Season Ticket Holder Preview day was finally here after a short winter break. Before anglers arrived South West Lakes Trust stocked the water a couple of weeks ago with about 600 Rainbows. There were rumours that many of these were bigger than expected.
Anglers began arriving from 7am and were greeted with a cold 5 degree start, but the recent weather had taken a turn for the better, variable cloud cover with fairly light Westerly winds and no rainfall for once.
It was apparent that the fish had spread out well in the couple of weeks they had been in the lake and fish were caught from all parts of the reservoir.
Something in the region of 15 anglers came along with the majority being Siblyback Fly Fishers Association members.
There was a large shoal of Rainbows in Stocky bay and the 7 or 8 anglers that found their way there were richly rewarded. About 50% of the fish were 2lbs+ with several up to at least 2 ½ lbs. All fought superbly with ariel displays and long fast runs.
Various methods were successful, mostly lure based with blobs, sparklers and snakes working well. Smaller mini lures fished slowly also worked well and one angler caught on buzzers and dries. A break in the cloud cover seemed to bring the fish on immediately. After a spell of quiet fishing with cloud cover, the sun broke through and 4 anglers fishing in Stocky bay were suddenly all playing fish at the same time.
Double hook-ups were a bit of a problem, with most losing one of the fish through snapping off, but a couple of double hook-ups were successfully landed.
It is no exaggeration to say this was the best start to the season for many years, both in terms of the numbers of fish caught but also the size of the fish. One anglers account of the first day can be found HERE
Hopefully things will continue for the general opening day the following day.