Blog

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	63	40	11*
River	22	0	10

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	70	34	19
River	29	1	29

The river fished particularly well. Mayfly hatched consistently and trout were caught from every Beat.

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	105	49	19*
River	37	6	35

Best fish of the week were 5lb and 6lb 8ozs, both from Little Bognor.

Mayfly were hatching all day and the trout were free rising. It’s the perfect time to visit the river.

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	69	23	127
River	18	4	24*

The water temperature in the rainbow lakes has reached 18 degrees, catch and release has therefore finished until later in the year.

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	74	16	126
River	18	2	15

The format of the catch returns has changed again. Each week, time and photography permitting, the catch returns will be summarised and published together with any news. This will enable regular email notifications to be sent to subscribers.

River Day

The River Day on Sunday was very well attended, everyone listened intently to Andrew’s explanation of kick sampling and re-wilding the river.

Mark Temple gave a casting demonstration, explained about tackle for the river and caught a nice fish to demonstrate his tactics !

AGM and BBQ

The AGM and BBQ will be held on 22 May from 12 noon at Great Springs.

1 May

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	111	30	116
River	7	3	6

25 April

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	83	26	113
River	12	0	11

18 April

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	120	44	135
River	10	0	2

11 April

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	69	25	131
River	20	11	11

Biggest fish from the lakes; 9lbs 8ozs from Great Springs, 1 x 6lbs, 2 x 5lbs, 3 x 4lbs and 3lbs 8ozs on a wide variety of flies.

4 April

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	81	29	227

Biggest fish 6lbs 8ozs, 2 x 5lbs and 4lbs

28 March

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	134	49	222

Biggest fish 7lbs 10ozs, 9lbs 12ozs, 3 x 5lbs and 2 x 4lbs.

21 March

	Visits	Taken	Returned
Lakes	136	41	418
River	not	open	yet

Many of the fish were over 2lbs, the best was 8.5lbs. Three fish over 5lbs and two at 4lbs were also caught. A great opening week with the vast majority of fish returned to the lakes.

Catch and Release

Catch and release is optional, members can retain fish for the pot or release them. If you are going to release trout, you must use a barbless hook. Wild fish from Little Bognor or the Rother must be returned.

After hooking a trout play it out quickly and use a landing net with a fine knotless mesh. If possible do not touch the fish, barbless hooks normally drop out once the line is slack. If you must handle the fish, use wet hands. Release it from the landing net. That will enable you to nurse the fish until it can maintain an upright position and swim out of the net unaided. It might take a few minutes for the fish to fully recover. If you release a trout from your hands before it’s fully recovered, it may sink to the bottom of the lake and die. If the fish is bleeding it should not be returned. If you are in doubt don’t return the trout. It is a good idea to use a pan shaped net to give the fish room to recover. A long handle enables safe netting and release.

The links below give more detailed advice.

https://www.wildtrout.org/content/catch-and-release

https://www.keepemwet.org/

The Tuesday Club end of season lunch was held at The Badgers near Coultershaw Bridge and was well attended. It was good to meet and chat about the season’s fishing.

Ironically,  the river looked in good condition, clear with a greenish tint.

A few members took advantage of the brief period of mild weather and fished into dusk on the last day. The weeks running up to the end of the season were very productive. Good numbers of trout, including some monsters, were caught from all of the lakes.

In the last week of the season members visited the lakes on 71 occasions and caught 83 trout, 63 of which were returned. The fish that were returned should overwinter and produce great fishing next March.

Six fish of 4lbs were caught from four lakes and a monster of over 9lbs was captured at Luffs. As usual a very wide variety of nymphs and lures were used ranging from a Perdigon to a Cats Whisker.

Lakes – members visited the lakes on 104 occasions and caught 127 trout, 102 of which were returned. It was an excellent week !

There were a lot of good fish caught from every lake. The trout were caught on a very wide variety of flies ranging from a Perdigon to an Ace of Spades.

Several trout of 4lbs were caught from Great Springs, Little Springs and Lower Figgs. A fish of 6lbs and two of 5lbs were caught plus the biggest fish of the week at 8lbs, the latter from Lower Figgs.

The final week of the season should see similar catches as the weather looks stable and there are plenty of trout to be caught.

This update covers the last two weeks for the lakes and the final week of the season for the river.

Lakes – members visited the lakes on 104 occasions in the last two weeks and caught a total of 108 trout including some monsters; – trout of 9lbs, 8lb 8ozs, 3 x 5lbs and 3x 4lbs. The biggest trout was returned to the lake.

Trout were caught on a wide variety of nymphs and lures. The water is gradually losing colour and there should be some excellent fishing in the last few weeks of the season

River – during the last week of October members visited the river on 19 occasions and caught 12 trout, 8 of which were returned.

This update covers the two weeks ending 25 October.

Lakes – members visited the lakes on 98 occasions and caught 59 trout, 39 of which were returned. Every lake was visited by members and fish were caught at all of the lakes, mainly on nymphs and lures.

River – members visited the river on 35 occasions, mostly before the recent heavy rain and caught 30 trout, 25 of which were returned. The catch included a chub of 3lb 8ozs and a sea trout weighing about 3lbs.

Lets hope the rain stops in time for a few days fishing during the last week of the river season.

Signing in

It is important that members sign in before starting to fish. There are a number of reasons for this.

The stocking levels are based, among other factors, on the number of fish caught per visit. If members do not record their visits, particularly blank trips, this can skew the numbers and resulting in under stocking.

It helps identify people who are not members and who should not be fishing or walking around the Estate.

Personal security is enhanced if it is known who is fishing, particularly on the river, should they have an accident. It is also helpful to know when arriving at the river, which beats have already been fished or are being fished, it saves following a member who has already covered the water.