A Caton businessman last week became the second person in history to win the two most prestigious prizes in European fly fishing.
Ben Dobson, of Bank House Fly Fishery and Stocks Reservoir, competed in the Lexus European Fly Fishing Championships and won the Lexus Individual Champion event and the Wild Card event for the biggest fish.
Prizes for what is the biggest individual fly fishing even in the world included a year’s ownership of a brand new Lexus RX450h Hybrid SUV and fishing holiday.
Only one other person has ever come away with both prizes.
“I am thrilled to win this. I can’t believe it,” said the new 2013 Lexus Individual Champion. “I was unsure whether I was even going to be able to get down to Chew Valley to fish the final. I am so glad I did! It was a brilliant match against a great field and it went right down to the wire. The weigh in was nail biting, 100 bags to weigh before I knew that I’d done the double!
Ben Dobson was raised on Bank House Fly Fishery in Caton and was a member of the England Loch Style Team which won the gold on Loch Leane in Kilarney.
Ben added, “I have always loved fly fishing, I love the way it is so intrinsically linked with wildlife and all the season changes, it’s fascinating. I have been fly fishing for 30 years now and I’m still learning with every trip.”
Bank House Fly Fishery was opened in 1974 by local vet and his wife, David and Jan Dobson. The fishery is now owned and run by their son Ben and his wife Charlotte who now also run Stocks Reservoir Fly Fishery.
Stocks Reservoir is situated at the head of the Hodder Valley in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and was created in the early 1930s by flooding the village of Dale Head and adjacent farmland to provide drinking water for the Fylde. It’s well stocked with triploid Rainbow, Brown and Blue trout which are reared in Ben’s fish farms.
It has been named as the most improved fishery in the North by Trout Fisherman Magazine and in the 2009 National Angling Awards it received 2nd place as the best commercial fishery.