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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
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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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