Tavistock Trout Fishery..
Kingfisher Lake. 0930. Mid November 2009.
I have fished Tavistock since the day it
opened, it is my local fishery and I
genuinely feel it belongs in the Top Ten list
of UK small water fisheries. Not just for the
quality of its fish, nor yet the welcome
extended, but for the constantly moving
goalposts, the challenge of catching fish
from a fishery which is but a stones throw
from the vastness which is Dartmoor.
The variety of insect life is awesome, there
are occasional days in the Spring when
yellow winged Mayflies go skittering across
the surface and the fish boil like a shoal of
Mackerel as they track the hapless
Mayflies stuttering flight. Then there are
the Hawthorn, Daddies and Sedge and all
the nymph fishing to go with it. But you
know what, ask in the office what most fish
are caught on and he will tell you “Cats
Whisker and Montana Nymph!”
There are all sorts of reasons why these two flies catch more trout than any
others on small stillwater fisheries, not least that they are most likely the most
fished flies!!
Having said that, we were the first to arrive on that morning, there were the
last tendrils of mist lifting from the water the water as the weak wintery sun
warmed the air. But the water in Kingfisher lake was absolutely flat with just
the occasional Autumnal leaf falling to create a disturbance on the surface of
the lake.
First things first, a coffee
and a natter in the shop
with one eye on the lake
to see if there was any
sign of movement. In truth
apart from the falling
leaves there was none, if
there were fish in there
then they were deep. A
conclusion reinforced
when I asked Bernie what
had been happening.
“They have been deep for
a couple of weeks now”
he said “very few fish
showing on the top since
it turned colder!”
So if I wanted fish, prospecting was the name of the game.
Kingfisher is about 12 feet deep at its deepest point so if the fish were deep
they were most likely holding just off the bottom around 10 feet as they
scouted the dying weed beds for something to eat.
So it had to be a slow sink line or a
floating line with a long leader and a
heavy fly to get anywhere near the
fish. As a matter of preference I
don’t like using sinking lines if I can
avoid them, so I though I would give
the Ghost Tip an airing and see if
that would find the fish. The
Cortland Ghost Tip is quite a useful
line for this type of fishing, it doesn’t
cast particularly well, but then few
sink tip lines do. The Ghost Tip has
a long clear sinking front end which
sinks quite quickly for a line of this
type and with a twelve/fifteen foot
leader, can put a fly in the ball park
when faced with fish that are well
down in the water.
So what was the fly to tempt these
deep down fish?
Prospecting for fish in these circumstance you can do a lot worse that starting
off with either a black fly or a white fly, such as the Cats Whisker or one of its
infinite variations. This
combination of white and
a chartreuse’y yellow
front end or else a black
fly with a similar yellow’y
green thorax will tempt
fish in all sorts of
conditions, but in cooler
conditions they are both
good prospecting flies.
First up was a fly that I
have tied and used for
many years, it is a simple
tadpole fly with a
chartreuse plastic bead
up front, a white body
and white marabou tail.
There are countless variations on this fly, but I call it a Beadhead Cat’s
Whisker, if it has to be called something..
Kingfisher Lake has a strong inflow at the
north end and there are often fish waiting
a little way down the far bank to see what
the current is going to bring. But further
down the lake is my favourite spot where
the current finally slows to a stop, where
whatever is being held in suspension
begins to drop and I believe the better
fish wait there. So Henry G and I were
early enough on the day to be able to
drop right onto that spot.
In the Spring and through the warmer
parts of the year I fish here with Diawl
Bach and buzzers, fishing them on the
drop, retrieving just enough line to keep
contact with the fly.
My first cast was an abortion, these clear
lines really need to be wet to lubricate
them through the rings. Second cast was
better and the fly landed close to where I
wanted to put it. So I let the fly fish on the drop, waiting for well over a minute,
which actually seems a long, long time when instinct wants you to give the fly
some movement.
Picking up the slack I felt an almost imperceptible twitch which signalled that
something was interested. The two options at this point are to stop or carry on
retrieving. I think with lure type flies you have to keep moving, so I speeded
up to a fast figure eight retrieve and the line tightened with a satisfying solidity.
Prospecting was over we had found the fish…. It was a lovely silver sided
hard fighting Tavvy fish that went two and a half pounds.
Tavistock used to have a “Big Fish Lake” but Abigail decided that keeping the
big fish in stock ponds through the hot summer months in South West Devon
did not make a lot of sense, especially after she lost some magnificent fish.
So in they all went, big fish in all four lakes. The word is that Kingfisher Lake
contains a double figure Brown that has driven some of the regulars scatty
over the past couple of year. When asked how big some of the fish are Abbi
gives an enigmatic smile and says “you catch’em, then you will find out!”
So we fished
on hoping one
of the big fish
would come
and have its
picture taken,
but it wasn’t to
be. The white
beadhead
worked its
magic and
caught a good
bag of hard
fighting fish
and we left
the big’uns for
another day.
Tavistock Trout Fishery.
Mount Tavy,
Tavistock,
Devon.
PL19 9JW
Telephone: 01 822 615 441
Website: www.tavistocktroutfishery.co.uk
Tavistock Trout Fishery..
Published Trout Fisherman. 2009.
