Hello All! I'm new to this site and to fly fishing in general - I have dabbled a bit over the years but am hoping to do a lot more this year.

I am hoping to fish in the next day or two at Wessex Fly Fishing Lakes in Tolpuddle. Has anyone got any experience of fishing here? Any tips?

Also, as a more general question, could anyone let me know what patterns would fish well at this time of year? And in particular what would work well at Wessex? Should I be using lures or fishing on the surface?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Andy

Hi Andy
Welcome to AN
Don't know the venue so can't advise on specific flies. First thing to do is ask the owner and look in the log. That will tell you what has been catching. Remember though that people will only catch on what they are using so if everyone is using a cats whisker, that will be the most successful fly when maybe a different pattern would have been more successful if anyone tried it. Rather than sticking to particular patterns go for "types" size etc. and remember it is probably the depth you fish at and the speed of your retrieve that is more important than the specific fly pattern. Most of us would probably be more effective if we followed our own advice from time to time
Luck with the fishing and let us know how you got on.
Dave

Will go along with the depth theory,find that and you will probably find em.Forecast is not good,cold easterly wind and wet so fish might be a bit deeper than of late.

never fished this specific water but at this time of year aslong its a warmish over cast day i would use lures for the first maybe 30mins-hour between 8.30-10 ish then move onto small epoxy buzzers(look at the size of the hatch)(if any)
then cast out a buzzer, i would super slow retrieve it at record slow proportions or if there is a nice ripple causing a bow in your line not retrieve at all until your line is almost side on at the bank,just watch the takes come(keep hold onto the line takes are super aggresive) this is a tactic that has led to me landing well into double figures when very few have been catching due to them lure bashing, hope this helps