Dennis Perry triumphed in the 2013 Orvis Final at Wessex Water’s Sutton Bingham reservoir near Yeovil in Somerset with a fantastic 26 lb four trout limit to secure the first place tackle voucher prize as the event opened the season at the popular venue’s West Pond.

The final was contested by the captors of each months biggest two fish from the 2012 season and ironically while it was just a 4 lb fish last August that secured Dennis his place, he included a superb 11 lb 8 oz rainbow in his winning haul, one of three doubles landed on the day, setting the standard with an hour of the match left. However after a week of cold weather and easterly winds sport had been slow early on, when with most of the field struggling for a take, Paulton, near Bath based Dennis made the decision to head down the far end of the lake and it was an inspired move binging him the first of four rainbows from the narrows near the inlet.’It was a bit of a trek through the trees and across the stream but it was worth it,’ said Dennis.’It just looked a fishy spot. The first fish was 4 lb 4 oz then they went up in size it was amazing, 5 lb, 6 lb then I had the monster,’ he revealed.
A small black and green viva style fly did the business for Dennis and it was a colour combination that scored for the other framing anglers too.
In second place Derek Watts took his first rainbow an hour into the four-hour contest from the North bank after he altered his retrieve to include a few sharp taps to introduce momentum to the fly.Moving further along the bank he added two more in fairly quick succession but had to work hard for his fourth fish the quartet eventually tipping the scales to a combined 18 lb 1 3 oz, good enough to clinch the second place Orvis tackle voucher.’I’m a regular here all through the season but I’ve never fished the West Pond before yet its been a really pleasant day, I’m chuffed,’ said West Wellow near Romsey based, Derek who had qualified with a 9 lb 4 oz rainbow.
The third placed Orvis tackle voucher went to the level 18 lb limit bag brought to the scales by Milborne Port based Tom Baker, another who turned to the South bank for his fish.After struggling on the North bank for a while Tom soon found himself among the quality rainbows despite the increased wind.’I’ve thoroughly enjoyed a really nice day. I changed tactics to a floating line with, a sinking tip with a black and green fly, figure of eight, little pulls, let it drop back, that’s what they seemed to want,’ revealed Tom.’It’s always nice to do well but I just enjoy the fishing, they are beautiful fish, they put up a good fight, it’s luck on the day if you hit a big fish but if you are fishing you are in with a chance,’ he said.

John McGrath from the Orvis tackle shop in Sherborne presented the prizes with every finalist receiving a personally engraved fly box and was pleased with the outcome of the event: ‘It’s been very good, it started slow but picked up and some beautiful fish were caught and we very much look forward to being involved again this season again.’