Thornton weekly report week ending 13th June 2021

Weekly Fishing Report: Thornton, Eyebrook, Draycote

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Thornton Fishery Weekly Report – 01530 230807

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

Week ending 13 June 2021   Rod Av: 4.1   Water Temperature: 20c+

With the surface water temperature 20c+ in the morning going upwards during the day were seeing very little surface activity with the trout still feeding at the cooler water temperatures 5ft to 12ft down. There is a hint of an algae bloom

Monday the water had a hint of algae & we were recommending the cooler morning session to fish. Richard Price proved us wrong & fished a short afternoon session 3pm – 6pm taking 5 trout. Every angler caught on Monday with the majority catching 1 to 3 trout for their morning session, T & J Evans shared a boat fished static buzzers in the 8ft – 15ft mark & caught 35 between them.

Tuesday majority of the anglers fished the morning session with midge tips, slow sinkers or under a bung with buzzers and damsels. N Moore and W Kenny caught 6 for their mornings visit, M Huffer caught 7 on buzzers, Barry Deeley fished an intermediate and sink5 with damsel and humungus patterns to catch his 6 trout with Ian Leach catching 6 for his visit

Wednesday Terry & John Evans returned for another visit this time catching 32 on static buzzers 10 – 12ft down. Bill Holland caught 5 to 3lb on booby and damsel patterns with David Rectorik fishing the afternoon session with a midge tip and intermediate with buzzer and diawl bach to catch his 3 trout.

Thursday and a rod average 3.6 with majority of anglers concentrating their fishing to the morning 8.30am – 3.00pm session with the majority of fish taken in the 4ft to 12ft depth. Floater / midge tip static buzzer & red diawls, intermediate or sink 3 lines with booby & damsel patterns. Tony Lorrimer fished his bunny patterns catching 14 trout, Pete Hunt caught 8 for his visit with Mick Huffer returning for his second visit of the week & catching 7 trout on buzzers. Bet Miles should her husband how to catch taking 3 fish on diawl bachs to Tut Miles 0, well done Bet. Ross Turner had his first visit of the year fishing from his float tube catching 3 but lost a number of other trout fishing a buzzer & orange fab

Friday and despite the weather forecast we enjoyed another good day with a 4.8 rod average. Majority of the trout seem to be in the 4ft to 12ft depth with anglers targeting them on static buzzer, red diawl or intermediate and a sink 3 with damsels, red diawl, buzzer, booby. Most anglers fished the morning session 8.00am to 3pm with Greg Weatherdon fished damsels on an intermediate catching 4 for his mornings visit, Chris Sayer fished buzzer and booby to catch his 6 trout. Richard Price opted to use a fast sinker short 3ft leader and a damsel booby to catch his 8 trout. Scotty Wilson & Ricky Cotterill fished buzzers and diawls catching 20 between them.

Saturday despite the bright weather an intermediate or midge tip worked best with anglers fishing the top 12ft of water. David and Mal fished intermediate with buzzer or buzzer and fab combination to catch 10 trout for their visit, Jan Webber fished a DI5 and booby to catch 7 with Mark hunt using a 6ft midge tip with buzzers to catch 14 for his visit.

Sunday & the hottest day of the year. We hosted Thornton Fly Fishers boat singles competition with 10 anglers taking part, fishing to a 4 fish limit & 8.30am to 3.00pm the winner was Simon Thorp with 4 fish for 7lb6oz, Martin Vernon won the prize for the largest fish a 3lb rainbow. Most caught on sinking lines with boobies & damsels.

Draycote Fishery Weekly Report – 01788 812018

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

Week Ending Sunday 13^th June 2021   Rod Av: 6.1  Water Temperature: 19°C

Another day the weatherman didn’t quite get the forecast right, the cloud cover that was supposed to be present all day long didn’t arrive until much later in the afternoon. However, the fishing was good for the entire day with the rod average finishing at 6.2. Season ticket holder Peter Elliot fished a washing line in the morning drifting from Rainbow Corner to A Buoy before switching to dries in the afternoon to land over 20 fish. John Dickens stuck to dries landing over 20 with Bob’s Bits and Shipman’s being his best flies. All water season ticket holder Ian Jobe landed 23 from these areas as well. Chris Discombe & Jim Brennan enjoyed a “Great Day” using black buzzers at the Hensborough Bank to land 29 fish. Taking advantage of our evening ticket Richard Pelly fished with Gary Turner with the pair boating 12 fish all on dries.

Another warm day with the water temperature holding at 19 degrees, however despite the heat a number of fish were caught. On the boats Paddy Hallam & Nigel Nixon landed 40 fish to the boat, drifting from Rainbow Corner towards A Buoy along to the Outlet then around the school slips. The pair found either floating line and Midge Tips to be the best with a mix of various nymphs on the cast with Hares Ears, Diawl Bach’s & Muskins all taking fish. All water season ticket holder Keith Coley fished with Bob Taft with the pair boating 22 fish between them using lures on Di 3 & Di 5 line catching in Mid Water around Lincroft Point and Biggin Bay. J Williams & R Tucker took advantage of one of the 2 day package breaks fishing there first day landing 22 fish. The pair used Di 5 sinking lines and snakes to land 22 fish between them.

Another bright day Wednesday with the temperatures hitting over 20 degrees. On the boats Williams & Tucker fished the last day of their 2 day break. Landing 30 fish and coming off the water just after 1pm the pair fishing in the open water around Rainbow Corner using midge tips or floating line. With either just a team of nymphs of a FAB on the top dropper and then nymphs below it. Jim Dempsey & Rod Wilson utilised the rudder to good effect landing 24 fish in a half day session using Di 7 sinking lines and tubes. Mr Mayhew & Mr Eastell finished the day with 24 fish to the boat. All water season ticket holder Paul Walker landed 31 fish on Buzzers and Diawl Bachs also fishing around Rainbow Corner. Jeff Ide fished in the afternoon landing 23 fish and commented when the cloud came over later in the day “Rainbow Corner was alive with fish and it was a brilliant afternoon”.

Thursday was overcast with a light breeze, ideal fishing conditions in sharp contrast to the previous few days. The rod average shot up to 9.5, with fish being caught on a wide variety of methods from dries, to diawl bachs and buzzers, to pulling snakes on a DI5. Ian Richardson and Bob Smith ventured out in a boat to net well into double figures using buzzers and boobies, remarking on “a brilliant day”. Geoff Brooks fished a morning session to net 12 fish on buzzers fished deep. Mr D Walker used Tom’s crippled midge to catch 7 fish during an evening session. Ian Morris and Colin Campbell fished through the sailing club and around the Tower, netting over 30 fish between them on diawl bachs and buzzers. Season permit holder Kevin Rees caught 18 fish using dries such as bob’s bits and crippled midge. Dave Kennel and Eddie Mitchell had 28 fish to the boat between them on buzzers, boobies and FAB’s.

Another cloudy day Friday with a stronger wind then we have experienced over the previous week. The bank fishing was a challenge with the fish now moving over the opened water in search of food and cooler temperatures. All water season ticket holder Michael Ravenscroft landed 4 on the bank in the morning from Rainbow Corner. Russell Swimbourne landed 22 fish in Rainbow Corner on buzzers and nymphs. Mr Hankins landed 16 fish on olive and black buzzers again in Rainbow Corner. Bob Askew fished straight line buzzers to land 25 fish. Steve Smalley fished with Bob Cooper drifting around various marks across the lake using a washing line from a RIO Midge Tip to land 26 fish. The Draycote Fly Fishers third evening bank match took place on Friday in warm conditions with cloudy skies. The fish seemed to hold at a distance from the bank right up until the final 30 minutes of the evening when some fish could be seen closer in to the margins. A total of 11 anglers turned up to wet a line. Anthony Hart came third with one fish in the net, Paul Farrell was in second place with two fish, whilst out in first place was Paul Walley with a total of 3 fish. The next DFFA evening match will take place on Friday 25^th June, meeting at 5pm in Toft. Thank you to Mark Johnson Jones for the report.  Fishery Manager Tom Bird guided Ray Rawlings for a full day with Ray wanting to learn more about nymph fishing. Using a RIO Midge Tip Long Ray landed a dozen fish and lost many more as well. For any Guiding or Tuition enquiry give Tom a call on 01788 812018 or send an email to guiding.tuition@flyfishstore.co.uk

The brighter conditions on Saturday made the fishing a bit difficult from the bank as the fish tend to move out from the margins into deeper water, however the boats faired pretty well, mostly fishing on buzzers, crunchers and either FAB’s or boobies. Mr R and Mr S Harwood had over 30 fish to the boat, all on black buzzers. Mr Chris Tuck netted 15 fish on UV crunchers and pink and yellow boobies.Season permit holder Peter Elliott caught 17 fish on buzzers, crunchers and diawl bachs, finishing off his day on dries. The boat pairing of Jim Brennan and Chris Discombe caught 20 fish between them, again all on buzzers. Jim and Dan Mcelligott had a bakers dozen between them from the Hensborough Bank on buzzers and FAB’s.

Sunny conditions remained throughout the day on Sunday with hardly a breath of wind. Despite this the anglers returned a good rod average using a mixture of lures, buzzers and nymphs fished over the deeper parts rainbow corner, B buoy and the aerators. Staff member Steve Meacham and his boat partner Dave Walker produced a good return of a dozen fish to the boat using snakes, cats whiskers and damsels. Steve and Dave fished mostly in Rainbow Corner and B buoy. Season permit holder Richard Walker used black and green mini snakes to net 9 fish from the Aerators and the deeper water near A buoy. Karl and Les Lerigo had 11 fish to the boat between them, all on olive snakes.

Eyebrook Fishery Weekly Report – 01536 770264

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

Week ending 13th June   Rod Average:2.6   Water Temp: 20c

As the sun worshippers are enjoying the welcome break from the prolonged cold spring that we have been experiencing, lots of anglers know that the fantastic sport that they have been experiencing isabout to become a little bit more challenging.

As we have come through the week, it has been easy to see that the behaviour of the fish has slightly altered, and they have been starting to move away from the banks as the days have been getting warmer. Our bank anglers have enjoyed some success early in the morning and later in the evening as the fish move back onto the weedbeds. The boat anglers are seeing a bit more success due to them having the ability to drift through the open water and try a few different sinking lines. A further stocking took place on

Wednesday with another 1600 fish which included a few hundred browns from Westacre Trout Farm. This should help to maintain our fishing over the next few weeks. These could be an ideal time for a fishing staycation at one or more of our waters, all of which are set in some of the midland finest countryside.

Details of local accommodation can be found via the following link: Where to stay with details of our fishing breaks located via this link: short-break-packages

By Wednesday, a few anglers had found that there were fish along the front of the dam in open water. Ken Waters had a great day out landing his bag limit of 6 and releasing a further 6. He was really happy with an over wintered fish over 4lbs. Ken was fishing an Intermediate line with some wiggly stuff, as he put it.

Wednesday also saw the start of the Evening boat league. Only 3 anglers ventured out for the first evening. Some tactical errors were made by a couple of the anglers as they had a tough time getting fish in to the net. However, Matt Allen managed 3 fish in quick succession to land him this week’s free boat voucher. For those that spent time drifting and fishing sinking lines in the bright sunshine, they were more successful than those preserving with dries during the hotter parts of the day.

This pattern was repeated on both Thursday and Friday with or bank anglers doing better in the mornings and late evenings, fishing in and around the weedbeds from the Hawthorns to Mucky Bay including those in Sam’s Dyke and around the island. The catch returns from the bank anglers suggest that small single dries, or a single damsel on a long leader seem to be the most successful tactics. Boat wise, the best options are fast sinking lines (DI5 or DI7), coupled with either lures such as snakes or bobbies, or naturals such as black buzzers.

The Invicta fly fishers visited Eyebrook on Saturday, booking 21 boats of our 26 boats and despite the hot weather, they recorded an overall rod average of 5.5. With lots of fish moving and willing to feed to well-presented flies, there were several notable catches including 30 to the boat for the Duffy’s who employed tactics based upon their earlier trip on Thursday when they boated 17 between them. Rob and Sam Edmunds also did well, surpassing the Duffy’s catch return whilst young Albert Coles also recorded a catch well into double figures. All water member Neil Shilton was afloat in his float tube and caught 15.

The successful methods were similar to earlier on in the week with deep buzzers or lures on fast sinking lines or dries and damsels either through the main basin or preferably in and around the weedbeds.

Eyebrook hosted 3 group outings on Sunday, with visits from the Foremark Fly fishers, The Alex Booth Fly Fishers and the Fly Fishing Large Reservoirs group, in all a total of 55 rods. They arrived to find a flat calm, and as the sun rose in the sky, it turned out to be the hottest day of the year with temperatures approaching 25 degrees. With very little wind, nearly all the boats opted to fish the main basin and despite such adverse conditions, the reservoir fished reasonably well with an overall rod average on 2. Top rod of the day was Jake Wenman with 12 fish, followed by Bill McIlroy with 9, whilst Foremark Fly fishers secretary Jodie caught 8. Meanwhile Eyebrook member Malcom Thomson fished the weedbeds around the Hawthorns and landed 4 using a single dry damsel.

With the weather predicted to break with cooler days and nights and with some rain about towards the end of the week, conditions suggest this will be a better fishing week at the Eyebrook. We are seeing increasing numbers of damsels around the reservoir as well as the first of this year’s pin fry, so with good boat availability and plenty of plenty of available bank, this may well be a rewarding albeit challenging weeks fishing.