Fishing Reports
31st December 2020
Well talk about a contrast between the start and end of this period. For the first ten days the lake was in perfect order and members enjoyed some super fishing with 16 members catching limit bags and a total of 251 fish were caught for 73 member visits. 200 of these were 2lbs + and the best just on 4lbs. Great winter fishing to say the least! Season totals are now 6430 fish stocked and 4108 caught to date. And then came the floods!!! And what floods they were resulting in severe flooding at our lake and unfortunately our good old Hon. Sec. having no option but to inform you all the Lake was closed until further notice. The latest position is that the floods are receding and on Tuesday of next week (5th January) your Committee will review the lake closure position and advise you all of outcome. Our new outlet is getting rid of thousands of gallons of water so levels should go down fairly quickly based on what has happened over the last few days where we have seen lake levels drop by a good two feet. I know a lot of you can’t wait to wet a line again and hopefully ‘it will not be long now’! Anyway I know David will keep you all informed of latest position in his usual efficient and informative way. Finally may I conclude by saying that I do hope you have all had a reasonable Christmas and wish you all the best for 2021 whatever that may bring.
Roger
1st December 2020
Well the last two weeks has really shown what a difference weather conditions can make to our fishing, particularly the wind direction and strength. For the first week of this report we had strong southerlies / south easterlies making a lot of the north bank and west bank very hard to fish. This resulted in our rod average being just over one fish per rod visit with 72 fish being recorded to 66 visits. Last week however with lighter more favourable winds, which meant most of the lake was fishable at all times, catches almost doubled with 78 rod visits resulting in 153 trout taken. Best fish taken over the two week period were four of 4 lbs and 189 were 2lb +. The best spots were the north bank particularly on the gravels or adjacent swims; the north west corner and the middle of the west bank. These areas were by far the most productive with only the odd fish being taken over other parts of the like. Productive methods again were many and varied with location and depth being the key. I know of fish being caught on intermediate lines and small black patterns such as cormorants; montanas or black marabou tailed lures. Floating lines with small goldheads in black and green and olive colours also produced. Inevitably the love it or hate it ‘blob’ in different colours pulled a fish or two and I know of one member having success with a couple of buzzers under an indicator. So it really was a case again of find the fish; get the depth and retrieve right and pattern was really not that important. In fact probably the most important thing is to fish with a pattern you have confidence in and which has caught you some fish in the past. There is no reason why the lake should not continue to fish pretty well as we still have a reasonable stock left. To date 3665 fish have been caught against 6430 stocked giving a theoretical balance remaining of 2765. If we allow for losses over the summer period through high temperatures; predation etc. of say 800 fish this still leaves us with a balance of 1965 fish in the lake. This figure should allow good fishing to continue for a while yet obviously subject to the vagaries of our winter weather – whatever they might be!!
Roger