Fun for your brain

(* indicates an anagram)

Across

1 Baits whose buoyancy is countered by hooks’ weight (7) 5 Elastic will become like this if not pre-stretched (6) 8 First name of anglers Raison and Freeman (4) 9 Perthshire salmon/trout river, Tummel tributary (*Ray, GR) (5) 10 Sharp-tasting (4) 11 Another name for fish-killing mallet (6) 12 Northumberland river famed for brown trout (*web snack) (8) 14 A leading Norfolk carp fishery, ____ Lakes (*at woods) (7) 16 Wispy white cloud called ‘mare’s tail’ (6) 17/22 dn. Trent-side venue for River-Fest 2021 final (*or bouncy jet!) (6,5) 19 An offering, just to attract fish to hooked bait (7) 21 Loosely distributes e.g. maggots (8) 22 e.g. liquids from chopped dendrobaena (6) 24 Illustrious man ... in The Royalty! (4) 25 Like the mucus covering of tench (5) 26 Market Drayton’s river; also small seabird (4) 27 e.g. it contains an octopus’s sepia fluid (3-3) 28 Needed by angler, say, to avoid detection (*the last) (7)

Down

1 Soft sound e.g. of reel as fly-line is cast (5) 2/23 Absorbent soil used to degrease line (*halts ferrule) (7,5) 3 Number of whips round the hook in a Domhoff knot (5) 4 Accessories may be ____ to bank-sticks (7) 5 __ flies are not used below water (3) 6 Month of Parkdean Resorts Masters (7) 7 Fly-fishing rig with PVA bag of bait/air ... brings you safely to earth (9) 13 Mother-of-pearl (*R. Cane) (5) 14 Invented by Dave Harrell, it’s longer than a speci waggler (9) 15 One ___ is the record weight for a bullhead (5) 18 Artistic skin decorations (7) 19 e.g. ammonites and trilobites (7) 20 City at confluence of Avon and Frome (7) 22 See 17ac. 23 See 2dn. 25 It stands for Spring Viremia of Carp (3)