Bank House Fly Fishery: June Fishing Report
Best Rainbows
We have some cracking rainbows over the last couple of weeks, two of the best were caught by Steffan Spiwak and Mr P Wolley.
Steffan is no Stranger to big fish he held the record on Stocks for many years with a rainbow of 22lbs 8oz, this wasn’t quite that big but it was a beautiful fish. It weighed 14lbs 4oz and came to a small white fritz lure. Steffan also had a blue in his bag that must have been over 4lbs. (see pic below)
Mr Wolley caught his big rainbow on a minkie, a fly that has accounted for many fish over the last month or so probably due to the high population of sticklebacks present in Bank House. He fished it back with a jerky action, which proved too tempting for a 13lb 8oz rainbow. I know that there has been other double figure rainbows caught over the last couple of weeks but the anglers have not completed the returns book, so if you visit us please take a minute at the end of the day to record your catches.
Best Browns
There are some huge brownies in Bank House at the moment. We have recently seen the fishery record broken by Ben Mason with a fish of 19lbs 8oz, but there are others at large. I’m sorry to report one or two ducklings have been seen to meet their fate at the jaws of our big brownies. There’s a challenge for you fly tyers!
David Harrison landed a huge brownie that bottomed his scales out at 15lbs, he conservatively estimated it at 15lbs 8oz before returning it to fight another day. David caught this monster on a white beaded buzzer.
Mr D Morgan from Haydock had another at 13lbs that was tempted to an olive zonker whilst he was fishing off the main Island and Mike Fletcher from Stafford landed a 12lb brownie, which took a sedge pulled across the surface. Mike also caught a lovely Tiger trout of 3lbs.
Best Tigers
The best tiger recorded was a fish of 5lbs caught by Andrew Brigg from Much Hoole. Andrew caught it a daddy long legs. Dries are generally a good way to get Tigers as they sit on the bottom looking up so they can always see a large area of the surface. There may have other big tigers caught there are some in that must be approaching double figures! Unfortunately i missed the ‘Best Tiger’ column off in the return book so some may have be unreported.
Best Blues
There have been lots of blues caught between 3 and 5lbs but nothing bigger. Mr S Ellison caught the best at exactly 5lbs on a black mini lure but Dave Dawson, Bill Latham, Eric Smith, Stefan Spwack and S Smythers all had blues of 4lbs or over. Brightly coloured lures often work well for the aggressive blue trout.
Best Catches
Two anglers caught 12 trout the first was Alan Wilkinson from Barrow in Furness who fished both white lures and buzzers along Bridlebank and the second was Barry Garner who fished size 14 black hoppers dry. Barry kept on the move and fished his way right around the lake. This is a tactic that often pays at Bank House. Ricky Newbolt also had a cracking half day with 11 fish on small buzzers and dries.
Rod Average
The rod average over the last week has been a fraction under 3 fish per angler. (nb this includes just part day tickets)
The Weeks Ahead
There have been loads of alder flies and sedges about and I think they will only increase in numbers through the early part of July. Buzzers will also play a big part; red buzzers in particular seem to have been scoring well so they may well continue to feature into July. The best lures will probably be Minkies and Cats Whiskers although Hot Headed damsels can a brilliant summer lure pattern.
If you are thinking of visiting us in an evening (which I can highly recommend) small dries such as hoppers, cochy bondu and F Flies all score really well in the fading light.
Another method that is good for those savvy resident fish is small spider patterns twitched back just subsurface. Some of the resident browns in Bank House are in beautiful condition and are well worth fishing for. Just remember you need to fish fairly fine leader to get the takes but there are big specimens in all four types of trout so don’t go too fine, 5 or 6lb will be good enough. Tight Lines Ben
Stefan Spiwack with a beautiful 14lb 4oz Bank House rainbow