Another Burrator Four Pounder

'A picture of concentration'



On Friday 31st May Pat Power and Peter Macconnell took the boat out at Burrator. What with the high winds and all it was one of the few times in the last couple of weeks that it has been possible to get out in any degree of comfort. However, Friday was a pleasant sunny day with just enough cloud cover and just enough ripple on the water to offer the promise of decent fishing, and that's how it started out.

Both Pat and Peter had a couple of rainbows quite quickly, but then things started to become more difficult and, having initially been able to take fish high in the water, fishing became very dour indeed once the sun brightened and the morning turned into afternoon. Pat worked out what was going on, switching to fish a Red Cormorant fly, a pattern of his own design and tying, on a medium sinking line, he reconnected with the fish. To say the fish were jumping on his fly would be to exaggerate only slightly, but he certainly had found the killing method. We were in comparatively shallow water, an estimated 5-15 feet, and the fish were taking well below the surface. In the end Pat got just reward for his effort in the form of a 4lb 1oz rainbow as part of a limit bag and several other fish released unharmed.

4lb 1oz rainbow for Pat

The Red Cormorant - Deceptively simple but very effective on a sinking line

 

A Visit to Roadford

Jon Perry with a nice Roadford brownie



Strictly speaking, this blog is supposed to be about fly fishing at Burrator. However, this week, Thursday 30th May to be precise, Jon & Peter decided to have a bit of a change and to take a boat out at Roadford. For any of you who don't know it, compared to Burrator, Roadford, near Broadwoodwidger, off the A30 part way between Okehampton and Bodmin, is a massive water; more than 700 acres in fact. This being the case SWLT have taken the very sensible step of providing boats with petrol outboard engines, and it was one of these we rented for the day.

The outboard engine (a very nice and new looking 4HP Mariner Four Stroke) allowed us to search the lake with some degree of efficiency and safety. When, at one stage, it got a bit windy and quite choppy were able to make our way to a safe sheltered area with ease; one pull of the starter rope, the engine fired immediately to life, and off we went. Basically we worked our way across to the eastern side of the lake and found a couple of bays that we could fish by drifting diagonally into the bank, motoring out,  and then drifting in again, so that we were able to proceed in a zig-zag fashion, fishing over the front 'loch style' as they say.

Peter Macconnell with his best fish of the day



In the end we had fifteen brown trout, with the best going about two and a half pounds. Several were over a pound and there were some smaller ones of half a pound or less. The thing is though, these are not stocked fish in the normal sense in which we think about trout stocking of reservoirs. There is a naturally occuring head of brownies in the water and these are supplemented, from time to time, with fingerlings from the hatchery. So there are no takeable sized fish introduced. In our brief visit we noticed that this seemed to produce a much more natural stock pattern in terms of sizes. There is not that artificially large proportion of bigger fish that ones sees at rainbow trout fisheries. On the day we chose to release all the fish we caught, but it is permissable for each angler to take up to four fish, over ten inches.

Jon doing a bit of impromptu 'fish snuggling'.

The fly patterns that seemed to work were sedge imitations; Sedgehog, Green Peter, etc., fished more or less at the surface, on a pulled retrieve.

Golden Olive Bumble

This is my first time on this blog so I thought I would upload a picture of of a fly. My version of a golden olive bumble - Jon Perry

Better fish from the boat

Mike Duckett fishing on the drift

So far the use of the Burrator boat has been less frequent than we hoped. This is largely due to the difficult weather conditions on many days when winds from the north-west have blown consistently over twenty mph with gusts between thirty-five, and forty-five mph, according to the Met Office. Certainly there have been 'White Horses' on the lake with some regularity. Of the eleven outings so far booked, five have had to be cancelled because of these winds.

Having written the above we can report that when anglers have been able to get out fish are being caught with regularity and a number of limit bags have been taken. This last weekend saw the best fish from the boat so far; a four pounder caught by Peter Macconnell  as part of a limit bag.

4lb 5oz to the Golden Olive Bumble



The killing fly



Peter plays the fish

 

Jon Perry on his way to a limit bag





May Competition at Burrator

Pat, Tony and Peter fish on as dusk comes in

Our second Burrator competition of the season took place on Wednesday 15th May. Seven members, Ken Hindley, Roy Kane, Pat Power, Tony Vallack, John Jeffries, Peter Macconnell, and Mike Duckett turned up to fish, and two others, Geoff Riley and new member Mark Clark came along to watch and chat (thanks to Mark for two of the pictures in this posting).

It was not a bumper day and early on the fishing was quite slow. In the end the competition was won by Peter with three fish for 4lb 2oz. Roy was second with two fish for 2lb 12oz. Pat and Mike had a fish each. One would think that the middle of May would provide us with some pleasantly warm weather, a fair bit of surface action, and even a few of the dreaded biting midges. In reality it was a coldish breezy day although the wind did drop at bit in the late afternoon. At the moment we seem stuck in a north-westerly airflow that has a bit of a chill to it and, though it makes for easy casting from the Longstone Peninsula bank, does not seem to encourage much in the way of fly hatches and showing fish. Having said that Peter's three fish came on a 'ginked' up Red Arse Green Peter fly just twitched along the surface until it sunk and then bobbed up again. Here is a picture of the fly.

The Red Arse Green Peter

Time to get the net

A Double Limit from the boat at Burrator - Now Open for Bookings

Jon looking pleased to have netted the first Burrator boat caught trout for more than ten years

At last we have the boats up and running on Burrator!

 

On friday 19th April Mike Duckett, Jon Perry, and Peter Macconnell were given their induction as Fishing Volunteers at Burrator by Neil Reeves of SWLT. This meant that we were now ready for members and guests to go boat fishing. In  fact the boat has already been out three times. Following the induction Jon and Peter took the Bonwitco rowing boat out for a couple of hours using Peter's electric outbord motor, with three rainbows to show for their efforts. Last Thursday Pat Power and Peter went out and suffered much frustration and virtually no action on a very difficult day where several bank anglers were also struggling to catch. Then on Sunday 28th Jon and Peter went out again and both had their limit of rainbows plus one brownie in a short day's fishing between 10.30am and 3.30pm. Once we got the measure of where the majority of the fish seemed to be; over surprisingly deep water, we were able to contact fish on virtually every drift, and some very exciting sport was had.

So boat fishing at Burrator is now open for bookings. Just to remind everyone the procedure is that you contact Peter Macconnell by phone on 01752-560538 or mobile phone 07738-378227 or email psmacconnell@gmail.com and say which day you would like to go. (You can phone any time of day up to 9.30pm). The charge is £15.00 per day for two anglers (three may be in the boat but only two can fish). If it is your first time either Peter, Jon, or Mike will meet you at Burrator show you where everything is and get you started. Once you have been a time or two this will not be necessary.

For anyone who hasn't fished Burrator by boat; and that would be the majority of us, I really recommend the experience. Though it is still early in the season the fishing has been quite good on two out of three occasions and, as the weather warms and the fly life really gets going, there should be some stunning fishing ahead.

If anyone would like to fish from the boat, and doesn't have a readily available partner, please contact Peter Macconnell who will arrange to pair you up.

The two boats available are firstly a fifteen foot Bonwitco double skinned rowing boat (exactly the same as those at Kennick and Siblyback) which is very stable and safe to fish from and, secondly, a Wheelie Boat specially fitted out to accomodate anglers with a significant disability (though not necessarily in a wheelchair).

On the safety front there are good quality bouyancy aids (lifejackets) available to be worn in the boats. These are of the inflatable type so do not in the least interfere with comfort and efficiency when fishing.


Ready with the net



2013 Three Fly Competition

Peter Phillips with the best fish of the day - 5lb 13oz

This year's Three Fly Competition was held at Bake Lakes, Trerulefoot, Cornwall, on Saturday 20th April, and was attended by ten members. The day was dry and a bit overcast, and the water still had that tinge of colour that has been there since the heavy winter rains brought so much 'run-off' from the agricultural land around the lake. As a result it is still very difficult to see fish moving in the water. One hopes that this additional colouring of the water is not going to be a permanent feature of the lake. If it was it would certainly detract from our enjoyment of the fishing there.

As is usual at our competitions held away from Burrator the result is judged on the combined weight of a member's first two fish. This year's results were:

1st Peter Phillips with two fish for 7lb 10oz (best fish 5lb 13oz)
2nd Jack Flint with two fish for 6lb 11oz
3rd Peter Macconnell with two fish for 5lb 14oz
4th Mike Duckett with two fish for 4lb 13oz

Well done to Peter Phillips.

Mike Duckett with his two fish for 4lb 13oz



Numerous other fish were caught.

Also deserving of an honorable mention are Tony Vallack who generously supplied and prepared freshly cooked hot dogs and fried onions in the fishing hut at lunchtime and to Linda James who, once again, arrived with splendid cakes for everyone.

As to the flies, one pattern each was provided by Tony McCoy, Pat Power, and Peter Macconnell. They were Gold Headed Ginger Nymph (Tony), Hawthorn Fly (Pat), and Claret Pennell (Peter). So we had a weighted nymph to get deep, a traditional wet fly to fish sub-surface, and a dry fly/emerger for fishing on the top.

Gold Head Ginger Nymph (made with wool from Tony's wife's cardigan)

The Hawthorn Fly



Claret Pennell