I met up last night for an evening session with hutch6 at billing dam fishery in rawdon, i have never fished a stillwater before so this was going to be a new experience ...

When we arrived at the very pretty little water which i would guess is about 2 acres, the weather was threatening all kinds of nastieness and there was a strong wind blowing but the water was boiling with fish...

Ian siggested small black dries were the way forward, i tied on a size 18 griffiths gnat and cast my first line onto a stillwater.... i tried several tactics, dead drift, figure of eight ... nothing... all around fish were rising but they were not interested in my fly. i stopped for a while and watched the way the fish were rising suggested to me they were taking emerging insects... i looked in my fly box and selected an olive mirage suspended buzzer, i cast it out and within seconds of it touching the water it was hit with gusto i lifted into my first stillwater fish of around 3.5 pounds, in perfect condition, no evidence of fin wear....

i continued to fish and had another 4 fish all between 1 and 4 pounds, i was retieveing slowly wnen i was a subsurface fish swirl no more than 10 foot out and 6 foot to the right of where my fly was, i rollcast over it , waited a moment then gave the fly a few twitches, a couple of swirls around the fly got my heart pumping... then the fly was sucked down from under the surface, i lifted into the fish and was met with resistance that suggested i had lifted into a mini cooper, bending my 5 weight sage down to the butt, the fish made a run and got its head down ..

...the fight was on ...

it took some line, i took some line and so it continued for a good five minutes, i saw a flash of bronze and magenta under the surface.. this thing was BIG, i heard my dad use an expletive i have never heard from his lips before...

The fish came up rolled on the surface properly then kicked its tail and snapped my 7.5 pound tippet like it was a cobweb... i have never felt as gutted at losing a fish ..

i replaced the tippet and fly and fished on for the last 1/2 hour and had a concellation fish out from the side it looked like a 2 pounder but it was huge across the back... it had the shoulders of a four pounder.

All in all my first visit to a stillwater was a very enjoyable one, and though i cant see it replacing my beloved chalkstream i will certainly be keeping an open mind in the future and will be returning to billing dam the next time i visit yorkshire to have it out with the big one that got away.

Massive thanks to Ian for taking me up there and for giving me a couple of flies when i had depleted my supplies.

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I only live a couple of miles away from billing dam, but havent fished there for quite a few years, as the fish we're in pretty poor condition the last time I was there.

Sounds like things have changed so I'll give it a try again in the near future

Welcome to the dark side ickypimp! The big one that got away, now where have I heard that before?

Glad you enjoyed your first stillwater experience. Get yourself a 7wt and put some muscle on those overfed 'bows!

SharkeyP

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Often thinks not travel widens,
Stay at home the Trout obliges.

Hi there Ickeypimp Ifished there quit a lot last year, very good lots of natural fly life.
It sounds as though you latched into one of the 12lb plus carp they have in there you can see them swimming around in pods during the summer months.
Theres also some fiesty browns in there on the school side bank about 3 pegs up around the overhanging trees, hard to catch.

I fish there around once every couple of weeks, nice wee fishery and pretty well run, have had rainbows to about 9lb out of there, but there are fish in there up to 14lb

What is the fee for a day ticket?

i normally pay £10 for C&R