Prospects Report

March 2015

As I write, only 14 days to go before the start of the Season – how do I know this – well it’s because the two Canada Geese are here again.  They come every year at exactly the same time, and they stay until the start of the fishing Season.  I have no idea what their game plan is;  they are a devoted couple, never more than a metre apart, but have never nested here.

We have been blessed with a continuation of last year’s average weather;  it has been a mild winter, no proper ice at all, and no floods.  The consequence is that the water in the Bottom Lake is crystal clear and the Stonewort has never really died back.  It all looks very good for the start of the Season, and I think we can all be reasonably confident of enjoying ideal conditions.  The Top Lake remains an unknown quantity;  obviously the incoming water and the sediments remain a problem but, who knows, perhaps this is the year when it clears!

We have the same issue as every year:-  please, no barbed hooks, or at least properly-crushed barbs only, and all fish to be released in the water at all times.   Every year I see some trout with damaged mouths, which can only be the result of a fisher struggling to remove a barbed hook.  Not only is it essential for the health of the fish, it is so much nicer not to have to struggle to get a hook out.

The big Unknown will be the insect life – it has certainly been poor in recent years, the same here as all over – but conditions in the Bottom Lake look so good, surely it is only a matter of time before the up-winged flies especially start to make a comeback.  I shall watch with interest.

Tight lines for the coming Season!