DAY AND SEASON PERMITS

Permit rooms are closed until further notice. Please purchase your day and season permits here or call one of our team on 01566 771930.

 

Reminders & Requests

• Please send me any photos of your catches, lakes or any nature or wildlife pictures that we could utilise for press articles or social media posting. It would also be great to have some clear and close up photos of some of the flies used, and would be very keen to see flies tied at home as well, so if you have any photos to hand please send them to- [email protected]

 

• Please complete Catch Returns online, this will enable us to gain a clearer picture of our lakes and stock levels which of course in turn will help us to continue to improve our Anglers experience.

 

• Any Roadford Brown Trout with adipose removed as part of the project study please record and send any photo/details of these Brown Trout caught.

 

Bag, Catch & Release limits:

• Rainbow Trout- Bag Limit is 5 fish. Catch & Release limit is 10 fish per day – we would kindly ask that all anglers purchase a further ticket if they would like to continue fishing.
• Brown Limit– Bag Limit is 4 fish. Catch & Release is unlimited (if you’re lucky enough to catch good numbers of our Brownies then we feel it’s well deserved!) 

 

BOATS 

 

We currently have four boats available at Kennick, three at Roadford and one at Stithians. The two boats for Siblyback will be available soon.

To book a boat for the fisheries please click here.

 

News and Highlights from the week:

There are still plenty of spaces left for qualifying for the Best of the Best Competition:

The qualifiers have a maximum of 12 people per heat with the top 6 qualifying for the £2000 final at Kennick on 17^th October. 

Places still available for the dates below - To book in please call our office on 01566 771930. Don’t delay!

 Burrator – 18 September (New date)

Kennick – 25 September (New date)

Kennick – 2 October

 All the information and rules can be found here: https://www.swlakestrust.org.uk/best-of-the-best

 The full list of qualifiers will be posted on our Best of the Best page on our website (link above).

 

 

Snowbee Top Rod Competition June 13th - Kennick Bank

Round 4 of the Snowbee Top Rod Competition was at Kennick on a warm sunny day with light SE winds and a temperature in the mid 20's.

Kennick was looking spectacular with the Rhododendrons coming out into full colour and the first few Coch y Bonddu beetles were also flying about.

Best fishing was from the Dam up past the Lawns and into Clampitts.

Best tactics were intermediates and sinking lines due to the bright conditions and fish heading into the cooler water. Best flies were Damsels, Black and Green lures, Blobs and Boobies.

13 anglers made the trip and caught 30 fish for a bag weight of 50lbs 13.5oz.

Average catch - 2.3

Average weight 1.7lbs

5 anglers failed to catch.

Best fish of the day - 2lbs 8oz caught by Alec Hoare.

1ST ALEC HOARE OF ABBOTSKERSWELL - 5 FISH 8LBS 12OZ

2ND ALAN RIDDELL OF NEWTON ABBOT - 5 FISH 8LBS 6.5OZ

3RD ANDY GOODING OF LIVERTON - 5 FISH 8LBS 1OZ

4TH MIKE STEER OF BOVEY TRACEY - 4 FISH 7LBS 1.5OZ

5TH ANDY WATSON OF BOVEY TRACEY - 4 FISH 5LBS 15.5OZ

6TH DARREN PENFOLD OF LIVERTON - 3 FISH 5LBS 8OZ

 

Winners pictured socially distanced on the boat pontoon and John Hern of Exeter won the raffle draw prize.

From Left to right Andy Gooding, John Hern, Alan Riddell and Alec Hoare.

Please keep the catch reports coming in, we really do appreciate the depth of information they offer and it’s a great help to us. Thanks also for the great photos and videos we’ve received so far.

 

Kennick  

Some great pictures and a nice report from Alan L this week:

‘Another great day on Kennick in the boat, arrived around 07.00 to see fish rolling the surface in boat bay always nice to see.Started with a dry black gnat with a single buzzer dropper and third cast took a nice fish took the dry.Sure enough within an hour the fish had stopped rising and we had to search for them.Sporadic rises followed from clampits to the narrows targeting moving fish when they came up and switched to pulling a damsel when it went quiet for some very aggressive takes!

The fish in great condition and fighting well.

Finished the day on 8 one of which was a stunning small brown, all fish safely released’.

 Kennick Highlights:

 Rod Average: 1.52

Anglers reporting most success from boats this week  due to fish moving into deeper, cooler waters. Mike H caught 3 1lb rainbows 'in excellent condition' while Malcolm U caught 9 rainbows at 1.5-3lbs, as well as Al L and Graham R with 7 rainbows each at around 1-3lbs. The majority of bank anglers reported very little activity; with the exception of Geoff V with 6 rainbows and Andy W with 4.

 Roger P: 'Weather was good around 21C, a good breeze blowing down across the lake which lead to good long drift’s. All the fish where taken in the narrows, didn’t see much surface activity apart from early morning when fish could be seen breaking the surface.'

Graham R caught 7 rainbows and reported: ‘Mostly cloudy, some rain late afternoon. Most caught medium depth, slow retrieve. A lot of small black flies skating at the surface, but they failed to impress the trout.’

Thanks to Mike H for his report and photos: ‘A lovely warm day, sunny with broken cloud with a gentle SW breeze (at least until I packed up at 2pm), but it was quite difficult. A few rainbows were being caught - not by me - probably because (being June) I was on dries. I did catch three healthy browns at the Causeway end, each one over a pound, all on a Claret Snaffler. The one I photographed disgorged an enormous grasshopper as I returned it! There were no trout seen rising, anywhere.

Next week I'll start later and fish into the evening.

Very few ducklings seen so far this year. The usual Tufted Ducks (see photo) were around, a Moorhen (but no Coots), Pied and Grey Wagtails, etc. The rhododendrons are late. Two Swallows but no House Martins around today.

All four boats were out and at least 8 bank anglers were spotted.’

 

View the full Catch Report here

Check out the Kennick fishing map here

The Kennick fishing guide is here

 

Siblyback

Siblyback Highlights:

 Rod Average: 2.50

High beetle activity this week, bringing trout to the surface. Paul E reported 'Light SW winds, overcast, floating line, Fished from 10am to 5pm. Large amounts of beetles blown into water in afternoon.' John R got 8 rainbows from the west bank at 1lb 6oz - 2lb 8oz while Ron W caught 11 2lb rainbows on a floating line.

 

SFFA Report for 2nd event Summer League Competition:

Saturday 11th June saw the second event of the SFFA summer league competition - disappointed with just three of us turned out on the day but then that gives me a better chance!?

Well with the weather forecast for a bright warm day, one starts to think of excuses before even fishing - too hot, too bright - fish have gone deep, the cormorants have had all the fish, not well stocked .......you know the stuff heard it all before..

We headed straight for Stocky bay as we'd had some a superb day's fishing over the last few weeks in this area,  with a nice northly wind giving a good ripple across the top and casting not too difficult we started just at the end of the stones area. John R had one take but that was it... The wind changed to a more westlery direction when we noticed the beetles in the water - local / previous knowledge we know they blow in off the fields along west bank, so that's where we headed. I noticed fish picking off the beetles very close in so jumped in at the dam side of stocky bay. floating line three barbless beetle flies and nothing... I dropped the flies right on the nose when a swirl appeared in front of me - excuses - I think the fish were spoilt for choice with so many natural beetles in the water. Then YESSS I landed in fairly quick succession two cracking rainbows; the beetle flies I had tied are OK after all!!

When it went quiet, I walked over the dam to catch up with John & John. With so many fish moving just after the dam I jumped down the bank and pulled out another - this week they are such fast takes and hard fighting. I walked just around the point to see John R who informed me he caught 3 very quickly along the far end of west bank before walking back to this corner. John T had also landed a couple.

WE continued fishing in this area between the dam & west bank - John R had to leave at 2.0pm with both of us on 7 fish and John  T, on 3.

I am not sure what the best advice is: - cast to a swirl or just to the side, both were effective - watch the line straighten out at the end of the rod or watch for a swirl or fish to jump in the vicinity of your flies and strike  (more just lift rod into the fish) - I think the latter was most effective today. Fantastic fishing always felt I was going to catch a fish with every cast -

Now the float has been removed there is no-where for the cormorants to perch, I have seen just 3 which have to fly off somewhere away from Siblyback. I am certain this has had a big impact on how well Siblyback has fished the last few weeks

I finished at 4.0pm with 11 rainbows John T had 6 and lost another 6 (barbless hooks!!) I lost 5 or 6 plus got snapped off twice - the first time was my fault for using the same line as last week (too tight to change it!!??) and the second was a very hard hit just straight snapped the new line just set up..

Fantastic days fishing at Siblyback and there was just three of us..  24 fish landed (All returned and I'm certain John would have had more if he could have stayed until 4.0pm) and almost as many lost.

With the beeches now open and less dog walkers it was easy to park, get around the lake and have a brilliant day's fishing.

Tight lines - The beetles are on the water and fish gorging on them.

Take care

Regards

Ron W

 

 

 

View the full Catch Report here

Read our guide to fishing at Siblyback here

Check out our Siblyback fishing map here

Burrator

 Burrator Highlights:

 Rod Average: 1.13

Lots of anglers reporting high water temperatures and a quiet week this week, with bags of 0-2 fish per angler. The exception being Patrick M who managed 4 rainbows and 2 browns during an evening session from the bank at the start of the week. Patrick P caught 1 1lb 8oz trout and Martin S reported a 45cm rainbow on 7^th.

Thanks to Peter L for his report: ‘Commenced fishing 0830 am at Langstone point ,bright sunshine , westerly wind ( at time gusting ) , used floating line sink tip , fished mid dept to deep , slow retrieve . Plenty of takes initially, lost two good fish then all quiet for about two hrs , finally connected to my first fish at about 1230 am Rainbow trout 15 1/2 inches 1 lb 9.6 ozs and second fish 14 inches 1 lb 4 ozs caught about 1/2 hour later still on the same fly . I continued to fish until about 1600 hrs with a couple of shy takes to keep me interested but finished as I say about 1600 hrs . Next time I will take photos.’

And this one from Alan C: ‘Must be my 5 or 6th visit this season. First blank of the season! Had 3 knocks in about 3 hours, fish seemed a little shy. I think the knocks where on blue flash damsel and Montana. Tried some dry fly (Daves Dibbler) and buzzers, but nothing. Water temperature seemed warmer than recent weeks so not sure if that made a difference. Other than that conditions were good, nice breeze, overcast. Thats Fishing! Will be back for more.’

Patrick M also had a good evening landing 4 rainbows and 2 browns: ‘Evening ticket fished 5pm to 8.45pm Ripple from main dam down the lake, fished west bank only, very occasional fish showing with a little sporadic surface activity from 7.30 when the wind started to drop off. Warm evening but still not much insect activity on water. Had a few tentative offers in first hour and netted a couple of brownies. Had a break and moved round to point opposite Langstone. Had a few more very tentative offers and took a short break for refreshments and swapped top dropper for a floating bibio to see if this would bring some fish up as the sun started to set. A few more fish started to show but appeared to be covering a lot of water as they cruised. From 7.15 to around 8pm landed three very zippy Rainbows, two of which launched into the floating fly and one took the midge on point. Missed a few other tweeks then all went quiet again - I would guess a shoal of fish moved through fairly slowly - again virtually no sign of them at the surface. Fish all very well hooked and the couple I kept and spooned were feeding on very small midge pupa. Landed another nice rainbow half an hour later beside west bank meadow - on point fly.’

 

View the full Catch Report here

Read our guide to fishing at Burrator here

Check out our Burrator fishing map here

Stithians

Stithians Highlights:

Rod Average: 1.97

A variety of techniques used by anglers this week resulting in steady fishing throughout the week: Lee E caught 5 rainbows at 1lb - 1lb 8oz and 1 8oz brown during an evening session fishing shallow with a floating line and a figure of 8 retrieve. Owain H, who caught a rainbow and a Roach, reported 'Evening fishing, strong westerly wind, drizzly rain and cold. Fishing in mossopps area with a steady retrieve using a 6 weight floating line. Cuckoo calling all evening Heron fishing on far bank.'

View the full Catch Report here

Read our guide to fishing at Stithians here

Check out our Stithians fishing map here

Fernworthy

Fernworthy Highlights:

 

Rod Average – 1.15

A mixed bag with A S Fulcher reporting 5 12" browns caught from the bank on the far side of the dam and Roy G and Phillip H both reporting a lack of fish rising. Gary S also caught 5 at 1lb each, as well as Mark W with 5 ranging from 120z to lb 40z on a black buzzer.

 

View the full Catch Report here

Read our guide to fishing at Fernworthy here

Check out our Fernworthy fishing map here

 

Colliford

Colliford Highlights:

 Rod Average: 4.21

Lots of browns caught over the course of the week with Phillip H catching and releasing 11 fish all at around 9oz on a Bibio fly, and Barbara L reporting 13 browns ranging from 8oz - 1lb: 'SW breeze, fish were between surface and 3 ft down floating line, slow retrieve. Not many insects hatching but a few beetles blown onto the water. Some of the fish were silvery with black spots, almost like sea trout, the rest were true brown trout colour with red spots!'

Chris B also had a successful session: ‘Great afternoons fishing lots of nips to the flies and a few on and lost in the fog with a nice wet fly ripple / small wave. waded out in the shallows and put out a long line, very slow figure of eight retrieve, some takes as the fly hit the water and on lift off, note to self, concentrate and lift and hold before re- casting!!’

And another fun evening session was had by John F: ‘Evening, sunny light south easterly wind. Fish two wet flies which produced the first fish on a hares ear at about 4ft deep with a slow retrieve. The other three where caught on a hopper on the surface and as the sun dropped lots of fish rising and just casting at showing fish. Great fun!’

View the full Catch Report here

Read our guide to fishing at Colliford here

Check out our Colliford fishing map here

 

 

NEWS……here is our 2021 pre-season trout fishing newsletter

 

Hope to catch up on one of our waters in the very near future.

Tight lines!

Dil