Albury Fly Fishing Reports

Albury Estate Fly Fishing Reports

Regular updates on how it’s fishing at Albury. If you have a specific question on a particular fishery, or advice on flies, help with tuition, corporate information etc, then just call the bailiff on 07976 810737

Vale End

16th April

Vale End was the top performer last week with 116 fish taken to the week ending 15th. The water clarity in Belmount lake is improving all the time and fish can clearly seen patrolling in the first couple of feet of water. Mill lake has been coloured for most of the week due to the heavy rain we have received but with a better weather outlook going into the weekend it should fish well.

Best Bags last week – 9 fish for Vernon Cochrane, 5 fish for Dave March and 4 fish for R.Adams, Matt Commins, D.Brooke, R.Allen and James Buchanan.

The river opened on 1st April and has already received a high concentration of anglers such is the popularity of river fishing. However even in unsettled river conditions some good river sport was had, mainly to small weighted nymphs run through the deeper pools. Please be aware that cows escaped onto Waterloo beat and have made a bit of a mess, so please take care.

Pictures below of some nice river brown trout.

Powder Mills

16th April

Please note from April 1st 2018 Powdermills will become Season Rod Only.

The water clarity is improving here and as a result the fishing is picking up. 33 fish caught here to the week ending 15th April. The fish have certainly been on the feed with fish moving aggressively for buzzers fished in the first couple of feet of water.

The river sections here are also producing well with some good catches of wild brown trout being made. The north side of the Tillingboune appears to hold good numbers of trout but patience and stealth will be needed here to fool them. The river rainbows favour the deeper water around the hut. Weighted nymphs are still best here until the weather warms up and we receive some hatches.

A.Buck with a Powdermills fish of 12lb.

Weston

16th April

A good week with fish hard feeding hard on buzzers. 93 fish taken to the week ending 15th April. Best bags- 4 fish for Phil Gayford, Cliff Pearce, Keith Allen and S.Zilius.

Things are looking great at Weston with Silent Pool spring running hard with plenty of water to supply all lakes. The water clarity is also great especially Wood Lodge Pool and Kingfisher pools which are in ideal shape for those of you who like to stalk the fish. Stalking with small weighted nymphs and lead bugs is an exciting way to take a fish. The fly should be cast in front of a cruising fish and as the fly drops the fish intercept it, you will either see the fish take your fly or the white of the fish’s mouth indicating a take and this should be met with a firm strike.

River sport on office beat has been a bit slow but things will improve as the weather warms up. Lightly weighted nymphs will score well until we see some surface activity.

Albury Park Fishery

21st April

Into the third week of the season now at Albury Park, and after a cold wet start, things have really warmed up. 28c yesterday, and staying very warm for a few days now.

Lake and river have both producing well. The lake this year is stocked with plenty of blue trout in addition to the rainbow head, and a good number of browns too. Fish are well spread on the river beats, with some nice action coming from all areas.

River anglers currently need cloud or shade for best results.

For the week to 15th April, 61 lake fish and 18 river browns were recorded, with a good number of wild browns coming to the net. The Park Lake was particularly productive on 11th, with 9 lake fish for Mr Gerrard and, 10 lake fish for Paul Sheppard. Our Blue trout have been fighting especially hard.

Many congratulations to syndicate member Phil Gayford, who won the Troutmasters Fish Off at Weston Fishery on Saturday 14th. Phil now goes on to represent Albury at the national final.

Phil Gayford in action during autumn 2017

More spring-like weather and nice catches last week helped to dispel the misery of the grimmest Easter period for quite some time – just boringly cold and wet – kept anglers away and delayed the first main stocking of the river. River now running clear, excepting any quick runoff that any passing heavy showers can produce, and some lovely stock browns being recorded.

Clearly, ground conditions are wet and spongy/muddy, so please proceed with great caution. especially on areas worked over the winter period. The bridge at Weston beat is old and about to be replaced, so please proceed across here with caution.

Quite apart from the fishing, there is so much wildlife to embrace. Thx to Jo for this pic of dendrocopus major …

The nuthatch songs this week have been particularly glorious.

If members did not receive their Spring newsletter on 22nd March, please contact Tony.

Heads up for some traffic chaos in and around Albury from 8th May, a gas main is being laid within the approach road (Sherborne) from Silent Pool to the village.

Fishing is available this year on a Family Rod, Full Rod, Half Rod, Quarter Rod, and by appointment, a limited number of day admissions. (For lapsed members, or prospective members interested in joining).

We currently have some vacancies. For further information, and a prospectus, please email Tony by clicking this link [email protected]

Forthcoming Teach In events will be held at Park Lake this year on the following dates: 28th April, 12th May and 9th June. The 3rd March TeachIn was cancelled due to #Beastfromtheeast. The 17th March event was conducted in a blizzard 🙁 The TeachIn for 7th April went off in more spring-like weather.

Below……..our last river monitoring session in September, together with some archive pics………………

The most recent monitoring session of the summer season, from Monday 18th September: Colin Spicer who leads our monitoring group writes:

“It was a very good session with specimens found from all of the monitored groups. As usual for our stretch of the Tillingbourne there were excellent numbers of freshwater shrimp. This month we also found this year’s crop of mayfly, flat bodied and baetis nymphs. Still very small and not due to hatch until next year or in the case of the mayfly in two years time. The mayfly photo illustrates the difference in size between the different age groups. There were a few caddis larvae found including some hydropsyche and as shown in the photo numbers of tiny goeridae with very large (for them!) anchor stones on each side. These will hatch next year from May to August into a medium sized Sedge fly”.

Small mayfly nymphs turned up in good numbers

Goeridae

Recent biggies – Stuart Morrow, son of member Campbell took a fine rainbow of 10.8 on small BFD (13 July), 6lb 8oz rainbow for Phil Gayford on BFD (19 July), 6lb rainbow for Alan Avis on size 16 WAEF (31 Aug), 6lb rainbow for David Kratt on nymph (9th Sept).

Some anglers have been finding browns in the lake, adding some pleasing variety to the catch. These fish complement the lake rainbow stock, and are not part of the river stocking programme for the year. Please count these as rainbows in your season ‘fish allocations’. Any river caught rainbows taken within the Park boundary are deemed to be vermin, as they should not be there!

Winter Fishing News. Available to syndicate members for an £85 supplement, no restriction on fishing frequency Oct-March inclusive. To enhance the winter sport, Park Lake will undergo a drainage early on, 1-14 October. Best day water sport is currently at Vale End Belmount and Millhouse Weston.

Jo OHara returns a 10″ native brown to the Park river

For prospective new members, Park Fishery’s three greatest attributes are (1.) Peace and quiet compared to the busier day waters and (2. ) bespoke stocking of brown trout on the river beats. In addition, you also, (3.) have the free reign to fish over all our other waters, which is the most cost effective way to fish our dynamic range of lakes and river sections.

For Syndicate members latest updates, why not join our new Private Facebook Group, which posts daily updates and pics on how the fishery is progressing. If you search in Facebook for ‘Albury Park Fishery Syndicate’ and look under the Group tab you will see our group and can request membership.

This facebook page is ONLY FOR EXISTING PARK MEMBERS. To join the Park Fishery, email Tony in the first instance on [email protected]