Verulam Angling Club Trout Section Away Day- Elinor Trout Fishery

Verulam Angling Club Trout Section Away Day- Elinor Trout Fishery By David Smith

Saturday 12th September 2009

With Oster (The section chairman) as my boat partner, we headed off to Elinor bright and early, arriving at 8:45am, slightly later than expected (We decided we’d sight see the surrounding countryside) and see how many other ways there are to get to the Fishery!) 

As we arrived, Ken and Richard (Some of our members) had also just arrived, and, Brian Gear (Our section master!), was already fishing. With the early morning mist having just burnt off and nigh on cloudless skies, we were due for some super weather. 

Oster and myself tackled up, my tackle for the day would by using my 9’ 6” 7/8weight Greyflex M2 rod with a 7weight Floating Line. I was to use a 9’ 6lb 3x Tapered leader and a 4’ tippet with a Rutland Blob on the Top Dropper, a cruncher Nymph on the Middle dropper and a Goldhead Damsel Nymph on the point fished New Zealand Style. Oster meanwhile stuck to a simple 10’ leader with a Goldhead Pheasant Tail Nymph. So, we rowed out to the middle of the lake, from there we saw a few fish rise just by the far bank, so we rowed out to there we fish jumping right around the boat. 

I settled down to 5 or so practice casts to get into a casting rhythm and whilst doing that, I hear a big splash, followed by, ‘YES!!! David, you got the net to hand?’ Oster hooked a good fish, once hooked, this fish disappeared off to the horizon, and after a few minutes the fish managed to spit the hook. Frustrating to Oster, but still an encouraging start to the day. 

This sadly spooked the fish around us and for the next 30 minutes or so all else went dead. At around 9:45 or so, Oster, with his eagle eyes, spotted fish moving around about 150yards away. So, since we had nothing else happening around us, without any hesitation we moved over there. 

On my first cast out and half way through the retrieve, the line suddenly tightened, it wasn’t a savage pull but a far more gentle take, I struck out of curiosity (thinking its probably weed) and suddenly this ‘weed’ shot off like a torpedo. After a fierce five minute scrap a Rainbow of about 2lb came under the net.  This was caught on Goldhead Damsel Nymph fished about 3’ under the surface. 

In the following 25mins I lost a further 3 Rainbows, each around 1-2lb. All of these came on the Goldhead Damsel, however, after losing the 3rd Trout I decided it would be a good idea to sharpen the hook. Within 5 minutes I had my 2nd, this time slightly smaller, perhaps 1lb 5oz. 

Over the next few hours, I managed another 1, losing, 3 more. Oster soon switched over to the ‘New Zealand’ style of fishing a team of flies. Oster too managed to take 3 fish over the next few hours all around 2lb or so. Then, just before weigh in, I wangled a fourth fish on the Blob, this being a smidge over 2lb. 

3:30 came and we headed back to the shore for ‘weigh in’. Ken and Richard decided to stay out in the Lake and fish on whilst the others got the catches ready for the weigh in. 

The biggest fish of the day was caught by Brian Gear at 3lb 2oz. He also had the heaviest bag of the day by considerable margin at 11lb 10oz, the full match results are as follows: 

The Weigh in, always eagerly anticipated!
After weigh in, most headed off back home whilst Fred and Clive went back out onto the lake in pursuit of taking there 6 fish limits. Both Fred and Clive managed to catch there 6 fish each.

John into 1 of his 6 fish limit taken
A unanimously loved fishery and matched with a super days fishing, certainly worth a visit.