bratton trout

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Bratton Water Trout Fishery.

Devon Radio said that there was a new by-pass near Barnstaple opening that day, that traffic would be held up and diverted. After studying the roadmap I came to the conclusion that I could go in the back way to the fishery, off the A399……. believe me, that was not the best decision I have ever made!!!! The web of lanes between the A39 and the A399 are like a maze, after driving around for nearly an hour, asking twice, then returning to the same spot as I entered these labyrinthine lanes, it was an easy decision to go the long way round to the A39. As it happened the traffic flowed freely and there was no hold up. The entrance to the fishery was quite easy to find from that direction. Turning into the entrance I was faced with a pot holed track with grass growing in the middle which led past owner Mike William’s house to a small carpark. But then, do we fly anglers not know that all the best fisheries are approached along a lane with grass growing in the middle! Walking the path to the fishery nattering to Mike Williams. I stopped and looked, Bratton Water took my breath away for a moment. The green of the water reflecting the imperial purple of the foxgloves, counterpointed perfectly with the glorious yellow of the iris. The hump and swirl of a fish as a hapless nymph sustained a hungry trout, a flash of blue from my first damsel of the season, a blink of ephemeral yellow as a mayfly tripped its way across the waters surface. If you think I am waxing lyrical, rest assured I am!! Spring started for me that day…… Bratton Water is a Trout Master fishery a few miles to the north by slightly east of Barnstaple, North Devon, just off the A39. Owner Mike Williams farms trout on the site, choosing and selectively rearing the trout that go into the fishery. Monster trout are not part of the ethos of Bratton Water, most of the trout are between two and four pounds…. not perhaps a fishery for the meat merchants. Those who know and understand will look at the shape of the fish, observe the condition of the tails and cheerfully stump up the £25’s for five fish!! Hard fighting fish that will take a fly off the top and give your backing an airing, that’ll do for me!! I had taken my 6 weight rod because I thought it early in the season to switch to the 5 weight which is my usual small water outfit, besides which there had been a bit of wind when I had filled the bird feeders early that morning. But in truth the five weight with a four/five pound point would have fitted the bill with some style. However the six weight with a floating line or nymph tip would do the job. The sun had a couple of hours to go before it was overhead, so that was my best opportunity to take a couple of fish before a long lunch in the lodge to let the sun get past its zenith. I am sure the better fish seek some shade and doze for an hour or three at this time of day, leaving the recent stockies and tiddlers to expend their energy and keep impatient anglers happy. The predominant rise form was one that was not breaking the surface. Using Polaroid’s it was possible to see a flank flash as the trout swirled a foot or so under the surface and the resulting water displacement showed on the surface as a humped boil of water. It seemed to me that the flash of blue from the sighting of my first damsel of the season was being reflected under the surface as the trout picked off the early season nymphs. This time of year is the start of the season proper. OK, the damsel nymphs are immature, spindly thin and small, with a touch of yellow colouration that makes them seem almost fluorescent. There is a section in my backup flybox which has half a dozen of these small Damsel nymphs tied on a longshank 12 with a body thickness less than the thickness of a matchstick. Fished on 15 foot leader to where you see fish moving the water, these mini damsels can be lethal. But the standard Westo fly, early season, is a Dawson’s Olive tied just a bit sparse. The touch of yellow on the tail does the trick superbly well. In recent seasons I have also noticed a goldhead version being used to great effect. Local angler Bob Gooding from South Molton was catching very well using an intermediate line and surprise, surprise, a Dawson’s Olive. “Noticed the first of the Damsels just a few days ago” he said to me. The sun was hot and welcome after what has seemed to be a long and manky Winter, but the mid morning flurry from the Damsels soon abated and calls from the lodge indicated that coffee was brewing. Local anglers led by Gwyn Llewellyn-Rees had a smoker going, piled high with trout fillets. Chablis was being decanted from the ice box and all was well with the world at lunchtime. I couldn’t help but notice that Gwyn was using a 10 foot built cane rod, which he explained was built originally by Warner’s of Redditch and after tracing the rods history, was most probably built in the early 1900’s when Warner’s were building most of the cane rod blanks for many of the premier makes of the day. Apparently Warner’s made rods up until WW2 when their factory was taken over to build Mosquito’s. They never went back to rod making. After an expert restoration of the rod, Gwyn uses it at least twice each week and has landed many fish on it. In fact after lunch I fished alongside him and watched him land another two fish, to fill his limit for the day. The rod might have been an antique, but his technique and presentation was as good as it gets today. Consisting of a Klinkhammer fished at the end of a long greased up leader, with a small buzzer droppered off New Zealand style from the bend of the Klinkhammer, so that the small buzzer was presented a couple of feet or so down, exactly where the fish expected to find them. The buzzer is suspended and fished on a dead drift just as the natural would be. My natural inclination is to fish buzzers, PTN or black nymph virtually every time I fish for trout, only varying the sizes according to the season and fishing them dead drift under a dry fly or emerger can be a lethal on these smaller fisheries and in the right conditions reservoirs as well. My thoughts were simple, this was the end of May a time of transition when the really early hatches were almost done and in a few more weeks we would be into more regular spells of warmer, hopefully hot weather, when the best of the fishing is at crack of sparrows and then evening to sunset and past, a time of the year when the middle of the day is mostly chuck it and chance it, best avoided if you can. Bratton Water, like many similar small fisheries are like “safety valves” to the pressures of the manic world in which we live, places where we can catch a few fish, enjoy like minded company and get things into perspective again. Give Bratton a try, I think you will like it.