INSTRUCTION HOWARD’S WAY

Success came quickly for Scott Nellins and his exaggerated bloodworm patterns.

TOTAL FLYFISHER 48 INSTRUCTION

Imitation Versus Exaggeration

World-famous caster and international fly fisher Howard Croston looks closely at imitative flies to see how they fare against their exaggerated counterparts.

PENNINE TROUT FARM AND FISHERY

FACT FILE: Pennine Trout Farm and Fishery Calderbrook Road, Littleborough OL15 9HL Contact: 01706 378325 www.penninetroutfarmandfishery. co.uk

Pennine Trout Fishery, near Manchester, is one of those trout fisheries that seems to have been around forever. I can remember visiting the place a while ago and being mesmerised by some of the huge fish it produced then. It still does.

Five trout to the Flexi Worm give Scott an early lead.

As we rounded the corner into the car park my mind flashed back to the many productive days I have enjoyed at this fishery in the past. However, I also realised that my bold statement to the editor – that I could outfish young Scott using nymphs at this time of year – may have been a tad ambitious.

The staff at Pennine stock the water generously and the cold weather of late would

The reason for its continued success is clear – it’s stocked with a great deal of good quality fish, with plenty of large ones thrown in for good measure.

Catch and release is popular here, so there are many different tactical options available to the adventurous angler.

Another thing the water has going for it is that it’s quite deep and, despite its relatively small acreage, the fish can use this depth during times of extreme temperatures. This means they can often get out of the way of the anglers if they wish to. With catch and release being popular at this venue there are many different tactical options available to the adventurous angler, who is often fishing over a mix of recently introduced fish and long-term residents that have encountered anglers before. These trout are no pushovers when it comes to being deceived again and it was for the above reasons that Scott Nellins and I chose Pennine for our Imitation Versus Exaggeration shootout…

see little in the way of buzzer activity to get the fish feeding, which would certainly have helped me out.

Scott was planning to use some of the current crop of deadly stillwater patterns – such as worms, blobs and the like – that are all very popular these days, while I’d just have nymphs.

Following a chat with the fishery staff we decided to head for the top lake and fish www.totalflyfisher.com

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