Lovely Chub-ly on the Fly

It's getting colder out, and that means the Chub are really starting to show!

My friend Christian and I decided to venture into the world of fly fishing this autumn, and started with a trip to New Mills Trout Farm nearby at Brampton. The day ended well with Christian taking home a 6lb Rainbow.

I on the other hand needed a little extra practice! Luckily close family friend John was soon to visit to give me some pointers.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I was due to head down to see my boyfriend, and meet up with Christian before the 3 of us tried our best fluff chucking in the Midlands.

I asked Dad if he could find a little trout rod, and he disappeared upto the Cafe. 10 minutes later he reappeared with a burgundy glass rod made by the East Anglian Rod Company, that I'm pretty sure is older than I am!

I figured I'd better have a few practice casts before heading out with the boys, and picked out a gold headed Black and Peacock caddis.

Second cast onto the water and to my surprise a hungry Chub wolfed it on the drop!

Given my previous ineptitude I was pretty surprised and very pleased, the Chub put up a great fight and the old through action rod certainly got my heart racing! Luckily Dad was on hand to snap a picture of my first fish on a fly.

Now I've heard of fly fishing for Pike, and a book has been published this year entitled "Flyfishing for Coarse Fish" by Dominic Garrett - here's hoping I'm on Santa's good list again! 

Catching a summer Carp on a bread fly sounds like the challenge for next year.

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Thinking of a 2013 holiday? How to save yourself some money with our Christmas special offer!

Book in 2012 and pay before January the 1st 2013 

and you'll get your 2013 holiday held at 2012's prices

and 5% knocked off the balance!

Because we know every little helps, this is our little christmas present to everyone!

(Only 30 sleeps to go!)

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28lb 8oz Mirror caught this morning!

I've been talking to angler Martyn Wickham who arrived yesterday this morning.

He's been looking forwards to his holiday - his last trip fishing was with us last November (when he caught his PB Pike but that's another story) because after breaking his arm this year, he's had to wait to get back on the bank, but what a start he's made!

He's certainly a happy chap, and so far has banked a 2lb Chub, a 4lb 8oz Tench, a 4lb Chub and at half past 6 this morning he beat his PB Carp by 11lb with a stunning 28lb 8oz Mirror!

He's fishing during the dark early hours of the morning using a method feeder tight to the margins of cottage 5's private peg, and using a Guru 4 inch hook length.

He's hair rigging one of our blood worm flavoured pellets, and quietly feeding a couple of handfuls of our halibut pellets every few hours.

It's certainly working!

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Brothers Chris and Tom enjoy a weekend Predator fishing

As we reported on Facebook over the weekend a beautiful 18lb 6 oz Pike came out of Lonsdale.

Tom and Chris (pictured below) Napier stayed with us in cottage 5 over the weekend to sample a few predators.

She's a very bonny fish - I'm jealous boys!

 

"Hi, 

my name is Thomas Napier and the picture is of my brother Christopher, we stayed in cottage 5 over the weekend. 

The picture is of 18.6 pound pike Christopher caught out of Lonsdale lake, we had a great trip and the fishing was superb, thank you for the stay"

You're welcome boys, we hope to see you again soon!

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Stuart and Russ' photo's from last weekend

Thanks to Stuart Rennie and Russ Grimes from Durham,

who sent across photo's from some of their catches during their stay last weekend!

Don't you love catching a ghostie in the night?!!

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Steve's first ever Pike is a Belter!

"Steve started fishing as a young boy and has been into carp fishing for around 25 years. We've been coming to Lonsdale for the past seven years but up until this year only for the carp.

Two years ago we watched someone from the big lodge land one of the pike and I think that got Steve thinking.
In May this year he half heartedly had a go at piking, hooked an absolute beauty which tail walked across the water just in front of the peg before managing to escape.
The following day I saw one of your 'monsters', just the head and shoulders but wow - we were both hooked.


When we came for the second time this year Steve was armed with the an entire shoal of spratts and renewed enthuisiasm.
Our aim was to fish from mid afternoon, straight through the night and into the next morning.
We blanked the first night and had just settled into the bivvy the next  when the alarm went - it was 10.15pm and pretty cold, and we weren't sure if it was a carp or pike until we checked the rods.
The fish put up a good fight, Steve an even better one and after about ten minutes she was in the net.
The fish was furious and Steve was terrified - but then you know that as you've seen the picture!!

Having unhooked and weighed it, a couple of ounces short of 20lb, we took the pictures and returned it to the water.

Steve caught another slightly smaller one on the Wednesday but I'd nipped home to clean the chinnys (chinchilla's) so although he took pics they are of the pike lying on the unhooking mat so aren't as good.

However we will be back again next year, already booked our dates :)

Take care Jean & Steve" 

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