Just got back from our first trip to Rutland, which I enjoyed immensely.For some reason it was far more picturesque than I had imagined, something that counts for a lot- especially if you're not catching!
The Thursday morning started bright and dead calm, but by the time we had motored past the sailing club we had a little breeze and thin cloud cover.We anchored close to the bank about 500m west of the sailing club and had a few takes to buzzers, resulting in three brownies and a rainbow boated. Eager to explore we cut across to the north shore of the south arm and fished in Old Hall bay, which was full of stockies (I presume it is a stocking point?), though my partner hooked and lost a rainbow around 5lb.
Looking for a quality fish we went right up to the birdhides at the nature reserve, where five other boats were anchored up, and quickly got takes, although they were hard to hit.Eventually I had a great wallop as my hares ear top dropper was taken on the drop, and after a great struggle netted and released- a rainbow 5lb +.Apparently I was not alone, several fish of that size were taken up there that week.
Friday started off looking perfect and we looked forward to a repeat of Thursday's sport but the wind veered round to the North East and it got cold and miserable.We struggled to get takes and had to resort to catching stockies in Hall bay.
We will definitely return; in the past we never wanted to venture past Pitsford or Grafham as we have a 65 mile trip to those waters, but despite the extra 30 miles the return trip took no longer than coming back from Pitsford on a Friday night, so a day trip seems feasible now.
Bar a quick fish out of Whitwell creek we never got to explore the north arm-which arm is generally considered the best prospect?
GN