Churn Pool Fishery

Archive for March, 2011

As the evenings have finally started to allow for a spot of fishing after work, we’re seeing some good surface action towards the latter part of the day. There’s still time for the usual evening rises yet as the spring progresses, but it was great to see John and Colin out, landing fish on Damsels and the ever popular Diawl Bach until 8pm. The ‘naturals’ hovering around at the moment are around the 14-20 hook size so you’ll need your specs come dusk.

Evening tickets for non-members will be available shortly.  Tight lines!

A great weekend over all saw Colin Stuart pulling out one after the other on small sunburst Damsels along with Shogo who was limited to a couple of hours, but managed three and dropped a few on the Damsel and Cats Whisker. Dave Phillips put in a sterling performance with four on Saturday afternoon and dropping a beauty at the net.

Be it the lure or natural method, the fish appeared to have been about three feet down over the past few days making the intermediate line a winner on most occasions. Fast sinkers were thought to be missing the fish – but doing well on the perch, so all was not lost.

It was great to see Graham Gooch and Jamie Garthwaite back for a rematch resulting in a 4-0 victory for Jamie. Graham remarked that they were all caught on luck, but I haven’t seen any of those in my fly box.

The most consistent patterns over the weekend were Bloodworm, Cats and Damsels. With the weather warming up a bit, we look forward to some evening fishing as we have reasonable light until 8pm, so why not unwind after work and see if you can catch in the evening rise?

Members – Check out the bottom of the ‘Trout Fishing’ page for the latest results.

I stumbled across the Simply Fly Fishing forum a few weeks ago and found them to be a pretty good bunch of guys. The site is quite young, but will grow well with your participation. Your input into the various fisheries in the cotswolds and further afield would surely be appreciated by others. There’s also a great section on the site with Steve offering video demo’s on tying various patterns. Here’s the link and what they have to say….

http://simplyflyfishing.co.uk/phpbb/

Welcome to Simply fly fishing!

We are a new fly fishing forum based in the heart of the Cotswolds for those who love fly fishing and fly tying but the forum is rapidly growing into a great community for fly fishing lovers across the globe! The aim of this forum is to spark inspiration, share ideas, favourite waters, local reports, patterns and methods in fact anything to do with our sport.

With new stock and some good hatches, the water was alive with fish rising this morning (Friday) - including some very large carp. Overall catch rates are good with smaller patterns seeing more action. We suspect the weekend will be split between floating and intermediate lines as bright sunshine on Saturday gets replaced with 80% cloud cover on Sunday with a mixture of temperatures. (according to www.metcheck.com)

Many of you have asked if Stan Kerslake has made an appearance this year. We’re please to report Stan came out of hibernation last week and joined up for his 23rd year at the fishery. It’s great to see Stan on the bank again. Well done on yesterdays’ four fish on the bank. Pheasant Tails did the trick.

We’ll update this post over the weekend. Tight lines to you all!

Updated 19 March: Largely a great days fishing for all on Saturday with rainbows caught to 5lbs. John Harrison paved the way with five brought to the bank on small dark nymphs on an intermediate line about 3ft down. Great results also for Colin, Dave. and Mike. Many thanks to our day ticket visitors also who appeared to have a great day.

Todays best results were on: Small Damsel, Cats Whisker, dark PTN and the Diawl Bach.

Update for 20 March: Not as overscast as forecast, Churn Pool fished well with Pheasant Tails. Damsels and Montanas giving the best results. It was great to see a few new faces and we thank Colin Stuart and Bob Hicks for offering encouragement to those just starting or revisiting fly fishing after a few years away from the water.

Dave Phillips put in a great performance with two visits over the weekend, landing 10 rainbows on the Diawl Bach and Damsel patterns.  Dougie also managed two in double quick time on the PTN. Well done.

With Ray, George and Steve setting the standard for the weekend, Apps, bare Buzzers and Pitsford Peas put a bend in the rod. Saturday’s fishing was on top form with most takes being found on intermediate lines through the day. The trout seemed to be sticking to a depth of about 3 feet at which they were gently taking buzzers. Damsels of the smaller variety also picked up some good fish. Sized ranged from 1 3/4 to just over 4lbs.

Sunday was a lot harder with higher pressure and bright sun after a wet morning. That didn’t stop Dave, George, Bob, Steve and a few others making sure they didn’t go away empty handed.

Monday was quiet with just three on the bank. Colin Stuart came out on top with five fish, one coming it at nearly 6lbs on the Damsel. Well done to Dave Wood also.

********************************************

Saturday morning saw a lot of movement on the water, but proved hard work. By 11 O’clock, most realised they needed to face the cold wind in order to put a bend in the rod. John Steedman was amongst the first to land five powerful 2 pounders on gold headed damsels fished on an intermediate line in front of the lodge. While one was caught as the fly hit the water, John reported the rest to be the best part of 6-7 feet down. With a couple dropping off, Mike Waring and Colin Stuart weren’t far behind with three each on Damsels and Buzzers on a bung.

After spotting the update last week, Mike Rudderham opted for a beetle to mimic the corixa. It was a good move along with a couple caught on the bloodworm. Mike’s final two were caught on a monster platted tail Damsel. It was so big, it could have hatched into a Microlight. Regardless, it worked and Mike banked five in total in the afternoon.

It was great to see Rich Waller return to the water with a vengeance also. Another full bag on the Damsel! Well done also to Alan Christopher, Steve Cole, Ray Simmonds and Dave Parry on catching their limits or just shy of it earlier in the week.

Churn Pool was stocked on Wednesday evening. Further stock will be on the way for the latter part of March and mid-April.

I came across a  fairly new angling forum that appears very friendly and has some interesting tying demos tucked away for those who are interested. Members are what make forums, so sign up and see what you can offer and gain…

http://simplyflyfishing.co.uk/

Here’s a snap of Mr Hatch proudly holding his 6lb 2oz rainbow.