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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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trout FIRST FOR TACTICS, TACKLE & WHERE TO FISH
Flashback Damsel Nymph Peter Gathercole ties a deadly June pattern for stillwaters
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