June Newsletter

Dear fellow members,

June has brought with it some fine summer fishing at the beginning of the month. The warm weather towards the end though has given us all cause for concern particularly as we are seeing high water temperatures accompanied by blanket weed and algae growth.

WZ Charity Day - 6 th June

9 anglers braved the wind and rain yesterday for the John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation charity event at WZ. It was a shame after all of the nice sunshine we've had that the weather was so bad. Having said that, the rain didn't dampen the spirits and the wind had little effect on casting.

All but one angler caught fish with the largest being 4lb 10oz and the heaviest 3 fish bag being 12lb 3oz. The fish were all caught on a variety of flies, depths and retrieval methods although blue flash damsels were universally popular.

BBQ lunch under a gazebo gave a welcome reprieve from the weather before the afternoon session. Fishing ended at 5pm with a bottle of wine being presented to Chris Symonds for heaviest bag and a bottle to Paul Hooker for the joint heaviest fish. 17 fish were caught during the day. Many thanks to WDAC for allowing us to use of the venue.

Your reports for the month -

Blowing a hooley, so went to Cowleaze to get out of the wind. Nothing much doing at the dam end, so moved down. Just a blob (orange and green) – chucked it into the ripple, and let the ripple do the work. A fish took it from behind. 3 lb. Then another on a shrimp – 4 lb. Cowleaze is a nice lake – Rawlsbury, 3rd June. •
Catch return for Rawlsbury last week. Chose a bad evening, very strong wind and cold, spent a lot of time extracting my line from the cow parsley round Chapmans before going up to Cowleaze, where I had two fish on a red Diawl Bach, one of 4lb and one of 3lb, with a lot of tugs and pulls from smaller fish. A very pleasant evening despite the wind.
Raining and blowing a hooley until lunch time, but it did improve. A few fish moving, but chiefly the swirls of shoaling stockies, but as the sun came out they went deeper, as one might expect. Had one on a gold head damsel, and then they just went away. Eventually got one more on a shrimp. 2½ lb and 3 lb – WZ, 8th June.
I fished WZ yesterday accompanied by my guest for the day. We delayed the start due to the heavy rain which persisted until early afternoon with an accompanying gusty wind making fishing conditions not at all fun. However once the rain ceased much activity was witnessed including several rises and fish activity. Many Damsel fly of varying colours and sizes buzzing about gave us an instant clue as to what fly choice might be successful and so it was to be! However, for fun, we tried dry including Mayfly as well as other dry options some of which induced fish interest and also various wet options too. In the end a hot-head damsel fly did the business but not until we had discovered where the fish were concentrated. Unfortunately, my guest was struggling due to a major mobility issue, so he only fished very intermittently and mostly from the disabled platform. He did however have a couple of fish on but they shook the hook off. He blames the barbless hook but he is principally a salmon fisher! My two Rainbow were a good looking 2lb 12oz and 2lb 8oz though I did see a couple of much bigger fish cruising about. Once again, I must comment on the immaculate state of the banks and approaches. Clearly, a great deal of recent maintenance work has been done, so thank you to you and your wonderful team of helpers for making ‘Zelly’ such a pleasant venue for us fishers – Johnny, WZ, 8th June.
Got soaking wet, but worth it! 2 trout, one a stockie and a nice fish of 5lb 6oz – Jim, WZ, 8th June.
A beautiful summers day at Winterbourne Zelston. Bright sunshine and the wind providing a warm blanket rather than an uncomfortable chill! The lake is in excellent order and very clear – when the wind drops the surface chop provides clear vision of the fish near the surface! Great fun fishing a woolly bugger next to the cow field. Plenty of room to try new swims too. The first take came as I was lifting off my line and I knew it was lightly hooked. A tentative battle to bring it to the bank lasted around 5 mins. As predicted the hook fell out in the net alongside the 2lb 4oz rainbow. There was a bit of a wait for my second fish which of course meant I was blaming fly selection, wind, lack of wind, sun, lack of sun and my particular favourite, barometric pressure. Lack of patience was nevertheless rewarded on the far platform when a 3lb 9oz beauty fell prey to a slowly retrieved GRHE. Great start to the weekend – Gordon, WZ, 12th June.
Good afternoon Paul, I fished today and netted two 3lb’ers in Chapmans plus one which accepted my loose line. All fought well despite the warm weather – Mike, Rawlsbury, 15th June.
I have my Rhodesian friend Steve Seward staying this week and as you know took him to Rawlsbury on Monday and WZ today. On Monday I got one 4 pounder in Chapmans and Steve lost a nice one at the net also at Chapmans. We failed to get them to take at Cowleaze. Then today at WZ Steve caught a wonderful 6lb 8oz fish (pictured) which gave him a tremendous fight. So a successful two days – Stewart, Rawlsbury & WZ, 15th-16th June.
Perfect conditions. Slight breeze, warm overcast. Tried the bottom left hand corner by the causeway – they hide under the weed rafts. First cast one came out for the shrimp on the weed edge. That came off. Shortly lost another. Finally landed a nice 4 pounder still on the shrimp from the road jetty casting left. Nice lunch, and then had another on the shrimp bottom right hand corner. Contained the usual collection of small bugs, damsel nymphs and ramshorn snails – Meyrick, WZ, 16th June

I caught two fish at WZ… both rainbows, one of 2lb 14oz and the other 3lb 2oz. One was caught on a damsel nymph (there were considerable numbers of damsels hatching) and one on a small pink fly – Peter, WZ, 16th June.
Hi Paul, fished WZ today, I love fishing “naturals” and they didn’t let me down today, two nice fish around 3lb each all on a size 16 black buzzer, well pleased! – Jim, WZ, 17th June.
One rainbow yesterday; three pounds on a very small shrimp – Chris, 17th June.
A round zero I’m afraid. Fish not much in evidence and not interested much. Had a bit of a tentative nibble on a blood worm but the staples all failed. Wind chopping up the surface and swirling around making presentation tricky – Rawlsbury, 17th June.
Paul. Fished WZ this morning till about 15.00. Got nowhere. Several larger fish near the west jetty, very deep and moving very slowly. Paid no attention to any fly I tried, even though I had depth right. Not ideal conditions, too sunny and flat calm. Water temperature 19.1 degrees at 12.00 – the fish were just not interested – Meyrick, WZ, 23rd June.
I tried WZ this morning getting there at 0900, really because Meyrick advised it might be good, but sadly that was not the case. You could spot fish cruising just off the bottom and they had a look at most things but wouldn’t take. I tried a Scarlet Tiger amongst other flies without success. Water temperature a concern – Stewart, WZ, 23rd June.

It has certainly been a testing month. A note of concern for members fishing WZ this summer. The water level has now dropped below the dam wall and the lake is beginning to recede. With the hot summer we are expecting, this is something we shall need to keep a close eye on over the coming months, as a prolonged dry spell could cause real difficulties for the fishery. I will keep you all informed as things develop.

Hut Work Party

A big thank you to everyone who turned out for the work party to demolish the old hut and clear the way for the new one. It was a real team effort, with the old timbers coming down quickly once everyone got stuck in, and the site cleared and tidied by the end of the day. The new hut is now complete, with covered seating and a picnic table area that will be a great spot for members to shelter from the weather or just take a breather between casts. A successful day all round, and a fine addition to the WZ facilities.

As always, please do keep sending in your catch returns with as much detail as you like about your days fishing – it makes the newsletter so much more interesting when your experiences can be shared amongst us.

Tight Lines,

Paul.

May Newsletter