Draycote Report W/E 4th July 2021

Weekly Fishing Report: Draycote, Eyebrook & Thornton

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Draycote Fishery Weekly Report – 01788 812018

**New Email Address**: draycote@flyfishstore.co.uk

Week Ending Sunday 4^th July 2021   Rod Av: 2.8  Water Temperature: 19 °C

A wet start to Monday with heavy rain in the morning which cleared by mid-morning, although showers persisted throughout the rest of the day. John Clifford landed 18 fish fishing big lures deep around the middle with Drifts from P to Y Buoy being his best drifts. Norman Perkins took 7 fish from Toft using a washing line. Mr Hamilton enjoyed a great afternoon session on dries landing 7 fish from Toft. The rod average for the day fished at 3.8 fish per angler. With more overcast conditions forecast later in the week we are expecting some good fishing this week.

Favourable conditions greeted the anglers on Tuesday with light northerly winds and overcast conditions. As a result there was lots of fish on the surface but proved challenging to catch. It sounds like from the anglers reports the fish may have been on the Pinfry or small green midge. All water season ticket holder Ed Douglas landed 9 fish on dries. Draycote member Tony Broadway used sunk lines and lures back drifting through the middle to land 11 fish. Andrew Smith & Tony Fox also used dries small CDC shuttlecock and F Flies to boat an impressive 22 fish.

Yet more good conditions with winds coming from the Northeast and overcast skies all day. On the bank Mr B Joseph landed a brace early morning from Toft with the fish close in. On the boats Kevin Rees used crippled midge dry flies to land a dozen fish. Peter Elliot & Lee Patten fished the afternoon on dries to boat 18 fish with bob’s bits and midas being their best patterns. Pete Flay also enjoyed a good afternoon landing a dozen fish. Alex Campbell fished used a washing line before changing to dries landing 7 fish with his best drifts being E – P Buoy and D Buoy to the Aerators. Draycote season ticket holder John Clifford landed 18 fish around P Buoy and middle shoal fishing deep with various different lures.

Very light winds in the morning Thursday which did drop out completely in the afternoon, with the sun also making an appearance. Steve Barby fished with boat partner Nigel to land 15 fish between them concentrating their efforts on the shoals in the middle of the lake. Ali Tate & Jim Burtle down on a 3 day break enjoyed some great sport boating 24 fish. The pair used Hare Ears CDC in the morning and then the Bung and Buzzers in the afternoon with he fish taking the buzzers deep at 12ft. The best area was around K buoy. Gary Russell fished the last four hours landing 7 fish commenting on a “great evening” and lost a number of others.

Craig Smith fished in the morning on Friday landing 7 fish, he caught 5 of them on Hares Ear CDC before swapping to a Di 5 and blobs at Dunn’s to land his other 2. James Maplethorpe & Trevor Moore landed 16 fish all on straight lines buzzers and Diawl Bachs around the Saddle Bank and the outlet. Season ticket holder Dan McElligott fished with girlfriend Ellie landed 9 fish between them in an afternoon season fishing over the Aerators with pink snakes on intermediate sinking lines and also Di 5 sinking lines. Darren Woodmass & Davie Parker using buzzers through the middle to boat 13 between them. However top boat on the day was once again Ali Tait & Jim Burtle who landed 21 fish, they fished dries in the morning before switching to buzzers there best drift was the open water drifting towards P Buoy.

Light breezes with some rain was the forecast for Saturday and it didn’t disappoint. Mike Garner caught 4 fish from the bank using holographic hares ears by the Overflow and in Rainbow Corner. Mr Keith and Mr Greg Williams had 7 fish to the boat on buzzers and big reds. Mr D Parker and Mr D Woodmass caught a total of 18 fish, using a single sunburst blob on a fast glass line, and deep buzzers. Jim Burtle and Ali Tait had yet another good day out on the water, catching a bakers dozen on a mixture of mini snakes and daddies.

A rather muggy start to Sunday morning led through to another day of light breezes and scattered showers. The reservoir fished quite well considering the conditions with a wide variety of methods bringing fish to the net. Season permit holder Stephen Dewhurst had a brace from the bank on nymphs. Young Richard Walker used black snakes on a DI 6 line through the aerators to net 10 good fish. Jim Smith and Ed Douglas had 20 fish to the boat between them on a mixture of dries such as a ginger midas. Mr Malcolm Bryan caught a total of 10 fish on a sunburst booby and had many more follows. Mr Alan Sharp and his boat partner James Alexander used the unsinkable dry to net 3 fish from Rainbow Corner during a short morning session.

Thornton Fishery Weekly Report – 01530 230807

**New Email Address**: thornton@flyfishstore.co.uk

Week ending 4^th July 2021    Rod Av: 3.3   Water Temperature: 18c+ to 20c

With a cooler forecast for the next few days were hoping the fish stay in the top 4ft to 6ft.

Paul Martindale caught 3 for his mornings visit fishing a washing line, but had plenty of nips and follows when he pulled them through the surface. Mick Litchfield had a quiet morning before moving to fish in front of the main dam, catching 3 and losing just as many. All water member Jamie Scott caught 6 for his visit catching on a humungus in the morning but using a small black bits in the afternoon evening

Cooler weather is certainly improving the sport with the majority of trout yesterday caught in the top 3ft with some rods on dries. Alan Wither caught 20 from the Markfield arm to the dam with a sunburst FAB, crunchers & diawls. Mick Glover fished a short 2 hour session catching 4 on a size #14 crippled midge, Ian Leach also fished Fab & crunchers to catch his 4 trout. Carl Burdett caught 5 for his mornings visit with Arthur Olding fishing a crippled midge pattern tied by Mick Glover & a yellow owl pattern tied by Mark Hunt to catch 8 trout for his mornings fishing. The cooler weather has helped drop the algae with clarity now good.

Wednesday, the last day of June with the water temperature at 18c at 7.30am, doesn’t get much better than that at this time of year. Hatches of small buzzer #16 #18 with aphids also been blown on the water along with damsel nymphs and a small amount of pin fry has kept the trout feeding in the top layers of the water, with floating, midge tip or intermediate all that’s required. Richard Price fished a small sparkler booby in front of the dam catching 5 trout, Russ Martin fished dries catching 6 but losing a further 3 for his mornings visit, Mrs Leslie Wooley on her first visit to Thornton caught 3 on an orange blob pulled through the surface with S Weedon fishing the evenings rise catching 4 in front of the dam. Fish were moving off and on during the day from the middle of the Markfield arm all the way to the dam wall.

Thursday following another cool night our water temperature at 7.30am was 18c and as I arrived at the main gate at 7.00am you could see trout rising across the reservoir. A busy morning with most of the boat out an on the whole they weren’t disappointed, fish moved well during the morning through to the evening, prepared to feed our rod average 4.1

Morning was definitely best, Andy Lilly & Graham England caught 24 down the Markfield arm on dries, emergers & suspenders. Howard Davies targeted the pin fry feeders in front of the dam using a small sparkler catching 10 trout, small black dries caught 5 for M Huffer with a red diawl ensuring D Pritchard caught his 4 fish. With the trout in a chasing move R Knapp fished a tequila blob to catch his 9 trout.

Fish did move in the evening, not as many & they were preoccupied on tiny #20 #22 black or vivid green midge.

Friday the water temperature was 18.5c at 7.30am the cooler morning fished best with trout again in the top 3ft Brian Perry caught 12 for the morning session on buzzer & damsels, James Smith fished hoppers, damsel, diawls to catch his 9 trout with P Hunt catching 5 on dries & cdc. All Water Member P Walker caught 18 on a damsel & that excellent but little used traditional palmered wet fly the Kate Mclaren. Again, the cooler morning fished best before the warmer afternoon temperature. An excellent day for July with a rod average 5

Saturday and Sunday following two humid nights our water temperature had risen to nearly 20c A few fish were moving with pin fry feeders off the wood and in front of the main dam. Martin Clay caught 4 with Brian Sibley catching 3 on floating lines with cdc & dries. Little or no evening rise.

Eyebrook Fishery Weekly Report – 01536 770264

**New Email Address**: eyebrook@flyfishstore.co.uk

Week ending 4^th July 21                 Rod Average: 3.2                 Water Temp: 19C

Cool and damp conditions welcomed our anglers at Eyebrook at the start of this week. Following on from a challenging week, Season ticket holders R Swinfield and L Bates were the first pair off the pontoon. The fishing was still proving a little bit challenging, but the duo worked well together to figure out what the fish were doing and each of them finally brought 5 fish to the boat. Emad and Mahmoud fancied a change from fishing Draycote and ventured out on the lake, they managed 8 to the boat and were happy with the result knowing how challenging it has been lately. All water ticket holder Ian Jobe ventured out on his float tube and put in a hard shift on the water fighting against quite a stiff breeze. He managed 5 to the tube. Reporting back, he said that fishing a floater was too high for them and a Di7 was taking his flies down too quick. Lesson learned was to bring a couple of lines to fish those in between depths.

The drop in water temperature has started to show a little bit of improvement on the fish coming up in the water. N Benjamin and I Simmons were on their second day of a 3-day package where Mr Benjamin managed to bring 7 fish to the boat, where as Mr Simmons only managed the single fish. Obviously, Mr Benjamin was enjoying having bragging rights, and the banter in the car park the next morning was amusing. Most other boats were starting to catch steady numbers. But all water ticket holder Mark Hunt took to the water late in the afternoon to educate his brother Simon on the finer details of fishing the dry fly. Mark managed a whopping baker’s dozen to the boat on CDC’s Big Red and Grunter patterns when he noticed that there were a lot of little sedge’s coming off the water. Mark reported back that the fish were mostly coming blind to the dries. This shows that the fish are cruising around close to the surface and opportunistically feeding on surface patterns. Good news for most of our visitors who enjoy fishing those upper layers and fishing dries. Hopefully as the week moves forward, we will be getting back to what Eyebrook has a reputation for, fantastic top of the water sport.

For the next few days, the fishing followed the same sort of form. Some anglers were faring better than others, but those that found fish early in their session on the water, took advantage and hung around those areas to tempt a few fish out. D Hussey was doing well fishing PTN and managed 8 to the boat. All water ticket holder N Shilton had another great day out on the Float tube by landing 11 fish. With Thursday being quite a hot bright day, Eyebrook fished really well in those conditions.

Friday started off as a cool and misty morning with a gentle ripple on the lake. Our anglers were looking forward to a nice, settled morning on the water. The sport continued to prove challenging and a lot of anglers just couldn’t make the connection. Those that did were fishing small crunchers or buzzers just under the surface, occasionally, fish were coming to the dries All water ticket holder Ed Douglas and Eyebrook season ticket holder Mick Farrell were the only anglers to get in to double figures that day.

Saturday seemed to be a really good day. A lot of the anglers were getting in to a few fish out along by the tower and along the dam to Harrison’s corner. A lot of fish were falling to size 14 CDC’s or Big Red’s. Those that preferred a more direct approach were picking up fish by pulling Olive snakes. All water ticket holders John kirk and Mark Hunt had more than double figures of fish to the boat. John worked his way through different patterns to find the right selection to land the fish. Mark turned to his intricate and detailed knowledge of Eyebrook to expertly tempt the fish on dries once again. Obviously, his great catch return is a reflection on the time he has spent perfecting fishing this method.

As the week drew to a close, it was evident to see that the Rod average was starting to climb again after the hot spell had knocked everything off kilter. With only 6 anglers out on the Sunday, the returns were impressive, giving us a  Rod average of 6. A Majority of fish were taken on Dries or on small crunchers and damsel nymphs along the dam wall area.