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 Troutwith 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, two at Siblyback and one at Stithians. 

 To book a boat for the fisheries please click here.

 

News and Highlights from the week:

 

 

 

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  

Rod Average: 2.12

Windy conditions making casting difficult this week but still some successful fishing to be had, particularly for those fishing from a boat in deeper waters. A sinking line and slow retrieve seemed to be working best. Stephen Illingworth enjoyed a full bag of 6 rainbows at around 1.5lbs, while Peter Gilpin caught 4 rainbows of just over 1lb and one 6oz brown. Matt Baines also saw success from his float tube, with 9x 2lb rainbows and an 8oz brown, while Adam Dale managed 6x 2lb rainbows on a booby fished on a sinking line from a boat.

Graham Roberts caught 2 2lb rainbows but reported: ‘Fish very reluctant, even fishing deep. Fished for five and a half hours, and then both rods bent over simultaneously (a bit like buses!)’.

Roger Prout also caught 2, at 2-2.5lbs and had stiff competition from the local wildlife: ‘Not much surface activity throughout the day, I had one on a sink tip, and one hard on the bottom. One was lost in the fight and missed one. The cormorants were having success; one surfaced right beside me with a good Rainbow probably close to 2lb, bit of splashing and juggling and it was down the neck before I could get the camera.’  

 

View the full Catch Report here

Check out the Kennick fishing map here

The Kennick fishing guide is here

Siblyback

Rod Average: 1.25

Water temperatures still quite warm meaning little fish activity until later in the day. Wayne Middleton had just the one take; a 1lb rainbow caught late during a session with little activity. Andy Dexter caught one 2lb rainbow and an 8oz brownie on a bibio on floating line with slow retrieve, Phil Messenger Roberts had 5 rainbows at 1.5-2.25lbs and Terry Fisher caught one 16" rainbow.

Thank you very much to Phil messenger-Roberts who provided the following interesting information regarding the mystery of what the fish are taking at Siblyback:

 ‘Siblyback is proving to be a bit of a challenge at the moment. And many other places as well I would suspect.

 I went there last week on the Monday morning and blanked. I tried very early in the morning arriving at 05:30 - it was flat calm like a mill pond, but occasionally around the edges of the lake there were rises. There was no insect life to be seen apart from the odd sedge - which I tried to no avail. I tried a daddylonglegs to try and induce a take and I did get one - which I missed.

 I’ve been thinking about this a lot - there were definitely fish around - and the week before I had had reasonable success (6) on pinfry, and thinking that they may have been a preoccupation I persisted with those patterns again, once again with no success - other anglers also assumed it was pinfry that were ruining the fishing; but I think we were all wrong.

One clue - which I never picked up on I have to confess, was that there were thousands of shucks on the water surface - not buzzers - but water boatmen! The shucks were about 7mm long, so lesser waterboatmen, but in droves!

This week - on Monday - I went again, still very bright and quite sunny first thing (06:00) and yet again in the margins there were quite a few fish rising again - same as last week. And I'm talking close - a metre or two at most and in very shallow water. Once again I immediately thought pinfry - but there was something odd in the takes - sipping almost like like taking buzzer shucks - yet there were no buzzers - and tracking for a metre or two at a time as if what they were feeding on were plentiful.

I tried the daddy again and this time hooked a fish, a beautiful 2 pounder in superb condition that really scrapped like a demon. I spooned him out - and it was packed to the gills.... with big fat snails and waterboatmen!!!!!

I didn't have either in the fly box - but I am heading off first thing tomorrow armed with a bunch of small waterboatmen flies (there are thousands in the margins) and some floating snail patterns - I am going to try an old trick of gluing a coffee bean to a size 12 and adding antenna.

I'm wondering if the snail and boatman are the answer to the July scourge.

It then got even more interesting...

‘I went very early (I was fishing by 06:00) and I used the bung and an orange blob to establish depth. I connected with my second cast, they seemed to be cruising quite high in the water - about a foot or so. The trout were smutting around the margins, very close in. I tried dry sedge, daddy (got one on a daddy) waterboatman (didn't get a touch on that which was disappointing) several different blobs (I changed occasionally to confirm depth)and the new coffee bean snail, which kind of worked as it floats very high in the water column.

 Too high in fact - I had 8-10 boils at the snail, including one really vicious one (I missed them all) and we think it may be because the natural buoyancy of the bean raises its back above the water - whereas when snails migrate to the surface they are literally 'upside down' pulling themselves along the meniscus with their foot. I need to make it neutral density and for it to hang.

 What seemed to be happening today, was that the trout would swim out 6-10 metres, go along parallel to the bank then swim into the bank at the end of the beat, swimming parallel to the bank but REALLY close in. What they were taking seemed to be determined by where in this loop they were, close in snails (and the occasional pinfry). What surprised me was that I kept one of the trout - and it contained snails, then midge/buzzers plus very small corixa (so why no takes on those? anyone any ideas?) then snails again.

 Got 5 eventually but I missed well in excess of 3 times that number.’

Phil's hand-tied coffee-bean snail pattern.

View the full Catch Report here

Read our guide to fishing at Siblyback here

Check out our Siblyback fishing map here

Burrator

Rod Average: 0.33

Catch returns lacking in information this week! Out of the 3 received 2 had nil catches and one rainbow caught by Patrick Power on a dry fly from Longstone point, weighing in at 1lb 2oz.

 

View the full Catch Report here

Read our guide to fishing at Burrator here

Check out our Burrator fishing map here

Stithians

Rod Average: 2.11

A little more activity this week with fish chasing fry, subsequently Simon Peters had some positive takes with 11 rainbows on damsel flies during Friday's stormy weather. Less activity later in the week but a fry pattern fly still proved successful with 2 rainbows of 1-2lb and another on FAB. Graeme Clement caught a further two at around 1lb and John Henderson caught 1 at 1lb 6oz.

Thank you to Matthew Vorster for these images of his 20cm brownie and 3 of the 8 rudd he caught on a size 12 Hawthorn with black / red buzzer with schuck on dropper:

View the full Catch Report here

Read our guide to fishing at Stithians here

Check out our Stithians fishing map here

Fernworthy

Rod Average: 0.33

Only 2 trout catches reported this week, by Simon Madden on Monday who caught an 8oz and a 2lb brown on a damsel nymph.

Silver-washed Fritillary and hoverfly at Fernworthy, by bailiff Geoff Stephens.

View the full Catch Report here

Read our guide to fishing at Fernworthy here

Check out our Fernworthy fishing map here

Colliford

Rod Average: 2.00

Lots of anglers reporting little to no insect hatches or fish activity this week but still some repectable bags: Michael Jones caught 3 brownies at 10", Tim Laws also got 3 small browns on a damsel nymph, and Alex Bobba caught 2 more. Meanwhile, Chris Tilyard got 4 brownies from 25-38 cm, Andrew Riddell caught 4 small ones at 0.75-1lb and Steve Tarling caught 6.

Brown Trout by Chris Tilyard

View the full Catch Report here

Read our guide to fishing at Colliford here

Check out our Colliford fishing map here

Roadford

Rod Average: 1.00

A few more trout caught at Roadford this week than of late, with 15 caught between 3 anglers. Wayne Middleton caught 4 at around 0.75lbs, Stuart Macrostie caught 1 brownie, Duncan Kier caught 8 browns to 2.5lbs and a 2lb rainbow, and 1 8" brown for Chris Rice. Also a good week for perch anglers with Stuart Macrostie catching 20 on a sinking line and Chris Rice catching 28.

6lb carp caught by Nick Forester: ‘Have seen them cruising before but catching this carp was a surprise, it took a black tadpole pattern. Took my fly line to the backing twice. So disappointed when i realised what it was. Good fun though.’

Stuart Macrostie

Wayne Middleton

View the full Catch Report here

Read our guide to fishing at Roadford here

Check out our Roadford fishing map here

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).

 

 

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

Tight lines!

Dil