- Highlights from matches across all of our waters including an incredibly close finish between two of the best young anglers in England
- Don’t miss Evening boat leagues
Thursday evening boat club Ravensthorpe
Tuesday evening Summer fishing club at Pitsford Water.
Grafham Water Summer Fishing Club Tuesdays with Invicta
Rutland Water Tuesday Night Boat League
www.anglianwater.co.uk/leisure
Rutland Water 01780 686441; Grafham Water 01480 810531;
Pitsford, Ravensthorpe & Hollowell 01604 781350,
Taverham Mills Fishery 01603 861014; Alton Water 01473 589105
Recreation Dept Anglian Water 01572 653021
Rutland Water
Fish week 973 (Season 8,262) Returns 223 (2,030) Rod average 4.36(4.06)
Some of the most notable catches of the week included the week’s best Brown which weighed 5lb 2¾oz and was taken by John Farnsworth of Tilton on the Hill. The best Rainbow fell to boat angler Gareth Tilley. Gareth’s fish weighed 6lb 3½oz and was taken with a black buzzer. Much to Gareth’s disappointment a much larger fish – estimated between 10 and 15lb – was lost when it threw the hook.
Overwintered fish have made sporadic appearances in the form of an 8lb 2oz Blue trout caught by Glyn Dring of Derby which fell to a black lure in the Yellowstone area of the lake. Season ticket holder John Lee has taken some nice fish in a couple of short sessions towards the end of the week from the bank with dark lures seeming to be productive for him.
Rutland Water continues in good form with fish feeding heavily on daphnia in open water and they continue to gorge on buzzers around the reservoir. Damsel nymphs have also been spotted. Boat fishing has again this week proved more yielding than bank fishing although the latter has certainly improved with fish feeding in time windows and in deeper water.
Competition news
John Seaton’s Hunt Servant Match
Rutland Water’s recently retired Senior Warden, John Seaton, organised an invitational Hunt Servants match last Monday. 46 anglers ventured out and returned 168 fish at an average of 3.6 a rod. The winning pair was rudder expert Jim Watts accompanied by John Farnsworth with a total bag weight of 38lb for 15 fish. John Farnsworth almost completed a clean sweep with best bag (21lb 11oz) and best brown (5lb 2oz), however Andy Leville netted the match’s best Rainbow of 3lb 3oz.
2nd spot went to Jim and Tom Gamble with 35lb 9¾oz and third place went to Di Farrin and Paul Friend with 31lb 15 ½oz.
Anglers enjoyed Italian hospitality as John welcomed everyone upstairs to L’Oliveto for a post-match meal and prize giving. Thanks go to John Seaton for his organising, we look forward to next year.
Best methods Black and olive buzzers on floating/midge tip lines, mini lures on sinking lines and tubes on fast sink lines.
Best Rainbow Gareth Tilley 6lb 3½oz Rainbow; Glyn Dring 8lb
2oz Blue.
Best Brown 5lb 2¾oz taken by John Farnsworth.
Best boat areas Yellowstone, Normanton bank and the basin
down to Fantasy Island. Bottom of the Arms,
Gibbets Gorse (South Arm), Dickensons Bay
(North Arm).
Best bank areas Normanton bank including the harbour wall, Yellowstone and Old Hall with Stockie Bay also seeing action.
Mid week boat winner Michael Bennett of Oakham.
Fish stocked 2,600.
Forthcoming events
Beginners courses 30 May; 4,14,20 & 25 June and other dates throughout the season.
Tuesday Night boat league commenced 12 May
International Fly Fishing Association Loch Style Home International 26-29 May
Anglian Water Rudder Match 6 June
Scierra Pairs 7 June
Anglian Water Floating Line Competition 13 June
Grafham Water
Fish week 1,749 (season 7,584) Returns 290 (1,674) Rod average 6.03 (4.53)
Grafham Water continues in great form with a tremendous rod average of 6.03. Around 20% of the trout caught are tipping the scales at 3lb or over.
Boat anglers have enjoyed a fantastic week’s sport with a large number of anglers catching limits. The most productive boat areas have been Bowl of the Dam, G Buoy, Deep Water and Pylon Points, Sanctuary Bay, Savages and Valley Creeks, Seat, Gaynes Cove and central Drifts. There have been two main methods for boat anglers, floating/sink tip lines with black or olive buzzers, tequila blobs, cats boobies and diawl bachs fished slowly or Di5 lines with FABs, Cats Boobies, vivas, crunchers, diawl bachs and small damsel nymphs fished at a steady retrieve.
Bank anglers have found the fishing challenging mainly due to the fish moving out of the margins. However, there have been some good catches – particularly from Marlow Stones, Hill Farm Rocks and the Harbour Arms. The best bank methods have been to fish floating lines with buzzers and small nymphs fished with a slow retrieve.
Competition news
Lexus European Championships
Lexus Team Heat 18 May
Thirteen teams of six fished this event catching 604 trout for a stunning rod average of 7.74, with an average fish weight of 2lb 6oz.
Team Elinor won with 71 trout for 172lb 2oz. Best fish of the day was a fin perfect over wintered Rainbow of 4lb 13oz caught by Craig Smith. Top individual was Mark Haycock who caught 14 trout for 38lb. Mark fished a midge tip line with a tequila blob and cat booby at Sanctuary Bay.
1st Team Elinor 71 fish for 172lb 2oz
2nd Nymph-a-Maniacs 63 fish for 147lb 14oz
3rd Rio Masters 60 fish for 146lb 7oz
Annual Pilgrimage 2015
21 Anglers fished this match catching 132 trout for a rod average of 6.28.
1st Andy Gourlay 8 fish for 21lb
2nd Anthony Bevan 8 fish for 20lb 13oz
3rd Kenny Miller 8 fish for 19lb 4oz
Angling Trust Team England Youth Loch Style National 24 May
Grafham Water was once again very proud to host the final of this prestigious youth match
The best of England’s young flyfishers came together at Grafham Water last Sunday to compete for the Youth Loch-style championship and for places in the Angling Trust’s Team England fishing in the 2016 Home International in Ireland.
Ben Thompson, Head of Competitions for the Angling Trust said ‘The young anglers fished to International rules which mean always having to keep their flies in front of the boat which is a challenging method in the waves on big, breezy Grafham Water. They fish in pairs with an adult boatman between them.
‘The 16 teenagers had mostly qualified through the AT’s Talent Pathway supported by Sport England so the standard was very high. The rod average was 2.5 which was very good for such young anglers on a challenging water and it was a very fair match with the top seven rods all being on different boats.’
Two anglers caught the maximum 8 trout and last year’s Youth Champion, Graham Hayward from Rutland, had the heaviest catch of 22lb 7oz, one of the heaviest recorded in the 30 year history of the championship. However the time bonus of 1lb for every half hour they catch 8 before the end of the 7 hour match meant that Robbie Turner’s catch of 17lb 8oz won by a mere ounce because he finished in less than 4 hours. Third was Harry Upton with 6 trout for 14lb.
Robbie, (16) from Huddersfield, had practiced the day before and found fish off the western shore but it took an hour to discover they had moved north towards Savages Creek. Once he located them, Robbie used a quickly retrieved Di5 sweep line with a tequila blob on the top dropper and a black and green boobie on the point.
Robbie already has 2 England caps and along with Graham Hayward has already qualified for Angling Trust Team England in this year’s Home International in Scotland.
Heaviest fish of the day weighed 4lb 12oz and was taken by Ryan Campbell who was 4th equal with Jessica Tweddle from Co. Durham, the first girl to qualify for the England Team in 3 years.
The Championship was sponsored by Greys fishing tackle and Anglian Water.
The top ten rods qualifying for Team England 2016 are:-
1. Robbie Turner, 2. Graham Hayward, 3. Harry Upton,
4= Jessica Tweddle and Ryan Campbell, 6. Ben Fox,
7. Daniel Tranter, 8.Ben Beckworth, 9. Elliot Fawdington, 10. Luke Hill
Best Rainbow 4lb 13oz taken by Craig Smith.
Best Brown 2lb 4oz taken by Jack Simpson.
Best boat areas Hill Farm, Pylon and Deep Water Points, Valley Creek, G Buoy, Bowl of Dam, Savages Creek, Sanctuary Bay, Seat, Gaynes Cove, Central drifts.
Best bank areas Harbour, Marlow Stones, hill Farm Stones.
Best methods See report.
Mid Week Boat Winner Steve Mundy of St Neots.
Forthcoming events
Grafham Water Summer Fishing Club every Tuesday until 11 August.
Beginners courses 28 May;6,18,21, & 27 June;11,17,19 and 23 July; 2,9 and 23 August and other dates throughout the season.
International Fly Fishing Association Ladies Loch Style Home International 1 – 4 June
Pitsford Water
What a great week at Pitsford with some fantastic bags of fish.
More settled weather meant the fish have really switched on this week.
We have seen a number of competitions this week which kicked off with Bull Fly Fishing. They all had a fabulous 7.3 average and most were using either green buzzers or diawl bachs. Jon Kitching won with his 21 fish bag and Charlie McCormick had the biggest fish of the day weighing 2lb 12oz.
Anglian Water Rudder Match 23 May.
The Pairs Rudder Match on Saturday produced some great results.
Llloyd Chantrell and Neil Young won with 16 fish for 41lb 7oz. Jim Watts and Martin Hearth came 2nd with 10 fish weighing 27lb.
Jim had 8 for 20lb 15oz – all the fish were over wintered. Jim also had the biggest fish of the day weighing 4lb 7oz.
In 3rd position was Dave Porter and Steve Crowder with 3 fish weighing 8lb 14oz. Well done to you all.
Craig Barr came to fish with us on Wednesday and had a fabulous brace of fish weighing 4lb.
Predator fishing at Pitsford
At the weekend the LAS fished at Pitsford and caught some truly fabulous Pike and Perch. Paul Parnell was the overall winner with 6 perch weighing over 3lb and topped it off with an exceptional 4lb1oz perch he was delighted to win an Okuma reel. The best pike on the day weighed in at 16lb 6oz by Steve Hollens. There were many reports of smaller pike on a feeding spree and at least two anglers had 12 each to the boat.
Best Rainbow 6lb.
Best Brown 5lb.
Best boat areas The Gravels, Bog Bay, Stonebarn Bay, North Farm Bay, Brixworth Bay, Sailing Club Bay.
Best bank areas Northfields Shore, Stone Barn Bay, Gravels, Duffers, Stilton Point, Gorse and Cliffs.
Best methods See report.
Fish stocked 1,500.
Mid Week Boat Winner Mr R Humphries of Daventry.
Forthcoming events
Pitsford Summer Fishing Club
Join us at our weekly fly fishing club for an evening of boat fishing from 5.30pm until dusk every Tuesday evening from 12 May to 11 August.
All anglers are extremely welcome, especially beginners.
Beginners courses 29 May; 7 & 19 June and other dates throughout the season.
Second Saturday of each month Pitsford will be offering fly tying tuition, casting coaching and general fishing advice. Call the fishing lodge on 01604 781350 for more information.
Barclays Bank National 29 May.
AWAI heat 6 June.
Ravensthorpe Reservoir
Fish week 507 (Season 7,229) Returns 87(919) Rod average 5.8(7.8)
Anglers have enjoyed some top quality sport at Ravensthorpe this week. With the water gin clear, the fish are pulling your arm off. Best methods have been floating line with a team of buzzers or diawl bachs.. Lures and blobs still catching as well, but the better fish are coming to buzzers.
Bank angler Alan Duffin had another fantastic week fishing from the Dam, taking 17 fish, mostly to black buzzer. His best fish, and the biggest fish of the week at Ravensthorpe, weighed 11lb 4oz and fell to a Pitsford Pea.
Mick Griffin organised a floating line match on Sunday 24 May. 29 Anglers took 102 fish and many more were returned. The best fish of the match weighed 6lb 6oz and was taken by Dan Fletcher who went on to win the match. All anglers caught fish, mainly on buzzers and diawl bachs.
1st Dan Fletcher 4 fish for 13lb 10oz
2nd Mick Clark 4 fish for 11lb 10oz
3rd Mick Griffin 4 fish for 10lb 4oz
Best Rainbow 11lb 4oz taken by Alan Duffin.
Best boat areas Coton End.
Best bank areas Dam.
Best methods See report.
Mid week boat winner Ian Viggers of Tring.
Fish stocked 500.
Forthcoming events Thursday evening Boat fishing club starts 6pm.
