I fished Wistlandpound reservoir for the first time yesterday and what a beautiful place to fish. Quiet and secluded and only two other anglers on a 40 acre lake.

That was the good side, the bad side was that it was half term and being a recreational facility as well as a fishing lake a lot of holidaymakers turned up on and off during the day, made a lot of noise, jumped in the lake and swam and allowed their dogs in as well. I then realised why there were only 3 of us fishing and no locals!

I fished the bank at the opposite end to the dam as I had been told this was a hot spot but on a bright sunny day with a south easterly blowing it wasn't a hotspot for Rainbows. However I had great fun with the small browns in the south east corner, they were taking dries (hawthorn and black gnat) off the top every other cast around lunchtime and ranged in size from 6 to 12 oz. I could have done with lighter tackle but still great fun on a 9ft #6.

By about 4:30 (I'd been fishing since 8:30) I'd tried every dry and nymph I could think of and not seen any sight or touch of a rainbow. So on the way back to the car I stopped by the boating area (deeper water) put on a sinking line and a booby and caught 3 rainbows in quick succession in quick succession, and lost a couple, more all in the region of one and half pounds.

So an interesting/frustrating/instructional day on a beautiful reservoir with the occasional unwelcome guest!

Any further info on flies to use/areas of the lake to fish will be most welcome as I will definitely go again but not in the school holidays!!

Hi treecatcher,
Great to hear you had a good days sport with the resident Brownies, they are usually very difficult to tempt in bright conditions what tippet material were you using by the way. you seemed to be fishing in the right hot spots but the fish tend to be spread about so can be caught anywhere that you can access. Evenings fish very well as there is usually a good hatch. Your fly choice is good, i only fish with dry fly and the occassional PTN I have good success with Black gnat, black hoppers, greased up bibios, Clinkhammers, CDC & Elk, deer hair sedge, CDC & elk daddy of various sizes. I am a volunteer Bailiff at Wistlandpound and have been trying to get the message through to visitors and "locals" not to allow there dogs in the water, not to swim in the res, dont throw stones at the wildfowl and no water sports unless it is with the calvert trust, but as soon as you turn your back there back at it.
If you need any further info pm me and i will try and help.

Steve
aka ollie

Hi Steve/Ollie

Yep the browns were great fun and I would have been happy to have fished for them all day but I had been instructed (!) to bring something home for supper which is why I was looking for the rainbows. Are they usually as reluctant as that or would I be right in thinking it was the weather (bright sunny day and a brisk south easterly). The little browns kept rising all day which surprised me. There was a lot of willow seed blowing onto the water in the SE corner and I wondered if this may have been stimulating them to rise, probably not as I guess there were plenty of flies in amongst it but it seemed like a reasonable theory at the time!

The tippet I was using was Rio Powerflex copolymer 4X (6.4lb) which was a little over the top for the browns but I didn't have anything lighter with me. I degreased the last 2 - 3 ft with Fuller's Earth by the way.

Thanks for the fly tips, a few more to add to my collection there!

I haven't fished there for a few years now, but we had great success at the point on the right hand bend 100 yards or so walking away from the right hand end of the dam - hopefully that will make sense.

THE fly was this little fellow, I am ashamed to say I don't know what it is called, smaller the better and fished slowly on a longish light leader.