Blog — anglian water fisheries

Rutland, however you may look at it, is a huge vast amount of water, and get it wrong and it can seem a lonely place at times. Early season stock fish are released in the same areas year in, year out, and this only starts to vary, once the water levels drop, and access becomes a problem, therefore you can get the odds heavily on your side from the off, if you know where to look ! I am about to tell you where ! We set our first drift, 80yds just off the left of the mouth of Whitwell...

Fishing our large reservoirs can be world beating at times, yet other times you can be left scratching your head doubting everything! In the space of 24 hours I experienced the extreme highs of why we love fishing, and the lows of frustration with fishing. As Martin and I headed towards Rutland's South Arm (26/10) we were faced with an increasing S/S/W wind, and bright skies, not the most perfect of conditions. We were targeting the reservoirs bigger fish, so set up accordingly with fast sinking lines, and Flash Attack perch fry lures, and Black Humungous lures. Two hours in...

Pin fry feeders can leave many of us frustrated, as they are notoriously difficult to catch. However, I am going to share some tactics I use to catch them, as I have done this last week on Rutland. On Monday Simon Robinson and I headed down to the South side of the dam,(150 yds out) and were greeted with many fish cruising through the surface, often at speed. This is an immediate tell tale sign they are chasing the minute pin fry through the surface. The first thing to note is when these fish are on the pin fry, they...

Everyone wants to catch that 'special' fish when setting out for a days fishing. I will be revealing right now, 3 spots worth a visit when out on a boat at Rutland this next few weeks. Yesterday I had the pleasure of sharing my second day out with Martin. Our mission was to catch a back end 'Rutland biggie'.  If you are planning to go out on Rutland over this next month, don't expect to fill the boat, as it just isn't like that, 4-5 fish would be a good catch. However, the quality of fish, would probably far out...

The days of 30 fish + to the boat are fast diminishing, as normal reservoir fishing resumes at our biggest waters. The pre-season stocks are now well spread out across the water, and added stocks, with the warmer water in the margins are now, in most cases, moving right out into deeper water.  The fish are now feeding naturally on the abundant food sources, buzzers, shrimp, daphnia, pin fry, snails etc. There is a lot here for the fish to feed on, so the pulling of lures is naturally less effective, as a more natural fly approach is needed to...