Been fly fishing now for a couple of weeks and really enjoying it! being a beginner I am fishing stocked lakes - syon, albery and meon lakes mostly.

So far I have mostly used the old reliable Blue flash damsels and cats whisker. I have caught several beautiful fish - whats interesting is all have been female and all have been around 2.5 Ib. Is there a reason for this? Do female trout tend to be more curious about lures? and do newly stocked fish tend to go for lures more than older larger fish?

The answer is actually that there are very few male fish in stocked waters.
Trout farms use various processes to produce stocks that are either all female or are sterile triploids.
Female trout don't mature as young as male trout and therefore put more energy into growing than reproduction making them more commercially viable.

I used to work for the fish farm that produced all the fish for Albury and Syon. They are all triploid fish (neither male nor female), which are bred and stocked for their fighting qualities.

thanks all appreciate the response. Thought there were males too as the larger fish you see cruising around seem to be different shaped (not brownies).

is it generally easier to catch fish with lures than with buzzers or nymphs etc?

It's just as 'easy' to catch fish on buzzers and nymphs as on lures. The difference is that it's easier to fish a lure effectively than it is to fish buzzers or nymphs, and so more fish are caught on them than on more imitative patterns. As said above, almost all stock fish are sexless triploids now, thke days of the gravid, black spawn shedders are over. I remember when if fishing in the late/early season, it was common to see little puddles of spawn all over the banks from people landing fish.!