ROADFORD WEEKLY FISHING REPORT

WEEK ENDING 23rd August 2020

SUPERB ROADFORD SPORT! Roadford was superb last week – great fishing! Definitely the place to go if your looking for some cracking brown trout fishing right now. 5 returns last week produced 35 brownies to 2lb 4oz. a few fish over the 2lb mark were caught. John Rumbold had 11 fish from his morning and Dean Boucher had 22 fish in his two visits! Here is the catch reports they shared with us: John Rumbold had this fantastic report and pictures for us from his visit to Roadford: ‘It was Tuesday evening and I had plans to go to Siblyback the following day., however after reading the latest Southwest Lake trust fishing reports, especially the great report from Dean Boucher about his fantastic trip to Roadford I decided to give it a go. Did I make the right decision!! Yes I certainly did. I woke up Wednesday morning at 5am to the sound of a very strong wind blowing and heavy rain beating against the window, not the best of days to go fishing, but I had made my mind up and there was no turning back. Arriving at Roadford lake just after 6am and parking in South Wortha car park. It was overcast with a moderate south-easterly wind. I started to tackle up and noticed another car pull into the car park, only to find it was Dean. Now what were the chances of that happening, the same day, time and place! After talking to Dean I decided to use a floating line with a Soldier Palmer on the top dropper, a Zulu on the second dropper and a Black Tadpole on the point. It was out of the wind and quite flat in South Wortha, so we decided to start fishing there. My first cast of the day and I'm into a small perch, on the second cast I caught 2 perch. After about 1/2 hr I had lost count of just how many perch I had caught. By this time Dean had caught his first fish a lovely looking brownie of around 2lb. A very useful tip from Dean was to find some water with more ripple, as it tends to hold more brown trout and less perch so l moved around the corner to Davey's Bank. After only a few cast, bang I was in, this was no perch! away it went fighting really hard and kept deep, you know when you got a good fish on and this was certainly one of those. When I eventually landed it, a Brownie in cracking condition but not only did it turn out to be my largest fish of the day which was around 2.4oz that took the Soldier Pamer on the top dropper, but there was also a bonus on the point fly, the smallest brownie of the day about 6ozs. No wonder they gave me such a fantastic fight, could it be father and son! (picture right). I continued fishing and caught several more great fighting brownies in excellent condition including a full house, of a brownie on the top dropper and two perch, one on the second dropper and one on the Point fly. Remember to keep moving never stay it one place too long when fishing for brownies. I decided to work my way back along Davey's Bank, through South Wortha catching some fish on the way and finally ending up at East Wortha Point where I caught my last fish and my second largest fish another excellent brownie of around 2lb. We did get the chance to speak to Kevin the Roadford warden who was on patrol checking licenses, He is always ready to give you help and advice if needed. By this time it was 12.30 and time for both of us to go

home after our fantastic morning fishing. Dean ended up catching 14 Brownies and I managed to catch 11 Brownies. All fish weigh between 6oz to over 2lb, they were lovely looking fish in excellent condition and they were all returned safely back into the water to live and to fight another day. I would definitely recommend a days fishing at Roadford Lake.’ Picture: John Rumbold with a nice brownie… Dean Boucher had 22 fish in two visits last week: Dean on his 14 fish day: ‘Lovely fishing today. Fish mainly on pulled wets but a couple on more imitative patterns (Black and Claret PTN`s on 14`s). All the fish in superb condition, the bigger fish seem really deep bodied at the moment. Soldier Palmer and Black Tadpole were best wet patterns both on 12`s. Nice fishing weather, the rain cleared but the cloud cover stayed over. First fish of the day proved the best an 18 inch fish estimated weight 2lb with a couple more at around

1lb 12ozs’. Dean had 8 fish on his other visit: ‘Evening Session, Smaller set of fish this evening with fish to 1lb 4ozs. Caught evenly on nymphs, spiders and wets. Successful patterns Black Tadpole , Black and Pearly Palmer, Soldier Palmer, Claret PTN and Black Spider. As per yesterday a heap of small perch. Not to bad to start with but as the evening wore on they did become a nuisance’. Picture: one of Dean’s better fish from last week…

Perch fishing – return from the week ending 23rd August The perch fishing at Roadford continues to produce some good sport. Bruce Elston, a venue regular, had another nice day last week with a couple of fish over the 2lb mark using Crankbaits. Bruce also had a few over the 1lb mark amongst the 30 fish that he caught.

Pete Hutton and his son had over 50 perch to 2lb 2oz on Sunday 23rd August – they thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

Perch day tickets are £10 per person per day and boats are £15 per day. The

perch fishing is by boat only and strictly not from the bank. To book a boat

and permit follow the link below.

Boats are now available at Roadford – we have two boats bookable online

through our website only here:

https://trout.swlakesfishing.co.uk/waters/roadford-lake/#permits

here are the boat fishing rules during Covid-19:

https://trout.swlakesfishing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Trout-Boat-

rules-during-Covid-19-Kennick-Roadford-and-Siblyback.pdf

Try the bays at Roadford and make sure you check out our fishery guide

which is designed to give you some top tips for fishing the lake which will

help you catch fish when you visit.

https://trout.swlakesfishing.co.uk/2020/02/20/a-guide-to-fishing-roadford-lake/

BOAT FISHING UPDATE:

We are hoping boats will be available later this week. more details to follow in

next weeks report but please call our office for an update later this week.

01566771930

The permit room is now open for onsite permit sales.

Permits are available to buy here (scroll down to purple box which says buy

your permits online).

https://trout.swlakesfishing.co.uk/

We would love to see some pictures so please email them to me

bsmeeth@swlakestrust.org.uk

Our online catch return facility is located here:

http://trout.swlakesfishing.co.uk/catch-return/

We have stocked just under 2000 browns ranging from 7inch to just over 2lbs

courtesy of Torre trout Farms. They were in superb condition.

Have a great week.

Ben Smeeth - Head of Angling

CATCH REPORT

SOUTH WEST LAKES LTD - FISHERIES WEEKLY REPORT

FISHERY: ROADFORD

WEEK ENDING: 23rd August 2020

Number of Trout Returns

Made

5 Number of Full Bags 3

Perch caught

100+

Brown Trout Caught 35

Total Trout Caught 35

Catch comments:

Dean Boucher 22 fish in two visits

John Rumbold 14 fish in one visit

EXPRESS POPULARTY USING SCALE

A/B or C Notes / Comments

Bank C Daveys, Wortha Boat A Bays around the edge of the lake At Anchor C Drifting c Dry Fly C Wet Fly or Nymph A Spiders, soldier palmer, zulu Lure A Tadpole Team of Flies A

Single Fly C

Fly Line choice Floating or Di 3

Best Time of Day When cloud cover

Notable Hatches of Flies Nothing noted

Surface Feeding Fish Nothing noted

Rod Average 7 Trout per person

Weather Conditions Wet, windy, humid and sunny!

Notes & Wildlife observed

SEASON TO DATE

Total Trout Caught to Previous Week: 115

Total Trout Caught This Week: 35

Total Trout Caught To Date: 150

Catch & Release This Week: (Season to date) 33 (146)

Trout Taken From Reservoir This Week: 2

Trout Taken From Reservoir To Date: 4

Perch caught this week: 100+ Trout Stocked to Date: 1800

Best fish of season: Duncan Kier 3lb 8oz July 2020