With most rivers in the South West running dirty and high, there is little opportunity to find some Pike of Grayling fishing this week. So its time to head to Exmoor and Wimbleball fishery . It’s been to long since I visited this special water.
I didn’t have all day so I travelled up and slept in the van last night and was on the water about 8.30. With the aftermath of the recent storms I was met with light rain, cold water after several gallons of fresh water run off starting to fill the lake and sharply dropping water temperatures.
It was a tough start with only 1 fish in the first 2 hours and plenty of walking covering the ground. My initial tactics where a fast glass intermediate line counted down at least 15 seconds, and then a medium fast retrieve, and around 11 am the takes started to come, catching and dropping fish on different lure flies including black, orange & white snakes, beaded blob, mini scruffy tiger, dark pink baby doll and a Mickey Finn.
I really like days like this when once you have caught you can then play around with different fly patterns, today it was trying out a few of my own ties and a few of the Turrall snakes every fly I tried today got a take if not a fish in the net. As per usual all the Bows fought like demented aliens, often jumping on several occasions.
I was using Cortland Ultra Premium 2X tippet giving me confidence that the knots hold up when a good fish hits. I didn’t land any monsters today, losing a fish about 6lb was the closest I got but all the fish landed where in top condition. I left just after 2 o'clock not having seen a single other angler and only one dog walker. No boats out, or not at the bridge end anyway.
It was heaven and I had it all to myself. Thanks to Mark for producing such wonderful fish and fishing . So if anyone is looking for somewhere to go over the winter look no further, the bank fishing is open until January 31st with regular stockings, just remember to triple check those knots and upgrade the tippet because these fish really pull.
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