Chatton asks anglers to handle trout carefully in warmer weather

Bob Smith managed to catch brown trout on the Coquet. Picture: Bob Smith

With the recent hot weather, fishing on the still waters has been a real challenge for the majority of anglers, writes Bob Smith.

Most bags have been in single figures apart from a few who have used sinking lines to reach the trout very deep in the cooler water.

There is always the exception to the rule – I fished a local water on a hot day for two hours and managed to get one to my net.

However, Ali Tait, who won the English Small Still Water Championship recently, had about 12 to his net.

I saw him catch three fish using a floating line and a single small beetle pattern.

After every fish he meticulously treated the fly and his tippet before recasting. Ali wasn’t casting a long line but targeted cruising trout, and also brought interested trout up from the deeper water.

Chatton is asking anglers to be careful with the trout they catch by keeping them in the water and returning them as soon as possible.

I had an enjoyable morning on the Coquet, which was running a little higher than recently after rain overnight.

I started with a Snipe and Purple Spider pattern on my floating line and soon had a small brown trout on my two-pound tippet.

The next similar sized fish was tempted by a Silver March Brown pattern.

In the next hour I managed to get another six wild brown trout to my net, two of which were 10 inches.

These wild trout fight like mad and jump from the water several times. It’s truly exciting playing the wild fish in the currents on such light tackle.