Full On Buzzers - Or Is It Fish Overload ?

It is no secret that Rutland is producing some big catches at the moment, and buzzers are certainly at the top of the menu. However there is one other part with this buzzer bonanza, that you could argue, you could catch just as well with other tactics -and you can !

Patrick was my guest on Tuesday, and we wanted a leisurely approach, therefore we opted to fish buzzers on a floating line. There was a bright blue sky, a light wind, and this had the ingredients for a buzzer hatch at the warmest part of the day, and at this time of the year, this can be a very important part of the day - and this day certainly lived up to that moment.

I fished a Wychwood Rocket floater, and a 20' 10lb ghost mode leader with 4 buzzers, a size 8 curved hook on the point and 3 size 10's (straight hooks) up the cast. At this time of the year the fish can still be deep, and when I got up this particular morning, I had to defrost my car !

We headed straight to Hideaway Bay, and have to say it was pretty instant. In fact Patrick got one first cast !

This was followed by several fish within 30 minutes or so. Most of mine were coming to the point fly, a size 8 Dennis The Menace buzzer, at the end of a 20' leader.

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we moved on from here to the top of Manton Bay, only to find the water a little milky brown, however gave it a go, all to no avail. We soon moved on again, this time to the wooded bay the north end of Yellow Stone Bay.

As I reached for my booby basher line, Patrick asked why? It is a great way to find out if there are any fresh fish around, as they'll not be able to resist the chase of a Tequila Fab and Candy Blob. I do this often with the intent of wanting to fish for them with a floating line and buzzers, but use the pulling flies to locate them quicker. By casting the pulling set up 30yds or so, fanning the water in front with casts, I'll soon find out if there are numbers of fish in front of me, and in this instance there was, as I had 1 fish and 2 takes in 4 casts ! Within 5 minutes of arriving I had swapped back to my floating line and caught a steady stream of fish., as did Patrick, also fishing buzzers.

We moved on once more to the Sailing Club, now sheltered from the breeze, and we were presented with a flat calm almost. With buzzers hatching around us, I just new there would be fish around, and there was.

After taking a few fish here we headed back to Hideaway Bay, that had earlier switched off not too long after we started fishing. It was now 2pm and felt warm in the early spring sunshine, helped by the soft winds.

As we arrived back in Hideaway Bay we were met with small buzzers buzzing around our heads, something we hadn't seen in the cooler morning temperatures. This could, and did, only mean one thing, the fish were on the feed !

I removed the size 8 buzzer off the point, and replaced it with a size 10 buzzer, thus to slow the speed the cast sank., as I felt the fish would now be higher in the water. An hour or so in and Patrick and I had landed numerous fish on the buzzers, right the way across the bay ! What was noticeable compared to the morning was, the fish were now taking the top and middle droppers, something that simply didn't happen during the cooler morning hours.

This concluded our day. The warmest part of the day proved the most productive, however I am certain had we pulled on sinking lines all day, our catch rate would have been higher due to the number of stock fish around the reservoir at the moment - but for me, there is something more electrifying about a buzzer take -o:)

Day 2(Weds 5th April) Today was a product shoot/ Fish with Wychwood, so it was a floating line day for me, though I have to admit a DI-8 did get a small window of time. Today was much cooler than yesterday, with rain for a good few hours too.

We fished in Hideaway Bay for the time we had on the water, and it started where it left off the day before, with fish coming quite quickly on the buzzers, again a team of 4 on a 20' leader, though today I fished a size 10 on the point. One that took a good number of fish the day before.

Fishing them as slow as I possibly could, they were getting a fair depth. The majority of fish I caught came to the bottom 2 flies, telling the story of what depth the fish were holding at - I would estimate 10 -14'. With no real warm spell in the day, unlike the day before, the fish never really came that high in the water, but noticeably when they sky darkened a little around 4.00pm the fish did switch on and began to get caught more regularly - it was great sport for sure.

WARNING - There are two huge pike lurking in Hideaway Bay, one nearing 30lb. As I played a fish, it was chasing it around under water - JEEZE it was huge, then 10 minutes later the same thing happened again, though this time it was a mere stockie in comparison - approx 15lb or so !! You have been warned.

There are a lot of places holding a lot of fish, albeit recent pre season stock fish. Fish a stronger line than normal, as I had hooked 3 fish at once, though fortunate enough to land them all, it could, and probably would have been a different story had I have been fishing a lighter line. Unfortunately it is the nature of the beast early season, you may well hook into one, two, or maybe three fish at once, so bare this in mind when choosing what nylon you may use!

Places to try soon - Church to the Blue pipes, Yellow Stone, Daltons Point to the Green Bank, Hideaway Bay, Barnsdale Bay, Cardiac Hill, Dickinson's Bay, Finches to the Transformer.

COPY & PASTE THE 2 LINKS BELOW TO SEE THE TWO CURRENT TOP RUTLAND BUZZERS.

https://flashattackflies.com/products/buzzer-fly-dennis-the-menace-code-c150-s8-10-12?_pos=1&_sid=e76f4cf5e&_ss=r

https://flashattackflies.com/products/quill-buzzer-fly-code-s1?_pos=1&_sid=836ba74b2&_ss=r

If you would like a guided day on Rutland, then please email me with your interest to craig@flashattackflies.com (very few dates available in April)

I hope you enjoyed the read

tight lines