Draycote has continued to fish well, though one or two have not found it so easy, highlighted by one anglers comment of “are there any fish in here”! I can assure you there are stacks of fish in the lake, they are just very occupied on very small terrestrials and for that reason it’s a little bit more tricky to knock them off their perch !!! On overcast days there are plenty of fish feeding on or very near the surface, especially in the wind lanes !
Yesterday(Sunday) was the England ladies National qualifier for the 2014 England team. Plenty of them had put in some hard work practice sessions and many of them were rewarded, however Rosemary Gunn stole the show, by not practicing at all and won the event with 8 fish by 2.30pm, 7 of which she had landed by 12.00 noon! Rosemary had started on a di-3 line, taking 5 fish on her first drift, followed by the 3 more on a floating line. Her boat Partner, Maggie Curtis also caught her 8 fish limit. Maggie took all her 8 fish on a floating line fished with a team of Diawl Bachs.The ladies rod average for the day was above 3 – am impressive performance by all !
The fish have remained very high in the water, and this has been critical to cracking the code to catching them. Your flies have needed to be(the majority of the time) within the top 1foot(higher at times) to stand a chance. Despite the majority of fish being in the surface the di-3 line has also produced some very good catches. I fished on Saturday with Martha Thompson and between us we had 4 fish in the boat by lunchtime on the di-3 line using Fab blobs and diawl bachs. Several of the England ladies took their catches on di-3 lines in the national on Sunday.
Neil Bridges of Coventry took the best fish of the week, and the 2nd biggest brown of the season, landing a cracking brown of 8lb. Neil took this fish in the middle whilst fishing on the rudder.Ed Douglas landed 17 trout, 3 of them weighing over 4lb(estimated).Mr Mclellan landed 14 fish, all on a size 14 caenis pattern.
The bank in comparison has been slower, however the Tower bank has started to produce some good catches, with Rainbow Corner also producing some fish. The evenings is the best time from the bank at the moment.
Best flies from the boats have been – Green holo diawl bachs, red holo diawl bachs, crunchers, yellow owl dry fly, claret shipmans buzzers, daddies, hoppers, F- flies, tequila fab blobs, woofter booby, and various blobs. Size 12 in the nymphs and sizes down to 16’s with the dry flies have been working best. The best lines have been a floating line, midge tip and a di-3.
The best flies from the bank have been daddies, diawl bachs, small buzzers, and minkies
Sunday October the 13th is our next £1000 boat pairs match. Fished to reservoir rules, and fish with your chosen partner.The heaviest pairs weight wins £1000 cash. £25 entry fee pp plus fishing fees. Entry fee is expected at time of booking. The prize fund is subject to number of entrants and could therefore possibly change.
With the first hints of autumn these last few mornings, I predict the fishing to continue to improve over the next month or so. We recommend if you plan to fish from the boat that you do pre book one as we are busy over the next month, especially weekends.
Why not take advantage of our last 4 hour ticket, still priced at £10 for one fish and continued catch and release, or hire a boat as well for only £10(between 2 anglers!!!)
Number of rods 334
Number of fish taken 363
Number of fish returned 479
Rod average 2.5
Tight lines
Craig Barr www.flashattackflies.com