Rutland

[Rob Edmunds]

Well after 4 days on Rutland for the Scierra Pairs Final I'm torn........

It really is a water of 3 parts at the moment.......Not easy but the rewards can be great.

The main basin to Sailing Club is full of stockies, all 1lb 6 to 1lb 8oz.....not really the fish associated with Rutland.

However both the North and South Arms have really good fish in them......not stacks, but in reasonable numbers and very difficult.

I've averaged 7 fish per day from both the arms with the average size of fish 3 to 4lb .....which is pretty special in my eyes

But you need to really work for them, and know how to catch them, or it's very very difficult

For the stockies its blobs on Tip lines, and 1 to 4ft deep..slow or static

For the big residents its fry patterns, or daddies literally over the weedbeds, "Suspender Minkies" and "Foam Daddies "are your best best bet, fished on a Midge Tip....3 or 4 sharp pulls to " pop" your flies and draw the trout in........then static for 20 seconds or so, once your flies are pulled under a slow figure of 8 back

There isn't one area thats holding numbers of big fish, so just fish the weedbeds and keep moving 100m or so fishing fresh water, even if you catch.

My best fly ( suspender perch) and best fish this weekend a brown of 10lb 10oz

Rutland hasn't suddenly become brilliant, but the back end is pretty good ( although challenging) and there are good numbers of really big fish ( 6 to 11lb) about.....I may have been a little harsh in previous posts it seems..

 

[3lbgrayling]

Stunning fish Rob.

Jim

 

[taffy1]

That's a belting, well conditioned fish. Good on you sir.

 

[loxie]

That's a belter!

 

[1st_teamsunbed]

No wonder you're smiling

 

[mackiia1]

That's a Lump of a fish Rob - well done .

 

[The Barbless Crook.]

How did the final go Rob?

T.B.C.

 

[Rob Edmunds]

My lad and wife were also in the final, so we all practiced hard for 3 days.

Unfortunately my regular partner Matthew Griffiths was placed like much of Wales in " lockdown " and had to miss the final....which was a real shame as we won this event last year at Grafham..

Still my "stand in partner"

Andrew Scott

is an absolutely class angler and a great guy.

During practice we found a lot of stockies in the Main Basin from Fantasy Island to Normanton Church, easy caught on blobs, cormorants on "tip" lines.....normally our match plan would would just bash these fish quick and sit on a 2lb per hour time bonus.....the only problem is that the stockies only weighed 1lb 4 to 1lb 8oz, anything bigger was rare ....meaning you bag weight for 16 fish was going to be 24lb to 26lb plus time bonus.. so on a good day ( 1 o clock finish) with time bonus you'd weigh 36lb...as the match finished at 5pm

However we found reasonable numbers of big fish at the bottom of both arms ( see above) just off the weedbeds, these were 2 to 3lb average with a good number of 4 to 7lb fish ( we had 15 over 4lb in practice between the 4 of us in 3 days - fishing different areas!! )....Scotty and I were averaging 12 fish a day for around 40lb at the bottom of the arms.

The big fish were difficult but could be caught on 2 suspender minkies, fished 9ft apart on a midge tip... .cast in or along the weedbeds " pop" the fly to get their attention and just leave it static or a slow figure of 8 back......after 20 seconds the tip would pull the flies just subsurface and you figure of 8'd back

It was clear to us we had to make an estimated gamble and go for the big fish....high risk, but high reward !

Everyone was either concentrating on the Basin or the South Arm, particularly Hideaway bay and Green Bank as there had been a few very big fish caught there ( 4 doubles in the last 2 weeks !!)

We knew that much angling pressure in practice and on match day would kill the South Arm, especially when targeting resident fish holding so high in the water, we opted for the North Arm along with just 1 other boat !!

We didn't have an exact area to concentrate on, it was just fish the weedbeds and pick a fish up here and there, to hopefully create a bag...

By 2pm we only had 4 fish in the bag, all reasonable rainbows, then Scotty hooked a huge brown of the point of Dickinson's Bay estimated 9 to 10lb, he guided it out into open water, I had the drogue in and things were looking favourable.....then it ran, his line knotted on itself and jammed in the rod rings and 12lb fluro was snapped like cotton.. ...we were gutted ..no words were spoken for a good half hour as we both sulked and contemplated our next move......we thought our chance had gone

We moved a good 800m directly across to the Finches in search of better fortune, when I hooked a good fish on the edge of the weedbeds ( i estimated it 6 to 8lb) it stayed deep and eventually came up by the side of the boat and Scotty netted it.....only then did we realise just how big it was..."f******" huge according to Scotty....game on!!

Our confidence was restored and we kicked on taking a couple more rainbows on the same drift.

At 3.30pm a big wind lane opened up and we knew it was an opportunity to good to miss, especially with the fish so high in the water. We got straight in it and took another 7 rainbows in the last 40 minutes including one just over 4lb.....

We finished with14 good fish and started the long drive back to the lodge at 4.20pm....and wondered how the others had caught up the South Arm.....the Basin limits and time bonus weren't a threat in our minds.

Our biggest worry ( in our eyes in terms of the competition) was the pairing of Russ Owen & Gazza Dixon , Gus & Wayne Jones or Iain Barr & Richard Cooper.....all extremely strong pairs who know the water well, could easily bag up with better quality fish .....only in the South Arm..

At the boat dock Iain said Hideaway didn't fish.....they had ended up with just 2 rainbows from there catching their other 8 fish from Old Hall....Gus & Wayne had a simular story although they did say that Gazza & Russ had bagged up on good fish, not exactly a surprise to Scotty and I as we expected it from them.

Gazza spoke to me as we were weighing in, he said they had 38lb plus 2lb time bonus for a total bag of 40lb and a few ounces.......I said it was going to be very close as our bag based on my estimate was 40 to 42lb....nervous times for us all.

The big brown weighed 10lb 10oz and was a huge bonus... . The next five fish then weighed a total of 15lb 10....- our first 6 weighed over 26 lb !! We knew the smallest 8 only had to weigh 15lb or more which fortunately they did... just..

Our total bag for 14 fish weighed 41lb 4oz...giving us the win by around 10oz....

On reflection a strange day . . ..we had lots of luck, all of it bad initially as we lost 6 or 7 fish at the net, and missed good solid takes that normally stick....then when the big fish was lost as a result of a freak tangling of the line it looked a lost cause....

A fortunate huge fish , followed by no more missed takes or lost fish in the last 90 minutes and a huge wind lane changed everything for us ...our fortune had gone full circle

My mrs and lad found it hard going, but finished 21st overall, which I thought was pretty good for there first final... room for improvement but a great learning experience for them that will serve them well.

 

[The Barbless Crook.]

Well done, good report to.

T.B.C

 

[squimp]

Well done Rob and a helpful write up.

 

[loxie]

I enjoyed the write up, thanks, and well done.

 

[Gdog]

Beautiful brown, well done on your win.