The Upper Bann, although on its bones continues to provide plenty of trout to a variety of methods. Easter Monday’s competition showed that all the new fangled methods can still play second fiddle to the traditional dryfly when Trevor Jones weighed in a fabulous 1 lb 13 oz trout. There were quite a few good sized fish weighed in that fell to streamer and deep nymph tactics as anglers adapted to try and find the better sized fish in the low water. All competitors reported substantial numbers of fish in the 20 cm to 30 cm range and while all commented the river was a bit slower than it has been the fishing this year has been consistently brilliant. All are eagerly awaiting May and good falls of black fly.
The Cusher although well below summer level is still producing trout, albeit the average size has decreased as the water drops. Twelve year old Thomas Russell and his friend Ryan Blakely returned over 30 trout up to 25 cm for a session using micro nymphs fished below a small klinkhammer.
Brian Russell
