GAME SECTION
INFORMATION

Find out more

A warm welcome to the WDAC Game section. The Club has two beautiful dedicated trout venues, three lakes in total at Winterborne Zelston and Rawlsbury.

See below for details on how to buy your game tickets and for up-to-date game-related news.

JULY LAKES REPORT

Dear Game fishers,

I hope everyone is keeping well and looking forward to your holidays. Well July has been remarkable in that many of you are enjoying your fishing at Winterbourne Zelston and fewer at Rawlsbury. Why that is I can only surmise that the lakes are further away from many and have more difficult fishing conditions. WZ is incredible though I have never seen such water clarity in any lake that I have fished. Aso because the springs are still running the water is still running over the dam providing highly oxygenated conditions perfect for our rainbows.

Some of your reports for the month are as follows:-

• Paul – lovely session. Arrived about 11.00, and off the west bank. Lots of oxygen bubbles coming off the weed, and a dabchick popped up under north bank weed. Nice to see. Set up rod – my nice baby 9foot #5 which is working well with an overweight line. A few fish rising. Chucked a hoglouse in and it bobbled about nicely in the ripple. (Because to date everything has contained hoglouse!) After about 20 minutes the indicator went down and I was into a very nice rainbow. Fought like a demon. That one went about 3 ½ lbs. But, as I was fighting that one, I noticed a very good fish – dark long and broad - come in from a little further out, and come past me, close in. Landed my fish, and headed off for an early lunch to let the water settle. By which time O’B had arrived as an observer . Back to the west bank. Saw a fish rise on for line but a bit further out, and took a punt on it being the big one, because nothing else had moved in the area. Cast a hoglouse, down went the indicator, and he was on. Wonderful fish, huge fin, and he wasn’t giving up either. Finally got him in, Johnny netted him – just under 5 ¾ lb. Both fish full of hoglouse. Not do much in the way of buzzers.

• Lovely afternoon, I caught two, 4lbs and 2lbs both took a redarsed Sedgehog.

It was nice to meet you and your colleague yesterday at WZ and to put a name to a face !!!. As you may recall I recently rejoined the club after an absence of nearly thirty years and I have to say I was so impressed with how the lake looked and how very fishable it was. Back then the arrival was usually one of disappointment with the sight of almost complete coverage of weed and of having to find a rake to create a fishing space and once done hoping upon hope that there was fish to be caught with no idea when it was last stocked.!!!! Not so now with plenty of open water. This was my second visit and caught 2 superb trout which were very lively and weighed 4lbs each and in excellent condition. This was after losing what looked like a bigger fish which broke my fly in half!!!! Can I give huge credit for the management of the lake with the policy of stocking with above average weight fish ( I am advised that there are fish stocked up to 12 lbs) together with well maintained access points. What more can any self respecting trout fishermen want. If this is the standard at Zelston looking forward to my visit to Rawlsbury.

• Here’s a photo of the specimen fish, along with the smaller fish. It was a lovely fish, and very strong, especially on the 4 wt rod that I was using. WZ was teeming with damsels and that was the fly that I used. We weighed it on Johnny O’Brien’s scales.

I introduced Peter to WZ yesterday afternoon and gave him a detailed account of where I like to fish. That large Canada gander was on the disabled jetty and there were lots of blue damsel fly everywhere with fish jumping out of the water to catch them. The lake water was gin clear and we saw plenty of fish. Peter will have given you his account but I have to say, his big fish (14lbs 9oz) was spectacular. He is a stunning fisher having fished all over the world but conceded that his big fish was the largest he had caught in England, Not bad for a first visit to WZ! Upon arrival he took out his landing net and I was about to remark that he would need a bigger net for WZ, so held my opinion but so it was as he had a jolly time trying to net his fish that kept flopping out of his small landing net. Hilarious really. Luckily it finally flopped out onto the pier so he was able to physically subdue it, but what a stunning trophy fish. I have a photo if he has not sent you one. For me, I had two nice fish at 3lbs 2oz on a Meyrick built hog lice (louse?) and a 4lb 7oz on a green blue-flash damsel. An excellent outing, tank you and to whomever it was that cut the grass and trimmed the banks as well. The fishery is looking in tip-top condition. Us punters are very lucky indeed to have such a diligent committee and leaders. I hauled out a bit of weed by the handicapped pontoon but, actually, it perhaps needs another visit by us volunteers as the lake edge is now ringed with wind-blown weed.

A tough day on Wednesday, but I did have a nice RT from Chapmans of 4-4 caught on a dry blue damsel. I also hooked a nice RT on Sandys but couldn’t land it due to the reeds, etc. But it took me all over the lake & eventually managed to free itself!

WORK PARTY

For those of you who normally join us, we will be at WZ tomorrow and on the 20th August at Rawlsbury. It is important that we have as many volunteers as possible as numbers are crucial to maintain the lakes in good order. For anyone who has not been to our work parties, Bob Spurgeon can be contacted at bob.spurgeon@live.co.uk if you wish to participate.

Best wishes and tight lines,

Paul.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

ANGLING TRUST  -  SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN ANGLING

DATA PROTECTION REGULATIONS STATEMENT

COPYRIGHT WDAC 2024

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

DESIGNED BY  J NASH