Season better than it appeared
9:03am Friday 21st December 2007
CASTING back over 2007 there were more unparalleled extremes of weather.
The mild wet winter was followed by a hot dry April with May unsettled and predominantly cold.
Summer was exceptionally cool, dull and wet with unprecedented distribution of barometric pressure bringing a succession of lows for weeks on end.
The autumn was dry and mild, even warm on some days, but ended very wet and windy while winter's first cold spell came in mid December.
With these wild fluctuations in conditions there were disappointing periods as well as good, but overall our waters produced some of the best catches for many years.
While some anglers have a somewhat negative perception of the season that was far from reality.
Those who persevered and took the good days with the bad did well and, objectively, 2007 was undoubtedly a good season.
As always a small number of people worked hard looking after our fisheries and we owe them thanks.
Both the Kent and Eden had some of the best catches of salmon and especially grilse for some time, although the main runs came in the latter part of the season and were not as great in numbers.
Ullswater fished well for wild brown trout, particularly early season.
Kentmere re-opened as a brown trout fishery and those who visited it had enjoyable sessions. High Newton, Ghyll Head and Bigland all fished consistently well and the large rainbows and blue trout gave good accounts of themselves.
Targeting fry-feeding rainbows at Esthwaite during the late summer and autumn was exciting.
Ratherheath was back on form for roach, skimmers and small carp while Castle Head has become an established mixed fishery.
Grasmere produced not only some great pike but also some very large perch.
Coniston fished well for most of the season for pike and the new winter pike season at Esthwaite has got off to a tremendous start.
Sea fishing was disappointing for much of the year, but has picked up latterly.
Whatever the quarry, anglers had plenty of choice and should look back on this year as successful, although perseverance was certainly the approach needed.
We have some of the best waters in the country, set in stunning scenery, and their future lies in the next generation.
The abiding feature of this season has been the number of new juniors who have been out under the very successful South Cumbria Kingfishers scheme.
Trout stillwaters...
BEFORE the cold snap most stillwaters were fishing extremely well for rainbows, but with few buzzer hatches fish have generally not been moving on the surface.
High Newton has continued to produce spectacular catches to floating lines with buzzers and bloodworm patterns fished deep. Two anglers had 30 plus fish, others had more than ten and the heaviest recent catch weighed 14lb 8oz. Whoever catches the first trout at this venue on New Year's Day will win a bottle of whisky.
At Bigland catches have been steady to deep-fished flies on a long leader and slow retrieve, with the best from Colin Campbell with six to 4lb on fritz lures and Steve Bishop with five including one of 8lb on a yellow-tailed green nymph. Despite the cold there have been sporadic hatches of buzzers with trout prepared to come to the surface in the middle of the day.
Best catches on Esthwaite have fallen to sinking lines and lures, with boat users Peter Mountain and Alan Morton landing seven between them including one of 6lb 8oz, another of 6lb and two over 4lb.
At Ghyll Head the best approach has been either a sinking line and small lures or nymphs fished deep and slow, with some big trout recorded.
Once again Wych Elm has produced good catches and, with the colder weather, some have successfully changed from floating to intermediate lines. Raymond Harwood landed 11 on olive lures, Dave Rump eight on dry flies, while Andy Leaver and Alan Nash both took eight on white Fritz lures and black gold-heads respectively.
This water is seldom affected by ice as the aerators can be switched on in extreme weather.
Across at Farletonview Grant Higson had another good session with 11 on Fritz lures. Raymond Harwood caught eight on black lures and John Morris seven to 6lb 8oz on bloodworm patterns.
Rivers...
THE Eden has fallen considerably but is still high and, provided there is no substantial rain, conditions should be good for grayling during the holiday period.
With the drop in water temperature the grayling are now shoaling up. Czech nymphs will mainly be the best approach, but there are times when dries will work well.
Coarse waters...
THIS winter the pike season at Esthwaite has been exceptional with some of the best catches by boat users during the past fortnight as the water temperature dropped. Stuart Johnston had a phenomenal session with nine to 19lb 2oz on trolled deadbaits.
Russell Newlove caught several double figure fish, including two over 21lb, also on trolled deadbaits. Darren Ward used a sardine to take one of 25lb 8oz, while smelt were used as Alex Barton caught a 22lb specimen and Gary Myerscough one of 20lb 12oz.
There have been good catches to mid-doubles on deadbaits at Grasmere but it has been patchy on Coniston with some pike to 14lb falling to deadbaits. It remains slow on Windermere with just the occasional pike to high doubles again falling to deadbaits Plenty of small pike have been caught on both deadbaits and lures from Ulverston Canal.
At Tewitfield, which closes from today (Friday) and re-opens on Friday, January 4, the occasional pike to 16lb has been caught.
On the Lancaster Canal from Stainton down to Holme, pike to 15lb have been taken mainly on deadbaits and, strangely for this time of year, one angler saw tench feeding and landed one on sweetcorn.
Smaller mixed coarse fisheries have been more susceptible to ice but in spite of this Bigland has fished well with quality bream and roach taken on feeder with sweetcorn, plus pike on lamprey and sprat.
The occasional carp has been caught with boillies from Sandhall Ponds while it has been slower of late at Borwick for small carp using feeder with maggots and very quiet at both Ratherheath and Loughrigg Tarn.
During cold conditions the deep water stretches of Windermere should produce roach to feeder or straight lead tactics and it is similar at Killington, which can freeze over although it is often windier there, curtailing the amount of ice.
The third round of Windermere Anglers and Kendal and District Anglers Winter League was fished by eight competitors at Littledale, Caton, in surprisingly good conditions.
Mick Corran won with 13lb 4oz ahead of Neil Yates with 12lb 12oz and Del Francis with 7lb 4oz. Catches were small bream and carp to pole-fished worm over pellet.
Sea fishing...
THERE have again been reasonably good catches of flounders from Plumpton, Greenodd, Canal Foot and Priory Point, on lugworm. Quite a few codling to 3lb have been taken from the Walney Channel, the south end of the island, and at Silecroft on lugworm or preferably crab.
Buzzer ...
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