APRIL LAKES REPORT

Hello All, Winterbourne Zelston

 

Our annual weed cut and clearance from the margins to the paddock is nearly complete and you can see from the photos the amazing results of this cut. It has been a mammoth task and without the use of the weed boat and heavy lifting machinery this would have been an almost impossible task. I must give a huge thankyou to Merv Hughes one of our members who gave up his time and his machines to move the weed from the margins. What amounted to countless barrow loads!

 

This coming Friday Bob Spurgeon has organised a work party at WZ to collect all the remaining surface weed. If you wish to participate you will be most welcome. You will I am sure appreciate ‘many hands make light work’ and this ongoing maintenance work is essential.

RAWLSBURY

 

During this month Chapmans and Cowleaze has been restocked and is fishing well. The water is still a bit murky but for the moment weed free. Sandys is filling up but is not going to be stocked until we are sure the monk is functioning correctly.

 

• Had a nice day at Zelston today with fantastic weather and wonderful sport. Caught 2 excellent trout weighing 3lb 10 and 3ib 15 respectively.Was surprised to see the weed clearance and the high water levels considering the recent lack of rain which contributed to an excellent experience. Caught both fish on a black and red Cruncher.

 

• We had a fantastic days fishing at Rawlsbury (especially paul and Martin the guests) with us all catching our 2 fish ticket on Chapmans. Most of the trout fell to damsel nymphs. However, I did manage my 2 on green buzzers for a change of tactics. The strong easterly winds behind our backs helped Martin and Paul with some rather disjointed fly casting but after a couple of hours , I managed to gillie them over the 32 year casting blip! We did try Viners for half an hour with no success. I think the bright conditions and wind up top of the hill did not assist. All fish were around the 4-5lb mark. All fish were hard fighting fantastically coloured and fined fish. Please see the attached photo of some happy angers and hopefully new members soon!

Thank you again for all your hard work that allows us to have a great days fishing.

 

I fished Rawlesbury this afternoon/ evening. I failed to connect at Chapmans but did see a Mallard and five ducklings which must be only a few days old. I went up to Cowleaze and landed one good rainbow of 6 pounds and lost another on a viva Apache. The six pounder fought exceptionally well but I think would have been in for some time as it was 24 inches long and not as fat as the recent stockies.

 

• I fished WZ this morning. Hooked a fish on a bloodworm imitation after about ½ hour but it came off. Nothing for next 1 ½ hours, then finally, back on the bloodworm, I got one of 4lb2oz.

 

• Hi Paul, 4fish today but not easy going. All from Rawlsbury 3 at Chapmans and one at Cowleaze. 3lb8,4lb,4lb2,5lb. It's 1.5-hour drive for me, meeting up with Martin and Allen, the day was perfect and we sat at Chapmans for the morning, but nothing doing for me. So, feeling some desperation I switched to buzzer under an indicator, no wind to speak of to move it around but by just twitching it got an instant take and I was off and running, used the same method on Cowleaze that had a slight breeze and 4lb came to the net with indicator disappearing fast. Later on the last two came from hot head fly fishing very deep and slow retrieve. Great day with good friends left my house at 7.00am and got home at 8.15, but well worth it.

 

• Another perfect day for fishing drew Jack and I to Zelston yesterday. Sunny conditions had little impact on feeding fish and there were several pockets where 8-12 strong shoals were visible near the surface and feeding high, with an infrequent rise. Once found, catching was not too challenging but choosing a fish was enormous fun. We both cast to and sight caught our four fish of 5lbs 7, 4lbs 6, 4lbs 4 and 3lbs 5 for an extremely satisfying day.

 

• Fished Rawlsbury Last night. beautiful , very still evening with very little movement on Chapmans. Lost 2 fish deep down, then went up to Cowleaze which was difficult to fish because of debris on the surface, but had a lovely 6lb fish on a small red Diawl.

 

Winterbourne Zelston will be closed on Saturday 24th May. Paul Hooker, one of our members is organising the event. I wish him every success! Finally, thankyou everyone for your catch returns sent by email. I know I have to chase one or two of you occasionally but they do provide me with the information needed for me to restock in time. If you have managed to read this newsletter all the way down to the end, those that do, I can now tell you that I will be restocking WZ at the end of the week. Could be important to you! Tight lines and enjoy this fantastic sunshine!

 

Best wishes,

Paul

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