Draycote Water weekly report week ending 1st July 2018
Telephone Number 01788 812018
Report
To say it has been a warm week would be somewhat of an understatement, with temperatures in excess of 30°C on the hottest days with cloudless blue skies & bright sunshine for most of the period. On Friday it was announced that it had been the fourth hottest consecutive day of the year! Not unexpectedly, this made the weeks fishing particularly challenging and the water temperature in the top 18 inches has now reached 21°C. Virtually no-one has ventured out on the banks this week because of the weather conditions. However, some of the boat anglers found the key to catching in the heat with various good scores posted in spite on the conditions. A total of 177 anglers visited the water landing a total of 231 for a road average of 1.3
Monday kicked off where Sunday had finished, with a , calm start and a ripple picking up in the afternoon. Out on the boats Mr D Priestley landed a catch of 6 fish from the boils on lures fished on a medium sinking line. Also in a boat, but opting to fish in Rainbow Corner, was the pairing of Tim Simpson & Paul Vincent. They boated 5 rainbows between them on buzzer fished on a floating line.
Another seriously hot day on Tuesday, but fortunately the ripple remained for most of the day which took a slight edge of the serious heat of the day. Again though, another tricky one although season ticket holder Peter Fisher enjoyed a good days sport boating six. He found the fish in Toft willing to take a goldhead damsel fished on the point on a long leader with a floating line. Mr G McCulloch landed a brace in the morning using a di 7 sinking line and a sparkler booby through the deep water in the middle. Mr A Campbell enjoyed the best of the sport by fishing the last four hours to land 7 fish from the boils on sinking lines.
On Wednesday we had an overcast start to the day with a cooler, northerly breeze. Unfortunately, the cloud cover only lasted a few hours to once again be replaced with full sun. Geoff Preston fished for a few hours in the morning before it got too hot fishing over the top of Middle Shoal at P Buoy with a “Wet-Cel2” sinking line and a damsel. Fishing on the boils with sinking lines and snakes John Hurst and R Wood enjoyed a good day’s sport boating a joint total of 11 rainbows. Tim Lycett fished an orange blob on an intermediate line with a short leader near the nature reserve buoys in Toft to land three with his session including plenty of other takes and chances.
Thursday saw the Alex Booth host their annual charity match with 54 anglers taking to the water. Given the excessive heat all anticipated that the match would be a difficult one and this turned out to be the case with the anglers landing a total of 77 fish for a rod average of 1.4. The best areas seemed to be coming off the Cornfield, down the Draycote Dam, across the boils and near A Buoy. Competitors deployed a variety of tactics with goldhead damsels catching, washing lined nymphs and the odd fish coming to dries. However, a couple of anglers really found what the fish wanted on a difficult day and produced a fantastic bag in the hard conditions. Season ticket holder Paul Mitchell used a di 5 forty plus fished short, with two FABS and two Buzzers static. Paul drifted around A buoy and commented that all the takes came when the line was vertical. Also using this tactic to great effect was another season ticket holder Dave Kennell who boated six.
A cloudy start to the day again on Friday with a north eastly wind. Once more though this was soon burnt off to leave a blistering hot day with bright sun & cloudless skies for the duration. Out for the morning Paul Davison fished Midas in the sun to boat 4 on searching drifts through the middle. Dave East was another angler to fish the morning landing a brace back-drifting with tubes on a di 7-sinking line, once again through the middle. However, the best catch of the day came from Jamie Scott who ended the day with a fine catch of nine rainbows. Jamie located taking fish drifting out of Toft, at Lincroft Point and on the Aerators. His best tactics were using sinking lines ranging from a di 3 to a di 7 to search out various layers in the water column with a mix of tubes and damsels. Tubes over the boils on a di 7 took most of his fish.
We tried to get the boats out as fast as we could on Saturday morning to give anglers the best benefit from a cooler, cloudy start to the day – before the inevitable burn off by mid-morning. It certainly assisted Mark Hunt who actually took a fish to a dry fly on his first cast! Regulars Jim Dempsey & Melvin Severn both took morning boats to explore the deeper marks on the rudder. Both found fish with Jim taking six deep in the vicinity of the Aerator whilst Melvin concentrated his efforts in the vicinity of B Buoy to end with a fine six fish limit with a further three caught & released. His best was a fine rainbow of 5lbs 8oz. Sean & John Hanlon shared a morning boat & searched all over before finding numerous fish holding deep coming out of Toft. They had a purple patch around midday landing four & five respectively with Sean using tubes presented on a Di8 & John on a Di7 in conjunction with a boobie minkie. As the temperatures began to drop later in the day Paul Cramp did well in his afternoon/evening boat with a 7 fish total which he took on a Sedgehog & buzzer team.
This reporting period ended with a slightly cooler Sunday which also had the benefit of reasonable cloud during the afternoon. Fishing orange boobies by the Draycote Dam wall season ticket holders Martyn Price & Dave Hancox, landed 7 fish to the boat. Mr T Warden & I Stevens used snakes over the boils on sinking lines to land 8 fish between them for the day. Fishing the last four hours to avoid the main heat of the day was Matt Marston & Paul Murphy who again used snakes to land 6 fish from the boils with black and green snakes being the best colour combination.
Looking ahead to the coming week, there is hot weather forecast for the early part of the week, so the best tactics will continue to be fishing deep to drop below the 21°C surface temperatures. However, looking at the forecast for later in the week there is the chance of overcast conditions and rain which should hopefully drop the surface temperatures.
Weekly Boat draw
Congratulations to M Severn of Loscoe the winner of this week’s free boat draw.
Weekly Stats:
Number Rods: 177 Number Trout Taken: 139 Number Trout Released: 92
Total Catch: 231 Weekly Rod Average: 1.3
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
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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