Rod avg 3.92, Fish Stocked 3300
With the wind eventually changing direction to a West/North/westerly direction, A few boats went exploring the bottom of both arms and were well rewarded with excellent sport with dry fly in particular sorting out many fighting fit rainbows, including numbers of overwintered fish estimated up to 5lb+!
These fish theoretically have not seen a fly for nearly two months responded very well, some were caught out in the open water, whilst others were hooked around the weed beds, especially around "Cattle Trough bay"& Lax hill, in the South arm while Burley, the mouth of Dickenson's bay and Tim Appletons were the places to be in the North, Barnsdale creek also produced for a number of anglers in the early part of last week..
Elsewhere, the Main basin is still producing fish, with drifts up to the limit buoys on the Dam, but also along the respective Normanton & Syke's lane shoreline.
Bank anglers are still catching numbers of fish close in as at the moment there is no shoreline weed to contend with, Fish are still moving at times in less than a foot of water!, dry fly again has been the best, and exciting option available throughout the day providing many opportunities of covering fish, and they are still there going into the evenings, generally feeding on Shrimp.
At the moment with the Westerly wind, the best bank will be Whitwell to Sykes lane as the Normanton bank will be coloured due to the fresh winds have been blowing along it, Armley wood to Carrot creek, and Barn hill creek might be worth investigating on the Peninsula
Dry fly selection? Everybody has their favorites, the list being endless, ranging from Hares ear, Big red's , Bob's Bit's, Shipmans,in Red, Orange, Claret,Fiery brown etc, Yellow owl, Parachute patterns, C,D,C's, Foam backed Shrimp patterns fished IN the surface, not quite on the surface, but has accounted for a lot of fish for some.
Lures are working for some, with various coloured blob's, boobies etc mainly for boat anglers, fished on various lines, midge tip's to sinkers etc, although one or two have fallen for lures off the bank occasionally.
Prospects
Very, very good , despite the hot weather that has been around, and expected for this time of year, The bright sunshine has not stopped the fish gorging themselves on the Shrimp, and to a lesser degree snails,, however, at the weekend it was very much noticeable that a few fish had started to feed on this years abundant fry now, not just a few, but a lot! The fry being the usual Perch & Roach, with some Perch already around 40 mm or 1/1/2" in length so no shortage of food, best keep your options open.