Ladies and Gents,

I am just wondering if any of you have done any good around Peterborough?
I am currently based there and just curious if anyone is doing any flyfishing around me neck of the wood. Strictly rivers please.

As for me I fish the Nene around Castor and Alwalton every now and then but it has been not so great in the last year or so but having said that I still managed some nice chub, perch and dace.
The Welland around Stamford is also something worth fishing but last year folks cut the trees back in certain areas and the water weed grew sky high making fishing very poor.
I am not going to give out the locations but there are some hidden gems not too far from here where the adventurous fisherman can easily catch a trout or two and the waters are free as far as I am concerned.
Has any of you fished the Chater anywhere upstream of the Welland confluence?

Also, there are some nice little waters holding good neck of chub, perch and roach and not only in the Summer months. Certain areas of the Willow brook are such places.

Anyway, I am hoping this thread will see some interest!

Yours,

Pete

hmm, 41 hits in a day and not a word ...never mind. I think if I drop a pic of a trout that may well kick this off. The pictures have all been taken within 15-18 miles of Peterborough.



the trout, just before the closed season started last year. Ready to spawn.



A shot of the water where this beauty came from.



The Willow Brook



And again.



A "tiddler" on a black taddy.



Stalking chub.



And in a fish!



The Welland in last November.



A quality roach from the Nene. Shame I did not take any picture of the water. Anyway, this was taken in October 2009 when the roach, hybrid and some rather nice bream were shoaling up at Ferry Meadows in Peterborough and I managed an hour in each of my lunch break. This miracle lasted for two weeks and then all disappeared. Similar occurred last November but the number was not even a patch on 2009. Back in then I managed around 15-20 fish in an hour. All on gold head red tag peacock nymph. Never caught fish on it since :P. Nice time it was.

Is it just me fishing rivers around here?

The season never stops! Only time gets in the way!

Pete

The Guash FC http://guashfishingclub.co.uk

have the rights to much of the Welland above and below Stamford. The club stocks with Brown Trout, and it would be fair to say if you catch a trout in the Welland, it probably one of ours. There is a waiting list to join the Guash, currently standing at about 50. It is worth getting your name down as, for various reasons, not least of which the current economic climate, turn over is quite high

There is a Peterborough club that has the nene at Ailsworth and Castor, possibly as far as
Wansford.

The Chater is controlled by the Grantham Fly Fishing Club who also have the Witham and a still water, not sure but I think it is reasonably easy to join this club.

__________________
http://www.rutlandwaterflyfishers.co.uk/

Ahh, the trout I knew would do the trick.

The trout was not from the Welland . Last year I have found at least 3 waters ( tiny brooks mainly) that hold trout. One of them is sort of had been expected to have a few in it but the other two were a pleasant surprise.

The Chater looks nice but I have not caught anything but trout there. After a while it gets boring. Few times a year it is OK. I like the variety of species and very unfortunate that the right section of the Willow brook has a rather long waiting list. I might not live that long to get in.

Keep the info coming!

Sorry, I have nearly forgotten to add the Gwash or Guash is a nice water in places but not worth the £400 even if half of that is the one off joining fee that is why I cancelled my name off the list a year or so ago. Loads of nice small waters around, if one manages to find legal access to them.

Have you got a contact for the Witham Club? I briefly read about them on the net good few months ago that was and the water looked nice, maybe a touch bigger than I like but worth checking if they do not want megabucks for it. If you could PM me any contact details that would be much appreciated.

Yours,

Pete

After a few weeks without fishing I felt the need for nipping out even just for a quick session. Considering the closed season for coarse species my choice fell on one of the small trout brooks I did reasonably well on last year. Having had the amount of precipitation in our area I suspected the water to be up an coloured. The water was chocolate coloured but interestingly still lower than where I wished to see the level to be. With the spring vegetation coming on I decided to take out my short 7 footish rod hoping to be able to reach the far side or the far eddies if I have to. If you are a purist then stop reading beyond this point. A 7-8 foot mono got quickly tied to the fly line and off it swung in my hare's ear taddy. After a bit of experimenting in some rather good looking miniature pools a black one took the place of the hare's ear. In coloured water dark flies give better contrast but also on the OTT side this fly was tied with a gold head to add a bit of flash. Long story short I caught fish from nearly every place where I would normally look for trout. Undercuts, under tree roots, tail of pools and eddies and any sudden depression where the water changes from shallow to a sudden deep run. Due to not wanting to use big flies I ended up fishing upstream in order to get down deep enough in the high and fast flowing water. The technique was simple. After a gentle catapult cast at maximum 10 feet upstream I lifted the rod tip high and animated the fly to bounce and jolt along the deck but always kept a very tight contact since the takes were subtle, not the usual hard hits. This seemed to work as I caught around 12-14 trout in 3- 3.5hrs. The day's hero was the above black taddy with 4 mm gold tungsten head. I suggest you give a try to close range stalking and catapult casting. Mind you this time I was lucky with the conditions so I could get close to the fish.

This has been the second year I almost exclusively use the line to hand method and unless fishing waters where it is really hard to get close to fish I always try this before rigging up for casting. You just cover the water much more meticulously and get more feel and control over the flies. Do not forget just because you do not cast 40 yards it is still flyfishing.

Yours,

Pete

Cracking photos Pete! I fish the Guash and Welland but you've really got me scratching my head on where those waters could be now ...