Trout Fisherman 522 (Digital Sampler)

GO AFLOAT 9 PAGES OF BOAT ADVICE FIRST FOR TACTICS, TACKLE & WHERE TO FISH

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● Safety tips ● Gear you need ● Setting up a drift

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Catch a SPARCTIC!

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ISSUE 522

Tactics and flies to hook a new species TACTICS

FLY TEAMS

SOFT FEATHER 6 FLY COMBOS Get the best from CDC

Proven set-ups for May

WHERE TO FISH

GRAFHAM

Spring hotspots & flies

TACKLE

GEAR TESTS

Tried and trusted reviews

Words: Phil Dixon Pictures: Peter Gathercole

Sparctic trout are becoming very popular at our small waters.

8 TROUT FISHERMAN | APRIL 24 - MAY 21

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TACTICS Catch

the cross-breed latest t off your se o kick ason

SPARCTIC ROLLS

England international Phil Dixon gets plenty of action from hard-fighting sparctic trout at the UK’s top small water – Ellerdine Lakes... www.troutfisherman.co.uk

APRIL 24 - MAY 21 | TROUT FISHERMAN 9

TACTICS SMALL WATERS Words: Peter Cockwill Pictures: Peter Gathercole

Anything out there?

Peter Cockwill fishes deep until he sees evidence of a buzzer hatch...

18 TROUT FISHERMAN | APRIL 24 - MAY 21

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Flat calm, blue sky – not ideal conditions. It’s time to get to work.

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APRIL 24 - MAY 21 | TROUT FISHERMAN 19

Words: Gareth Jones Pictures: Peter Gathercole

Gareth fishes on the edge of the crowd over less stressed trout.

28 TROUT FISHERMAN | APRIL 24 - MAY 21

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Avoid the CROWD

Gareth Jones fishes away from the ‘bun fight’ with Airflo’s new Sixth Sense line at Thornton Reservoir...

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APRIL 24 - MAY 21 | TROUT FISHERMAN 29

TACTICS WILD BROWNS Words & pictures: Mike Thrussell

Wildies from the drop-offs Mike Thrussell targets the zone between shallow and deep water to find sport with spirited wild browns in a spectacular setting...

Mike fishes one of his favourite areas on Cregennan, the north boat house bank.

34 TROUT FISHERMAN | APRIL 24 - MAY 21

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T

HE search for true wild brown trout takes you to some stunning scenery. But few vistas are more spectacular than the view looking east over Llyn Cregennan through the Nant y Gwyrddail valley. Flanked to the south by the imposing, craggy and often moody cliffs of Craig Las, while to the north stands the scree-covered Matterhorn lookalike that is Pared-y-Cefn-Hir. Llyn Cregennan, five-miles from the market town of Dolgellau in North Wales, is a place of solitude for fly-fishers. You may see buzzards, ravens, and even disturb a hare or two from their daytime slumbers.

Some walkers take the mountain paths, a few even tread the lake’s shore and give a friendly wave. You may even spy another angler occasionally, but mostly you’re alone.

At 27-acres, it’s the best part of a mile walk around Cregennan. There are narrow sheep paths to follow, but the north and east banks are rough natural ground. Good advice then, is to keep what you carry to a minimum so you can be fully mobile.

A dozen casts will usually tell you if the fish are present. If your approach is quiet, you’ll often get fish straight away. If not, move on.

I walk down towards the boat house from the car park making a few searching casts, but it’s shallower here and any noise from the nearby car park can push the fish out.

The wind is in the southwest, ideal, putting a ripple on the surface, so I walk down past the boat house to where the water begins to drop off deeper. The trout cruise these drop-offs looking for food. The deepest parts are generally in the northeast and southeast corners and it’s here I head for as the day is fairly bright with a light cloud cover. I’m less choosy if the day is overcast, which incidentally, tends to give the best fishing in conjunction with a ripple on the surface.

Keep flies small I’m fishing a 4wt with a floating line. The leader is eight feet of 6lb fluorocarbon ending in a tippet ring, then four feet of 3.5lb fluorocarbon. Keep flies small, nothing bigger than a size 14 ideally. The trout take black nymph patterns really well, green Diawl Bachs, thinly-dressed Pheasant Tail Nymph variants, and also size 16 to 14 Black Buzzers with a hint of green holographic tinsel in the body.

Some anglers prefer a three-fly team, I prefer two flies because I catch more and snag less when working the flies back to the shallow edges from deeper water. If you tie your own flies, tie them scruffy to add life.

I set up with a size 16 Black Nymph on the dropper and a size 14 Green Diawl Bach on the point. I degrease the full length of the leader and tippet to help get the flies down.

Careful to keep a low profile, I make a couple of casts straight out, let the flies sink, then draw them in using a slow stop-andstart figure-of-eight retrieve. I count the flies down further, but there’s no interest so I change my stance and cast sideways at a shallower angle to the bank judging where the lift of the drop-off is. www.troutfisherman.co.uk

APRIL 24 - MAY 21 | TROUT FISHERMAN 35

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