Fly Fishing Reports

Date:                             Monday May 31st
Report Author:               Ben
Best Catch:                        14 trout for Andy Cooper and for Phil Green
Heaviest Bag:                   5 fish weighing 14lbs 8oz Andy Harrison
Best Rainbow:                  9lbs for John Sykes
Best Brownie:                   10lbs 10oz Phil Green
Bank Rod Av:                   2.7 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:                   4.7 trout per angler
Sport: It was a cracking day to fish on Stocks. The skies were largely overcast and the easterly wind never got up too much to cause a problem. There were great catches from all over the reservoir; the fish were high in the water and feeding on small black buzzers. The best catch went to Andy Cooper and Phil Green who got off to a flying start this morning when the breeze was from a more northerly direction. They took one long drift from curry’s cast right down the East Bank to Halstead’s Hike. Over the course of this drift they landed a staggering 21 trout. They fished ghost tip floaters with a damsel on the point and a blob on the top dropper. The trick was to roly-poly the flies just under the surface. Their catch included six brownies the best weighing 10lbs 10oz, five Blues to 3lbs and 10 rainbows to 4lbs. When they tried to repeat the drift the wind had swung around to the east and pushed them away from the shore. They still managed to finish the day with 28 trout. Over by Gull Island John Sykes was also enjoying good sport. John used a Montana nymph to tempt 11 trout the best was a rainbow that tipped the scales to 9lbs (pictured below). John said that there was a lot of fish in this area.
On the bank George Richardson was top rod with 9 fine rainbows and browns. John caught all of these on a half day ticket. He used a very skinny black taddy on the point and small black buzzers on the droppers. He fished them on a floating line by Two Trees and I can say that the buzzers out fished the taddy two to one. We had lots of other good catches today on dries. Steve Band, to name one, drifted across the main basin to tempt nine solid hook ups and lots of other splashy takes that didn’t connect. Tight Lines Ben

John Sykes with a cracking 9lb Stocks Rainbow

Date:                             Sunday May 30th
Report Author:                  Ben
Best Catch:                           7 trout for Nigel Blackley
Heaviest Bag:                      5 fish weighing 11lbs Nigel Blakely
Best Rainbow:                     Several at 3lbs
Best Brownie:                      Several at 2lbs
Bank Rod Av:                      3.5 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:                       3.0 trout per angler
Sport: It was surprisingly quiet on Stocks today as Bank House was busy. I think everyone was trying to escape the stiff southerly wind! Apart from Nigel Blakely, all the anglers that had the best catches today didn’t hand their returns so their catches have not been included in the rod average. I do know that two anglers fishing in Newclose used slow sinkers to retrieve boobies and they had caught 12 trout by lunchtime but I am afraid that is all I tell you. Nigel fished from bell point with olive and orange gold headed lures to tempt his 7 trout. He too used an SSI line with a slow retrieve. He started out getting lots of nips and pulls but couldn’t convert them into fish. He suspected they were biting at the long marabou tail so he shortened it and sure enough trout started to take hold. Good angling.
The Dam area and Newclose Bay are still fishing well and I stocked Hollins Bay this morning with some fine trout so I am sure that whole area will fish well tomorrow. The wind has dropped off already so the conditions are looking much better for the morning. Tight Lines Ben

Best Catch:    15 fish by Paul Bebb
Heaviest Bag:     5 fish weighing 12lb by Stuart Morgan
Best Rainbow:    7lb by Neil Smith
Best Brownie:    3lb Stuart Morgan
Bank Rod Av:    3.57 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:    4.00 trout per angler
Sport: Today was wet but mild with only a light breeze and this meant the fish were on the feed. Stocks Guide Paul Bebb was on the water with Stuart Morgan and they had a bumper session with 20 fish to the boat. They found the fish keen to chase black boobies on slow sinking lines with Blackhouse Bay and the Buoy line being their top areas. Also on the boats Paul Taylor had a Hectic half days fishing with 5 cracking trout from the dam and spillway. The biggest fish of the day also came from the boats with Neil Smith catching and releasing a stunning 7lb rainbow which stripped him down to the backing on 3 occasions. On the bank Mr Whittle lead the way with 8 trout including a brown of 4lb and a rainbow of 5lb he found a white fritz lure to be his top pattern and Hartleys and Bell Point to be his best areas. Also on the bank regular Peter Atkinson had 4 fish, 3 of which were brownies all on a bibio. And just to prove the old patterns can still work Geoff Casson had 3 fish all of which fell to a classic the Ace Of Spades. With a drier, warmer day tomorrow the fishing should be better than ever. See you in the lodge Pete

Today we hosted tha Airflo Classic bank match and with the chance of a Full England cap up for grabs the competition was fierce

3x Teams + 9 Individuals fished today in very tough conditions.
Hot sunshine with strong winds made for a grewler of a match.

Jamie Hogg took top Individual spot securing his place in the final at Elinor along with Pete  Scholes in second.

Individuals.

1st. Jamie Hogg.
2nd. Peter Scholes.
3rd. John Hood.
4th. Gary Hyde.

3rd + 4th place finishers will need to wait untill all qualifiers are complete to find out if they’ve made it through.

Team results.

Only first place will be Going through to the final.

1st. The three Amigo’s.
Sam Baylie. Jamie Hogg. Peter Scholes.

2nd. Rainbow Warriors.

John Hood, Mark Tyndall,Phil Burgess

3rd. Prince Albert Falcons.{ fished a man down }.

Graham Kennely and Terry Phillips

Sport: We have had changeable weather here today, it has been mostly dry and sunny but we did see the odd shower this morning, the strengthening wind has been blowing from the south. There were some good catches made and some super trout caught with plenty of rainbows weighing in at the 4lb mark but the biggest was caught by Andy Pollard who tempted a Stocks double with a super 10lb plus fish. Andys huge trout along with several others was caught from Hollins bay and fell for a booby. There were some great catches from the boats today with a lot of trout being caught from the east side of the reservoir including the Alders, Blackhouse bay and ten acre foot. Richard Hood and Tom Bird landed a total of 20 trout between them. They found several areas along the east bank productive and caught their fish on a variety of patterns including blobs pulled fast and nymphs fished almost static. Mike Brown and Matt Eastham caught 15 fish in their boat. Matt and Mike found fish in a good few areas but found Newclose bay to be their best spot, with dabbler patterns attracting their trout. Rob Denson and Colin Riach both landed 15 trout each as did Alex? and Stuart? with various dabbler and wet patterns accounting for the majority of their fish. There were other fantastic catches made from the boats, too many to mention, as you can see sport was brilliant today. See you on the water Paul.

Date:    Wednesday 26th May
Report Author:    Matthew
Best Catch:    12 fish for Pete Nevin and John Calvert
Heaviest Bag:     5 fish weighing 18lb 20z Phil Burges
Best Rainbow:    8lb Phil Burgess
Best Brownie:    3lb Gary Allen
Bank Rod Av:    1.89 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:    5.40 trout per angler
Sport: A good day once again with fish coming to almost every method! First thing the fish were confident to hit the dries with John Calvert picking up 6 fish.  As the day wore on the fish became tricky to hook and decided they wanted to chase instead! John’s boat partner Phil Burgess finished the day with 11 fish with the bulk of the haul coming to mini lures fished just sub surface. Between them they had 21 fish in the boat with fish coming from every stretch of the water!
Gary Allen and Stuart Lawrence finished the day on 16 fish. Once again the fish were had on dries, boobies and blobs! The guy’s said the fish were keen to chase this afternoon and that Gull Island and Grindy’s lawn were the top spots.
Pete Nevin and Steve Ainsworth enjoyed similar success with 19 to the boat, a real pattern emerging here with them too catching on all sorts!
It seems that first thing the fish are confident taking the dries, maybe it’s that the sun hasn’t quite got up, one things for sure when they stop looking at the dries some awesome sport can be had pulling!
Tight lines Matthew.

Date:    Tuesday 25th May
Report Author:    Pete
Best Catch:    21 Fish by John Hood
Heaviest Bag:     5 fish weighing 13lb by Mr Jackson
Best Rainbow:    4lb by Dennis Dougan
Best Brownie:    2lb by Mark Wilson
Bank Rod Av:    2.43 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:    8.75 trout per angler
Sport: Wow 8.75 fish average on the boats!! Thats awesome. It just shows what a difference little bit of cloud can make. Today was a lot cloudier and cooler and this definitely suited the fish as the patrolled the surface for terrestrials, John Hood found a washing line Method to his liking and cast it at rising fish with maximum effect catching 21 fish in only 5 hours, excellent angling john. Also on the boats Rod Denson was on the water with a group of anglers from the Fly Forum between 8 of them they had near on 100 fish with Black Hoppers and black Bobs bits being the top Patterns and down the middle of the main basin being one of their top areas along with Ten Acre Foot and the willows. On the bank Mark Wilson was again amongst the fish with 6 fish all in a mornings work. Again the washing line with a cats booby proving deadly. Mark fished from bell point in to Hartleys to take his fish. With the weather remaining much the same for the rest of the week the dry fly fishing is just going to be amazing. I cant wait to get on the water myself and sample some of this awesome action. See you out there Pete.

Sport: The weather was great again here today, very warm and bright but there were still fish moving on the surface. The best catch of the day went to Bank angler Mark Wilson who landed 11 fish. Mark fished at Bell Point and found the fish keen to take his daiwl bach nymph. Mark fished his flies back very slowly on a floating line and long leader. Well done Mark, a good catch on any day. On a boat today was Frank Hartley who landed 5 fine rainbows. Frank caught his first 3 fish right on the surface on a daddie LL then when it got too bright he switched to a booby fished on a di5 sinking line. He caught his fish from Grindys lawn and Hollins bay. Also out on a boat were Alan Green and Kevin Hayes who caught 6 fish between them. They caught most of their fish from the ten acre foot area on the east bank with a small dry hawthorn accounting for the majority of their fish. I think that if we had seen a bit more cloud cover there would have been some great catches, it was just too bright, but i am told there is more cloud forecast for tomorrow. See you on the water Paul.

Date:    Sunday 23rd May
Report Author:    Matthew
Best Catch:    12 fish for Graham Marshall
Heaviest Bag:    3 fish weighing 14lb 4oz Alan Nild
Best Rainbow:    7lb Stuart Whaley
Best Brownie:    4lb 8oz Alan Nild
Bank Rod Av:    5.08 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:     2.17 trout per angler
Sport:  A strange day indeed! The weather suggested it was going to be tricky and on the whole it was. However those averages are correct and yes I did double check them! The bank has fished super with fish coming from Hartley for Graham Cruthers who managed 11 fish! Graham fished deep with booby’s retrieved ultra slow. Good angling Graham! Graham Marshall fished the Bibio from Grindy’s lawn with some fantastic results. Graham landed 11 trout with them all falling for the bibio fished back just under the surface.
There has been quite a few anglers with 5 plus fish with buzzers, wets and boobies doing the trick.
Today has been a little slower from the boats with Peter Andres and Stuart McKaki leading the way with 8 fish a piece. Both Guys fished buzzers with fish coming from the Dam and Gull Island.
With the sun disappearing behind a few clouds over the next few days the fishing should get even better!
Tight lines Matthew.

Date:                              Saturday May 22nd
Report Author:             Ben
Best Catch:                      9 trout for Colin Adams
Heaviest Bag:                 5 fish weighing 16lbs Paul Burrows
Best Rainbow:                3lbs 8oz Norman Walker
Best Brownie:                 6lbs 8oz Paul Burrows
Best Blue:                         2lbs 8oz Steve Tootil
Bank Rod Av:                 3.0 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:                  2.9 trout per angler
Sport: It was another day with trout rising all over the reservoir. There were little lime green flies littering the surface, occasional daddies, beetles and black buzzers can also be found. When I went out on the safety boat at lunchtime there were trout feeding all over the reservoir but especially over the deeps, the dam and the main basin. Some of the trout looked more like water rats as they were actually swimming with their noses out of the surface mopping up the abundance of green flies. With all the available food the trout proved tricky to tempt, fishing dries blind proved to be of little use as the trout’s cone of vision is so small when they remain so high in the water. Accurate casting was certainly rewarded but there were other methods that also proved to be very effective. Steve Tootle and Paul Burrows had some cracking sport by stripping daddies fast just under the surface. This big fly moving at speed was just what was needed to draw the fish away from the massive hatch. They landed eight, lost as many and had numerous follows and tugs. Paul’s Bag included a cracking brownie of 6lbs 8oz (pictured below) and he said that he played and lost its big brother! John Maxwell and Colin Adams had 15 trout to their boat they too caught on daddies I can only presume that they had discovered the same method.
Although there are lots of fish feeding on the surface there are also plenty of fish feeding deeper down. When spooned, these fish are not stuffed to the gills with green flies like the others, but instead their diet consists mainly of beetles. I would imagine that after beetles crash onto the surface of the reservoir it is only a matter of time before their struggling causes them to break through the meniscus and sink. This would explain why we are also getting some good scores on tinselly Diawl Bachs. Tight Lines Ben

Paul Burrows with a cracking 6lb 8oz Brownie