Blog — guided fly fishing

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...

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...

Rutland has now opened for 2022, and with all the excitement, many have been left scratching their heads after a tougher day at the office that had been expected. Why could this be? Living on Rutland's door step, I am fully aware that the water levels have risen in excess of 30' in the last few weeks. History tells me that this in itself plays a huge part in fish location, and that more often than not, they will sit on the edge of where the baron land ends - now, way out of reach of even the best of...

This last week I have fished Rutland twice and Grafham once, and what a difference the two fisheries are at at the moment. The fish at Rutland have been in two bands it would seem. There are those close to the margins, patrolling the weeds edges, and there are those further out, hitting wandering coarse fish shoals of fry. The two trips have to Rutland yielded 13 fish for me, and there has been a stand out fly catching almost off of my fish - the Black Mamba lure. My first day out was with Dave Anderson - his mission,...