Alastair’s holiday package (he was boat fishing in Hideaway Bay). It’s the second heaviest brown ever taken at Rutland Water. The record is held by Stephen Rose who took a whopping 14lb 12oz Brown back in 1993.
Competition news
Anglian Water WaterAid flyfishing Team Challenge Friday 18 May
Another successful awwaffic (Anglian Water WaterAid Fly Fishing Challenge) raised over £17,000 which will help provide over 1100 people in the developing world with safe water supplies, sanitation and hygiene education.
Novice and experienced anglers came together from all over the UK to support awwaffic 2007 at Rutland Water on the 18th May in the tough fishing conditions caused by strong winds.
Many of the teams were sponsored to enter the event by UK water industry companies from as far a field as Scottish Water, Southern Water and Morrison Construction - South Wales. 60 of the anglers entered in this year’s competition were novices and local fly fishing club, Rutland Water Fly Fishers, were on hand to provide expert tuition making sure that everyone got the most from the day. Teams searched for fish at Anglian Water’s world class trout fishing venue and they proved difficult to find, even with the help of the RWFF experts. But as the day progressed the fish were tracked down and the anglers bagged around 80 fish totalling over 178 lb.
The top team was Northumbrian Water with 14 fish for a total weight of 30lb 7oz winning the ‘Winning Team Trophy sponsored by Morrison Construction and the May Gurney Shield presented by Anglian Water’s Chief Operating Officer Peter Simpson. The runners up were novice team Integrated Water Services Hookers netting 11 fish for 20lb 10oz.
The winning experienced individual was Scott Everett from Northumbrian Water with 4 fish for 10lb 2oz and the top novice angler was Pete Aspley from Integrated Water Services - Miners with 4 fish for 9lb 7oz. The top gillie trophy went to Rutland Water Flyfishers Al Owen from Sleaford for helping the novice IWS – Hookers team finish in 2nd place overall.
Organisers Chris Evans and Paul Dimbleby would like to thank Anglian Water Fisheries for hosting the event together with all the event sponsors, contributors and volunteers for supporting this years event and making it such a success for WaterAid. The total sum raised by the six awwaffic events now stands at over £80,000. The full results can be obtained by visiting www.awwaffic.org.
Rutland Water continued
best rainbow 6lb 4oz taken by P Bryant of Falkirk
best brown 13lb taken by Alastair Middlemass of Livingston
best boat areas Church Bay, East Creek, Old Hall, Sykes Lane to Whitwell Creek, Barnsdale Creek
best bank areas East Creek, Normanton to blue pipes, Whitwell Creek, Ernies Point, Yellowstone.
best methods floating or intermediate line. Black or green buzzers also dries for boat and bank anglers. Boat anglers – sinking lines, orange blobs.
mid week boat winner Dr M J Griffin of Normanton, Oakham
fish stocked 4,500
forthcoming events Tuesday night boat league – there was a good turnout last week – winner was Paul Shaw
Beginners courses 3,10,16, 20 & 30 June and other dates throughout the season
Tuesday Night Boat league
Spring International 30 May – 1 June (all boats booked 1 June)
Anglian Water Floating Line Competition 9 June
English Ladies National 24 June
Scierra UK Pairs Heat 27-28 June
Grafham Water
fish for week 936 (8691) returns 273(1999) rod average 3.43(4.35)
The annual match between Llanilar (Wales), Leslie (Scotland), and local club Invicta took place last week with 34 anglers almost evenly divided between the three clubs. During several days’ of practice most of the fish were found close to the shore, the most prolific areas seemed to be from Valley Creek to Perry Point and sailing Club Bay, other hot spots of note were Hedge End and Church Bay.
The draw for boat partners took place amongst a few pints on Thursday night in the Wheatsheaf and competitors were greeted by a warm, bright morning on match day with a gentle SW breeze. The favoured places soon became apparent after the starting signal and quiet concentration quickly replaced the roar of the boat engines as the flies hit the water.
By mid day the breeze had swung to the north and removed any warmth from the air and the boats began moving to other areas of the lake as the takes in the hot spots dried up. Methods mostly involved a mixture of nymphs and boobies on floating lines down to Di3s.
Bleddyn Adams of Llanilar was top rod with 8 fish for 18lb13oz on a floater at Hill Farm, and 2nd was our own Chris McLeod of Invicta with 8 for 17lb 13 oz drifting at Pylon Point using a Di3 and Boobies and 3rd was Andy Gourlay with 8 for 16lb13oz from Leslie club. Llanilar was top club followed by Leslie and finally Invicta. The trophies were presented after dinner at the Wheatsheaf with the loudest cheers being reserved for those three Invicta members who came in with a dry bag(0) (each received a doughnut in recognition).
mid week boat winner Louise callow of Arlesey, Beds
fish stocked 4,000
forthcoming events Beginners courses 2 &17 June
boat course 27 June
Tuesday evening boat league
Ladies International 31 May (all boats booked)
Lexus European Individual Qualifier 24 June
Lexus European Team Qualifier 25 June
England Youth National Sunday 8 July
Boat volunteers required please email Stuart Young on s.young@telinco.co.uk
Pitsford Water
fish for week 842 (7305) returns 270 (2356) rod average 3.1 (3.1)
Pitsford hosted a Midlands heat for the Anglian Water Fulling Mill International on Saturday with 8 teams of 6 anglers. Some anglers fished the small half and some ventured up the dam. But anglers that fished the flats area near the over flow, were rewarded with larger fish. Anglers in the small half caught plenty but the fish were smaller than those caught at the over flow. With large numbers of buzzers and daphnia it fished well on nymphs, although some anglers pulled lures to catch their limit.
The best fish was taken by Brad Gifford with a nice over wintered 4lb10z rainbow.
Senior warden Nathan Clayton said it was an excellent match with a rod average of 4.8 and the average weight of fish at 2lb 2oz.
The Scierra pair’s match was fished on Wednesday, a good turn out for a new match with 20 anglers. It fished to 3.4-rod average. Lee Patten and Peter Elliot won the match with 16 fish for 26lb 6oz and second was Dave Kennel and Eddie Mitchell also with 16 fish. Will Linnel from Northampton and boat partner Jim Hope caught the best fish a rainbow of 3lb 3oz. This qualified them for the next round! Well done to them. Most of the fish were caught in the small half.
The Mclean holiday package enjoyed a great day on Pitsford. The group of six returned 93 fish in a day, an average of 15.5 fish a rod .
best rainbow 4lb 10oz taken during AWFMI match – see report
best brown 4lb
best boat areas small half, Overflow ,Dam Sailing Club bank
best bank areas Cliffs, Stilton Point, Pines
best methods see report
mid week boat winner Dan Peach of Northampton
fish stocked 1,000
forthcoming events Wednesday night boat league friendly evening match, starts 6pm. £7.50 for season ticket holders, £20.50 day tickets, just turn up before 6pm.
boat buddies Tuesdays 26 June & 17 July. Book in at the Fishing Lodge
beginners club 24 June, 22 July
Please book in at the Fishing Lodge
beginners courses 21 July, 4 & 23 August and other dates throughout the season
Ravensthorpe Reservoir
fish for week 374(season7109) returns 95 (1312) rod average 3.9(5.41)
There have been some good catches reported with three doubles – all returned safely to the water. Fish are now feeding regularly on the surface, taking hoppers and daddies. Damsels are also producing plenty of fish on floating and intermediate lines. Some success to fritz lures on fast sink lines.
best rainbow three doubles all returned to the water.
best boat areas all areas
best bank areas all areas when winds allow
mid week boat winner A Humphries of Daventry
best methods see report
fish stocked 310
coarse fishing
Ardleigh
No record breaking carp to report this week but season permit holder Luke Cummins had a nice 17lb mirror from the main reservoir. Wick Lane Lake has been fishing very well with several anglers reporting good mixed bags. David Wigner, Steve Leach and Ian Manning all had good catches of roach, rudd, perch and bream to 6lb. A group of London anglers had 15 bream between 4 and 6lb amongst good backing weights of silver fish. Danny Hanson also landed 15 bream with the best one at 8½lb. The pike anglers continue to catch good numbers with Adam Hutchings landing 4 double-figure fish and Zac Tebbutt catching 3 pike between 9 and 13lb.
Anglian Water Fulling Mill International
Rutland Water Midlands Heat 25 May
Rutland Water hosted the Midlands heat of this competition on Friday 25 May. Five teams were competing for three places in the Midlands final at Grafham Water on 23 July. The match achieved a fantastic rod average of 7.8.
1st Orivs Team Rutland 48 fish for 123lb 2¾oz
2nd A.C.A. 47 fish for 117lb 7 1/8oz
3rd North Lincs FF 47 fish for 111lb 7 3/8oz
4th Airflo Team Cormorants 44 fish for 105lb 12 7/8oz
5th Greylags 26 fish for 51lb 14¾oz
The best fish weighed 3lb 10½oz and was taken by David Lang fishing for Orvis Team Rutland. Andrew Flitcroft, also fishing for Orvis Team Rutland, took best bag of 23lb 4 5/8oz.
Pitsford Water Midlands Heat 26 May
Eight teams fished the Midlands heat at Pitsford Water – with four teams going through to the Midlands final at Grafham Water on 23 July.
1st Hanningfield 41 fish for 87lb 5oz
2nd Team Lochstyle 35 fish for 72lb 1oz
3rd Greenwell Persauders A 34 fish for 70lb 7oz
4th Greenwell Persauders B 29 fish for 62lb 0oz
5th Loop LTS UK 25 fish for 59lb 4oz
6th Invicta 23 fish for 54lb 4oz
7th Mid Northants TFA 23 fish for 49lb 4oz
8th Grafham Water FFA 20 fish for 42lb 4oz
Brad Gifford, fishing for Loop LTS UK, took the best fish at 4lb 10oz. Alex Urquhart, fishing for Greenwell Persauders B, took the best bag at 20lb 1oz.