Blog — Rutland water fishing

A back to back visit to Rutland, as so many times it can, showed once more how you can have a serious love hate relationship with the place - Like it or Loathe it, its sheer size brings the best out of "fishing" and puts you the angler, to the test ! On Friday I shared a boat with a Phil Calvert, and our mission was to locate, and catch a Rutland "biggie" hopefully a brown. At this time of year, with so much fry in the water, the bigger fish certainly become more active, thus more vulnerable to capture....

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...

After a lot of fishing on Rutland over the last 7 days, competing in the Anglian/Airflo International Final, it was a pleasure to have a more relaxed approach by taking two clients on a tour of Rutland for their first ever visit ! When they told me there target was a big brown, I knew the pressure was one, however with one or two now making an appearance, it was a day of targeting weed beds, and they didn't disappoint ! A fresh Westerly wind, accompanied by bright blue skies, wasn't exactly the conditions we would have liked, however we...

Rutland can be a test at the best of times, however it can also harbour some magnificent times, as well as magnificent fish! Friday saw me afloat with a local angler, Sam Smith who wanted to learn a few tips on boat fishing. Rutland is still at that pivotal point where it is still getting over the previous warm weather, and the raised water temperatures, though there are now signs, as the water temperatures are clearly dropping, that the fishing is coming to life. A daddy sits on the water.....a great pattern to be using now. . We headed to...

Conditions looked perfect, grey skies, and a less than moderate wind, though it was blowing from the North East, veering more from the East in the afternoon. My starting set up was a floating line with 3 dry flies, size 12 ginger Midas on the point, hares ear cube in the middle, and a size 12 big red on the top dropper. Conditions looked perfect, but were they! We started our day in the basin, after hearing it had fished well the day before. It wasn't long after we had stopped out boat, that we saw fish moving in the wind...