Christmas 2008

Chistmas came early for me this year. Fitting in a couple of hours fishing between casting lessons at Loynton, I hit into an express train of a rainbow. After a superb fight I landed a mint conditioned fish of 18lbs 12oz, breaking my personal best by just 4oz. The fish took a blood worm pattern, my variation on Auther Coves brilliant red diddy.

I also received some new reading material and a dvd from santa, and will post a review on both in the coming weeks.

Fishing wise, sport remains as per my last post, another 2 twenty pound plus rainbows have been landed at Loynton, while at Watermark take the time to be selective on fish you cast to. Once you locate fish you can limit out very quickly most days currently, with lots of 2-4lb fish. Get past these and there are some very good size residents cruising round!

Tight Lines

Steve

Orvis Endorsed Guide

I am delighted to have been asked to join the Orvis endorsed guide scheme recently. I am now one of a small number of top professional instructors & guides in the UK deemed by Orvis to be experts in their field and given this world renowned company's seal of approval. Look out for news of further developments in the coming weeks and months on this front.

Fishing wise, we are now seeing our seasonal slow down as everyone thinks of Christmas rather than being on the bank. However we are very much still running our lake tuition and guided grayling fishing, with great success as clients hook up to some hard fighting fish.

On the lakes we've had some fabulous sport with fighting fit rainbows in mint condition between 2-8lbs. Some day's trout have slashed into fry shoals, others they have seined daphnia and buzzers. Once feeding fish are located and their feeding pattern worked out, clients are having an absolute ball!

On the river Coln grayling are really on the fin now, so with several days coming up this month, clients should get into some really good fish. Despite midge hatches most days at some point, the grayling have switched to the abundant shrimp and caddis larva, meaning they will be reluctant to visit the surface to feed until next summer now. We just catch em on nymph instead!

For winter grayling days in the Cotswolds check out our grayling fishing days here!

Best Fishes

Steve