Wind hurtles down from the icing-sugared Aran Mountains and whips up the surface of Bala Lake (also known as Llyn Tegid) like a wild Welsh meringue. It’s mid January and the lowest low pressure for a century is moving over North Wales, bringing with it icy winds, snow and hail. A wind-blown figure in the …
The prospects of catching some grown-on trout on this Midland reservoir near Rugby are favourable — with ample cloud cover and light winds on the mild, mid-September morning, the conditions could not be better. Tony loads his gear into the boat. ‘Big lures fish well at Draycote. See what I mean,’ he says, pointing down …
The fast, oxygenated water contains myriad aquatic insects – and big grayling. But be very careful when wading and landing fish. Dennis designed a 9ft (2.7m) fly rod for grayling fishing with the Bob Church Company. His motto: keep tackle simple. You can’t help but enjoy the Welsh mountains when fishing on the Dee. Dennis …
Fishing for brown trout on the River Eden Alarmingly clear, low and slow-flowing, the Cumbrian Eden boasts a truly wild – and ultra wary – head of browns. ‘The hardest river to fly fish in all of Britain,’ says Malcolm, shaking his head as he makes his way down the dusty path towards the river …
A deserted armada of wooden boats lies motionless on the algae-choked surface of Loch Leven. Normally very busy during the trout season, the Fishing Lodge on this famous brown trout water is like a saloon in a western ghost town. Flat water and unrelenting heat spell one thing for anglers in Scotland: loch-style suicide. With …
A cock pheasant calls out a harsh klaxon as we descend a steep path, kicking up a left-over pizza pungency from the deep bed of wild garlic underfoot. The path opens out to a delightful bend on the River Tweed where a lemon and white fishing lodge stands. The river flows through a steep-sided valley, …
Downstream of the bridge Oliver uses a modified roll cast to present his flies close to the opposite bank. He picked up three small browns in the swirling run. Oliver carefully nets a small brown trout. The bedrock was covered with algae and slippery as ice, so caution here was very important. No bleached, tatty …
It’s hard to find a reservoir in England more scenic than Blagdon Lake or nearby Chew Valley Lake. Both are surrounded by lush Avon farm country. With proof in hand, Jeremy insists that lure fishing is just as much an art as nymph fishing. Jeremy spooned most of the trout he caught This rainbow was …
As we clear the causeway and motor slowly towards the west side of the reservoir, the grey sky and choppy water make a perfect backdrop for loch-style fishing on this mild September morning. In the afternoon the sun appears, and the trout move off. For this session Brian uses a mixture of bright and drab …
Many game anglers who regularly fish from the banks of reservoirs put their rods away in October: the cold days, fierce winds and sparse hatches can make fishing difficult and very frustrating. Memories of browns and rainbows rising freely during the warm, summer evenings linger and surely test, if not altogether undermine, their patience. Farmoor …
