New season highlights
Welcome all to the new season! It has been a great start for both bank and boat anglers at Rutland Water this weekend with good catches being reported all around the reservoir. The rod average for opening day was 6.17.
On Friday morning bank sport was a bit hit or miss to begin with, some having great sport from the start and others a bit steady. As the day progressed and conditions improved so did the action! Multiple bank reports of 10 plus fish were recorded from Whitwell Creek and the Normanton Bank – from East Creek all the way down to Fantasy Island.
Boat anglers also had a good start, finding fish all around the shoreline of both arms with notable numbers of Rainbows in the Sailing Club, Barn Hill Creek, in front of the church and Dickinson’s Bay.
There was a decent buzzer hatch, and a few anglers successfully adopted the ‘match the hatch’ approach, proving fish are starting to switch on to them already. However, inevitably the majority of catches this weekend have been on lure patterns with humungus, snakes, black/green tadpoles, blobs and fabs doing well in particular.
Saturday saw more favourable conditions from first light, the Normanton bank fished exceptionally well on the south westerly breeze with many of the catch and release anglers returning good numbers of quality stocked fish, several rainbows were reported between 4-5lb. With good cloud coverage on Saturday the boats were finding the fish high in the water on intermediate and midge tip lines. Being brighter on Sunday, Di3 or Di5 lines were required to find the fish.
There were also some cracking Browns caught over the weekend; opening day saw one angler net a double figure fish and several others had them between 3-6lb. Please remember that Brown trout are out of season until 1 April, any caught before this date must be returned quickly and safely to the water. Early season restrictions are also in place until 1 April. Please refer to the maps and signs around the fishery or contact the fishing lodge/rangers if you are unsure of these locations.