May 25th – 31st

194 anglers caught 859 fish of which 501 were returned.

Best Fish
9lb 5oz Tom Finney, Sandy, black buzzer, boat
8lb 12oz Steve Johnson, Raunds, white/green lure, boat
7lb 8oz Finbarr McSweeney, Rushden, small damsel
5lb 12oz Colin Harvey, boat
5lb 8oz Scott Bowman, Nether Heyford, boat
5lb 6oz Mr Oram, Aldwincle
5lb 2oz Mr Boden, damsel, boat
5lb 1oz Bob McCarthy, St Albans,
5lb 0oz Derek Coombs, St Ives, green/white lure, boat

Best Areas
Bank – brookside, boat bay, gravel bar, dam
Boat – west arm, down middle, East arm

Best Patterns
Damsel, grhe, red diawl bach, red apps, black or olive buzzer, shipmans buzzer, cdc buzzer, green/white lure.

Another decent week with plenty of surface feeding and some big fish being lost as well as landed.
On warmer days there have been large numbers of damsels hatching. Try using a s10 or s12 unweighted damsel with a long marabou tail with a jerky retrieve to keep the fly just under the surface. Otherwise a small damsel booby on the point with diawl bach/cruncher on the droppers has worked well.
Boat anglers are still catching down the middle with a team of buzzers fished deeper or a sinking line and mini lures so there are plenty of methods worth trying including good sport on dries especially in the evening.
The water clarity is superb so bank fishing is best in cloudy conditions or late in the day.

Next Stocking
June 4th

Sunday May 31st Scierra Pairs boat match.
10 pairs entered the Elinor heat of this popular competition to try and win one of 3 places in the September final at Rutland.
Conditions were breezy but cloudy and not much rain.
20 anglers weighed in 97 fish with anglers getting a 2lb/hour time bonus if they got their 12 fish boat limit early.
First to bag up were Steve Johnson/Phil Wagstaff who used mainly damsel imitations in the West arm. They arrived back before 12.30pm.
An hour later Bart Farmer/ Charlie Abrahams finished using red apps and damsel boobies from the same area.
The winners however waited for the big fish to play in the afternoon with Tom Finney/Ollie Jenkinson getting a limit just before 4.30pm but included a couple of 4lb+ and a cracking 9lb 5oz rainbow.
1. Tom Finney/Ollie Jenkinson 12 fish 37lb 14oz
2. Steve Johnson/Phil Wagstaff 12 fish 37lb 5oz
3. Charlie Abrahams/Bart Farmer 12 fish 34lb 8oz
4. Graham Inwood/Graham Palmer 12 fish 31lb 8oz
5. David Winser/Jim Parr 12 fish 26lb 2oz