LOW water levels seem to be what most trout anglers are talking about, especially at Foremark Reservoir where the levels continue to fall.
They are currently around 8ft down on normal levels.
This is a real bonus for bank anglers but the fish have yet to move into the margins in any quantity at the moment.
Boat anglers have been taking the vast majority of fish caught this week as the fish are out in open water. The main basin and the dam wall have been favourites with most of the fish taken on floating lines with blobs of various colours, but favouring orange.
This method, as with last week, has worked well in the mornings but as the days have progressed, then dries, such as daddy long legs and hoppers have come into their own. So much so that evenings have been dominated by anglers fishing on the top.
C Rowland had a bit of a beano taking 18 fish with the best going 4lb 6oz, all of them taking an orange blob.
Rod average at 2.6 fish per rod.
Thornton Reservoir has fished extremely well late in the day when few anglers are around.
That last hour or so has seen the reservoir bursting with fish showing on the surface and feeding on the hatching buzzers.
Anglers restricted to daytime fishing have had the best results using long leaders and buzzers.
Rod Average for the week at 1.2 fish per rod.
TRENT AS EXPECTED, the Crown Meadows at Shardlow out-fished the river through Burton by a big margin with the top five weights all coming from that length.
There were good weights made up with good stamp roach and there were some good bigger fish in among them.
Two anglers at the top of the list both had classic nets of roach to put them there.
The winner was Alex Graham with an all roach net for 19lb 10oz, all taken on the stick float with casters and hemp.
Eric Wright was not far behind with 17lb 6oz, again, mostly caster fish.
Third-placed John Hardwidge chose to go for the feeder and maggots from the off and was rewarded with two cracking fish, a barbel that weighed 8lb 7oz and a bream that went just over 3lb for a final weight of 13lb 10oz.
Steve Nunes included a 4lb chub in his 11lb 4oz net, all taken on waggler and casters.
There will be another such open on Sunday, September 4 and 32 anglers are already booked in. Contact Wayne Swinscoe for tickets on 07737 056767.
While on the subject, the annual Macmillan’s open will be held on Sunday, September 11, with just the lengths through Burton featuring.
Again, contact Swinscoe for tickets or Tony Vandome on 01332 512711.
CARP THE fishery record at the Stoppos Fishery fell for the second time this season and it was youngster Tommy Hancock who did it.
Using his favoured feeder and luncheon meat, he netted exactly 77lb of carp to beat the old record set only a few weeks ago by a couple of pounds.
Runner-up Alan Taylor also recorded an exceptional weight of carp, tench and bream, all on the waggler and sweetcorn.
He may have been on the waggler but he still caught all of his fish close in, just beyond the margin. He weighed 69lb 4oz.
Third place went to John Wollett. Now, I don’t know if my leg is being pulled here or not but he weighed in 44lb of carp and according to the report that I’ve got, he caught them all on sliced peaches on the feeder.
If he did then I want to know if he used custard in his feeder! Fishery owner John Stevens always seems to finish in the top few as he did this match with 41lb 4oz.
He had yet another mixed net, something that he seems to specialise in, on bread and sweet corn.
Fifth place went to Gaz Lees with a level 37lb.
OTHER RESULT Burton Veterans A/C: Robin Wood Fishery.
1, D.Sherratt, 34-8-0. 2, J.Adams, 33- 4-0. 3, R.Bumstead, 24-6-0. 4, B.Yeomans, 21-4-0.5, J.Sendell, 13-10-0. 6, F.Bennett, 12-12-0.
SCOTTISH DIARY HOPEFULLY, this will give you the idea that a holiday in Scotland is well worth the effort of getting up here. I don’t know whether to finish that sentence with a question mark or an exclamation mark! Did the sensible thing and went sea fishing from a chartered boat instead of off the rocks. The skipper said after the first Spur Dog the fun drops off rapidly.
He was right — every drop down seemed to attract them from miles around, to the extent that even though it was more than 40m to the bottom, several would come to the surface with the one that was hooked.
One drop down resulted in a haddock coming on board minus half of it’s bodythanks to the attention of one of the dogs.
Once we found the cod they came thick and fast, most around the 5lb mark. Add to these, mackerel, haddock, ling, gurnard and whiting.
Brilliant day.
Now then-midges. My pet hate. Generally as they just love me.
Headlines in one local paper “Garlic can ward off midge plague”. Yes, just like Marmite and all the rest of the so called midge deterrents.
‘Skin So Soft’, is one of the best. However, the first wave of midges lick it off and the second wave dig in for a meal.
Interesting facts: some people have midge traps up here, don’t ask me why, but they are expected to catch 2kg of them over night.
That’s 8,000 midges to the gram with 2kg equating to 16 million. Normally, a trap will produce around 20,000 midges overnight.
It would give me great delight in counting them, if only for the fact that they were dead.
Moved to the east coast to stay with an old familiar face, Rowland Chamberlain at Loth Railway Station.
He now runs Antiques and Collectables from his home. He will be remembered by many of the older anglers as he had a fishing tackle business in Uxbridge Street.
More sheep are being sheered now as the price of a fleece is now fetching more than it costs to shear them.
Thanks go to China and the fact that sheep’s wool is being used as insulating material in houses.
