September Competition - The Day of the Daddy-Long-Legs

The killing fly - Daddy-Long-Legs

Our two previous competitions, in June and July, had suffered from low water levels at Burrator, low fish numbers being landed and comparatively low turnout by club members. So, having had quite a lot of rain over August and into the start of September, the waters levels were on the rise and Burrator was over 50% full. So we all hoped that our next club outing on Friday 18th September would prove more productive, and we were not greatly disappointed.

The competition was won by Bill Watson from Callington with five fish for 6lb 2oz, Stuart Payne was second with three fish for 4lb 6oz, Pat Power was third with three fish for 3lb 7oz, and Tony Vallack was fourth with two fish for 2lb 8oz.

Pat with his third place catch

As can be gauged from the above weights, the size of trout landed; all rainbows, was not large. The average seemed to be around a pound and a quarter and the 'Sweep' for best fish of the day (the princely sum of £9.00) was shared between Pat Power and Terry Denley who both had fish of 1lb 8oz. Having said that there was plenty of sport to be had. Many fish were hooked and lost. I had four fish in four casts come off after a short fight or at the net and Bill Watson hooked at least four or five other trout in addition to the five he took to win it.

Peter Phillips - A picture of concentration

Of the nine members who took part; Pat Power, John Jeffrey, Tony Vallack, Stuart Payne, Kelvin Nikulin, Peter Phillips, Bill Watson, Terry Denley and myself, only one failed to land a fish or two and that person shall, to spare his blushes, remain nameless.

The day begins to darken over Stuart Payne

Another pleasing aspect to the fishing was the availability of surface or near surface sport, with virtually all the fish caught found high in the water. Bill had all his fish on Daddy-Long Legs fished dry.

Burrator Update - Mid August

As many of you will know Burrator was not at its best during most of July. However, in the last week or two things have started to pick up quite a bit. Whether it is all the rain and consequently fresh water flushing into the reservoir or some other reason the trout have started to be more active.

Pat Power and John Jeffrey have reported bags of four or five fish taken more or less at the surface using a floater and the 'washing line' technique of three buzzers on droppers and a booby nymph on the point They have taken fish during the middle of the day on at least a couple of occasions.

I had my best rainbow of the season so far last week. I fished a floating line and two nymphs, the point one slightly weighted, and in bright breezy mid-afternoon conditions landed a fish of almost four pounds. Then last Saturday, in thunderous and eventually torrential conditions, the fish kept feeding at the surface on small black flies and I took three rainbows and lost a couple of others by tempting them with a size 12 Black Klinkamer dry fly.

Peter's 3lb 12oz  Rainbow

Later I had a very interesting email from new member  Andrew Brewer, who lives in Dousland. He wrote:

"...I had a great evening at Burrator on Tuesday. I fished from 5.00 until 8.45pm. I had eight or nine good fish up to three pounds. Initially I fished a size 14 black nymph with a mid green tail and then switched to a Bi Viz black ant (winged). They were going mad at it!..."

Andrew's Black Nymph

Now we have got terrible rainy and windy weather all week, but once it clears up a bit September fishing should be very promising. It will soon be time for the Daddy-Long-Legs!

A few days at Fernworthy

A couple of brownies about a pound each - taken on a dry fly

During most of  July the fishing at Burrator has been quite poor. It is not only my blank returns but those of numerous other anglers that show this to be the case. Those of you who get Neil Reeves' weekly returns will have seen how dour things have been. Only the cormorants have been bagging up!

A fish in in the net in calm conditions

By contrast the brown trout fishery at Fernworthy has been very much worth a visit or two. I have been on five occasions in the last six weeks and have only blanked once. Both during the day and in the evening the brownies have been up in the water and fishing for them with dry flies or 'emergers' has been possible and productive. On my visits I have met a couple of other Burrator members, so I am not the only one seeking a change

A smaller one -about to go back

My other reason for going to Fernworthy was that the water levels, though drawn off to an extent, are much higher and consequently it looks much less 'drought' stricken and without the difficult muddy edges that are a problem on some parts of the Burrator banks.

My wife Gill also likes a trip out to Fernworthy so on a couple of occasions she and Honey the golden Retriever came along also and we made a picnic of it. She (Honey the Golden Retriever) is very well behaved and doesn't go in the water, unlike some of the dogs, and their less civilised owners, at Burrator.

Honey finds fishing very interesting

Scotland 2015 - A trip with a difference

Regular readers of this blog will recall that for the last couple of years Burrator member Jon Perry and myself, Peter Macconnell, have made a week long trip to the Scottish Highlands in search of wild brown trout. Earlier posts 'Watten Long Way' of July 2013, and 'Taking the High Road once again', of June 2014 tell the story in words and pictures of our fishing experiences in Caithness and Sutherland. This year we decided to go to Sutherland again and to base ourselves once more in the Cairnmuir Caravan Park in Lairg, six hundred and eighty miles from Plymouth and about fifty miles north-west of Inverness. On  Saturday 30th May we set off around 4.30am and arrived at our destination thirteen hours later having stopped only for petrol, coffee and food along the way. On Sunday we were booked to fish Loch Beannach from the Lairg Angling Club boat.

Loch Beannach before the wind got up

Beannach, being one of the smaller lochs managed by the Lairg A C is very shallow and only electric outboards are allowed. Initially our fishing went well enough and we were soon catching the typical half to three-quarter pound brownies, but then the wind got up and, as we were soon to find out, this shallow loch had many rocky shoals some of which we came upon suddenly and they made using the outboard motor quite difficult. I was anxious about breaking the plastic propeller because we had no spare with us. Rowing proved no easier in the windy conditions. On more than one occasion we wondered how we were going to get back to shore as our boat, yet again, became stuck on the rocks. However we did manage to catch around fifteen trout before we made it back to the shore where I took to the car to have a snooze (I was feeling unaccountably tired) while Jon carried on fishing from the bank.

Beannach brownie in the net

 On Monday we were booked to fish Loch Shin itself, once again from a Lairg A C boat. When we arrived at the club lodge Robert McQueen one of committee and a real club stalwart was there to meet us and offer some helpful advice. Though the club has several boats to rent we were the only ones out that day. We had the whole of the twelve mile long loch to ourselves! This was a very different prospect indeed. We also rented one of the club's four horse-power petrol outboards and we certainly needed it. On Robert's advice we made our way to Tiree Bay.

Loch Shin - Jon on the outboard in less than smooth conditions

On the way to Tiree Bay

We concentrated our efforts in this area of the loch a mile or two north of the clubhouse and on the east side of the water. We had fairly continuous sport and caught in excess of thirty trout. None of them were glass case specimens but were nevertheless strong hard fighting lively fish. All in all we had a tiring but very enjoyable day.

On  the Tuesday we were due to fish Loch Merkland but a combination of circumstances prevented us from doing so. The weather was beginning to cut up proper rough out on the big lochs and I, for some reason, was starting to feel a bit unwell. I decided to have a rest day and Jon, having the previous evening had a quick try on a local burn that ran into Loch Shin, took the opportunity to fish the River Shin itself. Interestingly we never quite worked out what the legal position was about fishing these rivers. They are essentially salmon rivers and, from a commercial point of view, there was no interest in the brown trout. The advice we were given was that provided the salmon have not yet come up over the Shin Falls no one, including the Ghillies, would mind if we fished for trout so long as we were clearly using trout tackle. So there may or may not have been 'poaching' going on! Here are some pictures of Jon's results

The River Shin from the bridge by our caravan site

A river Shin fish

A small burn fish on the dry fly

On the Wednesday morning I was feeling no better, in fact a fair deal worse. My breathing had become quite laboured and immediately Jon recognised  that all was not well. Well, to leave out the grim details, a few minutes later I was in the local health centre at Lairg being examined by a doctor, and a few minutes after that I was on my way to hospital in Inverness by air ambulance. It seems I was going into heart failure. So that was the end of my fishing for the week!

Suffice it to say I survived the experience and am here to tell tale- so to speak. That is in no small part due to Jon and his decisiveness in getting me to medical help without delay and in seeing that it was definitely required. I hope I didn't completely spoil his fishing week but I think I probably took the edge of it somewhat, to say the least.

This is where I spent the next week. The care was brilliant beyond all expectations

Frank Dunlop - RIP

The more longstanding members of the Burrator Fly Fishers will remember Frank Dunlop who was a member for many years and who left early in 2013 when he and his wife Jess left the area after more than forty years living in Plymouth.They moved to Bourne in Lincolnshire to be near to their son and his family. As a BFF member Frank was a persistently cheerful fellow, well liked and very good company. He was also a hard working man. Despite being over eighty he still plied his trade as a podiatrist on a part time basis and ran a weekly service for older ladies who relied on him to deal with their corns and bunions.

I was very sad to hear that he passed away on Monday last as a result of  domestic accident in his garage at his new home in Lincolnshire. It seems he was taken to hospital in Peterborough by emergency ambulance but did not survive. On  behalf of the club I have sent a condolence card to his wife and family. Here are a couple of pictures of Frank from his Burrator days:

Frank (in the middle) with Terry Denley and Mike Duckett June 2012

With Linda - Christmas 2011

5lb 10oz Rainbow for Mark Sinclair

Caught on the Hopper

Less than three weeks after Pat Power landed a 5lb 5oz rainbow to register the best fish of the season so far, fellow Burrator member Mark Sinclair from Horrabridge has gone one better with a fish of 5lb 10oz. In an email to me on 13th June he said:

'Hi Peter
I thought you might like to see this one!
I was just about to call it a day, with no results during a very windy day, when all of a sudden -wham- this rainbow took a hopper fished on the surface.
Regards...Mark'

22 inches on the tape

Burrator Fly Fishers Competition 17 June 2015

Seven BFF members (Pat, John, Terry, David, Stuart, Bob & Tony) met at Longstone to start the competition at 10am. Although it stayed dry throughout the day there were misty low clouds over the surrounding hills and tors.  A south westerly breeze along the south side of Longstone as usual made right-handed casting a little tricky. Some members persevered there but the majority went to the other, sheltered side of the peninsula.  Bob fished the area between the Sheepstor Dam and the main dam and was the only one to land any trout finishing with 2 rainbows of 1lb 6oz & 1lb 7oz.  He also had two brownies that he released.  Tea was brewed at the weigh-in at 3pm where Bob was declared the winner and we were joined by Peter.

Mist hangs over Yennadon Down

Kennick Flyfishers took the boat out

Most of the BFF anglers fished the sheltered side of Longstone