20lb-plus 'trout of a lifetime' banked at northern venue

Trout don’t get much bigger than this immaculate rainbow, banked from a northern stillwater and weighing in at 26lb.

A trout to shout about!

It fell to Manchester rod Paul Gregory on a pre-lockdown visit to Rochdale’s Pennine Trout Fishery.

Andy Moran, who owns the venue, said:

“In the same week a 20lb brown trout was caught by another visiting angler, Pitor Pacholek from Bury, so it was a memorable spell!”

Both fish fell to home-tied flies, fished on floating lines. The rainbow took a green bloodworm pattern, while the brownie fell to a pattern known as the Pennine Biscuit fly – a controversial ‘fly’ resembling a trout pellet.

A 20lb brown trout was also landed from the venue recently

Biggest rainbow in a decade!

RAINBOW trout don’t get much more impressive than this monster 24lb 8oz fish caught from Dever Springs this past week.

The huge fish is the biggest caught from the Hampshire venue in over a decade and was landed by day-ticket angler Josh Sharp – obliterating his personal best!

A spokesperson for Dever told Angling Times: “This is our third 20lb-plus rainbow this winter and the biggest fish in the lake.

“The water here is crystal clear, so anglers who turn up and fish on a day ticket have the chance to stalk these huge fish.

“There’s still a 20lb-plus brown trout knocking around in the lake which a lot of anglers have got their sights on.”

Josh’s superb trout followed his dad’s pb brownie of 13lb earlier in the day.