Stocks Reservoir 2008 Season review

Season Stats
Best Rainbow: 22lbs 12oz caught by Eric Glaister
Best Brown: 16lbs 12oz caught by Ken Whiteside
Best Blue: 13lbs 8oz caught by Danny McAlister
Best Catch: 40 trout for Paul Davison. See July's report
Best Bag: 31lbs 12oz
Boat Av: 3.9 trout per angler
Bank Av: 3.3 trout per angler
Overall Av: 3.66 trout per angler

Season Summary
One thing that the 2008 season will be remembered for is massive specimen trout. Eric Glaister caught the biggest of four rainbows that tipped the scales over the 20lb mark. Eric took the record fish on a diawl bach whilst boat fishing in Newclose Bay. The Brownie record fell several times during the early season, but no one has yet beaten Ken Whiteside's brownie of 16lbs 12oz. Ken caught the fish on an olive zonker whilst bank fishing in Hollins Bay on April 21st. The best blue of the season weighed 13lbs 8oz which is another record, however it could not be officially counted as it was returned to fight another day without witness. The captor was Danny McAlister who tempted the fish to a diawl bach from Bell Point. The doubles club fish off was held on the last day of the season and was won by Bill Orrell from Chipping. Bill has won a seasons membership for 2009.

There is far more to fishing Stocks than just big fish and over the course of the season we saw some brilliant sport and superb catches. The best catch of each month has been included below in the monthly breakdown. As always the weather played a big part over the season. We had a very unsettled start and, for the second year running, we had a very wet back end. The rain started in August and by the end of the month Stocks was brim full. The early to middle months (April to July) had the best of the weather and not surprisingly the best of the sport.

Monthly Breakdown

Feb/March
Weather
The mean temperatures were close to average across the northern half of the UK, but the rainfall was well above average. Provisionally, the wettest March over England since 1981.
Stats:
Best Rainbow: 17lbs 8oz
Best Brown: 15lbs 13oz
Best Blue: 13lbs 8oz
Best Catch: 26 trout
Boat Av: 3.2
Bank Av: 4.3
Overall Av: 3.9
The best catch was caught by Nick Halstead. Report below:
On the 17th there was a bright blue sky and the early sunshine soon melted away the light covering of frost. There was a definite feeling of spring in the air and there were some great catches made from both the bank and boat. The best catch went to Nick Halstead who landed 26 trout. Nick caught a nice mixture of rainbows and blues from a variety of areas the most productive of which were Hollins Bay, Bell Point and Ben's Beach. He found the best tactic to be diawl bachs fished static on a floating line and he said it was very important to have a heavy weighted lure on the point. As well as taking a fair few fish, the lure also acted as an anchor and slowed the drift of the cast down considerably, which was the key to success. Whilst fishing near Bell Point Nick hooked into a monster brownie. During the lengthy tussle Nick could feel his line grating on the rocks as the giant fish ran deep. This proved to be disastrous, as later on when the fish was all but beaten the frayed leader finally snapped and with wave of a huge tail it was gone.

April
Weather
The mean temperatures were close to average across the whole of the UK. England had its coldest April since 2001. The rainfall was above average as was the sunshine, but sunshine was below average across parts of northern England and southern Scotland.
Stats
Best Rainbow: 22lbs 12oz
Best Brown: 15lbs 11oz
Best Blue: 8lbs 2oz
Best Catch: 30 trout
Boat Av: 5.6
Bank Av: 4.2
Overall Av: 5.0
The best catch was caught by John Forster:
It was a beautiful calm warm day on April the 30th which led to some cracking sport. The best catch of the day fell to John Forster who landed over 30 fish. John also managed to subdue and land a net busting brownie of 14lb 13oz in a bag that tipped the scales to 23lbs. Most of trout fell to a green pea fished on a Di6 near the spillway he also had success with a selection of mini lures. There was also great catches made on nymphs over the Northern shallows.

May
Weather
The mean temperatures were generally 2 to 3 degrees C above average and it was provisionally, the warmest May in the series back to 1914 for the UK. The rainfall was below average across central and northern areas and there was plenty of sunshine.
Stats
Best Rainbow: 20lbs 8oz
Best Brown: 13lbs 8oz
Best Blue: 12lbs 4oz
Best Catch: 20 trout
Boat Av: 4.3
Bank Av: 3.6
Overall Av: 3.9
The best catch was caught by Pete Cowan
The 1st of May saw a mixture of sunshine and showers in equal measure although as the afternoon progressed the cloud did seem to clear. Once again good sport was on the cards and as well as good catches there were some superb quality trout caught, both rainbows and browns. Pete Cowan enjoyed an incredible 4 hours landing a total of 20 trout. Pete landed rainbows up to 4lb 8oz and brownies weighing up to 3lb 8oz from Hollins bay just below the fishing lodge, with a team of diawl bachs on a floating line and long leader being Pete's favoured tactic.

June
Weather
In terms of mean temperature, it was the coolest June since 2001 for the UK. The rainfall was generally close to or above average across much of the UK. It was very unsettled and changeable for the time of year, with only short spells of fine weather.
Stats
Best Rainbow: 21lbs 0oz
Best Brown: 15lbs 8oz
Best Blue: 9lbs 0oz
Best Catch: 31 trout
Boat Av: 4.8
Bank Av: 3.2
Overall Av: 4.2
The best catch was caught by Stephen Lind
June 1st: The boats fished really well today on a variety of methods. Paul Bebb and Pat Johnston had 14 fish on dries. Stephen Lind had a whopping 31 trout which mainly fell to lures stripped back just sub surface. Steve Bland and James Vann had 19 to the boat on a mixture of wets and lures. Dermot Speight and Mike Gadd had 20 trout and their best method was stripping back boobies on floating lines and finally Anthony and Jane Brindle caught 21 trout from Cook's Creek on Di7s and pink boobies fished back very slowly. I don't think I have ever seen such a variety of successful methods. The best areas were Newclose, The east Bank, Cook's Creek and The Dam Wall.

July
Weather
The Mean temperature was near to or slightly above the average. The rainfall was generally above or well above average across England and Wales. The sunshine was generally close to average across the UK.
Stats
Best Rainbow: 11lbs 0oz
Best Brown: 11lbs 0oz
Best Blue: 7lbs 4oz
Best Catch: 40 trout
Boat Av: 3.2
Bank Av: 2.5
Overall Av: 2.9
The best catch was caught by Paul Davison
The best catch went to Paul Davison with a whopping forty trout to the boat. Anyone who knows Paul will not be surprised that they all, without exception fell to dry flies. Paul is a top dry fly angler and this season after fishing his heat on Stocks he successfully qualified for 2009 England team. What's his secret? Well I know he happily tell those who ask, so I'll tell you what he has told me. Firstly, your flies should sit in the film and not float like bobbing cork. Don't worry if you can't see them you know roughly where they are: just off the end of your fly line and you'll certainly see a fish rise to take them. Secondly, when fishing dries always fish a very short line so that you can quickly lift off and respond to a rising fish and thirdly, you don't need to see any fish rising to give them a go as they can still be lethal.
On this day Paul was boat fishing with Steve Smalley, it was bright sunshine with a heavy ripple, not the sort of day you associate with good dry fly fishing. There were odd fish rising now and then but nearly every time Paul cast out his dries he would get a take. The best patterns skinny black raiders and ginger hoppers the best areas were over the Main Basin and right down the east bank to Curry's Cast. Good angling!

August
Weather
It was a very wet month across much of the UK with widespread flooding. Northern Ireland had its wettest August in a series back to 1914. Generally it was very unsettled with heavy rain or showers for much of the month. By the end of August Stocks was once again brim full.
Stats
Best Rainbow: 12lbs 4oz
Best Brown: 4lbs 0oz
Best Blue: 6lbs 0oz
Best Catch: 13
Boat Av: 2.6
Bank Av: 2.2
Overall Av: 2.4
The best catch was caught by Malcolm Hunter
August 30th: After all the rainfall it was nice to have a warm dry day and a slight breeze made for good fishing, with quite a spread of good bags. From the boats top rod was Malcolm Hunter who managed landed a very credible 13 trout all of which fell to either a blob or a booby fished back on a Di5. His best areas were the northern shallows and around the islands.

September
Weather
The mean temperatures were close to average across England. It was another very wet month and was generally overcast, with exceptionally below average sunshine. On the whole it was unsettled and wet through the first half of the month and much drier and brighter through the second half.
Stats
Best Rainbow: 10lbs 10oz
Best Brown: 3lbs 9oz
Best Blue: 5lbs 0oz
Best Catch: 11 trout
Boat Av: 1.9
Bank Av: 1.6
Overall Av: 1.8
The best catch was caught by Peter Andrews
Peter Andrews had a fine day's trouting with twelve fish to his boat. Peter took five of them on diawl bachs fished with a slow figure of eight on a floater, he took the other seven on a little white or olive mini lures fished on a Di 3. Peter found some cracking sport in Newclose bay and also along the east bank. Amongst Peter's bag of five was a cracking rainbow of 9lb 8oz! Once again the water has been lifting with rising fish and I can honestly say I have not seen this much surface action all season! So true to form Paul Bebb was out on the water with his client Chris Aldred between them they had 12 fish in the boat and yep you guessed it pretty much all on dries!

October/November
Weather
The rainfall was well above average across the North-West, with some areas recording over double the average. Mean temperatures were well below average, but we had above average sunshine.
Stats
Best Rainbow: 11lbs 2oz
Best Brown: 6lbs 0oz
Best Blue: 4lbs 0oz
Best Catch: 11 trout
Boat Av: 1.7
Bank Av: 1.9
Overall Av: 1.8
The best catch was caught by Frank Hartley
(Late October) Once again the best catch went to Frank Hartley who has developed his own method for fishing Stocks at the back end of the season. It catches well right through the year but when things get tougher late on or after heavy rainfall it seems to consistently out catch all other methods. Basically he uses three flies on a long leader. On the top dropper he has a buoyant sugar lump buzzer, on the middle a weighted gold head nymph (sacrificial) and on the point is another sugar lump buzzer. (It works well with small skinny boobies too). His choice line is a Di5 sinker. The method it cast out a good line and then retrieves with a figure of eight retrieve. It is important vary the speed of the retrieve until you start picking up fish as the speed of retrieve dramatically alters the depth of the point fly. Franks concentrates as much as any buzzer fisherman whilst using this method and although sometimes the takes will nearly pull the rod out of your hand, they can be gentle so he uses the line off the end of his rod as swing tip bite indicator. This gives him a better conversion rate and prevents deep hooking any fish.

2007 Reports

2006 Reports