Sat 20/11/2010

Waking to find frost on my car window this morning i was not in any hurry to get up knott I finally pulled onto the car park about 12.30.

Getting out of the car the first thing to greet me was a Dung Fly as it settled onto my jacket was that a lucky omen,not in any hurrry to fish i looked over the style for any rising fish i could see a few fish topping

On went my trusty Dung Fly and approaching the water I started casting at the odd rising fish, first fish was this 18 1/2 inch   (see below) i had another one as well.

In winter its all about picking your day and your time as a rule of thumb i fish the warmest part of the day (10 am to 3 pm) the fish are still rising to dry flys and when i booked out i noticed Dave Helm has been catching on Dung Flys and Beetles

Give it a go you might be pleasently suprised but one tip wrap up well.

Knott Sunday 7th Novenber

With the weather set  fair I decided to have a few hours on knott. Pulling onto the car park I could see a few fish topping.

I set up a long leader and crept over the stile and sat and watched the fish for a while. After 10 mins on went a size 16 shipmans buzzer as the fish were in the clear shallow water, not the easiest place to try and cast a fly to. Creeping near the water I could just make out 2 fish making their way toward me. I cast out and it landed about 5 feet in front of the fish. Up came the fish and sucked the fly down,  I tightened into it and it was soon brought to hand and released.

After my mate Greg phoned me, he appeared 15 minutes later to fish for an hour and a half. I noticed a few dung flies around on the grass buzzing around. So on went a CDC dung fly - first cast and another brownie had come to hand. A frantic 30 mins later and another 4 trout had fallen to the dung fly and as is the way of  these things as quick as the action had started it all went quiet again. During this time Greg got into the act netting 2 brownies himself on a Dung Fly.

If you pick your day and the weather's with you then look forward to some good sport on the tarn. Remember this year it's open till 30th December.



Greg returns a nice brown trout



Fly Tying and Entomology Day

Sat 14th was the second fly tying and entomology day in the Old Friends Pub on Soutergate. It was well attended as usual with a few new faces and the usual regulars from the Committee.

Dave Helm was on hand to tie a few patterns, and he also gave a very useful entomology demonstration. How to match the hatch. Dave Anderson also gave advice and tied a few of his favorite patterns.

                                                     
Austin Robbie and Jack Seale in the beer garden firing up the BBQ.





I would like to thank both the Dave's (Helm and Anderson) for their time demonstration stills. Last but not least thanks go to Austin and Jack for the endless supply of food which not only fed the UAA crowd but most of the pub too!

Knottallow Catch Reports

Hi All,
Sorry I haven't put anything up for several weeks, but since the weather turned pear shaped not a lot has been happening.
Unfortunately the rod average has dropped below two and I don't have any reason. Usually it's put down to July Dog Days, but for different reasons - hot sunny days with no fish moving, etc. Fact - fish don't have eye-lids so when the sun is up they generally drop a bit deeper. But this is not the case at the moment, what with all the wind and rain! At least the water level has gone back up again. Funny, but since we have had this input of fresh water there have been no rises to speak about.
The caenis should be tailing off, but with the bad weather they may be a bit delayed and carry on for some weeks yet. There are plenty of sedges starting to appear, but again not much sign of fish rising to them. We also get some big buzzers at the back end, so all is not lost.
Fishing numbers dropped to around 20 per week. Maybe because of the wierd conditions. But don't dispair, according to the records there are nearly 500 fish still left in. Keep trying, good luck.
Dave the treasurer

Fly Tying and Entomology Day : Saturday 14th August at 2 pm

Location: The Old Friends Pub, Soutergate, Ulverston 

This is an informal get together of the association members and committee - it's certainly not stuffy, everyone's welcome. Come along and bring your mates, improve your understanding of fly tying, what insects to try and imitate, why, when and how to fish them. Even if you don't really know about fly tying and entemology you'll get some top tips from our 'experts'. Open to all - Members and non members welcome, Juniors and Seniors - Free Barbeque.

For more details follow the link to the Events Page on the UAA Website

Knottallow Tarn Open Day Sunday 13th June

Today was the annual open day at Knottallow Tarn. After a fine start the summer weather tried its best to dampen the day but it was great to see everyone fish and tryout the tackle through the rain. It was great to see so many new faces and some of the old ones too! Everyone had a great time.

Jim Fearn and Tony Riley (Rio Pro Guides) were on hand and gave demonstrations on a variety of casting techniques. 

From single and double handed Spey casting through to double hauling and roll casting with smaller rods, it's great to see the experts casting. Tony and Jim also helped everyone along with one on one tuition where needed and helped to iron out a few folks casting problems. Additionally they give out helpful advice on which rod to choose for which type of fishing and also demonstrated Leaders and Line set ups.

 They also brought along a vast selection of Vision rods, laced up with those fabulous RIO lines for us all to try  (and wish we owned!).

 

Thanks also goes to Dave Anderson for the endless cups of coffee, tea and the great sausage butties!

We even had a visit from Nigel Thompson from Lakeland Fly Tying. Nige always says he's really busy so it's nice to see him at Knotyallow.









Tony and Jim are sponsored by Guide Fly Fishing and thanks to them for the gear.

On behalf of Ulverston Angling Association I would like thank Jim and Tony for their time and effort. Even though the weather turned nasty the guys were on hand for the full day and gave some tremendous advice. 

I'd also like to thank all those who attended (and there will be fly tying at the next one!).

I thoroughly enjoyed my day, and by the comments of the other people that I talked to, they did too!

have a look at my own blog alan plevey  

Wayne Young nets two massive Carp on Ulverston Canal!

Wayne Young decided to hit Ulverston Canal last weekend as the Carp were spawning on Sandhall Ponds. For his efforts Wayne netted a 17-15 Mirror and a 22-6 Fully scaled Common.

Knottallow Tarn Open Day

Don't forget the Ulverston Angling Open Day on Knottallow Tarn
                                 SUNDAY 13th JUNE
                    Follow this link to the UAA Events on our web site for more details

Catch Returns to w.e 5th June

It's been a busy couple of weeks since I last posted the returns, so here goes.
For w.e. 29th May, 34 people fished with a catch of 90 fish. This works out at rate of nearly 3 a trip and this includes 8 nils.
A fresh stocking of 100 fish went in on Friday, 30th May. Usual excellent quality, but unfortunately only 12 inch fish instead of our usual 13+. Problems with the supplier not being able to feed in the stew ponds because of the mixed weather, and hence not growing on as quickly as they should.
W.e. 5th June - well everybody seems to have taken advantage of the fresh stocking (probably livened up the residents as well). 58 fished with a return of 245 fish giving a rod average of over 4 and only 3 nil returns.
Fish have been caught on a variety of flies, with no particular pattern to give you any advice.
Daytime fishing has been good for me with a variety of dries off the wind bank. The sheep seemed to be stirring up the alders which were in the grass and getting blown on. Now there is one for you - it is often said that fish don't take the adult alder!!! Try a bushy dry or sedge imitation. And here is another one - fish don't take adult damsels. Just wait and see. There a few about and if the weather returns to a bit warmer then you should see them going out over the water as mating pairs and the fish going berserk - following them under the surface and then leaping out of the water, sometimes bombing them.
Evening fishing has now come to inevitable - caenis. Everbody knows these even if it's only to curse them getting into your eyes, ears, you name it! Well at least you know what the fish are feeding on. I try small nymphs at the start of the rise swapping to emergers and dries and then back again, and back again, and back again, ditto. It's not easy, but keep trying. One trick is to cast right on the fish's nose and then lift the rod tip to pull the fly quickly in front of it - sometimes works!
The long dry spell has seen the water level drop. As you will have noticed we have blocked up the causeway again to try and retain as much water in the big pond as possible. Unfortunately with the lower water levels and recent warm spell the weed has gone mad. Treating it in these conditions can be a bit iffy - the last thing we want to see is the water getting de-oxygenated and fish suffering.
Don't forget the open day on Sunday.
Tight lines.
Dave the treasurer.

Fishing update

 fished up knott most nights last week the fishing is still on top form and there are plenty of fish about (and caenis fly as well) .I have noticed a few new faces fishing  if you have any photos of your catch or catch returns feel free to blog on here is all pretty informal and it will be nice to read a report other tham myself or dave !!!! 

Here is the stamp of fish that are comng out at the moment

                                                    

Bank Holiday Bonanza

With the weather conditions perfect i headed up knott,after looking at the catch return sheet i could see the rod average is still nice and high and just about everyone is catching fish.

I wandered round the tarn and observed plenty of fish feeding i headed towards the causeway and opted for a Shipmans Buzzer (size 14 +16) and casting to the rising fish i managed to connect with  a few,after the rises stopped a put on a klink hammer in the same sizes and continued to catch.

All the fish were in excellent condition and fought hard if you have not been up for a while do your self a favour and have a trip up the place is on top form and full of fish.

See below for a selection of fish i caught all returned to be caught another day,just click on the image to see a full scale picture

Alan

Knottallow Tarn Open Day

Don't forget the Ulverston Angling Open Day on Knottallow Tarn
                                 SUNDAY 13th JUNE
                    Follow this link to the UAA Events on our web site for more details

Chasing the ripple

With the temperature threatening to get into the low 20 degrees I headed up Knott at 8.30 thinking I would have the place to myself.Dropping onto Knott 4 other anglers had the same idea as me.I had a quick chat with Albert (pettigrew) and after a brief chat we both set out on our separate ways.

The tarn was manly flat calm but now and again we would get a nice ripple on the water heading for the ripple Albert caught steadily.I headed into the small pond to fish the ripple as well and caught one and pricked a few all on a red muddler hopper (see picture) or you could get them using the heave and leave method ( casting a hopper out and let it drift round in the wind and wait for a take.One thing i noticed the fish are right in the side and as you can see the picture on the right albert was standing a good 5 yards from the water and casting most if not all of his fly onto the grass so it was only his tipett and fly that was in the water.

Alan Plevey

Catch Returns

Hi all,
Been on hols so missed a few weeks with the returns.
Looks like I have also been missing some good fishing.
Over the last 3 weeks the rod average has been about 3 and nil returns less than a quarter of those fishing so things are looking up. Fishing times are still varied with no particular time of day being better than another, but as the days lengthen the fishing should shift to early mornings and late evenings.
Successful flies vary a lot, but mostly buzzer imitations like spiders, shipmans and suspenders. The old favourite beetle has been doing well. Black gnats should still be around but the Hawthorns should be just about finished. Unfortunately we don't get many olives, but again these should be about over. There also seeems to be a lot of daddies, so try a hopper, but watch out for smash takes.
We have blocked off the causeway to try to keep the water level up in the big pond as we still have a leak in the dam and with some decent weather forecast this seemed the best plan. There are plenty of fish in both sides.
Dave the treasurer

A Quick Visit - One hour and ten minutes for three Brown Trout

I ventured up as it was the first warm day for weeks and thought I'd see if there was anything going on at last knockings. As I set up at 8pm a few anglers were on the tarn including Austin Robbie who'd already had four on a hotspot spider. Fish were starting to browse the rippled surface showing their dorsal and tail fins and swirling at the surface.

Small white winged insects were hatching off the water which I initially took to be Caenis. When one landed on me I took a closer look to see it seemed like an 'olive' bodied midge and I guessed a size 16 olive shipmans buzzer would do the trick. I was pleased to take a fish on second chuck. After taking a second, Austin changed to the same Olive Shipmans and took two more himself.

 

 

 After I'd caught a third the hatch seemed to finish and I went home happy!
 
Greg (UAA Webmaster)

Don't forget the Ulverston Angling Open Day on Knottallow Tarn
                                 SUNDAY 13th JUNE
                    Follow this link to the UAA Events on our web site for more details