Draycote Water weekly fishing report week ending Sunday 21st July 2019
Tel: 01788 812018
Generally a hard seven days, especially when compared to the exceptional fishing many experienced the previous week. A total of 305 anglers fished the venue with a total catch for the week of 945 representing a rod average of 3.0.
Contrasting with the great weather conditions & fishing at the weekend, anglers on both Monday & Tuesday had to contend with bright sunshine, limited cloud cover, almost flat calms & temperatures of 21 & 22°C. This encouraged an algal bloom which made things even more challenging. Whilst the rod average dropped to 2.3 from the impressive 6.9 of Sunday, Ged O’Donoghue managed 4 on snake patterns, Kevin Rees netted 8 to his dries and a 4 fish limit taken for the pot by Mr Brown weighed in at 11½lbs. Of the 72 fish anglers caught on Monday, most came from the deeper, open water with many fishing the aerators. Mr & Mrs Ryalls enjoyed a tuition session with guide Lee Henfrey and netted 7 between them using buzzers under an indicator. Lee noted that the holding depth appeared to be around eight feet sub-surface. Tuesday proved to be harder still with numerous blank rods, although Terry Evans and Joe Bilinski boat fishing did well with Diawl Bachs netting 5 & 9 respectively. Peter Elliott alternated between teams of washing lined nymphs & dries to end the day with 11 to the net from the aerators. Weather conditions improved a little for Wednesday with a 9-10mph south westerly wind and good cloud cover, although it did remain very humid & sticky. Six anglers fished the bank, but all drew a blank. As ever though, there were successes, with best boat for the day being that of Eugene Hughes sharing his boat with Gary Owen. They concentrated their efforts over the middle, together with drifts through “A” buoy, alternating between dries and pulled lures fished on a Di3 sweep. Whilst not recording his method, location or patterns, Mr J Shiers did record his visit as being his best day ever! He netted an 11 fish total which included two rainbows at 5lbs+. John Clifford was also into action having located feeding fish deep over the middle. Fishing fast sinking lines & snakes he took a fine six fish limit with a further half dozen caught & released in his relatively short morning session. Varied methods remained the order of the day on Thursday with season rod John Dickens seeking out wind lanes in the middle in which to present his dries. He finished his day with 12 rainbows to the net. John Hoskins was on the water and finished with 5 beautiful grown on rainbows for the pot with another 3 caught & released. He commented that he could not get a touch throughout the morning but drifts through “P” Buoy during the afternoon, using olive & black barred mini snakes fished on a Di5, brought him regular action. James Maplethorpe & boat partner Trevor Moore meanwhile stuck with teams of nymphs catching 10 & 12 respectively fishing straight lined Diawl Bachs whilst at anchor approximately 60 yards off the Tower Bank. Of four spooned fish, one was full of shrimps, one was full of daphnia, one was full of snails whilst the fourth contained nothing! A forecast change into Friday saw increased wind speeds, albeit remaining in the south west, on what turned into a very gusty & very wet day & evening. Norman Perkins fished near the Tower with lures on a Di3 sweep to net 8 during his morning session whilst Tony Day did very well in the high winds to boat 5 on Big Reds. Jonathan Wood intercepted pods of feeding fish high in the waves on long central drifts towards Toft & managed a creditable 10 fish total on teams of nymphs. Jim Dempsey fished on the rudder to land 4 for the pot with a further 4 released. He also concentrated on open water with lures & similarly located fish high in the water column. Notwithstanding the very wet conditions, Draycote Water Fly Fishers were out in the evening for a bank session and enjoyed what was probably the best bank sport of the week. Dave Adkins fished the overflow with a team of nymphs on a floater. He hooked and landed, after an epic fight (which at one stage saw him deep into his backing), a grown on rainbow of 5lbs. The fish took his own tied size 14 Hare’s Ear Nymph on the top dropper and is a Draycote personal best for Dave. John Hanlon was fishing next to him & caught four rainbows including one at 4lbs on a holo fritz lure which had also come from Dave’s vice. Will Hunt chose to check out the Swan’s Nest & he found good sport too, landing 3 rainbows to one of his own sedge patterns. The intense rains continued through the night & despite the boat fleet being deep in water by dawn, probably helped to keep rising water temperatures at bay. Our water temperature is currently holding at 20°C.
Most anglers on Saturday were practising for the Angling Trust Team England Fly Fishing Repechage on Sunday with hopes of securing the last remaining places in the National at Chew Valley Lake in September. They were greeted with strong WSW winds gusting up to 24mph with some short, but sharp showers. Most of the anglers wanted to keep their cards close to their chest so the catch return was a bit sparse, however the rod average did come out at 4.1.
Sunday was overcast the whole day with a steady WSW wind blowing at 12 to 14 mph. A total of 38 competitors were fishing for 23 places at Chew. The match was fished on a full catch and release basis with the first 4 fish measured and that total length added together. The remaining fish caught were then netted and immediately released and given the fishery average length of 47cms. It turned out to be a tough day for some competitors with Draycote only giving up a rod average of 2.5. Congratulations to the top 23 anglers who fought their way through to the national. Results are being published by the Angling Trust.
Disabled Anglers
Draycote has a wheelie boat for hire, which includes a ramp and hydraulic lift for wheelchair access. To book the wheelie boat, call the lodge on 01788 812018.
Fishery Tackle Shop & Online Shop
Draycote has a tackle shop at the fishery stocking SAGE, RIO, VISION, REDINGTON, WYCHWOOD, GREYS, SNOWBEE, FULLING MILL, FARIO, LOON, FISHPOND and STREAMWORKS products with demo SAGE, Vision & Redington rods & RIO fly lines for you to take out and try.
We also have an online shop. For all you anglers who might not be aware www.flyfishstore.co.uk is the online store for Draycote and the whole of Fishery Management (UK) Ltd. During the 2019 season we will be looking at doing weekly specials offers on the website. The Fishery Management (UK) ltd guides top flies for all venues for the washing line and sinking lines can be found on the online shop https://www.flyfishstore.co.uk/offers/”
COMPETITIONS During July.
Scierra Pairs – 28th July.
Weather Forecast:
We’re often asked which weather forecast we use. In our experience the BBC regional forecast can be very inaccurate. We tend to lose a lot of customers based on these, and therefore have started using more localised weather apps such as XC Weather or Windguru. These can be downloaded to your phone or computer, and using our post code of CV23 8AB, will give you a dedicated, more accurate forecast for Draycote water.
Weekly Boat draw
Congratulations to Mr Tony Kirk from Tamworth, the winner of this week’s free boat draw.
Weekly Stats:
Number Rods:305 Number Trout Taken:217 Number Trout Released: 728
Total Catch: 945 Rod Average: 3.0
Current Fishing Times:
Bank: 07:30 until 21:30
Boat All Day: 08:30 until 21:30
Boat Part Day: AM 08:30 until 15:00 PM 15:00 until 21:30
Last 4 Hours from: 17:30 until 21:30 (Ticket sales available from 17:15)
Gutting Room Closes: 21:00
All Anglers to be off site by: 21:45
Tight lines,
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