Had my first day's fishing of the year yesterday at Carsington and despite there being a few inches of snow on the ground in the morning and some fairly windy weather it turned out to be my best ever day's fishing there with a total of 17 fish caught.

Best fish of the day was only 2 1/2lb but it was in great condition and fought well.

Best area of the day was 20 - 30yds of the bank in Fishtail Creek with 8 fish landed there.

Only saw 2 or 3 other boats out as the weather probably put a lot of people off but all those who stayed at home missed a cracking day!

Killer combination for me was an intermediate line with a Snowbee braided sinking leader attached.
Flies were a furry head viva cat with dumbell eyes on the point....

http://www.flybox.co.uk/products/det...ckCode=2001428

.....and an orange gold head cormorant-type mini lure on the dropper with fish falling to both.

Let's just hope the rest of the season is as good..........

No Browns to be seen Chewy?

Had a few browns but only after reaching the 6 fish limit so they lived to fight another day!

The brownies tended to take the orange fly whereas all the rainbows fell to the black/green combo.

I'm there on a boat in the morning, the weather forecast is very cold and blowing a bit but it will take more than that to put me off, lets hope I'm half as lucky

btw that furry head is one fugly fly

I cycled round Carsington yesterday and there were a few hardy souls out on the boats and on the bank. The wind was blowing hard into fishtail creek and that appeared to be where one or two boats congregated. Didn't see any fish caught during my numerous rests. Good luck to anyone who was out there because it was bitterly cold.

Nice report mate I might try and get there at the weekend, but probably from the bank - any banks areas to be recommended just now?

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Simon, it was beyond cold, it was the coldest I have been in 20 years of fly fishing, 3 layers on my legs, 5 on my chest, still freezing. The day started badly when I found I could not stand up properly in the boat because the floor had about 5mm of ice on it From there it just got worse.

Next time I go I'm fishing, its from the bank, thats where the fish are, you get better line control, walking around gets the blood circulating and you don't get a face full of freezing water trying to move to your next point.

The few fish we caught were stuffed with Daphnia and orange or orange tinted fly's were the order of the day.

Its about a 90 minute drive for me and I was cold to the bone even after driving home with the heated seats and heater full on, in fact the food I took to eat but didn't was genuinely still colder after the drive home than the stuff in my fridge which is set at 5c

The only positive aspect to the day was my new boat partner Steve, excellent company in adverse conditions.

JeffR - the recently cleared bank just off Fishtail Creek would seem to be a good place to start.
A few of the fish i caught would have been easily reachable from the bank with a good cast!
Upperfields Bay was fairly popular at the weekend too and i witnessed various people taking fish from this area.

Don't forget to take your hip flask full of a good single malt to keep the chills at bay!

If anyone fishes Carsington post your results on here and we'll see if we can keep the thread going to track how the reservoir is fishing throught the season!
There's usually a weekly report on the Carsington Water website too if anyone's thinking of going and wants to know how the previous week went:

http://www.carsingtonwater.com/Fly-Fishing0095v01.htm

Cheers

Mat

Thanks chewy. Its about an hour from me but i didn't get round to fishing it until last year and then only once from the boat (my avatar is from that trip actually). Had a great day though, plenty of fish, god quality and even a troutmasters badge winner thrown in (an ounce under 5lb), so am itching to go back, lovely place. I fish Draycote when i can with a mate from near there, so I like the big STW Ressies and they are excellent value too. Am also planning to have a crack at the carsington pike sometime on the fly - I think yespb and SJY and me had a thread about that on here a little while back. Not sure about this w/e now as the missus seems to have other plans...!

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Jeff, it was SJY ( Steve) who suffered along side me the other day, we are waiting for the Pike to fully recover from spawning before we give it go for our toothy friends.

Like you I cannot wait for the weather to improve and the Carsington trout to start feeding on the buzzers, £ for £ I think Carsington is the best English ressy by some distance and I think I have fished them all apart from Bewl.