I’d been keeping an eye on the Farmoor catch reports, waiting for the resident fish on Farmoor I to start turning onto terrestrials. The buzzer hatches, and sport, at Farmoor can be amazing in the right conditions. With the weather warming up nicely, I decided to pay a visit.

Other than a cool easterly wind, the conditions were perfect; warm and cloudy. On arriving at the reservoir, I drover around the outskirts of Farmoor II and could see rising fish everywhere. Trying to keep a lid on my excitement, as Farmoor I and II can fish quite differently, I tackled up with a floater and made my way to the west bank. Seeing rising fish immediately, I decided to start there and fish into the breeze. I opted for a washing line approach, to keep the flies up high, but using a heavy CDC emerger on point. I went for a simple black buzzer on the mid-dropper and a black and green diawl bach on the top dropper. Casting was tricky but the trout were obliging with three taking the diawl bach within the first half an hour, including a very fat rainbow over 5lb.

As the breeze turned into a heavier wind, I ventured around the north side of the reservoir. Being sheltered from the wind, the conditions changed completely to warm and still. I continued with my original set-up for a while but there was not much showing on the top and with the sun coming out I changed to a deeper buzzer set-up with an epoxy buzzer on the point to get the flies down deeper. I worked my way up the bank, fan casting and counting the flies down but couldn’t get any interest. Eventually, I left the line out for 40 seconds or more and got a heavy take on the diawl bach, finally netting another rainbow in excess of 4lb after a long fight.

The fish here were clearly deeper, probably due to the sun coming out and the calmer conditions. As they were taking the black and green diawl bach, I put a black and green cormorant, with a green viva butt, on point and allowed the flies to sink for 30-40 seconds each cast. Another three trout followed, all falling to the cormorant.

Happy with my day, I decided to walk back to my original position into the wind, as it was closer to the car. The wind was very strong at this point and it took me a while to get a decent line out. However, when I did the trout obliged, even in the choppy water, and I took another two rainbows on the cormorant.

An excellent days fishing and my personal best at Farmoor. As a bonus, both flies that caught were ones I had tied myself.

General conditions – Warm and windy. Mostly cloudy with sunny spells.

Wind direction – Easterly

Flies that worked – Black and green, Diawl Bach and Cormorant.