Draycote Water weekly report week ending 9th September 2018
Telephone Number 01788 812018
Another cooler week teamed with light winds and overcast conditions saw several perfect days, resulting in some excellent rod averages. The continuing cooler nights have also helped to drop the water temperature down further, with the mercury hitting 17°C at the time of writing the report. Overall a total of 238 anglers visited the fishery landing a total of 1,297 fish for a rod average of 5.4.
A flat calm start to the week, which looked like it could have proved challenging to present the flies effective to catch good numbers. However, the fish reacted well to the conditions and could be seen moving just under the surface for much of the day. Season ticket holders Jim Smith & Ed Douglas had an absolute red letter day and couldn’t put a foot wrong. With a score a cricketer would have proud of. The pair found most of their fish around A & M buoy drifting towards the Hensbrough bank with what little wind there was. The best tactic was to fish a RIO Midge Tip Long with a cat booby on the point and then cormorants on the droppers. In the evening however, quite a stiff northly wind picked up and a change of areas and tactics was needed. Jim & Ed moved up to the Draycote Dam drifting down from the tower on dries with hoppers and big reds being the best patterns. Kevin Rees opted for dries all day, fishing around C buoy and the aerators to land another impressive score of 29 with bobs bits, crippled midge and hoppers being his top patterns.
The northerly wind from the previous day remained for Tuesday bringing a chill with it. John Dews and Tony Broadway fished washing line technique around N buoy drifting towards Hensbrough before drifting the middle around P buoy to land 19 fish between them. Peter Elliot stuck to dries all day to land 25 fish finding success in the boils to start with before finding great afternoon sport around P buoy using bobs bits. Richard walker fished over the aerators using snakes on intermediates to tempt 13 fish to the boat. Guiding & Tuition Manager Tom Bird took Keith Back out on a 8 hour guiding landing fish in the morning over the boils on an olive weightless snake fished on a RIO Aqualux. Before a change for the last hour and half to dries and drifting down the top dam wall resulted in a further 7 fish on the boat with Harry Potter’s being the top pattern. To book a guide for your next session call the lodge on 01788 812018. Gary Turner & Dad Dave enjoyed tremendous sport on a last four hour ticket boating 18 fish all on Big Reds.
A lovely cloudy day Wednesday meant some great dry fly sport, the only problem was when the sun broke through at around 3pm the fish weren’t as keen to poke their noses through. Lester Booth & Nigel Nixon landed 30 fish to the boat on dries in the morning and then washing line in the afternoon with red shipmen’s being the best pattern. They found the fish around the tower and towards C buoy and then across the middle. Dave Kennell & Alec Urquhart landed 13 fish using daddies fished on a floating line, the key was to fish them dry and then if nothing came and ate figure of eight them just subsurface.
A sunny start to the day but the cloud soon rolled in around mid morning. Once again season ticket holders Ed & Jim took the boat landing 50 fish between them. The tactics for the day where like Monday with washing line on the RIO Midge Tip Long producing the results, with the stand out pattern being a gold arsed cat booby. The pair found the best drifts on the day to be from D buoy just off Dunn’s Bay to P buoy then from P down to Lincroft shoal and F buoy. Kevin Rees stuck to dries all day with Bob’s Bits and hoppers producing landing 22 fish on bob’s bits and hopper. Welsh anglers Phil Wood & Brian Parry enjoyed a great day landing 58 fish from D buoy to the open water using a long midge tip with boobies and cormorants.
A sunny start to the day with winds swinging a little more into the south west. Lester Booth & Phil Hallam landed 32 fish on dries with ginger hoppers and big red being the best pattern with the Draycote Dam to the middle being the best areas. Paul Mitchell and Dave Kennell landed 21 fish on daddies and washing line in the same areas. Mark Hunt landed 8 fish on diawl bachs through the middle and then in Biggin Bay with the bets fish being a 4lb 6oz rainbow. Phil Wood and Brian Parry once again enjoyed great sport washing lining through the middle on a mix of cat boobies and cormorants. On the bank Tony Ward enjoyed a good mornings sport landing 6 fish from Biggin Bay on black diawl bachs. Brian Warwick also enjoyed good sport from Biggin picking up 5 fish.
Saturday saw a cloudy start with the wind in the south west, which strengthened as the day wore on, as the wind increased it also brought in some rain. On the bank father son team of Nick & Martin Hollingshead landed 7 fish from the Swan’s nest & Biggin Bay on a Montana and buzzers. Also, on the bank Mike Garner landed 5 fish from Tower bank all on crunchers. Ed Upton & son Will landed 24 fish between them on dries and washing line from various areas of the lake. Corey & Chad Russel boated 26 with most of their fish coming from drifts off the Draycote Dam wall on dries. Tom Finney & Jonathan Fromant also used washing line and dry fly tactics to land 21 fish with drifts around P Buoy and D Buoy proving successful. William Crawford used slightly different tactics to the rest of the anglers to land 10 fish. Will found the fish keen to chase a cat booby on a di 5 sweep line drifting near A buoy.
On Sunday Draycote played host to the Youth National Championship with 21 juniors’ fishing for a place in the 2019 England Youth Team. The comp was a complete catch and release match with all fish measured and released. The day was broken into two 3 hour session with place points being used. Windy conditions made presentation a challenge. After several of the lads caught well on washing line techniques and dries on practice it was pulling flies on a di 5 sweep that produced the goods for the match with drifts around A buoy being the most successful area. Winning the day was Harrison Douds who caught 9 fish for 6 place points. Using a gold arsed cat booby on the point a cormorant in the middle then a tequila blob on the top dropper. In second place was Jake Leake and third Corey Russell. Draycote would like to congratulate all the qualifiers and thank the boatmen for giving up their time as without them these events couldn’t happen.
Outside the match Andrew Marton & Spencer Williams landed 38 fish on diawl bachs and hares ears drifting from Rainbow corner out on the open water.
Weekly Boat draw
Congratulations to T Evans from Kirkby In Ashfield. the winner of this week’s free boat draw.
Weekly Stats:
Number Rods: 238 Number Trout Taken: 189 Number Trout Released: 1108
Total Catch: 1297 Weekly Rod Average: 5.4
Current Fishing Times:
Bank: 07:30 until 19:45
Boat All Day: 07:30 until 19:45
Boat Part Day: AM 08:30 until 14:00 PM 14:00 until 19:45
Last 4 Hours from: 15:45 until 19:45 (Ticket sales available from 15:00)
Gutting Room Closes – 19:15
All Anglers to be off site by: 20:15
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
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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