Despite tricky conditions Villa Maria Lodge still had some great fishing.
At the midway point of our 12 week season, we were excited to welcome back Henrik, Jonni, Mark, and John along with a few new faces, Dan, Andrew, and Charlie.
Villa Maria Roundup
The first morning was spent rigging up small flies with long leaders and light tips, as the river was getting to its lowest and clearest we’d seen all season. On the approach to the river, we encountered fairly heavy and consistent rain but the fish were still active and several nice sea trout were landed. Over the next two days the weather stabilized and fishing was consistent. Each rod returned to the dinner table with several fishing tales. On Tuesday, the river started to rise due to the rain from Saturday. This rise in water level brought weed and debris from the bank which had an impact on the fishing for the remainder of the week. The river continued to rise but with skillful angling and persistence, nice fish were still came to the net.
Highlights
A few highlights of the week included a 17 lb and 14 lb fish landed in the first session by our old friend Marc. This was followed by a chromed 19 lb fish landed by Andrew, also caught on the first evening session! Jonni landed beautiful 18 and 16 lb fish on his first day. Our good Danish friends Henrik and Dan had consistent fishing throughout the week with several high teen fish brought to hand. Dan had great 19 and 16 lb fish that came as a result of presenting his fly directly into the wind and rain. John had a fantastic session with two 16 lb fish and the fish of the week a beautiful 23 pounder. Charlie rounded off his week on a high banking a thick 22 lb male sea trout.
Conditions
Due to ever changing water conditions, it is difficult to describe what setups were the most productive, but, we can briefly say that full sink lines on single-handed rod and intermediate Skagit heads on double-handed rods were, by far, the most used.
By the end of the week, the river started to drop and clear up slightly, so we are optimistic that next week we will see more stable fishing conditions.
If you would like more information then please do not hesitate to contact Steffan Jones or call our office on +44(0)1980 847389.