Weekly Thornton, Eyebrook & Draycote fishing report 29th May 2022

Weekly Fishing Report: Draycote, Eyebrook, Thornton

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Congratulations to Draycote & All Water Members  Lianne Frost, Sam Edmonds & Sue Potts fishing with the English Ladies Fly Fishing team at the International held at the Lake of Menteith last week. The English Ladies Team won gold.

Congratulations to all the Ladies from England, Scotland Wales & Ireland who took part, having not been able to hold an international during 2020 & 2021 due to covid restrictions

Thornton Fishery Weekly Report – 01530 230807

Email: thornton@flyfishstore.co.uk

Stocking Policy Details of our stocking policy for Eyebrook is explained on our website www.flyfishthornton.co.uk/about-us-2/stocking-policy/

Can we remind members & day rods of our pre payment policy for 2022 details are on our website www.flyfishthornton.co.uk/about-us-2/day-permits/

Week Ending:  29^th May   Rod Av: 3.9      Water Temperature: 16c

Monday, trout sipping off the surface in front of the lodge, these fish are feeding on small olive or black buzzer #16 or smaller. Best approach is a long leader and single dry, emerger, cdc #16 Chip Kawalsingh  fished small dries to catch 6 of these trout. Were seeing increasing number of damsel with midge tip or Sink 2 lines with damsel nymphs best for these. With the excellent water clarity some anglers are starting to find success over the deeper water with Sink 3, 5 or 7 lines with fabs, blobs or booby, all in all a day when a variety of methods and flies caught fish with a rod average 3.8

Tuesday with trout again sipping small midge / buzzer off the surface but proved tricky to catch. Peter Wrigley straight lined a traffic light buzzer & bloodworm pattern catching his 8 trout at a depth of 10ft. Carl Bond caught most of his trout during the evening session catching 7 on hopper & black buzzer patterns.

Windy forecast for Wednesday with not many rods out on the water. Ian Leach ventured out catching his 5 trout on a variety patterns from fab, damsel to a muddler.

Thursday and another blustery day, benefit of this current cooler blustery weather is our water temperature has dropped back to 16c ideal to keep those trout in the upper layers. Phill Moore fished a morning session catching 6 trout, Peter Wrigley returned for another half day catching 5 trout on buzzers. Tony Lorrimer caught 16 for his visit, catching 8 of them off the top during the last hour. Mark Hunt continuous to catch on his #14 #16 dries this time an F Fly catching 12 for him during the last 4 hour session

Friday and another day with a blustery wind, this occasion a stiff north wind. Main Car park area fished best, T. Keeber and grandson caught 9 for their mornings visit on small damsel & olive diawl bach in the top foot of water. J Bebbington caught 7 on buzzer with P Walker catching his trout on fabs, buzzer, diawl bach and damsel. Straight line buzzer was the method some rods caught  with the point buzzer at 10ft. By 8.30pm the wind had fallen away with fish moving down the Thornton arm, main car park and across the main basin with S Proffitt catching 4 during the last hour on quill buzzer.

Saturday with lighter winds the trout were up and about most of the day with anglers reporting good numbers fish moving in front of the dam. Water clarity is excellent with fish taking #14, #16 dries, emergers and buzzers. Paul Martindale fished along the dam wall towards green bay catching 11 on #14 black hopper. Jan Webber caught 11 on diawl, olive booby and brown hopper with M ODonoghue on his first visit to Thornton catching 9 on fab and cruncher

Sunday back to a cooler northerly wind, although it didn’t stop the trout from feeding on the surface with good numbers of trout moving along the dam wall. Thornton Fly fishers held a club competition with 5 anglers catching their 4 fish limit with ounces separating the top three places, with Norman Perking coming out on top.

A week of mixed winds & temperatures, were seeing increasing numbers of damsel with huge hatches of the smaller midge. Water temperature is 16c which should ensure the trout are in the top few feet of the water.

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Draycote Fishery Weekly Report – 01788 812018

Email:  draycote@flyfishstore.co.uk

Stocking Policy Details of our stocking policy for Draycote is explained on our website www.flyfishdraycote.co.uk/about-us-2/stocking-policy/

Week Ending:  Sunday 29th May 2022        Rod Av: 3.4       Water Temperature: 15 °C

Monday was a beautiful day with overcast conditions and a soft south westerly breeze. Once again it can be said that Draycote is holding a good head of fish, which are well spread throughout the reservoir. Methods of catching have changed slightly over the last few days with more anglers using sinking lines such as DI 5’s, DI 7’s and the booby basher with lures. In some areas anglers are seeing a lot of fish moving in the surface of the water but proving very difficult to catch. It is likely that these fish are preoccupied on a very small green midge which can be, because of it’s size, quite difficult to imitate. There are, in this case two courses of action, either tie on that size 22 olive midge pattern you happen to have with you or, move on to different areas where you are more likely to catch. Season permit holder Kevin Rees had a bakers dozen using dries from various areas around the reservoir. Ian Richardson used the washing line method with diawl bachs to net 5 fish, one of which was a beautiful fully finned rainbow of 4lbs. Mr David Willacy used the midas to good effect also netting 5 fish. The boat pairing of Peter Elliott and Lee Patten caught 8 apiece on a mixture of dries and the washing line with buzzers and diawl bach’s.

A very mixed day Tuesday with heavy rain at times, bright warm sun and then strong winds. As a result it was a challenging day out on the water. There was fish moving in the open water around B Buoy for most of the day. However they were preoccupied on a very small green midge, which meant they didn’t want to look at much else. Phil Gray fished in Rainbow Corner to land 4 fish on black buzzers, although it wasn’t till much later in the day when the fish seemed to switch on. Members Paul Walker & John Falconbridge enjoyed a good day in the tricky conditions landing 15 fish to the boat. The pair commented that it switched on later in the day and it was buzzers, FABS and lures that caught their fish. Fishery Manager Tom Bird fished with Sam Smith with the pair landing 6 fish to the boat on a mix of nymphs fished on a washing line and then sparklers and boobies fished on a sunk line, but sounds like they missed the best fishing by calling it a day early.

A windy day Wednesday with cloud cover and showers throughout the day as well. All water member Paul Havard fished in Rainbow Corner using buzzers to land 8 fish with size 12 black buzzers being his best patterns. Also fishing in Rainbow Corner on buzzers was John Kelly & Stephen Mclean who landed 18 fish. Their best buzzer was a size 10 black buzzer with red cheeks with anchoring their best tactic. Brothers Roger & Graham Davies enjoyed a good day’s sport landing 12 fish to the boat utilising the rudder to good effect. The pair found the fish over the open water from the top dam wall using tube flies on an intermediate line. Another angler who used the rudder to land his fish was Jim Dempsey who landed 14 fish, with tubes also being Jim’s best fly. Andy Ross & Dave Barratt landed 9 fish between them using black and orange buzzers on a midge tip in Rainbow Corner.

A breezy day Thursday with cloud cover for the entire day. On the boats season ticket holder Paul Mitchell & Gordon Bramwell enjoyed a good day’s sport landing 15 fish to the boat. They fished with orange foam daddies and suspender Hare Ears to land their fish. The best areas being from A-B Buoy and coming from the top dam wall. Ian Richardson & Bob Barfoot enjoyed a good day landing 10 fish from Hensborough Bank & Rainbow Corner with small gold and silver cormorants being their best flies. Fishery Guide Lee Henfrey & teammate Ron Gent fished ahead of the Airflo Open Heat on Saturday. The pair enjoyed a great days sport using a Slow Intermediate line fishing over the open water with a mix of hoppers and boobies, using a roly-poly retrieve. Else where a lot of other boats practiced ahead of the match at the weekend put kept the methods close to their chest to try and get the edge for the match. However, word on the grape vine was pulling and washing line was the best methods with the fish sitting high in the water.

Another breezy day Friday, however, this time the sun shone all day, making it a more challenging day than the previous day. Once again most of the boats taking to the water were practicing ahead of the match the new day. Resulting in exact information and tactics were being kept very hush hush. Draycote RIO Masters team with fishery guide Lee Henfrey did well using a Single Hand Spey 3D line and a mix of hare’s ears and midas, fishing in the open water around A, OL & J Buoy. Other teams also fished out in the open water fishing a mix of hoppers, cormorants and also washing lining tactics to take fish. Some teams also dries to be very effective even in the bright sun. Outside of the competition practice Andy Ross & D Barrett landed 8 fish at the Hensborough Bank fishing with buzzers from an Anchored boat.

Great conditions Saturday for the Airflo Open competition with 10 teams of 6 competing for 3 places through to the grand final in October and 2 places through to runners up 1 day final here in September. Overall it was a nice fair match with the 60 anglers landing 217 fish for a rod average of 3.62 fish per man. There was a real mixture of score with some anglers doing very well and others struggling, however, all reported seeing lots and lots of fish moving. They just proved very difficult to catch as they were located onto small flies. Winning the match was team Elinor who landed an impressive 46 fish. With Ed Foster having his 12 fish limit by 14.24 Ed, used a 3ft midge tip with 2 FABS and 2 nymphs at S buoy. Also, doing well on this tactic in the same area and same team was Tony Baldwin. Away from this area other good catches came from Martin Rowson of Draycote RIO Masters who fished in Toft around the nature reservoir buoys and also G Buoy. Iain Gaskell used dries to great effect catching around C & B Buoy. There was also some cracking fish caught with Hywel Morgan landing a 5lb 8oz fish taken on the bung. Outside of the match Liz Astill landed a lovely fish from the bank on a Diawl Bach taken from the Cornfield. Gareth Jones & Kieron Jenkins from Airflo took advantage while the match was on to get out in the spare boat and enjoyed good sport on small size 16 dries in Biggin Bay. The key to their success was small dries and very light tippet cast into the area of moving fish and left alone and let them come back round to find the flies.

A lovely calm start to Sunday morning with good overcast conditions which brightened up as the day progressed. Trickier conditions over the past week has seen boats moving around throughout the day in order to gain the upper hand on the fish, which are concentrating their efforts on some very small flies. Ed Douglas boated 7 fish on dries such as small hoppers. John Crowley fish off the bank in the Cornfield using a DI 3 and black boobies to net a total of 5 fish. Mark Braun, who also fished from the bank caught half a dozen from Lincroft Point using a gold ribbed hare’s ear. Out on the boats Ben Bayliss and Adam Larbalester had a bakers dozen between them on fry patterns and an olive snake from Toft Shallows and the Farborough Dam. Season pemit holder Mark Thistleton who also ventured into Toft Shallows boated 7 fish on olive snakes.

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Eyebrook Fishery Weekly Report – 01536 770264

Email: eyebrook@flyfishstore.co.uk

Pre-Payment
We will be asking you to pre pay when you call to book. If your unable to make your visit or the fishery needs to cancel your visit due to weather conditions, you will be entitled to a full refund or move the booking to another date. Further details visit our website http://www.flyfisheyebrook.co.uk/about-us-2/day-permits/

Week Ending: Sunday 29 May 22       Rod Av: 3.1       Water Temperature:  16c

As the Building work continues at the Harrisons corner area of the dam, we are still asking our customers to come to the lodge via the Alec Lane gate.

There was a steady start to the week with 34 anglers catching 179 fish, giving a rod average of 5.3. Fish were caught primarily on the dries with the fish coming blind to flies presented static, any unnatural movement would cause the fish to shy away. Capitalising on the fish feeding on the surface was Martin Griffiths, who had a very productive Last 4-hour session from the boat with all his fish coming to dries. Another successful tactic was to washing line a floating line with Diawl Bachs up the cast, which is what Mr A Thomas & Mr R Thomas had done & had a productive day from the boat landing well over 20 fish to the boat. The most productive areas remain the Leicester Bank in its entirety where fish can be found all the way along it. Even from the bank it is essential to remain as mobile as possible to locate the fish. Once located, the fish will feed confidently & happily take Dries presented properly. Another area that is holding fish is the area of the basin where fish can be found feeding high up over deeper water.

Tuesday bought with it some unsettled weather with intervals of bright sunshine & a blustery wind from the west. The changeable weather seemed to reflect in the fishing in what proved to be a challenging day. However, there was still plenty of fish caught from the Leicester Bank area with Emerging Dry Fly patterns & a washing lined floater, with nymphs up the cast, again proving to be the percentage methods. Mucky Bay to the Cowshed seemed to be a very productive area along this bank with fish caught from both the boat & bank. Further south along the Leicester Bank; Dogwood Bay to the Sam’s Dyke is still holding plenty of fish. The Trout in this area have been witnessed feeding aggressively on the abundant Damsel nymphs present & as we all aware, this can provide both excitement & frustration in equal measure. A method that can sometimes prove effective in these circumstances is to pull something quick through these actively feeding fish to try & elicit a response.

Wednesday with the blustery conditions continuing most of the bank & boat anglers fished along the platforms to Sams Dyke & Mucky Bay. Dave Searson fished a morning session off the bank catching 6 trout on damsel patterns as did Gordan Thorand. Keith Cowser fished 4 hr from a boat picking up 10 trout for his visit. Kevin Hart spent most of his visit fishing mucky bay with #14 quill buzzer and an orange bobs bits to catch his 14 trout. Wednesday regulars Ian Jobe & Clive Moore found the afternoon session was far more productive catching 18 trout. There are still pond olives hatching in good numbers down Stoke Dry with an increasing number of damsels and sedges also adding to the trout’s menu. Water clarity is excellent try and fish as long a leader as you can and as low a diameter as you have confidence to use.

Thursday and were starting to see pin fry around the pontoon, time for the Barron’s Pin Fry pattern. These, together with the Damsels which we are now seeing in ever increasing numbers, are the next instalment of the annual Eyebrook larder. Both pin fry and damsel patterns are available from the lodge. With the                 blustery conditions continuing, most of the bank & boat anglers fished along the platforms to Sam’s Dyke, around the island and into Mucky Bay. Natural patterns continue to do well, with buzzers, crunchers, Diawl Bachs, damsels and hare’s ear patterns all featuring in the catch returns. With the prevailing conditions, a daily rod average of just under 3 was not unexpected, although some anglers were rewarded with better catches, top boat being that of Mr Skipper who netted twelve.

Friday was still very bright with a troublesome north-westerly wind blowing down the reservoir, probably the least favourable combination at the Eyebrook. All in all, it was a repeat of the previous days, with small naturals, either just under or on the surface being the better options. The Leicestershire bank, being slightly sheltered from the wind, performed best. Given the calmer water nearer the margins, the bank fished well, with nearly all those who fished from the bank catching, top rod being Eyebrook member, Mr Johnson with eight on CDC patterns. Top boat was Mr McClean and Mr. Kelly R Kelly with 14 who were successful using size 16 Hares’ ears and damsels.

Saturday was a very busy day with us hosting a Cancer Charity Day Boat Pairs competition. It was a very successful day with an excess of £1800 being raised for such a great cause. A special mention must go to the event organiser Steve Owen, who’s hard work & dedication ensured the day was such a success. 42 anglers took to the water & caught 143 fish, giving them a rod average of 3.4. Congratulations to Richard & John Hood who took first place with 16lb 12oz, closely followed by Martin Griffiths & Graham who had 16lb 10oz & 3^rd was John Goodwin & Mark Rose with 16lb 8oz. Thank you to all the competitors who supported the event. In addition, Season Ticket holder Neil Shilton enjoyed a very productive day from his Float Tube where he netted a good number of fish with the cream of the crop being at exceptional Rainbow Trout of 9lb 12oz. A truly magnificent specimen, it was weighed & it returned strongly to grace another net. It just goes to show that there is no substitute for hard work & commitment as Neil can be seen every weekend out in his Float Tube targeting the bigger fish.

Sunday morning brought a stiff, chilly breeze from the North & bright sunlight. As the day wore on the wind did not albeit, however the bright sunlight was interspersed with intervals of dense cloud cover. The changeable conditions reflected in what was a challenging day on Eyebrook with reports of plenty of fish moving but they seemed very reluctant to take. Anglers that caught well, fished very small imitative patterns be that on the surface or below it. All Water Member Kevin Hart did just this & had a productive day, landing 10 fish on what was a very tricky day, fishing small buzzers in Sam’s Dyke. Scaling down fly sizes is a proven method when the fishing becomes challenging & can often be the difference in us catching or not. The fish that have been seen moving on the surface are taking a very small olive-green midge so in our quest to “match the hatch” it is very important that we address the size issue first as this will increase our chances of eliciting a response from a feeding fish. The closer your fly size is to what the trout are feeding on the better chance you have of catching.