Trout Fisherman 494 (Digital Sampler)

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INVESTIGATION

NEW PATTERNS

6

MAR 1 - MAR 28, 2017 | £3.50

ISSUE 494

Brexit and your sport

Buzzers to try now

Catch the world's best

BROWNIES Incredible fish just a £50 flight away!

AMAZING VENUES

TROUT IN TOWN Get some urban action

FLY ADVICE

HEAVY BUGS

Tips for great river sport

WHERE TO FISH

STOCKS RES.

Our early-season hotspots

TACKLE TESTS

NEW MARQUIS

A piece of history renewed

Contents

BE INSPIRED

FLY-TYING

Trout fisheries aren’t always out in the countryside – there’s some incredible fishing to be had right on your doorstep

Peter Gathercole ties a cracking early-season Buzzer pattern

6 Trout in the towns

69 Red Holo Buzzer

COVER STORY

72 Flybox fillers Cover image by: Matt Harris

TACTICS

12 Change colour and move

Make some ‘noise’ with a rubber-legged Purple Peril

Iain Barr’s tactics for tackling medium-sized waters during early season

76 Flymasters

18 When does a fly stop working?

Results of the early season heavyweight Buzzer challenge

Never! Even lying right on the lake bed, the right fly can still do a job for you...

24 Unnatural causes

OFFERS

TACKLE 81 New gear

Fred Bainbridge ditches the nymphs for glitter and gold at Stocks Reservoir

COVER STORY The latest gear reviews including Hardy’s Marquis LWT reel

30 The heavy metal mob

86 Fly-tying gear

COVER STORY

Steve Cullen adopts heavy nymphing techniques to catch grayling all through winter

Robbie Winram looks at the new Stillwater Magnus vice, North Country silks and Micro Fibre fritz

FOCUS ON...

OPINION & NEWS

Small stillwater expert Peter Cockwill shows how to catch buzzer-feeders in March

The London Fly Fair, your free Fishing TV card and what’s new on the trout scene

44 New Buzzers

93 Investigation

46 Subscription offer Save up to 49% when you subscribe to rout Fisherman magazine Trout

88 Reader offer Get a complete stillwater outfit for only onl £169.99 - a saving of £210!

38 Early season Buzzers

COVER STORY

90 News

Top anglers reveal their latest tyings

COVER STORY

Brexit – what does it mean for you?

WHERE TO FISH

94 Letters

We highlight four venues worth a visit this month

96 Book reviews

Trout Fishermann readers have their say

49 UK waters

Two more publications get the Jeff Prest treatment

JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN Bankside

an-up Our Bankside Cle Campaign Clean-up campaign continues to gain momentum with more fisheries asking for the poster and creating their own bins for discarded leaders. Spread the message…we can do this.

52 Spotlight on...

COVER STORY

Lancashire’s Stocks Reservoir

54 Call of the wild

Peter Cockwill ruffles a few feathers...again. It’s all opinion folks!

COVER STORY The world’s best browns are just a £50 flight away, as Matt Harris discovers...

98 Troutmasters Are you amongst the new season’s badge winners?

ADVICE

102 Match news

60 Advice squad TF’s panel of experts answer your questions on subsurface tactics, leaders and fly selections

Iain Barr remembers Ian Greenwood and comments on the state of UK match fishing

106 Wading in 64 How to...

Detect takes when fishing nymphs

WHERE TO FIND US...

97 Cockwill

ONLINE www.troutfisherman.co.uk TroutFishMag troutfishermanmag Trout Fisherman

Jeff Prest on the latest scientific contribution to whether fish feel pain

SUBSCRIBE

PRINT AND DIGITAL

EDITIONS AVAILABLE

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THIS MONTH’S WINNER Grayling and Pink Shrimp – a classic combination.

Sent in by Sebastian Bull

HOW TO ENTER

Shot of the

MONTH

If you have a flyfishing image that you would like to see here, please send it to us.

Images must be: original size • high resolution.

Email them to leigh.johnson@bauermedia.co.uk If the image is too large to go over email, send via the free service wetransfer.com (for help see wetransfer.com/howitworks).

Published photographers will receive a landing net from Sharpes of Aberdeen.

Browse their products at www.sharpes.net or call 01466 794415.

Enter our competition now for your chance to win a Sharpe’s landing net

A beautiful stretch of the River Nidd at Knaresborough, where occasional brownies can be caught.

Trout in the TOWNS Trout fisheries aren’t always out in the ‘sticks’, there’s some incredible fishing to be had right on your doorstep...

6 TROUT FISHERMAN | MARCH 1 - MARCH 28

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BE INSPIRE D Catch an u brown trou rban tf a town riv rom er

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MARCH 1 - MARCH 28 | TROUT FISHERMAN 7

Words: Iain Barr Pictures: Peter Gathercole

Change colour AND MOVE Former world champion Iain Barr’s tactics for tackling medium-sized waters during early season...

12 TROUT FISHERMAN | MARCH 1 - MARCH 28

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TACTICS Be succe

ssf early-seaso ul with n sm water skill all s

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MARCH 1 - MARCH 28 | TROUT FISHERMAN 13

TACTICS SMALL WATERS Words & pictures: Jeffrey Prest

When does a FLY STOP WORKING? Answer? Never. Picking off rainbows at Kailzie, Tom Russell argues that even lying on the lake bed, the right fly can still do a job for you…

18 TROUT FISHERMAN | MARCH 1 - MARCH 28

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MARCH 1 - MARCH 28 | TROUT FISHERMAN 19

TACTICS GRAYLING Words & pictures: Steve Cullen

THE HEAVY Thanks to modern ‘heavy nymphing’ techniques Steve Cullen says fly

Pheasant Tail Bomb Hook: Size 10 450BL Thread: Black Butt: Glo-Brite No.4 Body: Pheasant tail over Superglue Head: 5mm black tungsten bead

No-Name Nymph Hook: Size 14 400BL Thread: Light cahill Tail: Grizzle Body: Mix of olive and orange hairy-fibred floss Collar: Glo-Brite No.7 Head: 3mm black tungsten bead

30 TROUT FISHERMAN | MARCH 1 - MARCH 28

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METAL MOB

fishers have a chance of catching grayling all through winter!...

UV Baetis Nymph Hook: Size 14 2499BL Thread: Purple Nano silk Tail: Coq de leon Rib: Copper wire Body: Olive seal’s fur Thorax: Mix of CdC fibre and Hareline UV brown dubbing Head: 3mm copper tungsten bead

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MARCH 1 - MARCH 28 | TROUT FISHERMAN 31

Words: Peter Cockwill Pictures: Peter Gathercole

Early-season

BUZZERS Small stillwater expert Peter Cockwill shows how to catch buzzer-feeders in March

38 TROUT FISHERMAN | MARCH 1 - MARCH 28

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FOCUS ON Buzzer techniques i early seaso n n

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MARCH 1 - MARCH 28 | TROUT FISHERMAN 39

WHERE TO FISH ICELAND

This stunning waterfall on the Upper Kaldekvisl River is one of many in Iceland’s south-west Highlands.

54 TROUT FISHERMAN | MARCH 1 - MARCH 28

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CALL OF THE WILD Matt Harris knows only too well that Iceland offers perhaps the best wild brown trout fishing on the planet

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MARCH 1 - MARCH 28 | TROUT FISHERMAN 55

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