Afternoon,

Just thought I would post about a trip to Avington at the weekend and also took a couple of pics of my stalking fly boxes and the notorious Firebird!!









I try to have most patterns in a variation of weights and sizes and I think you can pretty much break them down in to a few trends; When All Else Fails is my usual Buzzer-type stalking bug, traditional Lead Bugs and variants, Shrimp/GRHE gold/tungsten/coloured bead heads and Firebirds. I have a whole other box full of these in various different colour combinations and sizes but this is what I understand to be the most consistent variant for me. This weekend I actually caught on an orange version.

The details of the first fish are very well covered by Neil in his excellent blog, as it seems my Dad and him know each other from their previous lives as workers! It weighed 13lb 8oz-click on this link: Chasing Rainbows



My big fish today weighted 12lb 4oz from half way up the third lake on the left hand bank. A tricky fish that took about half an hour or so for everything to fall into place; right fly, right position, fish in the right mood! It put up a great fight and tore all over the lake until eventually I managed to get it in for my Dad to net for me. The pressure was very much on after he had bagged a double earlier! I was very pleased and slightly surprised when he didn't try and knock it off when landing it!



It was very tricky fishing, as usual at Avington the water quality was excellent, plenty of fish around and Dad and I had a great time mouching around trying to find the bigger fish. There were plenty of biggies in all three lakes and can't wait to go back again!

Ah! Things do eventually fall into place. These strange forum names... that's another I can pair up with a real live angler!

It was a good day down there on Saturday with stalking of the highest quality and difficulty. Over 8 hours between my first and second fish and many miles of pleasant walking between (or so it seemed).

Your dad deserved that fish! Several people had given it a go, including me, and given it up. Determination won the day! I'm still not convinced it was the same fish that has been resident in that spot for a while. Maybe that one has been and gone. An excellent Avington double and a well deserved result.

Nice report. Pleased you eventually beat your dad (almost!).

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You lot are a bunch of £$)%$(£$("! I'm gasping to get out there but can't get a green card. what with the baby, Iceland, and now we've got the builders in i've probably only got one more trip this stalking 'season'

I'm thinking of doing Chalk Springs for the finale. I'm a TINY bit bored of avington now, having had a great year there, but haven't had a double brown yet this year... what do you reckon?

but then again, Avington's often best at this time....

but so is CS......

Decisions decisions.

Off the wall alternative BB - get up to Avon Springs and try and stalk a double from the second "Willow" lake ? Then top the day off with some C&R for grayling and browns in the river.

Since late June I have had a 10-2 and an 8-4 out of Willow, as well as some 5's and 6's.

Plenty of good fish in Club Lake as well, but the better method for that one is carefully fishing the water, as the fish tend to hold in the deeper water in the middle at either end of that lake.

__________________
"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

Not a bad idea, although AS is a little bit of a schlep for me, (and the owner hates stalkers!) I was thinking of somewhere a little different that has the reasonable chance of a double. I walked around Dever the other day, and only saw one double in the small lake, and that was swimming on its side, not long of this world..!
I am fascinated by brownies, and love stalking them. CS is really the only place that seems to stock them at teh moment. certainly in any numbers.

Along with other anglers, I stalk Willow regularly in the summer and early autumn, and I have never had any objections or trouble from Barry or Mike in the best part of 9 years.

Barry's bark is worse than his bite really, take it in good heart and when you get to know him he's a good guy.

Can't help with a big lake brown, though !

__________________
"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

BB,

Save up the brownie (pun fully intended!) points for Lechlade this winter, it sounds like it has the potential to be epic there this year and winter stalking is harder therefore more fun!!

If not I would probably go to Avington rather than CS just because I think there is a genuine chance of a 20lber at Avington and looks like CS has been a bit hit and miss this year.

Mowgli

20lber = yes, brownie = no at Avington. Last time I was there they said they didn't have any of size for this season so wouldn't be stocking any this season - bit of a shame but c'est la vie.

I'm with you on this Alex, can't wait for another session somewhere. Looking at Dever (for some reason my father likes it, but he hasn't been to Avington yet) for the 18th and then Avington the week after - hurrah!

Lechlade, true, this winter could be awesome... better start tying some of my 'specials'!! I guess i'll squeeze one more trip out of Avington then.

TdF, not sure about dever, it hasn't really been 'on' all summer and the water looked a little 'stale' when i was last there.

Avington is having a good year with close on 60/70 doubles each month, many more than last year, backed up by plenty of "stockies" averaging between 5lb/6lb. A couple of "20's have already come out with the heaviest a few ounces short of 23lb. But they are rainbows!

I have only seen two big browns this year and I reckon they were from last year. They do have, or at least did have, a substantial stock of really good browns that are of "Lechlade quality"! When they are to be introduced, I do not know - must have a chat with Cameron soon! The little stock pond on the other side of the fence by the office has several cracking browns parading about - just to tease us I reckon!

Dever seems to be going through a bit of a bad patch this year. I've had several chats with guys turning up Avington having rejected a day at Dever.

I've only fished Avon Springs a couple of times and yet to have a brown. Really nice rainbows though and I must give the river a go soon.

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