February 2014 fishing report

You are NEVER too old to try something new… with the right coaching you can achieve more in a shorter space of time than you realise… anything in the Great Outdoors is FUN and the sense of fulfilment and achievement you feel trying something new and doing well is worth a million. It gives a real boost to one’s moral and well-being.

So, come on all you hardened coarse fishermen, all you sea anglers driven ashore by all this foul, depressing weather (bother, I was going to try not to mention that!) all you hunters and shooters whose seasons are now ending, all you board youngsters and most importantly all you lovely ladies pick up the ‘phone, ping us an email and start your fly fishing adventure with us here at Brick Farm. We have all you need right here in the way of tackle and organised tuition so why not bring a friend or get a group together and give it a go. It really is a wonderful past-time to fill your spare time.

I would like to launch our Brick Farm Lakes Ladies club as soon as the clocks go forward and this will be a fishing/social get together for ladies who fish and those who don’t yet but would like to learn. The idea being that the “old hands” will help coach the “newbies”. It will be held once a month on a regular day (To be decided). It would be lovely to build up a female squad for our friendly competition days and to join in with life here at Brick Farm. If you are interested please call the lodge for an informal chat to get us started on this new project for 2014.

Our new third lake is now full and hopefully starting to settle. It will be a great, long awaited day when we put in some fish, hopefully this spring. Now it is full of water you can see what a wonderful addition this will make at Brick Farm Lakes. It will provide a huge amount of extra angling space for the years ahead.

The anglers who have dodged the weather and fished have almost without exception all caught their bags. Brick Lake Lakes is on a slope so all the rain does disappear out through the overflow and down into the bottom stream very quickly. Well Lake is a joy to fish at the moment! Brilliantly clear, well stocked and the fish are fighting hard in the cold spring water. We have the warm lodge with complimentary refreshments open from 8am for you to retreat into for a break now and then and breakfasts and snacks can be arranged for groups. Just call Sophie and she will be happy to organise this for you. We have a full program of events, charity days and competitions now scheduled for 2014 and all the details of these can be found on our web site or Facebook page.

Unfortunately, due to the weather our Teenagers day has been rescheduled to the Easter Holidays - check the web site for info. There are still spaces available, please call to reserve a space.

Our annual Easter Competition is on Friday 11th April. Our contests here at Brick Farm are very much fun events and are open to all anglers of any ability. They are a good way to meet up with fellow, like-minded folk for a sociable day out. Sometimes when we fish it’s nice to be quiet, but other times like these a bit of good natured banter, a catch up with old friends or indeed a chance to make some new ones is just as enjoyable. Please contact the lodge for full details of this and all our up and coming events.

Flies working at the moment are still orange lures for some reason on Brick Lake, along with fritz flies or anything with a bit of sparkle. Damsels, Cats, Buzzers and now Tadpoles (it won’t be long until the real things are back in their thousands!) are catching on Well Lake but the fish are hungry at this time of year and are aggressively taking pretty much anything that looks like food that is presented and retrieved in the right way. One of our anglers caught one that had swallowed a Newt!

Recent rainbow catches include a 6lb 8oz by John Vesely from Eastbourne on a Maribou Montana with a yellow tail, a 3lb 2oz by David “Woody” Wood from Polegate on a Fritz, a 3lb by Paul Russell from Faversham on a Dawl Bach Hotspot and a 3lb by Julie Scotford-Smith from Herstmonceux.

John Vesely with a 6lb 8oz caught on a Maribou Montana with a yellow tail

Tight lines for March …