Diawl baches and buzzers have caught fish too.
Geoff Thomas took top rod honours with a staggering 23 fish. After targeting rising fish with less traditional methods Geoff went on the dries to tempt a Rainbow of 15lb 8oz! A staggering fish in any case but on the dries?? Wow that’s Fishing!
Tight lines Matthew

Sport There were good conditions for fishing today with overcast skies, reasonable temperatures, a gentle ripple and calm lanes containing rising trout. There were some great catches recorded today both from the bank and the boats including a quality10 fish catch for Ken Whiteside. Ken landed rainbows to 9lb, blues to 4lb and browns to 3lb! Ken found several areas productive including Bens beach and Hartley’s with his best flies being a Zonker and a cats whisker lure. Ray Entwistle landed 7 fine rainbows from Hollins bay with a fritz lure working well for Ray. Colin Newman and Ian King enjoyed a hectic 3-hour session landing 11 and 14 trout respectively. They fished in Hollins bay near the jetty to take their fish with both Montana and black pennell being successful patterns. Our very own Matt Taylor was out in a boat this afternoon with Peter Hill and between them they landed a staggering 35 fish. According to Matt the Northern shallows were alive with fish willing to chase a combination of blobs and booby’s pulled on an intermediate or slime line. Another successful boat pairing was Andy and Ray (I didn’t catch their sur-names) who landed 15 trout between them. They found fish in all areas of the reservoir including Grindys, Curry’s, the Northern shallows and off both Willow and Gull Islands. After catching in the morning on washing line tactics they switched in the afternoon to sinking lines and booby’s and caught well on that tactic as well. Check out the Bank House report below and see a stocking of giant trout. Happy b-day RW. See you on the water Paul.

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    Wednesday 22nd April
Report by    Matthew
Best Catch    22 fish for John Forster
Best Bag Weighed in    5 fish for 13lb 8oz
Best Rainbow
Best Brown
Best Blue    10lb 8oz J. Lang
Several for 2lb 10oz
2lb for Mr Latham
Bank Average    2.5 fish per angler
Boat Rod Average    5.5 fish per angler
Sport: Some good sport all around today with John Forster leading the way with 22 fish! John found the bulk of his catch along the Northern Shallows, drifting to the shore then edging along a little. John found that the fish were keen to chase and his top patterns were Cat’s whiskers and Cormorants. Frank Hartley had a half-day session with 8 fish. Frank found that if he targeted rising trout with his Cat’s booby they often chased it. Regular Float tuber Philip King found that the stealthy approach along the Willows was key to his success. Again rising trout were well worth targeting. The warmer weather is certainly becoming more constant and the surface feeding fish are going to be making a large presence. A little quieter of the bank today, with buzzers and Boobies doing the trick from Bell Point. Other areas worth a look were two trees and Hollins.
Take a look at the new video below, another little snippet from Paul Bebb!
Tight lines Matt