Good scrap from rainbow trout

News came that my club trout stillwater had recently been stocked so I was raring to give it a go. The weather was dry, mild and sunny, as most of this autumn has been so far. I started off fishing a favourite fly under an indicator without any luck and after a few casts with a white lure I had to leave without any of the fish seeming interested in my flies or others who were fishing the lake. In spite of the tell tale tyre tracks being absent after the stocking I was assured it had been stocked and with fish up to 10lb being introduced. I gave it another go yesterday and after speaking to the bailiff the fish are very localised as they spend their time rounding up the fry in a corner before crashing into them. And almost as if the bailiff had pressed a switch the fish just suddenly came on where I was fishing. The first fish weighed 3lb 6 oz and will grace our dining table this evening

This was quickly followed by two similar sized hard fighting fish taken on the damsel/olive minkie fly shown below that I tied.