Fly Fishing Reports

Date:    Tuesday 29th June
Report Author:    Pete
Best Catch:    9 fish by Frank Hartley
Heaviest Bag:     5 fish weighing 10lb 4oz by Gordon Docherty
Best Rainbow:    10lb 3oz by Frank Hartley
Best Brownie:    n/a
Bank Rod Av:    2.3 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:    4.5 trout per angler
Sport: This morning saw near perfect conditions with heavy cloud and a slight warm breeze but by lunchtime the cloud was gone and the wind had picked up making the fishing this afternoon a little tricky, Frank “the legend” Hartley was on the water today and had landed 6 cracking trout by lunchtime all on daddies this haul included 2 5lb+ blues and a stunning 10lb 3oz rainbow which emptied his reel twice before finally subduing the leviathan on his 5wt rod. Top angling frank! This afternoon saw things slow down a little but Frank still landed another 3 fish to bring his total to 9 all of his fish coming from around the Dam Wall and the Alders. Also on the boats visiting angler Gordon Docherty who was on his first visit to Stocks had a cracking days angling with 5 fish. Gordon took his fish from a similar area as Frank but found Diawl Bachs to be his top pattern. With the good weather set to continue and the fish definitely looking up for their food the dry fly fishing is at its best so don’t wait to long. Get yourself out there for the best top of the water action in the country. See you in the lodge Pete.

Date:    Monday 28th June.
Report Author:    Paul.
Best Catch:    11 fish for John Sykes.
Heaviest Bag:    6 fish weighing 12lb for D McCabe and J Lindsay.
Best Rainbow:    3lb 8oz for John Sykes.
Best Brownie:    n/a.
Bank Rod Av:    2.50 trout per angler.
Boat Rod Av:    3.62 trout per angler.
Sport: There was a strong breeze blowing today and with the bright sunshine the fishing was a bit tricky but as the afternoon wore on the cloud began to build up and fishing conditions were much improved. Out on a boat today was John Sykes who landed 11 trout. After catching 2 fish in quick succession pulling lures John decided on a change and switched to dries and promptly landed another 9 fine trout with his fish being caught all over the reservoir. There were other boats that had reasonable scores including Mark Tyndall and Ronnie Paton who landed 6 fish between them and David McCabe and Joan Lindsay who also landed 6 between them with various dry flies accounting for most of these fish. Ben did a good stocking this afternoon with some belting trout that will certainly provide great sport and with a similar stocking tomorrow there are sure to be some great catches on the cards. See you on the water Paul.

Date:                                   Sunday June 27th
Report Author:               Ben
Best Catch:                       8 trout for Tom Bird and for Paul Davison
Heaviest Bag:                   4 fish weighing 9lbs 1oz Chris Guthrie
Best Rainbow:                  3lbs Ben Dobson
Best Blue:                            3lbs Paul Bebb
Bank Rod Av:                    2.00 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:                     3.75 trout per angler
Sport: It was a bright day to conclude the odds n sods eliminator however the trout were still playing ball. Tom Bird fished superbly well to take the pole position and earn himself a place in the national finals. He caught his first four trout on dries then switched to nymphs as the day brightened up to take a further four. He mainly drifted down the east shoreline and over the main basin. Ever consistent the current captain of England Paul Davison has rebooked his place in the national final. Paul also took eight trout all of which fell to dries. Carl Nixon also fished dries to take six trout and third place today. The overall results are shown in the table below. The positions were determined the sum of the rankings on each day.
The rod average today was 4.2 from the boats which when considering the conditions was very good. Had it been cloudy it would have been considerably higher. The best methods were dries fished at the Dam, along the East Bank and over the Main Basin. Tight Lines Ben

NORTHWEST ODDS N SODS RESULTS
Combined scores for Sat and Sun          (Sat)               (Sun)
NAME                                        FISH     BAG wt     BONUS     TOTAL       Day 1 rank    Day 2 rank    SUM
1ST      PAUL DAVISON           19    17lbs 5oz       22lbs     39lbs 5oz          1                     2                  3
2ND    CARL NIXON                 18    15lbs 15oz     20lbs     35lbs 15oz        2                     3                  5
3RD    BOB FITZPATRICK       12    15lbs 5oz          8lbs     23lbs 5oz          6                      5                 11
4TH    JIM TUCK                      12    15lbs 3oz          8lbs     23lbs 3oz          7                     4                 11
5TH    TOM BIRD                      12    14lbs 12oz        8lbs    22lbs 12oz       10                    1                 11
6TH    CHRIS GUTHRIE           15    15lbs 13oz      14lbs    29lbs 13oz        3                     9                 12
7TH    PAUL BEBB                   9      16lbs 15oz        2lbs    18lbs 15oz        8                     6                 14

Top row left to right: Carl Nixon, Paul Davison, Jim Tuck. Bottom Row: Tom Bird & Bob Fitzpatrick

Date:    Saturday 26th June
Report Author:    Pete
Best Catch:    12 fish by Carl Nixon
Heaviest Bag:     4 fish weighing 10lb by Paul Davison
Best Rainbow:    2lb 12oz Paul Davison
Best Brownie:    Several at 2lb
Best Blue    5lb by Paul Davison
Bank Rod Av:    N/a
Boat Rod Av:    5.56 trout per angler
Sport: Today saw good cloud cover for most of the day but bright sunshine did break through this afternoon. Today we hosted day 1 of the C.E.F.F North West odds and sods eliminator. This is a 2 day event with the ranks from both days being added together to give a final rank for qualification into the final with a place in the England team u for grabs. With good cloud cover dries were bound to figure in the catches and so it proved with dry fly specialist and current England Captain Paul Davison was quickly into his stride with fish falling to his dries but keeping pace were Stocks G-Tec anglers Chris Guthrie and Carl Nixon also on the dry flies. When the day was done all three anglers were at the top of the table Chris finished on 10 fish for 20lb 12oz in second with 12 fish was Carl Nixon but Mr consistent Paul Davison was top angler with 11 fish but with a greater weight of 24lb to Carls 23lb 7oz. With more great weather tomorrow the fishing should be  just as exciting and with all 16 anglers doing battle again lets see how it all pans out. See you in the lodge Pete.

Date:    Friday 25th June
Report Author:    Matthew
Best Catch:    Several anglers with 10 plus fish
Heaviest Bag:    4 fish weighing 9lb Ian Harper
Best Rainbow:    3lb 9oz Ian Harper
Best Brownie:    Several at 2lb+
Bank Rod Av:    2.0 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:    4.5 trout per angler
Sport: With good cloud cover all day long the fish were looking to the surface, this gave any dry fly enthusiast a good days sport. That’s not to say things were overly easy, you still needed to anticipate the direction of feeding trout and land a fly right within its path. Top flies seemed to be the ever popular daddy long legs, hoppers and those carrot flies once again.
Whilst out on the safety boat this afternoon it soon became apparent that fish were moving all over the reservoir with no one spot standing out. If I had to pick a drift, the middle basin looks mighty tempting at the moment!!
several scores of 10 plus from the boats today with dries leading the way.
From the shore line scores of three plus have been common place with daddies once again standing out as prolific patterns. A walk along the east shore proved productive for Derrick Makinson, Derrick took 4 fish on hoppers in all but 4 hours with numerous offers just falling short.
I am sure the fish will remain on the surface for the weekend and I am predicting some bumper scores! Who knows it could be you!!
The forecast is looking great, and their is plenty of boats available for the3 weekend.
Tight lines Matthew.

Sport: After an over cast start this morning the sun soon broke through but even though the sun got brighter this did not seem to affect the fishing very much. There were some super catches made today both from the boats and the bank with several anglers landing upwards of 10 fish. On the bank was Bill Orrell who landed 11 trout. Bill found fish all along the bank from Hollins bay, Bell point and along Bens beach with the trout keen to take several of Bills patterns as long as they were black. There were equally impressive catches made from the boats today with several areas producing good catches. There were a lot of anglers practicing for a competition this weekend so they were keeping tactics and flies close to their chests so i don’t have much info for you im afraid but keep posted over the next day or so and all will be revealed. Despite the bright and breezy conditions the trout were still keen to feed, just goes to show you never know with trout! See you on the water Paul.

Date:    Wednesday 23rd June
Report Author:    Matthew
Best Catch:    Paul Boredale  9 fish
Heaviest Bag:     fish weighing
Best Rainbow:    3lb 12oz Paul Boredale
Best Brownie:    Several 2lb +
Bank Rod Av:    4.2 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:    2.5 trout per angler
Sport: Although the wind got up this afternoon the fishing has been pretty darn good with one area standing out in particular, the Dam. Paul Boredale took 9 fish fishing sedge on the point and a cormorant on the dropper. I didn’t get chance to speak to Paul however I can see how the set up could work, slowly pulling the Sedge across the surface whilst fishing the Cormorant just sub surface. Good Angling Paul!
Mark Howarth tempted four fish with the buzzers in just a few hours; again Mark found the fish off the Dam wall. Green buzzers seemed to be the order of the day.
I have had the chance to get out on the water this last couple of evening and although I haven’t broke any records it’s worth noting that all 6 fish I have had have come blind off the top to either a carrot fly or Daddy. New Close bay has stacks of fish at the moment like wise so does Barnes Quarry and the East bank.
Ben has just told me that some more tagged fish will be released next week along with some specimen doubles, watch this space!!
My weather report shows more cloud cover than we have had of recent so the fishing should go from strength to strength.
Tight Lines Matthew

Sorry for the missing daily reports for the last two days. The systems back online and the reports will resume as normal from tonight. Ps. We have just stocked 500 trout into Hollins Bay (250 on Saturday and 250 Monday) so black n green lures and cats will work well all up the west shore. Elsewhere on the reservoir dries have been the order of the day. Tight Lines Ben

Date:    Saturday 19th June
Report Author:    Pete
Best Catch:    7 fish Laurie Taylor
Heaviest Bag:    5 fish weighing 10lb by Tony Baron
Best Rainbow:    7lb 1oz John Bennett
Best Brownie:    Several at 2lb
Bank Rod Av:    1.42 trout per angler
Boat Rod Av:    2.23 trout per angler
Sport: A constantly shifting wind and bright sunshine made for a very tricky day. This was felt mostly by the bank anglers but there were still fish there to be caught and Steve Jennings had 3 of them from Bell Point, Steve found a mini cats whisker to be his best option. Also on the bank regular Tony Baron ventured over to the east bank to take 6 fine trout including a stunning little wild brownie. Tony caught his fish on a traditional northern spider and one of my favourites the Snipe and Purple.
On the boats to clubs from north of the border were out on the water. The Rainbow Warriors had 10 anglers on the water and landed 23 fish between them with Laurie Taylor being the top rod with 7 fish. Laurie fished cormorants and a Booby on and slow intermediate to take his fish. The priory AC from Glasgow were also out  the water and between 6 of them they landed 16 cracking fish including a stunning 7lb 1oz rainbow which fell to a emerging buzzer pattern fished on the surface by John Bennett. Also on the Boats regulars Stevie Lind and Bob Fitzpatrick had a good days pleasure fishing and were finding the trout a little tricky to tempt until they switched to nymphs and were into the fish immediately finishing the day with 4 a piece. Lets hope the wind can make its mind up which way its blowing and the fishing can settle down. See you in the lodge Pete

Today we held the final qualifier for the Anglian water 6 man team event.
Some cracking sport was had and to say the conditions were tricky the average spoke highly for the quality of angling at 3.5. Conditions were very changeable with wind directions changing throughout the day. When the cloud cover was consistent the fish were keen to come to dries; however it was very important to react to the conditions and switch method as when it dictated!
1st Stocks Harriers 26 fish for 49lb 4oz
2nd Stocks Barracudas 22 fish for 47lb 2oz
3rd Stocks Badgers 22 fish for 43lb
Best fish Mark Wilson 7lb 6oz Rainbow
Best catch Peter Andrews with 9 fish.
A big well done to all three qualifying teams they all fished fantastic and as you can see not a lot separated the 3 places.
Peter Andrews finished the day with 9 fish a cracking result with dries and the buzzers on a washing line taking the fish. Top spots were the dam and a drift from the bottom of Gull Island out towards the middle basin. Mark Wilson claimed the days biggest Rainbow and the largest fish of the completion so far, a lovely fish tipping the scales at 7lb 6oz. Gary Allen took the biggest brownie 4lb 2oz, on a traditional blob pattern!
A cracking was had by all. Tight lines Matthew.