Trout Fisherman 523 (Digital Sampler)

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FREE UK & IRELAND STILLWATER GUIDE FIRST FOR TACTICS, TACKLE & WHERE TO FISH

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DEPTHS How sinking lines will up your catch rate

FLIES TO TIE NOW

6 combos for June RIVER TACTICS

THE SHORT GAME Fish the near bank first

RESERVOIR SKILLS

BIG DOUBLES

Two 'Ravo' brutes in a day!

WHERE TO FISH

DRAYCOTE GUIDE

June hotspots & top flies

22 MAY - 18 JUNE, 2019 | £3.70

48

FLY SET-UPS

ISSUE 523

TACKLE TESTS

GET KITTED OUT

Trusted verdicts on gear

DIGITAL EDITIONS AVAILABLE

Contents I SS U E 52 3

Cover image by Peter Gathercole

BE INSPIRED

ADVICE

6 Your first

56 Advice squad

Readers share stories of their fly-fishing ‘firsts’

Leader material for dry fly tactics, protecting scissor tips and how to encourage newcomers into the sport

TACTICS

8 Lines of attack

60 How to tie...

Steve Cullen highlights the need for a variety of fly lines when tackling stillwaters

Sparse flies with top tips from Paul Procter

COVER STORY

FLY-TYING

14 Ravo’s brutes!

65 Flashback Damsel Nymph

Top match angler Rob Edmunds on how to target Raventhorpe’s doubles COVER STORY

26

20 Turn your world upside down

Why hooks that sit the ‘wrong way round’ are enjoying a resurgence on the match scene

26 Sheer quality

Thornwood Springs fishery has made significant improvements, as Peter Cockwill discovers

68

68 Flybox fillers

Russ Symons on how to tie a Sedgehog

72 Flymasters

Peter Gathercole judges your detached body Mayflies and sets a new challenge

TACKLE

32 Over the moor

77 Gear on test

We visit Scaling Dam, one of Northumbria Water’s more unsung venues

COVER STORY Robbie Winram reviews Shakespeare and Orvis rods, Hardy reels, Airflo clothing and more

38 Global flyfisher

COVER STORY In America Paul Richardson learns all about ‘short game’ tactics on the rivers

82 Fly-tying products

We try Gunville foam cutters, Semperfli wire and Veniard chenille

FOCUS ON...

42 Fly combos for June

OPINION & NEWS

COVER STORY Peter Cockwill provides six lines of attack that will work on a range of fisheries

84 News

OFFERS

44 Fly box essentials

Phil Dixon picks six favourite Fastmail flies for spring

46 Subscription offer

How you can subscribe to Trout Fisherman magazine for just £3.10 a month

WHERE TO FISH

76 Reader offer

47 UK waters

Greys Strata CT waders and boots plus a line tray – all for £124.99, a saving of £115!

Four top trout fisheries to visit this month

50 Spotlight on...

COVER STORY

A deadly June pattern for stillwaters

Late spring hotspots at Draycote

Latest from the trout fishing scene, plus Ian Muckle’s report on sport in Scotland

86 Letters

Trout Fisherman readers have their say

88 Cockwill

How our feathered fishing companions can delight and frustrate in equal measure

89 Troutmasters

Are you among this month’s badge winners?

95 Iain Barr

52 Rod fathers

The world-class matchman offers his top tips on catching in a flat calm

A celebration of the role our dads, granddads and other fine chaps played in helping us take up fishing

98 Wading in

54 Catch memories

Fishing’s peace and quiet will be its saviour says Jeff Prest

A memorable double bag limit at Chew Valley

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THIS MONTH’S WINNER

A 10lb 5oz tiger trout caught by Andy White from Hampshire’s Dever Springs fishery on a Black & Magenta Firebird.

HOW TO ENTER

Shot of the

MONTH

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TACTICS S M A L L W A T E R S Words: Steve Cullen Photography: Peter Gathercole

Lines of attack!

Steve Cullen visits Press Manor Fishing Lakes and highlights the need for a variety of y lines when ďŹ shing stillwaters

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TACTICS

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TACTICS R E S E R V O I R S Words: Rob Edmunds Photography: Peter Gathercole

Ravo's brutes!

Top matchman Rob Edmunds reveals his thought processes on the way to catching two doubles at Ravensthorpe Reservoir

14 Trout Fisherman Oxoxoxxo 00 - Oxoxoxo 00

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Oxoxoxxo 00 - Oxoxoxo 00 Trout Fisherman 15

TACTICS S M A L L W A T E R S Words & Pictures: Jeffrey Prest

Turn your world

UPSIDE DOWN Hooks that sit ‘wrong way round’ in the water have done the rounds before but they are enjoying a resurgence on the match scene.

Fred Bainbridge shows us why…

20 Trout Fisherman May 22 - June 18

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The inverted approach strikes again at Sharpley Springs. www.troutfisherman.co.uk

May 22 - June 18 Trout Fisherman 21

TACTICS S M A L L W A T E R S Words: Peter Cockwill Photography: Peter Gathercole

26 Trout Fisherman May 22 - June 18

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Sheer quality

Peter Cockwill visits Thornwood Springs, an Essex small water that’s made significant improvements

Thornwood fish are superb quality and the lakes present different challenges. www.troutfisherman.co.uk

May 22 - June 18 Trout Fisherman 27

TACTICS S M A L L W A T E R S Words & Pictures: Jeffrey Prest

Over the moor A combination of wind and moorland will be making Scaling Dam a terrestrial’s graveyard round about now, which is where you come in.

We visit one of Northumbrian Water’s more unsung venues…

32 Trout Fisherman May 22 - June 18

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Andrew Scott brings in another Scaling rainbow. www.troutfisherman.co.uk

May 22 - June 18 Trout Fisherman 33

TACTICS G L O B A L T I P S Words & pictures: Paul Richardson

Watch your SHORT GAME Globe-trotting angler Paul Richardson uses tips gained from around the world to improve UK catch rates

38 Trout Fisherman Oxoxoxxo 00 18 - Oxoxoxo 00 May 22 - June

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T Even when boat fishing, American guides focus on the margins.

HIS month I am documenting my time spent in Washington state, the most north-westerly corner of the lower 48 states.

I explored many rivers in this diverse state, often employing guides to maximise my chances!

The Pacific-Northwest is a fabled, majestic part of the world. The diversity in this area of the USA is often overlooked by travelling Europeans for the more famously populated East coast of the USA. Yet here, within the space of three short hours by car, you can be on top of huge mountain peaks, immersed in the last-remaining temperate rainforest, combing untouched beautiful beaches, surrounded by the metropolis of Seattle or facing down the bright blue skies and baking-hot sun of the desert. Couple this with the fact that fishing, hunting and the great outdoors are the lifeblood of the communities here, and it really makes for a fabulous spectacle as an angler. An experience I feel all British anglers should enjoy in their lifetime. The USA and their love of fishing is contagious!

Visit the tackle shop!

Upon arriving into Washington the choice of fishing options seems limitless. There seems to be water everywhere here, which makes your choice of knowing where to attack first feel very daunting indeed. So my first port to call is always a local tackle shop.

Any local fishing shop should provide knowledge and direction – basically doing your water ‘recon’ for you! This can often save days of little to no success.

After a cup of the hot stuff and plenty of fish stories, most anglers leave a tackle shop feeling confident and ready for action.

Book a guide

Paul Richardson

Creative Director of Rise Creative Studio Heaviest fish 7lb wild trout Favourite reservoir Draycote Favourite small water Bushyleaze

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This confidence and success is further compounded when you also fish with a guide. If a visit to a retailer is valuable, a guide is twice as valuable and will double or treble your success rate. They are professionals. These people live and work on the water every day.

To ignore them is to simply make your fishing more challenging, (which I appreciate some people will savour and enjoy) but, for me – when visiting any new area – I like to maximise my chances, looking for success as quickly as possible.

I reflect on how alien these rivers are to me. The scale, the terrain, the flora and fauna. A guide balances that, and teaches you all about their classroom and it’s May 22 - June 18 Trout Fisherman 39

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Flashback Damsel Nymph Peter Gathercole ties a deadly June pattern for stillwaters

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