went stillwater fishing for second time drew another blank,am finding it very boring tried loads of different flies called it a day after 4 hrs only good thing to come from this session was casting practice,probs give it another go in a week or so another blank and i will be gutted.

Stillwater fishing can be hard this time of year because of the cold weather. Freezing temperatures put the fish down as does a nasty cold wind. The fish are there somewhere the trick is to find them.I've no idea about your stillwater, how small or large it is and how deep? Mine is twenty acres and sixty foot deep. Fish tend to be down in deeper water for comfort so I use a Di5 or Di7 line to get my booby or other lure to where they're at. It was reasonably mild and bright today but the trout were still well down. I had eight fish in 4.5 hours. Unless your fishery is shallow, around ten feet, floaters and slow intermediate lines don't get to where the fish are. Once the weather and temperature improves the fish will be higher in the water and visable.
Hope this helps.
BK

Sometimes its a state of mind mate, confidence starts to go after an hour or so of flogging a seamingly dead water, most fishery mgrs will help point you in the right direction find out the flies that are doing the damage, talk to other guys on the bank our sport is blessed in the fact that MOST guys want to see everybody doing well, and like the prev post says it can be hard for everybody this time of year, roll on those summer evening sessions [img][/img]

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Please dont give up bigtel will be loads of good advice maybe someone on here lives near you and fishes same water, unless a few fish are showing most will be deeper down, i know fishing from the bank might not be easy to get out far enough and using a sinker unless you use a line tray to stop the line sinking by your feet, as i find always me. soon be better weather and those biggies should start to get into mid depth

try to stick to same fly for 15 mins and steady slow retrieve concentrate on your casting and steady retrieve the fish will come

I'd echo the previous posts about sticking at it, I started fly fishing in May last year and had some good success early on, fishing dry flies and nymphs on warm days in the summer and into autumn, with an early harsh winter I switched to lures and sinking lines and still did well but the last few sessions I've found really tough, blanking or only the odd fish. It seems to be a bit 'in between' at the moment, its not as cold as it was so lures dont seem to be working as well for me, and the sporadic hatches are tricky to get right fly-wise.

I guess my point is not to get too disheartened if you are struggling as your not alone!

All of us blank a lot of the time if we are absolutely honest, but if we didn't we'd call it catching not fishing! Please don't be put off by this - by all means give it a rest till things warm up a bit, then you should be able to get in contact with some free rising fish which just are not present till the surface hatches begin with the warmer weather. Winter fishing on stillwaters is harder, it's a lot more complex then many think because of the possible combinations of lines, lures, etc etc compared to fishing running water where you can generally find fish in at least some bits of the river. Often in winter, some stillwaters seem pretty dead due to fish holding at considerable depth. You can try using eg a DI3 and counting down with eg buzzers until you get some action - and sometimes it's a long, long count......

If you give up now, you'll miss the forthcoming best time of the year. April into May is a great time to switch to dries, buzzers and even daddies for some spectacular takes and stalking fun; you'll love it!

I'm having sucess at present with a 10 to 12ft leader on floating line, one small lure (Nomad, Fritz, Damsel), slow/erratic retrieve. The troots seem to be feeding a couple of feet below the surface.

Stick at it mate.Last year I had 7 in a row on my club water that I thought I knew like the back of my hand then it just clicked for no reason at all,I suppose thats the beauty of this unpredictable sport.

Or you could try golf

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