Fishery Update, Jan 2023
Hello All,
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The increase in the costs of stocking Trout has reached a point where we’ve had to unfortunately increase the price of Tickets (See new prices on the Prices page). This is something we’ve tried to hold off on for a while now, but the latest increase has forced our hand in this matter. We can only apologise for increasing costs at a time when so many are feeling the pinch from raised prices elsewhere.
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We’ve also decided to change up the stocking plan for the lakes and have decided on the following,
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The Top Lake is now our Specimen Lake, containing Rainbow trout in the 3-10lb+ bracket.
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The Bottom Lake is now our Regular Lake and will be stocked with lots of fish in the 2-4lb range, with a few 6-7lb fish added each stocking.
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We’ve also introduced a new Price system for each of the Lakes, with the Specimen Lake costing more for a ticket, and our Regular lake remaining fairly low in price
Fishing update Jan 2023
With a large stock of fish just gone in, anglers can expect productive fishing for the next couple weeks at least. We've recently stocked our Specimen Lake with fish from 3-8lb, and have also seen a few fish in the 6-10lb range cruising around from the last stocking. Our Regular Lake has been stocked with lots of rainbows in the 2-6lb range, we've also got plenty of rainbows in the 5-8lb range still kicking about from the last stocking in 2022.
On calmer days, when the sun is shining and the wind is absent, small buzzers, nymphs and dries have been doing the goods on both lakes, with several fish in the 6 -8lb caught on natural PTN patterns. On these calm days its advisable that anglers fish with a #4-6 weigh fly rod with a moderate to long leader of 10-16’, this is to reduce the amount of surface disturbance made from heavier lines and also presents the fly a long distance from the thick tip of a fly line.
On the rough wet and windy days, larger nymphs and lures have been the go-to. The Classic Cats Whiskers, humungous, Montana and damsel imitations are seemingly best, with colour profiles including green super effective. Both large rainbows and browns have succumb to lures in recent weeks, most notably a stunning 5lb Brown trout and 7lb Rainbow. It's advisable that anglers use a #5-7 fly rod on the rough days, teamed up with a sink tip or slow intermediate line.
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We hope to see you down the fishery soon,
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Tight Lines all, James
Fishery Update, Spring 2022
The first months of the year have been mild, with little rainfall, this resulted in both Lakes at Rose Park becoming exceptionally clear with the prospect of a good Midge, Caddis and even a Lake mayfly hatch on the brighter days.
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This year we've been stocking with much larger fish than what we've previously done, for example our April stocking consisted of x50 Rainbow trout, x30 of which were over 3lb, x15 of those falling into he 4-8lb category. Since this stocking, we've seen several of these big fish caught, with many being successfully released by our Catch & Release anglers.
That leads me onto my next point, thankyou to all that have been following our Catch and Release policy on Brown trout, it's certainly helping to maintain our stock, and were now seeing a much higher number of these wonderful fish caught by anglers, many this season weighing between1.5-4lb. Interestingly we've even seen a number of these fish attempt to smolt, turning silver with a dark tail.
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We're keeping on top of the Pondweeds and have opted to sweep (with a sunk rope) the vast majority of the Lake clear, leaving isolated patches with heavy Pondweed growth, we do this to provide Fish with habitat and refuge, along with a healthy supply of Damsel, Corixa, Caddis and Dragonfly that thrive in the Pondweeds. The insects not only keeps our fish well fed and in top condition, but provides the Fishery with a year round hatch, giving opportunity to fish natural patterns to great success. Furthermore, yes there's more to this, the insects that thrive in the Pondweeds do not spend their time grubbing around in the silty substrate at the bottom of the Lakes, instead they swim freely amongst the Pondweeds in open water, and when consumed by the trout, will give the fish a much cleaner taste, with far less of the muddiness that is sometimes associated with Stillwater trout.
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The River Penpont has not had the usual productive early season rise, but instead the low, clear waters have have made fishing rather tricky, even during a hatch. However, with some perseverance anglers can expect something quite special from the Penpont, this has been demonstrated with Brown trout touching the 13" mark caught on nymphs, and other, much larger residents observed but not caught in several of the pools.
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As we approach the warmer months we can really expect fishing to ramp up, hatches of Damsel, Stonefly, Caddis, Dragonfly, Mayfly and midge will be prevalent and angler should opt for lightweight nymphs, Emergers and Dries to fool our largest most aggressive residents. We will be stocking again in May with more in the 2-7lb range.
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We hope to see you at Rose Park soon,
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Tight Lines all, James
Fishery Update July 2021
June turned out to be a bit of a tricky month for fishing, with trout seeking shelter through the hot, sunny days, but making an appearance first thing in the morning or at last light.
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We re-stocked both Lakes on June 16th, The top lake received 20+ Brown trout ranging from 0.5-1lb, the Bottom lake received 20+ Rainbows ranging from 2-8lb with the addition of some smaller brown trout too. This stocking got things going again and anglers started to see an increase in their catch rates. By the end of June, anglers were catching up to 14 fish in a session.
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The fishery is experiencing prolific macrophyte growth, but we are working hard to keep areas clear for fishing, the Top lake has 60% Pondweed coverage, fish can be stalked in the margins or caught at range in the cleared areas. This lake is fishing well and producing plenty of Brown trout between 0.5-3lb and some rainbows 1.25-4lb.
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The Bottom lake has around 80% Pondweed coverage, we aim to clear 20% of the Pondweed in this lake through July. Despite the abundant pondweed, fishing is still possible and any open pocket of water will hold hungry trout. A large Rainbow trout Est 8lb and brown trout Est 5lb have been patrolling the margins and actively feeding on emerging and adult caddis, though no angler has caught them, we are sure they can be temped with a stealthy approach.
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We recommend that anglers fish floating lines, long leaders/tippets with a small olive nymph/lure, dry brown caddis or a small black Klinkhammer to fool these trout.
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Tight lines, James
Fishery Update Friday 4th June 2021
With the sun making a strong appearance from late May into June, we have seen large increases in the quantity of Pond Plants, we are working hard to remove excess pond plants and keep at least x3 fishable areas on the Top lake and x5 fishable areas on the Bottom lake.
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he fishing is at it's best during the morning and evenings with a consistent hatch of Midge, caddis and damsel with a Mayfly spinner fall occurring each evening around 8pm.
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We advice anglers to use floating lines, long tippets and small natural patterns.
Fishing sub surface buzzers, flash damsels, PTN's and Caddis pupa are getting the attention of the fish and anglers can expect gentle, but confident takes close to the surface.
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Fishing emerging Buzzers, Caddis and Midge are very effective during the morning and evening with Mayfly spinner patterns becoming irresistible to trout during the Mayfly fall.
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Plenty of Rainbow and Browns have been caught in recent weeks, ranging from 1 - 5lb in weight.
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Tight Lines, James