Trout Fisherman 500 (Digital Sampler)

LATEST GEAR ON TEST Snowbee Spectre rods, Hodgman jacket, Royal Wulff fly-line

500 TH

FIRST FOR TACTICS, TACKLE & WHERE TO FISH

ISSUE ANNIVERSARY

1977 - 2017 CELEBR ATING 40 YEARS The very best in UK stillwater f lyfishing www.troutfisherman.co.uk

RIVERS: TRY THIS FLY

A nymphy lure for browns

Amazing offer

FLYBOX &

500 FLIES

ONLY £99.99

How to be a better

FLYFISHER

16 AUG - 12 SEPT, 2017 | £3.50

ISSUE 500

Bumper issue packed full of amazing tips BOAT TACTICS

CLYWEDOG

Fishing deep for big browns

SMALL WATERS

RESERVOIR GUIDES

WHERE TO FISH

TINTO FISHERY DRAYCOTE MAP DREAM SPORT Amazing sport & scenery

Late-summer hotspots

Barracuda, bones & tarpon

Cover image by: David Miller | www.davidmillerart.co.uk

Contents

BE INSPIRED

64 Snowbee advice

COVER STORY The men who shaped Trout Fisherman and a look back at key moments in our history

66 How to...

TACTICS

FLY-TYING

Gareth Jones switches from dry flies to lures to save the day at Llyn Clywedog

How to tie this versatile pattern

The types of leader materials and their uses

6 Celebrating 40 years

12 It came from the deep!

COVER STORY

18 Mountain rainbows

Mike Thrussell beats the lowland heat by heading to the hills in search of active trout

24 Glensherup

Scott Pozzi tries a variety of methods and patterns on a hot evening at a Scottish water

OFFERS 61 Subscription offer

28 Top-of-the-water Tinto

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

COVER STORY Three Tinto regulars showcase their surface techniques

82 Reader offer

36 Nymphy-lure for browns!

500 flies and a jumbo fly box all for £99.99 – a massive saving of £295!

COVER STORY

Iain Barr uses a Hare’s Ear and Tadpole hybrid to tempt cracking browns from his local river

41 Let battle commence

Peter Cockwill picks a scorching summer day to target powerful carp with a fly

FOCUS ON...

WHERE TO FISH

WHERE TO FIND US...

74 Flybox fillers

Russ Symons ties a Blue-flash Damsel

77 Fly evolution

We track the progression of the Invicta and Dabbler as new materials hit the shelves

78 Flymasters

Peter Gathercole judges your Daddy Longlegs patterns and sets a new fly-tying challenge

TACKLE 83 New gear

COVER STORY The Hodgman wading jacket, Snowbee’s Spectre rods, Wychwood waders and more

88 How tackle & clothing has changed From 70s to now – my God we used to be scruffy!

90 Fly-tying products

OPINION & NEWS

The lifecycle and top imitations

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.

71 The Muddled Daddy

Spotlight on synthetic hackles, quills and foam legs

49 Daddy Longlegs

JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN Bankside

Paul Procter’s guide to nymph fishing tactics

92 Letters

Trout Fishermann readers have their say

51 UK waters

94 News

54 Spotlight on...

95 Junior Troutmasters final

Four top fisheries to visit this month COVER STORY

Scottish news and ‘in brief’ stories

Late summer hotspots on Draycote

56 Cayman Islands

How Morgan Wyn Jones triumphed on his final attempt at Thrunton Long Crag

COVER STORY Some of the UK’s top match anglers enjoy the holiday of a lifetime

98 Troutmasters

ADVICE

102 Match news

TF’s experts answer your questions on reverse casting, shuttlecock patterns and fishing Buzzers

106 Wading in

62 Advice squad

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

This month’s badge winners and catch pictures Iain Barr discusses England’s selection policy Jeff Prest has enjoyed studying TF’s history!

SUBSCRIBE

PRINT AND DIGITAL

EDITIONS AVAILABLE

www.greatmagazines.co.uk/troutfisherman

THIS MONTH’S WINNER

First River Derwent brown trout.

Sent in by Luke Smith

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

• Peter Cockwill looks back • The men who shaped TF • Evolution of the cover • Soundbites Celebrating 40 years

A WORD FROM PETER COCKWILL: OUR LONGEST SERVING CONTRIBUTOR

M

ANY of us like to write a fishing diary, and I’m no exception. But then one day I wrote about a tandem hook link I was using on reservoirs and Trout Fisherman magazine published it.

Some months later I bumped into the then editor John Wilshaw, he asked if I’d anything else I could contribute, and the rest is history.

Now, hundreds of articles later and many editors, I’m happy to still be contributing.

The past 40 years of this magazine is a complete record of all that’s happened in trout fishing as the new reservoirs developed, along with the proliferation of small waters, and stocked trout came to dominate.

Then and now Nothing ever remains the same and it’s fascinating to see how, in recent years, there’s been a strong return to wild bred fish with grayling having led the way. From the days when they were persecuted on the chalk streams they have become a revered species and many anglers now choose not to fish stocked waters. Indeed, river management is often in favour of only wild bred stock, both trout and grayling.

However, it was the growth in the availability of stocked trout which led to the boom in trout fishing for all, and unless you have been in from the start it now must seem hard to believe that the conventional close season, which still applies to wild-bred trout in both rivers and lakes, was accepted as being the same for those waters containing stocked fish which were not expected to breed. We were a long way from the development of single sex and triploid trout such that fishing for trout in the winter months was actually illegal until the rainbow trout had a year-round open season and it was to be many years before a further change in legislation allowed for the brown trout to be fished for in enclosed stillwaters.

March and April in the 70s and 80s would see a huge increase in trout fishing as there was then a close season for coarse fish on all waters and it’s often thought that the change to allow coarse fishing on stillwaters marked the beginning of a big downturn in the popularity of trout fishing.

remain as they were some 30 years back when the first 20lb rainbow was recorded.

The magazine followed the quest for records as fisheries competed to either rear onsite or buy in the ultimate ‘beastie’ and also reported on the few inevitable ‘falsifications’. Nowadays the emphasis is on quality and a genuine ‘20’ remains a very big fish indeed.

The first blue rainbows aroused much interest and we continue to feature new hybrids and species as fisheries compete to have something different to attract custom.

There has been a change from the proliferation of ‘holes in the ground’ to a smaller number of fisheries with excellent lodges offering food, tackle and creature comforts which has also traced a change in angler habits. Nowadays it’s more on the short-term visit and an interaction with the fishery itself in which tuition and guiding plays an important part.

The competition scene Competition fishing really took off with the hugely popular ‘Benson and Hedges’ reservoir matches and England hosting the World Championships really helped. We have had several of our own anglers claim this prestigious title and Trout Fisherman continues to report the current competition scene which is again showing signs of growth. Indeed, the magazine’s own Troutmasters final is a major event promoting smaller and larger waters.

Possibly one of the biggest changes of the past 40 years has been with fly patterns where synthetics now almost dominate lures and the impressionist flies came to embrace the qualities of CdC. Our own Peter Gathercole has been at the forefront for this period and remains top of the tree.

Fly-line development has also changed a lot with ever-faster sinking rates for searching the depths where previously it would have been floating lines almost dominating the market.

Leader materials have changed too and although basic essentials such as Maxima and Drennan Sub Surface have stood the test of time it’s the emergence of fluorocarbons which have come to be the market leaders.

We constantly review the latest products and have seen carbon fibre technology produce ever-lighter and more-responsive models, although surprisingly a genuine 30 yard cast remains a commendable distance.

Considering the vagaries of the British weather it’s amazing how we survived long days afloat with such old-fashioned gear as heavy sweaters, oiled cotton jackets and rubber wellies. Breathable materials and fleece along with neoprene lined boots appear throughout the magazine’s pages and we really were a scruffy lot in those early days.

It’s hard to say that 40 years back were the best years and it’s maybe just simple nostalgia that makes make us hanker for a simpler era. In truth, tru we’re experiencing some of o the best trout fishing ever ev and Trout Fisherman continues con to lead the way.

“In truth, we’re experiencing some of the best trout fishing ever.”

Black & white to colour Older issues very clearly document the changes with April and May issues absolutely full of fishery open day events and catches.

Back then the supporting images were almost wholly in black and white. Slowly the magazine changed to its current all-colour format and it’s fascinating to see how the emphasis is now on the quality of individual fish instead of showing ‘limit bags’ spread on the ground.

The pictures also trace the huge improvement in quality of stock fish from the all-too-frequent very dark-coloured rainbows with really poor fins and tails through to today’s utterly magnificent ‘trophy quality’ fish.

The average weight of the trout we catch has also changed remarkably over time. ‘Precormorant’ days the basic reservoir trout was less than a pound and even the famous ‘big fish’ waters had a base weight stock of just 2lb.

Massive changes indeed and yet the biggest fish

Peter Cockwill

Turn over to celebrate some of the memories from the past 40 years!

Words: Gareth Jones Pictures: Peter Gathercole

Llyn Clywedog has a reputation for big rainbows and browns.

12 TROUT FISHERMAN | AUGUST 16 - SEPTEMBER 12

www.troutďŹ sherman.co.uk

TACTICS Catch m

ore w late summ ith stillwater t er ips

It came from THE DEEP! Gareth Jones switches from dry fly to the complete opposite to save the day at Llyn Clywedog...

www.troutfisherman.co.uk

AUGUST 16 - SEPTEMBER 12 | TROUT FISHERMAN 13

TACTICS MOUNTAIN LAKES Words & pictures: Mike Thrussell

Mountain RAINBOWS Mike Thrussell beats the lowland heat by heading to the hills in search of cooler climbs and active trout...

18 TROUT FISHERMAN | AUGUST 16 - SEPTEMBER 12

www.troutďŹ sherman.co.uk

An impressive backdrop by any standards – Cregennan Lakes, North Wales.

www.troutfisherman.co.uk

AUGUST 16 - SEPTEMBER 12| TROUT FISHERMAN 19

TACTICS SMALL WATERS Words & pictures: Jeffrey Prest

All-round WORKOUT

Two lochs at Tinto Trout Fishery provide a variety of fishing conditions and challenges. Autopilot anglers should look elsewhere…

28 TROUT FISHERMAN | AUGUST 16 - SEPTEMBER 12

www.troutfisherman.co.uk

Gregor Fleming casts on Loch Lyoch, the lower of Tinto’s two lochs.

www.troutfisherman.co.uk

AUGUST 16 - SEPTEMBER 12 | TROUT FISHERMAN 29

TACTICS RIVERS Words: Iain Barr Pictures: Peter Gathercole

36 TROUT FISHERMAN | AUGUST 16 - SEPTEMBER 12

www.troutямБsherman.co.uk

A nymphy-lure FOR BROWNS! Former World Champion Iain Barr fishes a Hare’s Ear and Tadpole hybrid to tempt cracking browns from his local River Welland...

www.troutfisherman.co.uk

AUGUST 16 - SEPTEMBER 12 | TROUT FISHERMAN 37

TACTICS CARP ON FLY Words: Peter Cockwill Pictures: Peter Gathercole

Let battle COMMENCE

Peter Cockwill gets his string pulled by powerful carp for a modest ticket price...

Hooking and playing a carp on fly gear won’t leave you disappointed.

www.troutfisherman.co.uk

AUGUST 16 - SEPTEMBER 12 | TROUT FISHERMAN 41

Fly-Tying In association with Veniard

trout FIRST FOR TACTICS, TACKLE & WHERE TO FISH

Muddled DADDY

Peter Gathercole ties a versatile pattern for the autumn Visit our website www.veniard.com

WHERE TO FISH CAYMAN ISLANDS Words: John Horsey & Wayne Jones Pictures: Russ Owen, Martin Founds & John Horsey

A nervous moment as John Horsey carefully plays his tarpon under the watchful eye of Pro Guide Chris Gough.

CAYMAN ISLANDS Wayne Jones and friends enjoy the holiday of a lifetime

56 TROUT FISHERMAN | AUGUST 16 - SEPTEMBER 12

www.troutďŹ sherman.co.uk

T

HE Cayman Islands is a dream destination for saltwater flyfishing. So, it’s little wonder it attracted so much interest as the main prize in last year’s Anglers World Fly Fishing Championships!

Welsh angler Wayne Jones beat a starstudded field of 100 anglers at Chew Valley Lake last September to be crowned the 2016 Anglers World Champion and it was my job to accompany him to Little Cayman for his fishing holiday of a lifetime, writes John Horsey. Welsh contributor Russ Owen joined us along with Anglers World boss Martin Founds who filmed all the action!

About little Cayman Little Cayman has 170 people and over 1500 iguanas. It’s also home to the largest colony of red-footed boobies, who get mobbed by the huge and agile frigate birds that steal their food while in flight.

Most visitors come for some of the www.troutfisherman.co.uk

Wayne Jones’ barracuda that had earlie

r bitten John Horsey’s jack in half!

DIGITAL SAMPLER

www.troutfisherman.co.uk Print & Digital Subscriptions

www.greatmagazinesdigital.com/magazines/trout-fisherman

Available from