Rutland Water will be the last of our ‘big four’ to open for the new season on Friday 11 March.
Season tickets are available to purchase in person from Rutland, Grafham and Pitsford Lodges (don’t forget to bring a photo for your new permit).
We look forward to seeing you soon.
Grafham Water
Grafham opened for the new season on Friday 4 March. Fishing for the first few days has been a mixed bag. Some anglers have been catching their limit, whilst others have blanked. This was in part due to the challenging weather conditions. Plummers has fished well from both bank and boat and G buoy as always has been producing plenty of action.
Good numbers of over wintered silver bars are being reported. The go to method would appear to be a Pitsford Pea or a small lure pattern fished on a floating line. Vary the retrieve until you find how the fish want it on the day.
With the days getting longer and the weather warming up it won’t be long before we start to see the large buzzer hatches appearing all over the reservoir. With this in mind we fully expect the fish to switch on over the coming weeks and provide some fantastic sport for our anglers. So if you are planning a trip make sure you bring your buzzers, particularly the green and black patterns for those early spring hatches.
Pitsford Water
Rod average 3.3
Pitsford opened its doors on Saturday 26 February and although it was initially a slow start we are now seeing good catches and some quality overwintered fish. One of the most recent reports was from season ticket holder George Gercs who bank fished on Sunday afternoon. He had two Browns of 7lb and 5lb, both returned and in great condition. George also had six Rainbows fishing a floating line and size 14 hares ear and buzzer.
A pre season stocking of 5,500 fish should have bolstered the overwintered fish stock but the opening weekend was largely disappointing for most from both boat and bank. A few anglers found some fish but it was noticeable that the recently stocked fish did not make an appearance. Some boat anglers found some fish about 150 yards off Sailing Club, whilst Anglian Water staff member Mark Mathieson had six overwintered Rainbows up to the 5lb mark off the Gravels while bank fishing with a team of buzzers.
The slow start continued into this week with cooler northerly winds but from midweek the fish seem to have woken up and good catches have now started to be reported from Gorse, Cliffs, Bog Bay and Brixworth Bay.
Although out of season the Brown trout have been showing up in good numbers and several fish have been caught and released between 4-7lb with the best reported fish being a 7lb 2oz beauty caught by Mr C Dootson of St Albans.
Several anglers have reported good Browns feeding on the north banks and anglers are reminded that these fish must be returned quickly and with care.
There have been several nice overwintered Rainbows reported up to 4-5lb and fish are now showing in all parts of the lake recently stocked fish will come to blobs and lures while the better fish are feeding on shrimp and buzzer.
Best Rainbow: 5lb.
Best Brown: 7lb 2oz.
Ravensthorpe Water
Rod average 2.2
The most successful method at Ravensthorpe this week has been green buzzers. One boat took 15 fish on holographic variants. Wet daddies have also tricked the fish and this method accounted for 8 fish to one boat.
Best boat areas: Drifting Central.