Blog — Craig Barr Fly Fishing

Anglian Waters Arsenal Fishing at this time of year can be testing at the best of times. Strong winds, rain, frosts, are all strong possibilities at this time of year. In return the fish will respond to this, so be prepared to respond with them. Make sure you have different line types on hand to allow you to fish different depths, if needed. My first boat trip of 2026 was on Draycote Water. A cold N/W wind meant we headed for Rainbow Corner for shelter. Upon arrival I was surprised to see lots of fish rising, feeding on buzzers that...

After a phenomenal week in May, with an average of 27 fish to the boat, surely it couldn't better that. could it ? A practice day on the Saturday with friend, Fraser Mcconnell, saw us parked in the middle of the basin, in  pretty much flat calm conditions for the first hour, and bright sunshine, with a temperature 24 degrees! A tip off from Lake regular John Buchannon, told us the fish were on buzzers - happy days, right up my street. I fished a team of buzzers at first, then switched later to buzzers and diawl bachs. All flies...

So, all the rumours are that the fish are very close to the shores on, Grafham, Rutland, and Pitsford. I am a realist, and appreciate not all fish will be hugging the shores, however for the past 7 weeks, I have barely fished in water deeper than 6', and had some scintillating sport, with browns up to 5.5lb, and rainbows up to 10lb ! So what's driving this? There is one obvious reason -fish food ! There has been unprecedented midge hatches in the margins this year, followed by 1000's, if not millions of daphnia flees, and now on top...

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...

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...