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Get set for big fry feeders
RIVER TACTICS
Catch the stream trio
How to stalk monster trout
Browns, grayling & wild rainbows
34
9 OCT - 5 NOV, 2019 | £3.70
ISSUE 528
Autumn
FIGHTS Methods you need for late-season fish RESERVOIRS
WHERE TO FISH
DESTINATIONS
FLY-TYING
Iain Barr's late season tips
Autumn hotspots & flies
Enjoy tough battles on fly
Follow our step-by-step
DIGITAL EDITIONS AVAILABLE
Contents I SS U E 528
Cover image by Peter Gathercole
BE INSPIRED
20
6 Your first
Readers share stories of their fly-fishing ‘firsts’
TACTICS
ADVICE
58 Advice squad
TF’s experts answer your questions on feeding depths and match fishing
62 How to...
8 Go with the flow
Understand rivers with expert Paul Procter
Steve Cullen’s indepth guide to fish location on rivers during low water COVER STORY
FLY-TYING
15 Start salmon fishing
67 The Popper Minkie
Jeff Prest visits the ideal place to begin – the Dunkeld House Hotel beat on the River Tay
Follow Peter Gathercole’s step-by-step
70 Flybox fillers
20 Grafham on form
34
After a dull 2018 season, the Cambridgeshire venue is back on form, as Iain Barr discovers COVER STORY
26 Goldenloch
Jeff Prest learns about autumn tactics at this Scottish small water
COVER STORY
Russ Symons ties a Quill Emerger
74 Flymasters
Peter Gathercole judges your wet and nymphstyle Corixa entries and sets a new challenge
TACKLE
79 Gear on test
30 Fry feeders
Robbie Winram reviews new rods, leader material, a waterproof jacket and more...
Russ Symons tackles the hungry rainbows at his local Wimbleball Reservoir
83 Fly-tying products
34 All hell breaks loose
Peter Cockwill puts stalking tactics to the test at clear water Chalk Springs fishery
Synthetic tapered biots plus two useful tools
COVER STORY
FOCUS ON...
OFFERS 73 Subscription offer
40 Fry-feeder set-ups
COVER STORY Reservoir ace Rob Edmunds selects his top four set-ups for late season fry-feeders
Get a year’s worth of Trout Fisherman magazine for just £3.10 a month - a saving of 24%
42 Mobile fry patterns
78 Reader offer
COVER STORY Large Storafly box and 200 flies for only £39.99 – a saving of £115!
Phil Dixon picks his favourite six from the Fastmail collection COVER STORY
WHERE TO FISH
OPINION & NEWS
46 Catch memories
Dave Malpas recalls an incredible salmon session!
84 News
Latest news on the trout scene plus match results and interviews
87 Cockwill
Looking back at the pressure of producing the goods while on feature days for TF
88 Letters
47 UK waters
Trout Fisherman readers have their say
Details of three top trout fisheries from around the country to visit this month
90 Iain Barr
A quick rule change moan before sharing fry feeding tactics
50 Spotlight on...
COVER STORY Late autumn bank and boat hotspots, tactics and flies for Rutland Water
91 Troutmasters
Are you among this month’s badge winners?
52 Snook on the fly in Belize
98 Wading in
COVER STORY Tempting these hard-fighting fish from line-breaking snags is an experience you’ll never forget!
Jeff Prest recalls his memories of the late great Bob Church
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THIS MONTH’S WINNER Sunrise at Barlow Lakes, Derbyshire. Sent in by Colin Dann
HOW TO ENTER
Shot of the
MONTH
If you have a fly-fishing 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.
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TACTICS R I V E R S Words Steve Cullen Pictures Peter Gathercole
Steve prepares to net a fish from a coloured Derbyshire Derwent.
TACTICS
Go with THE FLOW
Steve Cullen reveals tips for fish location on rivers during low water
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READER OFFER
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T
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When ordering quote “Trout Fisherman offer” & code “00150TF”. Please note that fly selection may vary from that shown and flies are not slotted into box. Offer available while stocks last. *Plus £6.99 p&p. Tel: 0141 212 8880 | Fax: 0141 331 6340 Email: sales@fishingmegastore.com | Order online: www.gac.fishing/00150TF Post: Glasgow Angling Centre, Unit 1, The Point, 29 Saracen Street, Glasgow G22 5HT
TACTICS T A Y S A L M O N Words & pictures Jeffrey Prest
Broaden your horizons... If you’re looking for a gentle introduction to fishing the UK’s great salmon rivers, there’s a beat on the Tay we know of, but be warned, your work starts before you get there…
Gordon Pollock casts while upstream of Dunkeld Bridge.
TACTICS R E S E R V O I R S Words Iain Barr Pictures Peter Gathercole
Grafham's quality trout are showing well this season.
Grafham ON FORM
After a dull 2018, the Cambridgeshire venue is in fine form this season, with explosive surface action across the middle, says Iain Barr
TACTICS S M A L L W A T E R S Words & pictures Jeffrey Prest
AND SO TO AUTUMN…
Temperatures and leaves may fall but fishing needn’t be all lures, lures, lures. At one Scottish fishery, the breadth of imitative fishing on offer is virtually an open book…
Y
OU’D think the phrase “still waters run deep” would be done to death in a magazine like this, yet I can’t remember another occasion when it sprang so readily to mind as it does when I recall my visit to Goldenloch Fishery. While a drizzly Fife morning didn’t help, it just seemed like another pleasant rural pond as I arrived and chatted with owner John Nicol. Outside, just a few anglers were in evidence. It was like a hundred other Thursdays at a hundred other fisheries. It’s when you do your research and turn to its website that Goldenloch begins to grab you. In the sanitised world of modern
commerce, where every press release is couched in safe, cloying terms, John Nicols’ weekly fishery reports comprise such unapologetic candour that you briefly wonder if he might need saving from himself.
Slings and arrows
Without fear or favour, every sling and arrow of trout fishery fortune goes into those dispatches from the front. If there’s a weed problem at Goldenloch, if high temperatures are temporarily killing it, even if there’s a "light infestation” of argulus, it’s all written down, interspersed with catch numbers and the
TACTICS F R Y F E E D E R S Words & pictures Russ Symons
Russ Symons with his third fish of the Wimbleball session, a seven-pounder, which fell to a Floating Minkie.
They’re on the fry!
Cooler weather will see trout chasing fry. Russ Symons shares his top tactics to make the most of the action
TACTICS S M A L L W A T E R S Words Peter Cockwill Pictures Peter Gathercole
All hell breaks loose
There's nothing better then seeing fish actually take your fly, says Peter Cockwill as he puts stalking tactics to the test at Chalk Springs
Peter Cockwill plays a strong rainbow at Chalk Springs.
WHERE TO FISH O V E R S E A S Words & pictures Dave Lewis
You're going to love snook fishing!
Tempting these hard-fighting, acrobatic fish from line-breaking snags is an experience you'll never forget, says Dave Lewis
A snook with dorsal fin erect is a sight to behold.
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Fly-Tying In association with Veniard
The Popper Minkie Peter Gathercole ties a deadly fry pattern for late season
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