Hanningfield reservoir is to become all method. It is an attempt to introduce more people into angling, and no doubt increase the revenues for Essex and Suffolk water.

Is there a place for this in a trout fishery, will it lead to the destruction of the trout fishing, and will the fly anglers vote with their feet?

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It is in truth not glory,nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life.(Declaration of Arbroath, 1320)

Probably. It's a concrete bowl.And bait fishers lined round the dam wall would put me off.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

There are so many commercial coarse fisheries that i dont think there will be a sudden mass influx of bait fishers. I dont know the water in question, pikers I am sure will take it up if they cant already and it has pike in it, but after an initial novelty i dont think it will see mass coarse usage. A lot (not all i hasten to add) of coarse anglers find reservoirs a bit dautning and i am sure there will be more comfortable local waters.

WHat I do see as a problem , is how you reconcile what to my newcomers understanding is the static nature of coarse fishing, and the mobile nature of bank flyfishing.

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Around the steel no tortur'd worm shall twine,
No blood of living insect stain my line;
Let me, less cruel, cast feather'd hook,
With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook,
Silent along the mazy margin stray,
And with fur-wrought fly delude the prey

If it is "coarse fishers" then i would'nt think that there should be too many problems, on the other hand if its the "jeans, T shirt and a can of beer bait fishing for trout brigade" then i could see there being a few issues

Robbie

You might be surprised at the number of people who, on small stillwaters, will cast all day long from a single spot.

Nope, I am not going to attempt an explanation.

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Plusnet/Madasafish > Liars to the internet community

I was there on opening day and although there were a fair number of bair and artificial fisherman around, it wasnt too bad. A couple of fellows did get in the way of backcasts but on the whole, it wasn't as bad as I thought it may become.

Given they have to pay the same as the rest of us, I dont think Hanningfield will be inundated with the Maggot and Spinner brigade.

As it goes, there were a few chaps casting with Mepps and they didnt outfish the flyfisherman at all.

Whilst I have the soap stand, I must give my hearty and gracious thanks to two fellows on the Mole that afternoon; one was an older chap called Richard and the oher was a younger chap who was fishing with a floating line and, I think, a Sage rod.

Both of them were very forthcoming in help for myself and my fishing partner in gently guiding us in fly choice and methods that were working that day.

Both of us were really having an 'off day' and could nary get a pull. It seems they were only interested in black and green goldheads and were tightly bunched up in a corner.

Thank you for your help!

Ben

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Am i not correct in saying Hanningfield was a coarse water long before it became a trout water??

I am sure i remember reading about large bream catches there in the 70's. It was the reservoir that supplied my drinking water Used to be a local lad but not fished it. I think thats why it sticks in my mind.

I believe you're right, but as you say, that's going back a few years now. And Abberton, just up the road, had a reputation as a big pike water too, I seem to recall.

Robster and Downstream, you said it for me. Some of the people who call themselves trout anglers use gear that would lift a one pound trout out of the water with hardly a bend in the rod. They take up casting positions that would permit fly fishers decent room for a back cast, when their need for space behind is far less. Then, they sit there all day, chucking out oversized and insensitive bubble float gear, making loads of splashy casts that can't help but disturb the fish.
Having said that, I see fly fishers hogging stances, too, when the fair minded among us move at intervals to try to fish as much of the bank as we can, and to allow others to do the same. The best of fishing to my mind is not sedentary. I have coarse fished off and on for a very long time, so there is absolutely no snobbery attached to my view regarding any method fishing. I just don't like to see and experience the worst side of it. Live and let live, they say, but some don't help us to do that. TC

I'm in South Yorkshire & fish at an all method fishery & we get along ok.

We have to understand each other, we help bait fishermen if they want to try fly fishing.
I prefer to use traditional methods & I think the hardest bit is trying to explain the anticipation, & how exiting it is to catch fish on flies that Ive tied myself.

The bait men will fish with the wind in their faces to allow flymen to have the prevailing wind behind them on the other side of the reservoir

The bait men can't understand why some flymen use indicators! why don't they just use a float & bait?

truth is; no mater what method you prefer to fish, if you fancy trying something different, there will always be someone eager to help.

a good example was last weekend, the weather was grot!! far too windy to fish,

I was packing my tackle away & one of the regular bait men asked if I wanted to borrow his spare feeder rod for a while, & wait untill the wind settled a bit so I could fly fish.

The last time I used bait for trout was on the river Ure & Semer water about 40 years ago when I was a lad.
The thing is, I enjoyed myself & caught fish, I also learned that feeder rods..... were very similar to ledger rods, only you don't use shot to keep the ledger away from the hook, with a feeder rod you use a plastic butterfly & a ring thing


Were not in a competition were all here to enjoy fishingPaul