Home Features Diaries 1st June 04 – Two Flyfishing PB’s in One Day

1st June 04 – Two Flyfishing PB’s in One Day

June 2, 2004

It happened at Pennine the other day, the Lancashire fly fishery renowned for producing big fish. I netted a PB rainbow and PB brown trout, caught within an hour of each other.

The Rainbow, estimated at 17lb (click for bigger picture)

Pennine Trout Fishery is a commercial fishery and not to everyone’s cup of tea, but the quality of the stock is unquestioned and it’s a pretty enough place if usually somewhat crowded. But good fishing and popularity go together so you can’t have it both ways. If you want good food then look for a full car park and a crowded restaurant.

Dave and I bought our usual sporting tickets, £ 16.00 for 8 hours fishing and, of course, all fish to be returned. Being as neither Dave nor I are particularly fond of eating trout (give me a nice piece of cod any day) we would rather put them back unless a friend or relative has put an order in. The main problem with a sporting ticket at Pennine though, is that you are not allowed to weigh the fish and you are not allowed to hold them for a photograph. For those reasons I was to regret having a sporting ticket that day, although I would not have killed the brown trout from choice and a new rule at Pennine forbids the killing of all brown trout anyway.

We began with our usual buzzer patterns, fishing various buzzers at various depths and, apart from the odd pull, not having much success. Trout were rising though and I don’t need much persuading to fish the surface with a dry fly. It’s my favourite method and nothing at all to do with snobbery or anything like that. I’ll strip a lure back with the rest of ’em when that’s what’s needed on the day.

I tried a Black Hopper and then a Purple Klinkhammer and raised a couple of enquiries. Then I noticed a small olive coloured fly struggling on the surface and rooted in my fly box for something similar. I found something that was worth a try and tied it onto my 6lb leader. The leader was greased up to a foot from the fly and that last foot had been drawn through a dab of fuller’s earth to make it sit below the surface film.

I got a rainbow of about 2