THE WARMER weather conditions saw an improvement in visiting numbers to Witton Castle lakes with 53 anglers taking advantage of the late summer to fish the lakes. Anglers were kept busy out on the lakes with a high catch rate and returned a very good rod average of 4.5.

One angler, T.Ross, managed the 15 fish limit this week, closely followed by G.Oliver and N.Midgley with 12 fish each and N.Midgley also had 11 fish on a second visit. Rounding off the sheets were I.Purvis with 8 fish then J.Bainbridge and N.Puncheon both caught 7 fish each.

The best fish of the week was a fine 10lb+ rainbow caught by F.Walton.

A variety of flies have proved successful across all the lakes this week with CDC’s topping out the lists, followed by Black and Green Fritz, Cruncher and Black Diawl Bach.

Black Spiders proved the most successful fly for a group of visiting anglers from Galashiels, who came down last weekend. Eight anglers from the Gladhope Inn Fishing Club travelled down on Friday and fished the lakes on Saturday. They caught a total of 46 fish and returned a great rod average between them of 5.75. Two anglers, F.Daly and B.Swatin, had the best bags of the day with 10 fish each.

The borders anglers rounded off their day with a visit to West Auckland Club to see the First World Cup trophy. They were down on their regular annual visit, enjoyed the day very much and no doubt will be back next year.

Submitted by Witton Castle Lakes