Hello all,

I am a relative beginner and am thinking of heading to Hanningfield at the weekend. Does anyone know how it is fishing at the moment and what tackle I should use/where should fish?

I'll be using a boat so will be able to access the whole lake.

Thanks in advance

Hi there James
If you go to Essex & Suffolk Website
Click on Go Fishing section then Fishing reports It will give you the information you need
Also see the Rangers They will put you right
I belong to the Hanningfield flyfishers
It has been hard
but warmer weather and wind change might just help
try the bubble lines and the inlet

regards
Andrew

Thanks Andrew,

I just tried phoning the shop at hanningfield as I'm thinking about going out tomorrow. I'm trying to work out whether to go out first thing and fish until the afternoon (only problem with this is its a friends birthday/emigration party and I might feel a little ropey getting up at 6:45) or heading out midday and fishing until evening.

Any advice on what time of day is best?

With the weather being bright and sunny ,would go for the afternoon shift ,fish the bubble line to start with .as the sun drops watch out for signs of rising fish and head of after the risers .
BTW hanninfeild doesnt open early !

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Andy Wren
Winter grayling taking a year off !
Claret not just a great dubbing colour!

I am also a member but haven't been up there for a couple of months.

If you do go, you definitely want a boat and probably fish over the bubble line with fast sinking lines and orange blobs if it is bright.

Do ask the wardens, they are very approachable and helpful.

Charlie

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Sonik Sports Team Pitsford Pirates

Cheers for the advice guys, unfortunately I didn't see the posts before I left though.

I spent the afternoon on the res but unfortunately blanked . I was fishing floating line with a 13 ft leader and two droppers. I mainly used buzzers, hares ears, diawl bachs and spent a little time on orange blobs and damsels. Spent most my time in the deep areas (on advice of the wardens) and fished quite close to other boats that were clustered in one area but I didn't get a bite all day!

I saw quite a few fish rise towards the end of the session and after unsuccessfully targeting them , I decided to try out a dry fly. Having only a limited fly collection I tied on a sedge because it looked most like the flies I saw drifting by the boat. Again, no luck though.

As I left I got chatting with a couple of guys who had had 4 nice fish between them. They said they were using boobies and sinking line and, although they didn't really like that method, it was the the best method for getting on the fish at this time of year. Boobie fishing doesn't really appeal to me but I'm thinking of heading back on monday to give it a try and have another crack at the fish.....They really looked in superb condition!

Any advice on the most effective way to fish boobies would be much appeciated.

Lets hope monday works out a little better than today!

James, if it stays bright you need a Di7 to fish boobies or blobs really deep - that's where the fish are most of the day.

We usually fish a couple of boobies or more about five feet apart, orange is the number one colour at Hanningfield, but i would also have black and green, white and green and coral or pink in my selection and fish a mix of boobies and blobs. Try a variety of retrieves and depths. If the bubble line iss on, that is where most of the fish are but also try Middlemead Bay and the Inlet area as they are major stocking points.

The fish are excellent size and normally in very good nick.

Charlie

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Sonik Sports Team Pitsford Pirates

Cheers Charlie,

I just loaded up my spare spool with DI7 and am going to head over tomorrow morning. Hopefully this time tomorrow I'll have had a couple.

James

I've had a busy few days at work so haven't been able to update on how I got on.

I'm happy to say I caught my first trout at hanningfield on monday It came to a green booby in and estimated 5-10 ft of water. I had seen a trout try and take the booby as I was about to recast and when I did, I got a take about ten seconds later. It came to the boat pretty quickly and weighed 3 pounds. The fish was in great condition and I'm looking forward to catching a few more.

That was the only trout I caught all day ( I had a few perch too) and I'm happy enough as not many around were catching. I'm hoping it'll pick up a little in the next few weeks.