I have only been fly fishing for 8 months and have been reasonably lucky so far.....I struggled in the beginning when my casting was rubbish, but after another lesson it seemed to click.....Since then fishing has been great but I just had my first blank in over 6 months....

I have visited one trout lake twice in the last few weeks and have left both times very frustrated.....The place seems to be very well stocked, I can see dozens of fish parading the margins including some very nice specimens......

My problem is I can't get these fish to even look at anything I have on the end of my line....I saw some nice fish caught but most people seemed to be having the same problems.

The water was a little cloudy both times and there does seem to be a lot of weed but its not affecting the fishing.

Could it be that there is a huge amount of natural food in the water and I just haven't found a fly that imitates what it is that they are eating ?

Any assistance greatly appreciated...

Hi Newbie, welcome on board!

Where are you fishing?

Cheers
FbS

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My JustGiving fundraising page for Marie Curie cancer research: http://www.justgiving.com/Lucy-Nigel
"Audere est Facere"

I have been to Syon Park, Barn Elms, Meon Springs, Moorhen Farm, Ashmere and once to bushyleaze.....

Normally once I have found the fish I have been able to catch.....

Some of the above seem almost too easy at times but I guess that is not a bad thing when one is starting out....

I have found two places now where it is very difficult to get the fish interested...I can see them, cast to them retrieve right past their noses but they are just not interested.....I am not sure whether I should name these places as I don't want to give them bad press because it is most likely me !

It might be considered good press for those places... there's quite a few people on this board who relish a challenge over easy to catch stocked fish

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Adam
"Dum vivimus, vivamus."

http://www.adamhughes.net

try smaller flys the estblished fish tend to eat the naturals whichare generrally ,also are you sure you are gettting down to them
when i did a fair bit of small water stalking lots of lead and small generally worked .
by small i mean16/18s ,heavy wire for the bigger fish stocked in this kind of water ,I tend to use fine wire hooks these days for normal sized river trout/grayling.

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

Moorhen Farm is the one I have been having problems with.

They do have a catch and release option which maybe causing the fish to be a bit more circumspect....But I only saw one fish returned on Saturday and not many taken.

I think the C&R is only an option after you have caught your limit..

I have tried all colours of nymphs and buzzer patterns they just don't seem remotely interested.

One guy who did catch said the white nymphs send them crazy but obviously not for me. Him and his mate only had one each in 5+ hours of fishing and I only had one knock all day.

By the way they have a credit system if you don't catch what you paid for so I will definately be back....

Anyway I don't give up that easily and those big fish look too good to turn down.

There's a stillwater in Kent called Stowting, that sounds a lot like this. Is the water at Moorhen particularly, as in gin, clear?

I once saw a really nice condition brown in the margins at Stowting following sedge pupae right up to the surface before taking them - he'd reject more than he'd take of the naturals too. I spent a couple of happy hours having him chase an olive sedge pupa about and never once put it in his mouth. Somehow I don't think I'll ever forget that fish, even though I didn't even so much as ***** him.

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Adam
"Dum vivimus, vivamus."

http://www.adamhughes.net

Surpisingly with the lack of rain the water was quite cloudy although with the sun shining on the water you could clearly see a lot of fish.

Later in the afternoon there were flies floating/blown accross the water and fish did seem to be rising to them. I have been researching Dry fly tactics from this forum maybe that is worth a try....although the ones in the margins weren't coming to the top,

Went to Moorhen Farm again on Saturday....determined not to let it beat me....

First couple of hours tried lots of different types of nymphs and buzzer patterns, suspended buzzers, cdc buzzers not even a sniff.....

A few fish had been caught on damsel nymphs so I tried out a new pattern I bought from ebay....A fritz damsel with swarovski fire opal crystal eyes....magic two fish very quickly.....

I then sat and watched another guy fishing buzzers under a pimp float and he was getting bites galore.....

I went back to the same swim and tried the smallest buzzers I could find in my box and retrieving very slowly had two more and lost a couple....Didn't have any pimp floats so couldn't try that....

The next test is to get those bigger fish patrolling the margins interested in something.....