How's it fishing?

19-11-09

Same tactics recommended as per September for  October / November / December / January

14-10-09

Arnfield is fishing very well at the moment with the fish starting to shoal up.
Best fly's are:
Dry: size 16/18 black suspended buzzer, size 16/18 black clink hammers, size 16 black beetles.
Wet: Black buzzers, fry patterns.

Top catch this week was 19 taken off the top. Fish tending to knock the fly under then come back for it. A lot of big fish being caught to black fly's.

03-09-09

July and the first two weeks of August saw difficult fishing at Arnfield due to warm water, bad weather and low pressure. The rod average being 3.5 fish per rod.

In the last two weeks there as been a dramatic change, with the water cooling down and also the buzzer hatcheries now slowing down and the nights drawing in,  Arnfield is now fishing well on the top again, on dries, and with autumn now upon us the fish will throw caution to the wind and will want to pack on some weight for the coming winter.

Top rod this week caught 21 fish on Clink Hammers, second caught 15 fish also to Clink Hammers, closely followed by Daddies - Hoppers - Sedges, Patterns - Muddler's - Boobies. A lot of big fish are now being caught on dries, some of these can be viewed in our gallery for August. All of  these fish were caught on dries with in the last two weeks.

September I think will be an exceptional month for dry fly fishing at Arnfield and the back end of September should see the Rainbows Blues and Browns fry bashing the perch

12-07-09

Top fish for the month was a 21lb blue which you can view in the June Gallery
The month of June saw some big catches to the Klinkhammer and CDC Buzzer size 16.
It seemed the fish only wanted emergers, that’s the fly just under the surface. When people like myself tried dries right on the top the fish. would just come up and try to drown it, no matter how small the fly, even a size 18. Lures fished well but not as good as the emotive patterns

Rod average for June was 7.2 fish per rod.

The first two weeks of July saw the top 5 foot of water hit 70F and coupled with an unusually long period of very low pressure, put the fish down to a depth of 16 foot. This also stopped a lot of fly life hatching off, making fishing hard on or near the top. Lure’s fished very slow at this depth caught good numbers of fish,  top single rod being 31 fish (nice one Stewart!).

Water conditions are now 64F, clear with no signs of any algae. Fish are moving in the surface again and top catch last night on the evening ticket was 10 fish on the dry, one being a 18lb blue (well done Andrew Szorade!)

The weather for the rest of this month is going to be up and down and so will the fish so if it gets warm fish down at depth of 16 ft on lures very slow. When the water is 64F use less dries and emergers. In the evening, moving a sedge across the water when it is going dark, and into the first hour of darkness is a good plan.

01-06-09

The month of May was a bad month with cold high winds for 3 weeks which in turn caused a delay in the fly life from hatching by some 3 weeks. This caused the fish to stay mainly focused on small emerges.
Last week saw hot sunny days but fish were still being caught on the top.
Top catches of the week were 50, 32, and 27 fish all off the top.

On the bright sunny days of the bank holiday weekend just gone with not a cloud in the sky all caught on emerges size 16 CDC Buzzer - clink hammers - Shipmans - Little Black beetles
The best fly of the month was a size 16 Olive and Black skinny CDC Buzzer
Rod average was 5.7 fish per rod.

Now the weather has changed the sedges have now started to hatch off. Cinnamon sedge was the first off five days ago and last night I saw the first of our big red sedge hatch off
The evening hatches are now getting into full swing.
For this coming month with overcast weather conditions on the top you can now use size 12-14-16. Bright sunny conditions with a nice Breese 12-14-16. Bright sunny conditions flat calm Size 16/18 emerges.

Traditional wet fly - anything that blows your hair back as long as there is a nice breeze.

Lure's fast and on floating and intermediate line and slow sink lines. No need to cast far, the fish come close in so from the casting platforms cast at a 25 to 35 degree angle

Remember, when we get those hot sunny days and things do get difficult their is always the evening rise to look forward to. We won't be closing the gate until 11 pm and to get the best out of it you must stay to the death. Arnfield has not got a reputation for being a top of the water fishery for nothing-  tight lines!

01-05-09

The month of April saw a rod average of 8.5 fish per rod, with the best fly's being black buzzer and white lures
At the moment black and olive buzzer are coming off also large numbers of stone fly.
When there is nothing hatching you can use traditional wet fly - dry fly - lures but when the hatch is on then a size 16 CDC buzzer olive or black is a must - that's until the weather gets warmer and the size of the fly life increases. We are now getting excellent evening rises!


01-04-2009

Arnfield is still fishing extremely well with the total rod average for the 4 weeks of March being 11.5 fish per rod.
The black Buzzer is doing a lot better than the lures and that's without any buzzer hatchers coming off the water.
On Sunday 29th March we saw our first hatches of black buzzers. The last rod to finish took 8 fish off the top using a dry fly in the last hour of daylight, much to the gentleman's delight as it was his first time here!
This April will see some big hatches of buzzer coming off so this will be the order of the day. The dry fly can be used in force come mid April.

Arnfield as always been known for it's great dry fly fishing and I myself love dry fly fishing. I use a size 16 black gnat, fully palmered for the first 2 to 3 weeks then increase it to a size 14. It's a killer if fished correctly and the proof can be viewed here at our March gallery


16-03-2009

Arnfield is fishing extremely well. Rod average since the 28th February has been 15 fish per rod.
Best fly's at the moment: Lures, Buzzer, Blood worm, Gold Head, Hair Ear, and Pheasant Tail Nymphs.
This weekend traditional wet fly and dry fly are now starting to take fish.
 

09-01-2009

I am predicting some great hatches this year, which will in turn give us all some fantastic fishing at the start of the season!
Recommending:

Lures for               March - April - May - Jun - July - August - September - October
Buzzers for           March - April - May - Jun - July
Dry fly for              Middle of April - May - Jun - July - August - September - October
Nymphs for           May - Jun - July - August
Traditional wet fly   May - Jun - July - August