I'm taking my son to Avington on Sunday for a birthday treat. It will be our first time there so I would be grateful for any advice other members can give. We're both relative newbies so any thoughts on tackle (5 or 6 weight, floating line, fluoro or copolymer tippet?), flies and tactics would be much appreciated.

Many thanks.

Choose the rod your most comfortable casting with, you don't need big flies for avington, so you don't really need a #7 - although I've used one there and the fish are strong enough to put a decent bend in the rod, equally well I've caught there on a #5.

The water is incredibly clear, so the fish tend to be deceptively deep, so handy to have some weighty flies (stalking bugs, dog knobblers and gold headed daddies all seem to work well).

If you're going to try to stalk the big fish, you need to do it early in the day, they seem to spook very easily later on (after everyone has had a go).

Happy Birthday to your son by the way, cracking b'day treat - hope he has a great day.

Water visibility won't be too good this time of year.
Take your time & look for better fish rather than casting blind & going home at 10:00 with 4 x 5lb'ers would be my advice.
By the way large nymphs are extremely effective at Avington. Just plonk a Walkers Mayfly out & you'll spend half your day pulling it away from the smaller trout!

to Clarify Steve's point above the water clarity should be fantastic now! the light might make things tricky though..

Other than that, listen to the advice here. if you cast blind you'll get some nice 4-6lb fish and be home by 11. better to spend the time looking around, look again, and then when youve looked everywhere, start looking again. There will be some very big browns and rainbows in there, and if they're not in a particular swim at 9 am, they may well be at 9.02! fish with something heavy that will get down to that big fish pronto. you may only have one chance at him before he moves out of range or into another swim so don't faff about with light flees. Very broadly, look at the far end of lake 1 (from when the trees begin on the Left bank as you look up the fishery. On lake 2 look at the near end, and the far end, but the fish here can be anywhere really, also look under the huge oak at the far RHS of the lake. there's always a good fish there. on Lake 3 the RHS bank is best, and the near end is deepest and always holds big fish. remember to keep looking. grow roots and you'll bag up with smaller fish.

Cheers
Alex

Thanks for the replies guys. My son thinks that the prospect of hauling out a few 5 pounders is amazing, but I will be encouraging him to stalk the big ones!

I'll let you know how we get on.

Well, we bagged up but didn't catch any biggies unfortunately. We stalked till we dropped, had a go at a few in the 8lb range but couldn't tempt them (or couldn't cast to them) and didn't see any monsters. One guy there caught two double figure fish and another guy got a 15lb'er. Ours were all almost exactly 4lb. When I've saved up some more money we'll be back!

Cheers.

It was the same on my first visit, come to think of it and the second, third and forth. But one day I'll manage to catch a biggy there.

Glad you've had a good day.

All about persevering with the stalking there, and knowing where to look. Generally stick to any bits that you think most people would walk by. Those tricky spots where it is near impossible to get a cast out are some of the good places to start.

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