Last week was a very mixed one when it came to the weather! Really heavy rain brought the level of the adjacent Osier Bed Stream almost to bursting point, which resulted in it backfilling the fishery via Kingfisher Pond – great news in terms of getting Haywards Farm Lake back up to full capacity after a relatively dry summer, but not so good for the fish.

This cold water influx knocked the fish off the feed for about 24 hours while they adjusted, but anglers still caught nonetheless. Best bag reported last week was 9, with fish up to around 6lb being landed. The blue trout that we stocked have now settled in and can be seen quite easily in the crystal clear water. These fish really pull hard and those that have been hooked so far are giving a great account of themselves. Fish have been spread out all over the fishery but those anglers that braved the lawn bank near the shop have fared well, despite casting into the wind. As always the mobile anglers have had the best results. Keep on the move and find the pods of feeding fish.

We had another great year for the coarse fish spawning and there are lots of fry, so patterns like cat‘s whiskers, humungous, snakes and dog nobblers have all worked well. The calm and milder days have seen huge hatches of black buzzers and the fish have happily been rising to take the emergers, so small shuttlecocks have taken a few for the anglers willing to give them a go. Naturals have accounted for the majority of the fish landed with buzzers, diawl bachs and hare‘s ears doing the business.

The lake is in great condition, with the weed having now died back, and the water clarity is superb so the fish can see your flies very easily. Equally, when hooked, they can see where they are going so they are fighting like stink – make sure you have heavy enough leader material on as the fish are punching well above their weight!