Draycote Water weekly report week ending 24th June 2018
Telephone Number 01788 812018
Report
A windy start to the week with the winds up towards the high teens, however by the end of the week these had dropped giving way to some fantastic fishing conditions. The great top of the water fishing that had been seen towards the end of the previous week continued for most of this week with most of fish being caught in the top few feet of the water. Another busy week here at Draycote with 350 rods visiting landing a total of 1635 for a rod average of 1635.
A windy start to Monday with 18pmh winds coming from the south west with bright skies greeting anglers. Out on the rudder regular Rod Wilson was accompanied by his wife Sheryl for the day. The husband and wife team enjoyed a great day’s sport landing 13 fish between them on a Di 7 with tubes. Their 6 fish weighed an impressive 19lb 8oz with the biggest tipping the scales at 5lb 4oz. On the bank Terry Tappenden enjoyed great sport from Rainbow Corner landing 9 fish all on claret bob’s bits. Northern anglers Tim Grove and Gordon Byers enjoyed great sport on the first of their three-day break, landing 26 fish to the boat. The majority of their fish came to buzzer fished in Rainbow Corner, however a evening rise did prompt a switch to big reds continued the good sport throughout the day.
A drop on the winds and overcast conditions, saw some great returns on a variety of methods to give a rod average for the day of 6.5. Colin Day fished off the bank in Rainbow corner to land 7 fish on black buzzers. Season Ticket holder Brian Allwood also enjoyed a good day’s sport off the bank landing 9 fish again all to buzzers. Out on the boats fellow season ticket holder Tony Broadway fished with John Clifford and between them they landed 20 fish. In the morning they used tubes and minkies deep around the middle before changing to Big Reds in the afternoon. Gordon Byers & Tim Grove fished dries around the Outlet, Inlet and Rainbow Corner using Big reds to land 36 fish. Andy Birkett & Brett Vinall got the first day of three days break off to a flyer landing 31 fish. The pair fished around Rainbow Corner and D buoy using a mixture of dries and washing line techniques. Big reds and Crippled Midge being the best pattern on the dries and on the washing line hares’ ears and diawl bachs proved the most effective.
Wednesday saw the wind speed increase again making presentation slightly trickier, however, while the wind increased the cloud cover remained resulting in the fish staying near the surface. On the bank season ticket holder Richard Walker landed 8 fish all on Diawl Bachs in Rainbow Corner. Wednesday was clearly a day for Richard Walker’s as the other season ticket holder Richard Walker landed 17 fish from a boat using buzzers and nymphs from Rainbow Corner. Andy Birkett and Brent Vinall once again found the fish keen to take either dries or washing lined nymphs. The pair found that the bets tactic for the day was to drift out over the deeper water around B buoy and in the bigger wave a larger Midas proved to be the best fly. Season ticket holder John Dickens used crippled midge drifting towards A buoy to land 14 fish. Also out on the water was Gareth Jones and Steve Cullen the pair landed 37 fish between them using hoppers and daddies fished along the top dam wall. Gareth also landed a cracking 6lb brown from the top dam wall on a small suspender fry, pictures of the fish can be seen at www.facebook.com/flyfishstore.
A change in the wind direct Thursday with it swinging into the North West and like Monday blowing in the high teens. Peter Elliot & Lee Patten enjoyed a good day sport fishing all along the top dam wall and over the boils to land nearly 40 fish to the boat. The pair found the fish once again keen on the dries with big reds working but also fishing a washing line technique with hot head diawl bachs. John Hurst & Richard Wood enjoyed a real red letter day boating over 60 fish to the boat fishing over the boils with snakes. Season ticket holder Gordan Bramwell & boat partner K Cooke landed 23 fish to the boat drifting along the top dam wall on washing line and dries. Once again Andy Birkett and Brent Vinall enjoyed top quality sport landing 33 fish. The pair found that the fish didn’t really want dries on Thursday and that the best tactic was to use a washing line again with Hare’s Ears before a change to straight lining in the afternoon, with the best area being near A buoy. Paul Angell took advantage of the afternoon ticket to land 9 fish with 4 falling to a claret hopper fished dry and the other 5 to a washing line. Paul found that the best area was to drift around D buoy.
The wind dropped on Friday but remined in the North West, which gave much easier conditions for presenting a fly. Friday and the Civil Service held their national final with 28 anglers taking part from all different regions across the UK. The match was fished to a 4 fish kill limit with a further 8 fish released then stop fishing with no time bonus for quick finishes, this meant that landing good quality fish in the first 4 was needed. The 28 anglers landed an impressive 198 fish giving them a rod average of 7 of the match. Taking top honours was J Underwood whose 4 fish bag weight tipped the scales at 9lb 4oz which with his returned fish gave him a total weight of 25lb 4oz. The best tactics in the match were to fish around the boils and down the top dam wall either fishing a team of nymphs or pulling snakes. While there was no bonus for quick finishes K Thomas had his 12 fish by 11am, some going as the match only started at 9.30!
Outside the match Draycote members Tony Broadway & John Dews fished along the Tower Bank to land 8 and 9 fish each. Their best method was a tequila FAB on the point a black buzzer and then a diawl bach.
A hazy day Saturday which helped to mask the glare of the sun, as a result the fish where in the top 2ft of the water column. As you might expect in conditions like these dries played a massive part with the Welsh Youth team landing some great numbers on dries, fishing around the top dam wall, Tower Bank and the boils. Rudder specialists Ifor Jones & Jim Dempsey for the second Saturday in a row enjoyed great sport. Using di 3 sinking lines with a mix of snakes and tubes to land 31 fish. Another angler utilising the rudder to great effect was Melvin Severn who landed 9 fish during a half day fishing deep around B buoy with a tube. On the bank Mike Garner landed 7 fish from Biggin Bay and Lincroft Point on various bloodworm variants. Steve Gibson also fished off the bank to land a dozen fish from Biggin Bay all on black buzzers. Lester Booth & Martin Greatbatch enjoyed a good day’s sport on the dries landing 17 fish each all on dries, with shipman’s buzzers being the bets patterns. Shaun Higgins & Ian Bradfield enjoyed good sport landing 38 fish to the boat drifting near Rainbow Corner. Season Ticket holders Jim Smith & Ed Douglas landed over 30 fish to the boat all on dries with Big Reds being the best pattern fished along the top dam wall and coming out over the deep water around B Buoy.
A very hot flat calm day greeted the anglers on Sunday with temperatures over 25°C with little to no wind. As expected with such bright conditions after a day of near perfect conditions the day before the fish did not really feed and as a result the fishing was tricky. The Welsh youth team once again took to the water on the second day of their training weekend and did land 52 fish between their 9 boats. They found that in the hot weather the fish pulled well on the boils in the morning to blobs and other lures fished on intermediate line but then as the sun got hotter the fishing went much harder. Season ticket holder Richard Walker with boat partner Pete Davis enjoyed a good day’s sport in the tricky conditions landing 17 fish between them. Again, they found that fishing with lures and buzzers on the boil was the best tactic. Jim Smith and Ed Douglas had limited success to CDC culs in the morning before the heat of the day took hold and then after that landed about 5 fish on various blobs and lures fished on sinkers again with the boils being the best area.
Weekly Boat draw
Congratulations to Nick Lant of Leicester the winner of this week’s free boat draw.
Weekly Stats:
Number Rods: 350 Number Trout Taken: 348 Number Trout Released: 1287
Total Catch: 1635 Weekly Rod Average: 4.67
Current Fishing Times:
Bank: 07:30 until 22:00
Boat All Day: 07:30 until 22:00
Boat Part Day: AM 08:30 until 15:00 PM 15:00 until 22:00
Last 4 Hours from: 18:00 until 22:00 (Ticket sales available from 17:45)
Gutting Room Closes – 21:30
All Anglers to be off site by: 22:15
Dates for the Diary
Alex Booth Annual Charity Match – Thursday 28thJune
Scierra Pairs – Sunday 29th July- To book please visit https://www.scierrapairs.co.uk/ (organiser Phil Dixon)
Angler World Fly Fishing Championship- Saturday 4th August (Any Line) & Sunday 5th 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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