http://www.soniksports.com/worldteam/

founded:

1980

origin:

Bradford, England, United Kingdom

members:

Adrian Portas

Chris McLaughlin

Dean White

Ed Allenyne-Johnson

Ed Wolsenholme

Jason Harris

Justin Sullivan

Nelson

Ricky Warwick

Rob Heaton

Rob Waddington

Stuart Morrow

Tom Tom Tompkins

01 April 2004

No April Fools Day

1st April & the season opened at Rutland Water, & it didn't let us down!
As we expected the fish were about 25yards from the bank. I fished down by my Lodge & caught 6 beauties by 11.00am. Most on a dawson's Olive but some on Diawll Bach & Buzzer. All on floating line, 6lb 15' leader.
Then, straight into the hot smoker to make trout pate with horseradish sauce for Lunch!!
Smoked Trout, seafood sauce, sea salt, black pepper, lemon & olive oil..fantastic!
After lunch the wind turned from the South & made things from my bank more difficult, I'll let them put on more weight!!
The fish were bright silver, in great condition and weighing between 2 & 3 pounds each, and powerful fighters.
One other bit of news...sighted the first Osprey of the year, above Dickensons Bay, visible from the house.
Rob Waddington 1/4/04

26 March 2004

On Your Marks!!

Yes, we're all twitching with anticipation here on Rutland Water, Europe's largest man-made lake as the flyfishing season is about to open on April 1st. The water level is now at the maximum, a far cry from the situation last Summer when we had the hottest & driest season since records began.

Now the Winter storms have filled the lake with cool fresh water. The first batches of pristine 1.5-3 pound rainbows and Browns have been released. First of a yearly stocking of over 100,000 fish, but these are just the new fish, what we are waiting for are the famous Rutland over-wintered Rainbow trout. Bars of silver, solid with muscle, these fish fight like tigers!

The new stock fish seem to activate the resident's hunger as they hunt the margins for bloodworm, buzzers or fry.

Look for about 12 feet of water and fish a small leaded buzzer with a couple of daiwl bach nymphs on the droppers. Fish as long a leader as you can manage 20foot is not too long and clear flourocarbon. This water is clear and the fish are crafty, you don't reach the Rutland Record of 15pounds by being caught!!

Bank or boat, it's a great time of year as the first buds of Spring appear, then the nightingales and ospreys come to visit. Soon we'll be fishing dries on the top, a small cul de carnard cast in front of a cruising trout should do the trick.

Watch out for more reports as the season progresses.

Rob Waddington

16 January 2005

2004 a strange year

On an unusually warm and sunny January day, I should be looking forward to the new season. I should be thinking of tying a few flies and getting on the front foot for the 'off'. However, I'm looking back on the 2004 season. The year when more than a few locals took their alliegance to our wonderful neighbour, Eyebrook. The year when the threat of another hot dry Summer would 'stop 'em feeding'.

Well, they caught fish and so did we. We all had a good start, a hard middle, and here, on Rutland, we had a fantastic end.

Everything was late this year, it didn't get chance to warm up and as we had an extra month or two more than Eyebrook to fish, we had those fryfeeding days of unbelievable proportions that not even the good ol' boys, could remember anything like it! In December!! They were buggers to catch but if you've ever seen that new film 'Open Water' when those sharks started a feeding frenzy?  it was like that!

So, nature solves everything eventually, we've even got some huge brown Trout now, growing away, that they put in this year to overcome 'global warming'!

Yes, we all caught fish this year, I even had the best Salmon season on the Nith ever, in the Autumn. But Rutland Fish are different. A fully silvered grown-on Rainbow that's just tried to pull your arms off is a brilliant sight!
Now are any of you people out there going to come with me and try & catch
some!!?

Rob Waddington, Sunday night, 2 bottles of beer!