Draycote Water weekly report week ending 13th August 2018
Telephone Number 01788 812018
Report
A total of 220 anglers visited the fishery during this period and enjoyed much better sport towards the middle and end of the week with the benefit of a drop in temperatures. With Wednesday posting a rod average of 6.25, this drop in the air temperature, teamed with some much need rain, has seen a dramatic improvement in fishing. For the week anglers landed a total of 691 fish representing a rod average 3.14
A quite start on Monday with the warm weather keeping most of the anglers away. D Molyneaux enjoyed a good day’s sport landing 5 rainbows from the boils on a floating line with a small foam daddy fished just under the surface.
Tuesday saw another hot sunny day with winds in the south west and surface water temperatures at 24°C in the morning rising slightly as the day progressed. Because of the water temperatures the best sport was found over the boils. Elliot Fawdington & Martin Matthews fished over the aerators using a di 5 sinking line and pink snakes to land 10 fish to the boat. Fabrice Dockier also fished around the boils and C buoy using sinking lines with lures to land 4 fish. In the evening manger Kevin Hart took young angler Chasen and his dad Chris from California out for a short session landing 3 nice rainbows all on foam bodied daddies fished in the boils.
Wednesday saw the break in the weather with the air temperatures dropping down to around 18°C. This caused an overnight drop in water temperature of 1 degree taking it to 23°C and by the evening it had dropped even further to 21.5°C. This drop caused an increase in the rod average with it shooting up to over 6. The boils remained the hotspot but with good cloud cover fish rose generally in the water column to hold just under the surface. Keith Allison & Stuart Foulds enjoyed some great sport fishing floating lines. The pair found the best flies to be black buzzers and diawl bachs with red and green being their favoured colours. They finished the day with 30 fish to the boat. Messrs K James & A Williams also fished the boils but with slow intermediates and a mix for cormorants, boobies and blobs to land 22 to the boat.
A massive drop in overnight temperatures with the mercury hitting 9°C through the night helped to keep the surface temperatures down at 21°C. This resulted in fish on the surface feeding on adult buzzers and sedges first thing in the morning on Thursday. As a result, some good returns came to dries. Season ticket holder Paul Mitchell landed 10 fish on dries around B & A buoy as well as through the middle. Bob’s Bits was his best pattern. Graham Homer also fished dries in the middle around X buoy to boat 5 fish on a half-day session. Graham commented that he had lots of fish come and look at the dries but didn’t commit to taking and it wasn’t until he started to figure of eight the dries he had more positive takes. Fishing on his birthday, Colin England took to the water with regular partner Tony Plummer to enjoy a good days sport and celebrated the occasion landing 10 fish between them. Ian Reeve fished over the boils to land 14 fish for the day on a mix of daddies, diawl bach and the odd one on a snake. Jude Tuffs also fished over the boils with nymphs to boat 11 fish.
Friday saw yet another cloudy start to the day, with conditions looking great for some more of the same top of the water sport following heavy overnight rain. This proved to be the case with all the best returns of the day coming to dry fly tactics. Gordon Bramwell and Phil Thomas enjoyed a good day’s sport landing 15 fish between them fishing around A buoy and C buoy. Davie Auld and Jim Youngman landed 12 fish between them with Davie using dries for his 6 while Jim opted for a di 3 sweep and two FABS. Season ticket holder Kevin Rees took to the water using his trusty 4 weight outfit and dries to land 11 fish all on Bob’s Bits in size 14. Alex Johnstone & Kevin Perry also used dries to land all their 15 fish to the boat. The pair found most of the fish between A-B buoy. Another angler who stuck to the dries all day was Ed Douglas who boated 14 fish all on a big red hopper around B buoy and the Flat Stones.
Saturday saw a busy day at the fishery with every boat out including some of the boats from Eyebrook had been brought over for Youth International last week. A bright start to the day but it did cloud over in the afternoon bringing what looked like near perfect conditions although the fishing didn’t quite live up to the quality of the weather. Invicta FFC took to the water for a club competition which saw 22 anglers land 55 fish for a rod average of 2.5. Winning the match was David Moore who landed 6 fish all of which came close to the boils on small nymphs fished on a floating line. Keith Gilchrist, who also landed 6 from the boils, again on small nymphs but fished on a RIO Midge Tip. Saturday also saw Draycote play host to the “any line day” of the Anglers World Holiday Fly Fishing Championships with 28 anglers also landing 55 fish for a rod average of 1.96. Winning the match was Fabrice Dockier from Belgium with a 5 fish total. He used nymphs on a floating line around A buoy. In second place was Alex Johnstone who landed 1 more fish than Fabrice with 6 but unfortunately for Alex the 3 on the scales weighed less. Alex used small diawl bachs, figure of eighted on a floater, around A & B buoys. For the full copy of the results please visit John Horsey’s Facebook page.
More heavy overnight rain on Saturday combined with overcast, showery skies all day on Sunday, provided good conditions for the “floating line only” heat of the Anglers World Holiday Championship. The constant cloud and rain obviously had a positive impact with a total catch of 187 rainbows representing a rod average of 5.67 for the event. Our congratulations go to 17 year old England Youth International Seth Mayhew-Tuson who showed his class in a field of great anglers by boating 12 fish to win the heat Seth used dries all day in the middle of the lake at X buoy to take all his fish on a straight southerly wind, His best pattern was a midas. The methods for those who caught well seemed to be a bit of a mix with three main tactics shining out: either dries, washing lining or pulling fabs and boobies through the surface.
Looking ahead to next week, forecasts look favourable, so we hope to see water temperatures to continue to drop, and with it an increase in fish activity.
Weekly Boat draw
Congratulations to Ian Gaskell from Wigan, the winner of this week’s free boat draw.
Weekly Stats:
Number Rods: 220 Number Trout Taken: 290 Number Trout Released: 401
Total Catch: 691 Weekly Rod Average: 3.14
Current Fishing Times:
Bank: 07:30 until 20:45
Boat All Day: 07:30 until 20:45
Boat Part Day: AM 08:30 until 14:30 PM 14:30 until 20:45
Last 4 Hours from: 16:45 until 20:45 (Ticket sales available from 16:30)
Gutting Room Closes – 20:15
All Anglers to be off site by: 21:00
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
English Youth National – ! Request for Boatmen!
Draycote is pleased to once again be hosting the English Youth National which will take place on Sunday 9th September. However, to help make the event as successful as possible we are looking for volunteer boatmen for the day. Their role is predominantly to ensure the young anglers have a safe & enjoyable day, fishing fairly and in a friendly spirit. Competitors will all be looking to fulfil their dream of competing for England in next year’s youth international. If you have an interest in assisting us with this event as a volunteer boatman , please contact the lodge on 01788 812018.
All boatmen will receive a free boat voucher in appreciation of their assistance. These will be valid for use at any of our fisheries.
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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