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Cracking conditions for this time of year mate.... best of luck. Nothing other than we're one step closer to Spring !!!!

Some years ago I took the notion that I would like to catch a truly wild trout on the fly, but not just any trout. I wanted to catch one of the big fish eating trout that are often called Ferox. One wind swept day at the end of March found me in a large traditionally clinker built boat slowly meandering around a huge sheet of Inland water with its multitude of islands. When I say huge I mean huge by UK standards, 25 miles long and some ten miles wide is big by anyones standard. On one side of the boat there was a downrigger, set to troll a fish bait at great depth, but it was only there as a teaser to try and get the fish interested and never meant to catch the fish. My fishing gear was used on the opposite side of the boat, this consisted of a very large and heavy brass tube fly, some 3inch long dressed in black, yellow and silver sporting a rather large treble hook, attached to my 10ft nylon leader , a 30 yard weight forward 12 weight ultrafast sink line and 150 yards of backing line filled my reel, a 16' double handed Salmon fly rod completed to outfit and it was gear I was very used to using, however I normal used it for casting on some great Salmon rivers. This time I was simply casting the fly out behind the boat and pulling the backing of the reel as fast as I could allowing the whole lot to sink into the depths, some 90-130 feet down and when it touched down I reeled in some ten feet of backing before gently working the fly sink and draw. Every now and then I would let line out to check the depth or reel in some to shallow up, strange how ones heart would skip a beat every time it touched bottom! We had been at this for some 4 hours, all the time getting soaked by the constant waves crashing over the side of the boat, when the down rigger released, I franticly worked the fly to no avail, that was the total excitement that day, some would say I should have had hooks in the bait!. Dawn the following day saw us on the loch in the boat again on a rolling 3ft wave with perfect overcast and very cold conditions.' Fishing in 30-40 ft of water produced 2 small jack pike, so after lunch we moved back into deeper water. At 2.30pm I was watching the fish finder/ depth sounder when I could clearly see a fish come up ten feet or so and start moving back and fourth at the back of the trolled fish, it was clearly a big fish and I worked my fly with a little more effort whilst still watching the sounder. The fish vanished of the screen for a minute or so and then it happened, the line simply felt different, I lifted hard and there was a resistance like a wet rag, I started hand lining to get the rag in the boat, about half way up the rag woke up and took all my gained line back, that was its only good run, it was then simply a matter of getting it back 130+feet . The fish was slid over the net and its beauty was there for me to behold in-between its mad slapping about and to realise a dream, a double figure wild brown on the fly, it was just over 10lbs and was slipped back carefully to hopefully live the rest of its life in piece. The memory of that trout and the 3 that followed will live with me to my dying day, no more or less than any other of my red letter captures over the years, captures that make life truly worth living.

Last year blunts and cants went like hot potatoes then boreham and willow ( exact dates etc pic attached) You don't need to worry about do as ya like us mate....most of the fisheries are gated and locked and if they are not you would have to know where they where and get past the farmer and his two barrelled friends edit to add :- mufty I go as and when I can mate mainly weekends but also random days in week and random evenings

Yeah but gives you time to try a few other waters and wet your appetite. To be honest I'm just looking for some nice lakes to fish. Ones where you turn up and don't find the do as you likeys moved in so you can't fish 😣

If I remember correctly boreham and willows was about £80 extra and Tufnell and mikleham was £55 extra

Braxted complex and boreham mere o have never failed to get a swim and never seem too busy (when I've walked around) willows always seems quiet to me I don't think I have been to any of the venues and thought it was busy to be honest blunts and cants can get busy from what I have heard but I doubt you'd ever fail to get a swim. I just went to check ticket prices for you and found out the price has gone up for standard membership by £3 and that all of the extra tickets nights concessions kids etc etc all have tab next to them sorry

I was only playing fella, I know you are a by the book kinda guy from previous comments 😉 Ive fished a few nights on the mere and blanked consistently (i do that most places though 🤣) i have a feeling I know which two waters you are referring to......blunts and cants ? If so yes stock thining and I bellieve Stick movement as they are aiming for a mixed fishery and a carp specific fishery, once you have your details through you'll be able to log on to the website and forum section and all the info is on the forum. Some cracking fish to be had from a good few of the waters. Some absolute bangers in the mere (I've only seen pictures) braxted complex also has some lovely perfect looking commons

Well just so people are aware, I have NEVER failed to get a swim at braxted....it's my local. As for the bailiffs and clique.....the whole Bailif team at willows was removed and a massive change around took place to put a stop to that behaviour. In two years I have had only one cross word with one member and it was to do with being In the car park to early (2 mins early according to his watch 🤣) his watch was wrong (bc getting there early is hugely frowned upon and can result in loss of ticket so no early adventures mate )

true. I just feel like I've been missing something and I should have been catching. They are still using the area I have been baiting and catching from. The bailiff saw a fish bosh over it the Wednesday and I fished the Friday night. In the cold water temps i'd not expect them to move far. Oh well, another session is another chance to catch!

Hope to come out of the rut. 3 blanks in a row and not even seeing any signs of the carp. I may be missing something though as my rods arent out until gone 1pm on arrival and I'm packed up and off by 11am. Potentially bite time is sometime inbetween that! luckily getting to stay on longer on Friday so we shall see.

And Alton prices:

must be good, the Druids were all over it!!