Welcome to the latest fishing report.
We hope you all had a Happy Christmas and good start to the New Year.
Having enjoyed a warm summer and a surprisingly mild autumn, the winter fishing has seen some changes but not for the worse. Overall Kilnsey is quieter now with the trail and family fishing closed until Easter, giving you the opportunity to enjoy the peace and quiet whilst we can concentrate on maintenance around the site.
The weather conditions haven’t been too bad overall – just a handful of snowy days – although we did have a bout of wet and windy days before Christmas which is always challenging for fly fishing.
Please remember we are open for fly fishing all year round and we’re thankful that anglers continue to visit in good numbers. Here at Kilnsey we count ourselves lucky that on the right day you will always have a chance of a fish off the top on a dry fly, which is always special when winter fishing.
If you’ve made a resolution to sharpen up any aspect of your technique this New Year, we’ve now published the dates of our popular improver’s courses with Jeff and Mark – see below for the more information.
Tight lines and happy casts, Leigh.
PS please note that whilst the main fishing report comes out monthly, we update the latest stats and flies (see ‘The Lowdown’ and ‘Top tactics and flies’ below) every two weeks.
The lowdown
Updated 31 Jan 2022
Water temperature and condition: Avg 7.0c and clear
Rod average across all ticket types: 6.4
Most fish caught by an individual angler: 22 (with several others in double figures)
Best fish: 12lb Rainbow; 7lb Blue.
Stocking details: We are currently stocking an average of 60 fish a week.
Catch returns: Catch return cards are really important to let us know how the lakes are fishing and how much restocking we need to do, so please complete them and post them into the box on the green hut
Top tactics and flies
Updated 31 Jan 2022
Lures have been catching well during this period. The fish aren’t chasing, so it seems like a slow retrieve is the best technique and then just wait for a slow hard pull and you’re in. As always buzzers under an indicator fish well.
Top flies for this period: Apps worms in various colours, Zonkers, Black cormorants, Black and Yellow Buzzers and blobs again in various colours.
Other information
Courses – Our fly fishing courses begin again in March so if you want to fine tune your technique our instructors Jeff and Mark would love to help – click here to find out more. We also run a popular beginner’s course so if you know anyone interested taking up fly fishing please let them know – click here for all the details.
Fish welfare – A quick reminder to get the fish back in the water quickly if you are on catch and release and please “keep ’em wet” as we’ve lost a few bigger fish recently due them being out of the water for to long big fish can be quite fragile so please follow good fish handling practice.
Current opening times – To check our current opening times please click here.
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