Pictures from the first half of the season, Rutland Water

 A picture says a thousand words, so here are millions of words............

Boat Fishing: a season of contrasts..from Rob Waddington

We’ve had two months of incredible contrasts since your last ‘Big Puddle’. Early April saw huge hatches of buzzers with the March stock fish turning on to them with relish. At times, it seemed like there were more fish than water in areas such as Dickenson’s Bay: so close in, that the bank fishing was just as frantic. On a south wind the opposite bank was as prolific from the Transformer as far up as Tim Appleton’s.

Two or three buzzers under a bung accounted for big bags of fighting fish and many were safely released to provide us with ‘more wary’ four pounders later in the year. As April progressed, the trout came higher in the water on cloudy days and emergers or dries worked.

Then, just as quickly, the buzzers seemed to disappear only to be replaced in the trout’s diet by massive hatches of olive nymphs. Then the dry fly fishing came into it’s own.

On very windy days, the rudder saved the day, with a strong wind blowing along the shoreline.

Around the end of April, I suspected that, as the top of the North Arm was fishing so well, there was no reason not to think that the top of the South would also be fishing. Traditional May/June locations such as Hideaway Bay or Cattle Trough may also have been worth a look. Yes, there were big fish in there, initially taking early season lures such as black and green tadpoles. This then turned into some of the loveliest and most exciting dry fly fishing I’ve ever had.

We had some spectacular dry fishing though May with CDC suspenders, Bob’s bits and daddy longlegs working well on the right day.

Lots of large powerful grown on fish mean our leaders must be strong enough to hold them on the take. Many fish are smashing finer leaders like cotton.

A major feature was the incredible clarity of the water; in some places you could see down to 25 ft, just like the Caribbean Sea with weed beds as lush as a chalk stream and full of food for the trout.

Some perfect, ‘proper Rutland Fish’ were caught all over the lake with the top of the North Arm and the top of the South Arm being the place for the better fish.

 

Picture 10A

This brilliant fishing couldn’t last or there wouldn’t be any fish left in the lake: and of course it didn’t!

 

After the bumper start, there commenced a season of meteorological contrasts - often every day changing winds from the West/East/South/North. We also had flat calms, strong gales, and thunderstorms. There was also rain, high and low pressure and cold and hot days. It bewildered us; never mind the fish!

And now, as I write, it seems that every trout in the lake is feeding on the abundance of pin fry and are virtually uncatchable! (Please send your tyings and pics of your special ‘pin fry’ flies for the next Big Puddle). It’s not been unusual to cast at hundreds of fish and maybe fool one: but it’ll be a good one! These fry are tiny, jelly bodied ‘pins’ with two black eyes and are all around the margins. Everywhere you look you’ll see chasing, supping trout gorging on these ‘jelly fry’.

On hot sunny days, the damsels are showing in huge numbers and many fish contain dozens of the nymphs. During one fry feeding frenzy, your editor had some success with a #14 pearl bodied cormorant; just the single fly and figure of eight retrieve, ignoring the ‘risers’:  or a tiny #14 version of the ethafoam floating fry:  or a ‘swiftly’ fished gold and silver tube!

Often you had to cast right on the nose of a ‘supping fish. However, these fish can drive a fly fisherman mad!

There are more stock fish in amongst some biggies in the main basin from the Fishing Lodge to the Peninsula and on the usual Normanton/Sykes Lane bank; with more and more fish now being taken from the open water. These seem a little more receptive to the fly.

Currently, the new ‘beach’ is being built at Sykes Lane. So, perhaps we can look forward to some bone fishing in the shallows off ‘Bondi Beach’ very soon? Maybe, flats fishing for Tarpon.

It’ll be interesting to see how the fishing changes over the next few summer months.

See future blogs.