Hello fellow Fishers,

With our fly fishing season ending on the 31st October I felt the need to touch base so here goes!

At least this year the season started on time with the winter flooding over albeit leaving us with a good head of slightly coloured water. With the water temperature quite cold and no significant hatches it soon became apparent that fish would be feeding low down and weighted nymphs could potentially be the order of the day. After three or four enjoyable short sessions with fish showing no interest at all in anything I tried to tempt them with, and believe me I tried nearly everything in the fly box I eventually caught my first fish of the season on 29th of April. Finally my Gold Head Hares Ear tempted not a Trout but a lovely Dace about hand size and believe me at this stage I would have been happy with a Gudgeon! So for me and I also know for one or two others it was a tricky start to the season but still enjoyable.

It’s not just that we fish in a wonderful Valley that makes our fishing experience so rewarding but there are great things happening around us that also enhance our enjoyment:

Jay our River Keeper made a great effort and managed to get the car park, access points and bank paths, etc all trimmed and well managed for the start of our season. The access points, what Jay calls the “drop ins”, are all now clearly marked with a post and a knot of blue rope on the top so that everyone can see where it is possible, with care, to get down to the fishable sections of the river. He has kept on top of this work throughout the season which makes the world of difference to us all. It’s just brilliant to drive down to Field Bridge and be able to fish without having to battle our way down to the river side.
Jay has been working on the tall reeded channel section 50 yds down stream of Field Bridge: So, after a working party where we knocked these reeds back along the long narrow island, Jay made it a priority to keep cutting these reeds down giving them a very short hair cut with his powerful hedge trimmer every few weeks. He wanted to see whether, after repeated cutting, it would have the effect of killing them off.

Well it worked! A brilliant experiment and great enthusiastic effort which gives us confidence for similar projects to work on in the future. Your work is “very relevant” and appreciated Jay! Thank you.

I also know that our Riparian owner Rupert Conant is also very impressed with what Jay does for us. Bulwick estate is ongoing with its re-wilding projects with one being the now huge belt of uncultivated land that runs along the course of the river, this has already attracted more small mammals and an increase in insects and birds. The Barn Owl has been spotted hunting along this strip on several occasions.

Jason keeps his eye on the river and he always surprises me with his observations, knowledge and his passion for our wonderful river and its surrounding valley.
If you want to know where fish have been spotted ask Jay.

We had our first joint project with the estate where we cooperated with the estates Woodland management consultant Graham Garratt and also with Katie Field from East Mercia Rivers Trust to plant a variety of Trees along the Bankside. It was great that we as a club were to be consulted on the positioning and planting of these tree whips. I think Graham now understands a lot more about our club and the habitat work that we do and how important the river and our fishing is to us.

We had some excellent working parties early in the season with some pruning and general tidying with the necessary flapjack support from Anna. The main emphasis was on clearing reeds from some of our favourite pools and swims. We concentrated on the areas that we had cleared last year and we were mainly pulling the reeds up, sometimes with roots attached. There are early positive signs that these repeated assault on these areas are working. So it will be more of the same for next season, with the hope that these areas will be getting easier to manage. A few members have commented that it was possible to fish much later into the season with these areas still relatively clear.

The reeds are an ongoing problem, gone are the days when the EA had pots of money and would bring large excavators and regularly scrape and clear them out, opening up channels and generally helping to increase flow. The result of this major EA work stopping means that like a lot of small rivers we have an ever increasing reed invasion, more reeds and hence more of their seeds being spread so it’s a double whammy! A battle that we can’t entirely win but by concentrating our repeated efforts on prime locations this battle seems to be more workable and we can see good results which at least is making us feel like we’re getting somewhere albeit in a small way.

Andy and I walked the river with Trevor our main man from the EA and he affirmed that this approach was the right one, giving us the heads up that we’re doing a good job but at the same time understood that we can’t do it all.

We had a very good Mayfly hatch this year which went on for a few weeks. The weather as always played its part with hatches at their best on warm sultry evenings. I went down on one such evening when it was warm and humid and witnessed a massive Mayfly hatch with an unbelievable amount of fish rising all over the place. It was mesmerising and just as I was getting over excited and anticipating my first cast and huge brownie on the end of my line the Thunder and lightning started and my carbon conductor was back in its case. Typical!! But it was great to witness and tells you the fish are there and ready to rise when conditions and hatches dictate.

As I write the river is still pretty low compared to the last two or three years when at this time it was just beginning to get into winter flood mode. I’m really hoping that we have a lot less flooding this year so as to give our Trout that optimum time to successfully spawn, something I feel they have had a struggle with recently due to the flooding at critical spawning times. One good result of these biblical floods is there has been a good clearing of silt deposits exposing more gravel beds for spawning and also some noticeable changes in the main channel, less silt and a firmer river bed which has made wading easier and safer. Don’t worry though, there is still loads of silt about which is what our fabulous Mayflies love.

Committee member Hugh Cripps and our secretary Andy Howarth organised an ‘introduction to fishing’ event that took place at the Barrowden Fete in June. There was lots of help from members, with fly casting lessons, live bug and invertebrate identification, fly tying demonstrations, and coarse fishing lessons for youngsters on the Village Pond. We looked reasonably professional with a gazebo, club banner and many members turning up on the day to help set up and give constant tuition and advice to the many people and lots of families who turned up to find out what our club was about and also have a go. Lots of children, with parents also keenly interested, caught their first ever fish, namely a Rudd from the village pond.

A Massive Thanks to Hugh and Andy and of course to everyone who contributed, whether in helping to set up and break down, or in time teaching, providing tables and tackle etc, or just generally advising and educating people as to what we are all about as a club. It was all a huge success and we must do it again and follow up on the enthusiasm and interest shown, also and importantly at the end of the event Anna the “Flapjack Queen” was presented with a voucher for Afternoon Tea for two (lucky me) at the Falcon Inn Fotheringhay.

We had another stocking of Grayling fingerlings in June, probably upwards of 2000 so it’s fingers crossed that some of these little stars survive and help to further our growing Grayling population. This summers heatwaves, very low water and high water temperatures would have not been good for the Grayling in general. Let’s hope they found sanctuary in the shade and the cooler deeper swims.

Fishing had to be suspended on two occasions due the heatwaves, low water and low oxygen levels and I thank all our members for totally understanding the need for this to help protect our fish in what would have been a very stressful time for them.

With the end of our fly fishing season comes the start of our main coarse fishing season with coarse fishing allowed on all sections until the end of the season on rivers which is the 15th of March. Trotting with a classic float, ledgering with a swing tip or just getting mesmerised at watching a static float or Pike bung it a great way to fish our river. Maggots, worms, bread flake, sweet corn or a dead bait for pike, it’s all allowed now, apart from the use of explosives!

Don’t underestimate the potential of having a Red Letter Day on our river, there are surprise’s to be had. We have some very big Chub, and a good cross section of species. I’ve heard of some big Perch being caught down stream of us, and also one or two large Rudd caught. Not to mention a lost Pike with the head the size of a Labrador!

There are many deep holes that have not been explored at all on our section of river and who knows what may turn up in these mysterious dark depths. The other bonus of winter course fishing is that the reeds have died back and the bank side foliage has also died off and with Jay keeping on top of the strimming there will be plenty to go at.

We have some very experienced coarse fishermen amongst us and I’m having a thought that we could organise a coarse fishing day for those fly fishers that fancy having a go at course fishing but would like some help and guidance. I’ll have a chat with one or two of our experts and see what develops.

As with all of our fishing it’s all barbless and single hooks only. If you’re dead baiting for pike trebles can be used but make sure the barbs are crimped down. Spinning for Pike is allowed but please avoid small spinners which tend to attract Trout which at this time of year we don’t want to catch. I prefer a ‘Spinner Bait’ which has a single hook and generally too big for a Trout. Everything barbless and I would advise to reduce the hooks down to one set of trebles if using a lure or a plug, you can even nip one of the treble’s off with wire cutters reducing the treble down to a double.

If there is a weather window keep your eye out for a ‘club boat day’ on Rutland Water.
If it happens someone will organise it through the club WhatsApp group. It maybe short notice!🤞

Please do use the Clubs WhatsApp Group; if you have had a great days fishing, have some useful information, or you have a great idea or just want to ask a question it’s a great way for us to interact, chat and help each other.

That’s about it and oh yes I caught my first trout this year on a May Fly in mid May. Phew😅

All the best, and tight lines wherever you may fish.

Dick Clarke.
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