Great Weekend

Well it’s been a hectic few days, first it was an early start and down to Avon Springs for a day’s teaching.

There were 12 in the group ranging from beginners to some who had been fishing for a few years. We had a great day and the most productive lake was the top one where we caught fish up to 7lb. All of the fish caught were spotted and fished for- really heart stopping moments and everybody were surprised on how quick they had to strike to set the hook. The fish were not taking the fly aggressively but were just cursing around just feeding as they swam around. What we were watching for was the tell tale sign of the white flash when the fish opened and closed their mouth to take the fly. If we did not strike at this point the fly would be rejected very quickly- I am sure that I saw a few fish swim away laughing to themselves as the angler struck far too late. All in all a great day was had by all.

After this it was a 5 hour drive up to Stock’s reservoir to practise for the Anglian water comp. On Thursday it was a heat of the Stocks pairs and as I was not fishing this I just went out for a few hours to relax and catch a few fish on dries.

On Friday the whole Osprey team were out practising and after a hard day there were 2 obvious methods for us to go out and fish the following day. First was dries and secondly was pulling on a wet 2. I know two very different tactics but both seemed to work. On match day we were greeted with a sunny windy day- why cant Metcheck ever get the forecast correct!!!!!!.

It was a tough day for some but congratulations to the winning team “Stocks” and to their top rod Paul Bebb who caught 9 fish on dries. Second individually was our own Star Steve Smallie who caught 8 fish pulling on a DI3 sweep.

A special mention must go to England Youth who qualified in 3rd and it was the first time in a few years for them to go to the English finals” Well done Lads”.

The Ospreys sneaked in in 4th. The average bag was 3 fish with some catching far more than that. You will notice that I have not mentioned how many I caught well as John Marshall announced the statistics he said if you did not catch 3 fish you were below average, well I was well below average with one fish!!!!

A relaxed day for me. Roll on Rutland in July