Draycote Water weekly report week ending 29th July 2018
Telephone Number 01788 812018
Report
A week of two halves with the first part, continuing in the same form as the previous two with temperatures well into the 20s with light winds and bright sun. However, by the end of the week the temperatures had dropped down around 15°C bringing some much needed winds to help cool surface temperatures. This drop in temperatures helped to bring the fish towards the surface meaning that some fantastic top of the water sport could be had. Overall a total of 116 anglers visited the fishery landing a total of 353 trout for a rod average of 3.
Monday started warm with high cloud and a light south westerly wind. Rod Wilson took to the water to land 6 fish from the boils on a di 7 sinking line and a gold tube. Season ticket holders Jim Smith & Ed Douglas had a good day’s sport landing 17 but it wasn’t till 6pm when they found the method to unlocking the door to success. Using a di 8 with cormorants around A & B buoy before a change to dries for the last hour.
A cloudy start to Tuesday which soon brightened up to another warm day by 11am. Mr Mclean fished a black a green snake on a sinking line by C Buoy to boat 4 fish. Season ticket holder Jim Hall also landed 4 fish fishing around the boils and B Buoy. Darren Fox out for an afternoon landed 4 fish drifting between A-B buoy with Midas being the best flies.
A very warm day Wednesday which saw the surface water temperature start the day at 25°C. As expected these flat very hot conditions made for some challenging fishing for those anglers who headed out on the day. Stephen Mclean fished with a di 7 sinking line and a mix of hot head damsels and gold humungous on the boils to land 8 fish on a very tricky day. Season ticket holder Jim Smith fished a last four hour on dries to land 5 fish over the deep water around B buoy and then the boils. In House guide Lee Henfrey took Darren Fox out for an afternoon guide with the pair landing 10 fish between them in a 4 hour guide. The pair used sinking lines with a mix and cormorants and boobies around B buoy.
Terrible conditions with not a breath of wind all day and bright sun Thursday resulted in only a boat going out landing 1 fish apiece of the boils. Friday saw the start if the much needed cooler temperatures and overcast conditions. This saw the fishing improve overnight. However, it wasn’t till later in the day around 6pm when the fish really started to pull back. Season ticket holder Jim Smith hit this window on a last four hour landing 15 fish all on orange daddies fished just underneath the surface. Jim found that the key was to just move them slightly and the fish would and lock up, with b buoy being the hotspot.
A windy wet day Saturday, with strong south westerly winds. The rudder lads Ifor Jones and Jim Dempsey found these conditions great enjoying good sport landing 12 fish to the boat using a mixture of snakes and tubes on di 7 sinking lines. Paul Davison enjoyed good sport fishing midas landing 14 fish across Rainbow Corner and going towards B buoy and out from the Draycote Dam. Scott Graham practicing for the Scierra Pairs the following day used a floating line with 2 FABS and 2 nymphs to enjoy great sport drifting out of Rainbow corner and commented at one stage he couldn’t get his flies back the boat without a fish on.
Sunday saw Draycote host the final round of the Scierra pairs with 16 pairs all fishing for 4 places in final at Grafham in September. The match fished to a 3.2 fish rod average with 3 pairs all catching their 12 fish limits, with a further 3 pairs all with 10. So it was very close affair for the 4 places in the final. Winning the day, Gary Owen & Dom Sheratte who fished around Rainbow corner and A buoy with Gary on dries while Dom pulled tubes on a di 5 sweep. In second place was new member of staff Mark Haycock and Neil Deakin who used pink snakes again on a di 5 sweep around Rainbow Corner and A buoy. In third season ticket holder Alec Urquhart & Bernie Maher used dries and snatchers on floating lines to land their 12 fish. Then in 4th beating Draycote Ranger Lee Henfrey & Ronnie Gent by half a pound was Scott Graham & Paul Morris who used the same tactics as the day before to land 10 fish again with A buoy and Rainbow coroner being the hotspot. Outside of the competition Matt & Callum Russel landed over 20 fish to the boat including some fantastic overwintered fish but kept the tactics close to their chest as Callum is competing in the youth international on Wednesday.
Looking ahead to the coming week Draycote looks forward to hosting all the home nations on Monday and Tuesday ahead of the youth international on Wednesday. With the water temperature cooling off over the weekend and the fish coming up in the water we are expecting to have some good sport for the nations and wish them all the best of luck.
Weekly Boat draw
Congratulations to Mark Harrison from Walsall who is the winner of this week’s free boat draw.
Weekly Stats:
Number Rods: 116 Number Trout Taken: 132 Number Trout Released: 221
Total Catch: 353 Weekly Rod Average: 3.0
Current Fishing Times:
Bank: 07:30 until 21:15
Boat All Day: 07:30 until 21:30
Boat Part Day: AM 08:30 until 15:00 PM 15:00 until 21:15
Last 4 Hours from: 17:15 until 21:15 (Ticket sales available from 17:00)
Gutting Room Closes – 20:45
All Anglers to be off site by: 21:30
Guiding & Tuition.
New for the 2018 season the Guiding & Tuition team will running a blog. The idea of this blog is to provide hints and tips from your guides to help keep you catching depending on the conditions, tackle reviews and write up of guiding sessions. To have a look at the blog please visit http://www.flyfishtuition.co.uk/latest-report/
Dates for the Diary
Scierra Pairs – Sunday 29th July- To book please visit https://www.scierrapairs.co.uk/ (organiser Phil Dixon)
Youth International Wednesday 1st August- PLEASE NOTE ALL BOATS ARE BOOKED FOR THIS EVENT
Angler World Fly Fishing Championship- Saturday 11th August (Any Line) & Sunday 12th August (Floating line)- To book please visit http://anglersworld.flyfishingchampionships.uk/ (organiser John Horsey)
Trout Masters
Draycote has joined the Troutmasters Competition. Entry forms can be found next to the booking out sheets. You will need a member of staff to countersign your entry. Good luck!
Troutmasters Final – Monday 8th October – See Fishery staff. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FISHERY WILL BE CLOSED FOR THE DAY FOR THIS BOAT & BANK EVENT
Tight lines,
The Draycote Team
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