I had the whole of Bewl Water all to myself fly fishing.

I finished all I could do on my garden fencing project around noon so I decided to treat myself to a bit of piscatorial R & R! None of my pals could make it so was free to choose between Albury or Bewl.  I was pretty sure to catch at Albury but Bewl won because it would be more challenging and a bit cheaper. When I arrived the weather was good, overcast but dry, south westerly breeze and air temperature around 10 C.  Vince Brook, one of the fishery staff kindly stopped for a chat and suggested Bramble Point?  So off I set on  the ten minute walk and arrived to find the water crystal clear with a nice ripple.  Resisting the temptation to wade I kept well back and started casting with a single black woolly bugger gold head fly presented using a 7 weight forward floating line with a twelve foot leader.  On my third cast I was rewarded with a lovely pull that signalled good fish on!  It had hit the fly round two rod lengths off of the rod tip so it was in quite close and I would probably have spooked it if I had been in the water.

Later I did go into the water as there was no more action from the shore, I also tried an intermediate line with the woolly bugger, then a cats whisker and finally a blue flash damsel. I fished for 2 hours, only had the one fish but I loved every minute of it! The sky, the breeze and the water lapping at my waders told me I was very lucky to be there, still able to cast a line and still able to land a fish, the first of 2015.  And to top it all I had the whole of Bewl Water all to myself!

I am pleased to see that I can still pull them out!

Vince had warned me that they lock the exit gates at 4pm this time of year which is why I only fished for 2 hours.  However, as I was leaving Rob Barden told me that if you park down by the Outdoor Centre you can exit from there whenever you like.

Bewl Water is fishing well with big fish being caught, if you know how!!!

Rob teaching at Bewl

I managed to get down to Bewl Water to enjoy I some top of the water autumnal action. Rob Barden (who fishes for England) was manning the Fishing Lodge so I did not hesitate to ask his advice on the where and how. He recommended drifting either side of the fish cages in terms of the where and fishing a booby on the point and a couple of small naturals on the dropper. He said the knack that makes the difference at this time of year is to fish the booby static, and if on the drift not retrieving any more than is necessary to keep the fly line straight between the rod tip and the fly. So fully briefed I went to work.  The weather was ideal, mainly overcast with a good ripple on the water.  As I was motoring to the cages I saw a circle of smooth water and was tempted to stop and cast to it as it was probably caused by fish circling just under the surface. I should have paused but the call of the cages was too strong!   

A selection of boobies

Now I am use to retrieving boobies fast on warm summer evenings when the trout will provide a brilliant chase, but that is totally wrong in the autumn. So I had to force myself to keep the booby as static as possible and it worked.  In the end I gave up drifting, I got lazy and moored to a buoy, with fish moving all around.  The weather was bright and there was a quiet time early afternoon but there were fish showing most of the time.  Just before I was leaving the clouds opened and it poured. I managed to wrap the leader round the top of the rod and thought of leaving, but I decided I liked extreme fishing so I tied a new leader on put an fresh minkie booby on the point and was swiftly rewarded by a cracking take and another 3 lb fish.

It was worth getting wet as I filleted the fish and my wife cooked my favourite trout recipe "Pan fried citrus trout with basil". The recipe is in the book "50 Classic Trout Recipes" by Jane Bamforth at the amazing cost of £4.99.  I got it for Christmas last year so if you want to get a fly fisherman a lovely present this year there is my suggestion.