Hatchlands Trout Fishery

A friend of mine from London has recently gotten into fly fishing and has been and bought his own kit, so naturally he wanted to come and visit Devon to try out his new rod and reel, how could I say no?

As my friend is still learning the ropes and getting his casting consistent we thought it best to try out a local fishery, we opted to go to Hatchlands which is just off the A38 at South Brent. The Trout lake here is a good manageable size which suited us as we didn't have to worry about getting long casts out to the fish.

After driving past the various birds and fowl that greeted us at the entrance we parked up right next to the lake and got ourselves set up. Dill tied on the biggest blackest lure he had in his box and I chose to fish black and yellow Montana.

Within 5 minutes we had both had a take but neither fish had stayed on, and not long after this my friend was in again but just before I could net the Trout it slipped off. After I gave some advice to Dill on setting the hook and playing a fish we went to it again.
Some of the local ducks came to say hello to us as we moved up and down the bank covering the water, the fishery has a lot of birds, Geese, Ducks, Chickens and some more exotic species, it's always nice to have something to look at other than the end of your rod when fishing.

Dill ended up with his bag of two in under an hour and a half, the lure he was fishing was certainly turning on the fish. I on the other hand being the seasoned angler had yet to acquire another take. I changed over to a black Kennick Killer fly made by Turrall, this was my first time using one and I had heard it was a very effective stillwater pattern. Within half an hour I had succeeded in bagging my limit also, no doubt thanks to the fly change.

So the day was a success, but if not overly short. Dill is now keen to try his hand at some river fishing, we'll aim to target some Salmon the next time he visits, if it's a success I will no doubt be posting about it on here!

Colliford Carp

I haven't posted in a while due mainly to be too busy and not being able to get to my computer.
I've been out fishing maybe half a dozen times since my last post but things have been very slow over the past few months, we've been enjoying a hot spell of weather which has made the Sea Trout fishing barely existent due to the lack of rainfall.

So, I've been spending some of that time at local stillwaters. Colliford Lake on Bodmin Moor has been offering some fantastic sport in the heat, the local Carp population of the lake come up well into the shallows on hot evenings, you can't miss their dorsal fins breaking through water 5 feet from the bank.
There is a window of about an hour when the carp are less likely to be spooked by your presence and will take a fly more readily, usually around 7-8PM. The recommended trout flies for the lake work on the carp too, a gold ribbed Hares Ear got me my biggest Carp of the year so far, somewhere around 7 pounds by my estimation.

I've had smaller Carp take a yellow Montana also. I'm sporting my new Patagonia sling vest in these pictures, I just want to say ditch your traditional vest and get one of these, they are simply brilliant and as you'd expect from Patagonia very well made.

If you haven't fly fished for Carp give it a go you might like me "catch the bug", it's great sport and a good go to when the trout fishing is poor. Go to your local Carp lake and see if they will let you use a fly rod, most places do now.