Bob Sharp fished Ravensthorpe with two friends on Thursday, 28th March 2019 and had a very successful day.
The fishing in the morning started very slowly so they moved to the middle of the reservoir into the deeper water. There they found feeding fish and started catching on size 12 & 14 black buzzers, fished as a team of three on a floating line and a 6m leader.
In three hours Bob had 8 rainbows with the best being about 10lb, together with fish of 6lb and 5lb for a grand total of 8.
The fish were deep down in the water as evidenced by all of the fish being caught on the point fly or middle dropper.
The 10 pound rainbow took the fly about 20 metres from the boat and first surfaced about 70m away – and kept running!
This was followed by two more runs and after about 20 minutes the fish came to the net. The other 2 bigger fish were equally lively.
All of the fish were unhooked without coming out of the water and safely returned to fight another day.
The previous week, Chiltern FT&FFC member John Poote, landed a number of rainbows including a 6lb fish. On the same day Keith Allison and Stuart Foulds were also fishing on Ravensthorpe Reservoir.
Keith and Stuart started fishing in Monger’s Bay encouraged by the previous weeks catches. Stuart fished with a black and green lure on the point and diawl bachs and crunchers on the droppers. The lure was soon taken by a 7lb pike which was safely returned.
Keith fished small buzzers based on advice from local regulars and soon landed a clean finned rainbow of about 3lb. The fishing was tough with lures not working especially well. Stuart turned to heavy black buzzers and blood worm fished static, as recommended by a regular. After a short period of inaction, Stuart put his rod down with a coil of line “just in case” and decided to have a banana – always a good inducement for a take. Sure enough, the indicator disappeared and the coil of line shot through the rod rings – but the fish threw the hook. A short time later, the blood worm proved successful and brought a 3lb fish to the boat.
By mid afternoon, Keith and Stuart had managed to get about 7 fish to the boat but the action appeared to be on the opposite side between the dam wall and the island. There were five boats fishing parallel to the shore with room for a boat near the dam wall. Anchoring there and trying everything from buzzers to lures proved unsuccessful yet the adjacent boat was frequently into fish. The adjacent boat decided to call it a day so Keith and Stuart moved about 20 metres to occupy their slot. With damsel variants on the point and buzzers on the droppers, Stuart and Keith were immediately catching fish. As soon as takes stopped, a move of a few metres towards the shore, restored the situation. Keith and Stuart finished the day with 20+ rainbows to the boat, several breakages, numerous lost fish and a pike.