Thornton Weekly Fishing Report 11th July

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 11^th July    Rod Av: 5.5   Water Temperature: 20c+ – 21c

Heavy thunderstorms on Sunday evening but our water temperature was still 20c at 7.30am with our water clarity good.

Some fish to be seen moving during the morning with the main car park area fishing best with damsels and diawl bachs. Jamie Scott caught 7 on buzzers and blobs up from the main car park and along the dam with most of the trout in the top 2ft.

Tuesday our water temperature was 20c at 7.30am a quiet day as rain was forecast. The deeper water in front of the main car park & dam fished best with Arthur Olding & Bob Menhams both taking 3 fish for their mornings visit

Cooler air temperature day on Wednesday kept our water temperature at 20c with the majority of anglers fishing in front of the main car park & dam with the majority of the trout in the top 4ft. Damsels, #14 red diawl, #16 olive buzzer caught the majority of the trout. Greg Weatherdon caught 9 on damsels, P Mee caught 8 for his visit with John Thomson & Pete Hunt boating 9 for their mornings visit with Paul Martindale fishing damsel & diawl bach to take his 4 trout

19c was the water temperature Thursday morning although the heat of the day did push it upwards during the day. Andre Russel, S Frakes, Rick Dunnett & T Ward took to their float tubes with each angler catching well on Damsel, Diawls, Cormorant, Montana & Fabs finding fish high in the water all over the main basin, in front of the wood & outside the lodge. Mick Litchfied met up with an old school friend Mick Huffer who gave Mick the fly of the moment which helped Mick catch 14 trout, Mick Huffer caught 8 for his mornings visit. Thornton member Don Howatt fished a morning session catching 7 in blobs, diawl & damsel.

By Friday morning the warm temperatures the afternoon previous had pushed our water temperature to 20.5c at 7.30am Fishing during the cooler morning session remained good with Chris Sayer & Mick Cross catching 13 by 2pm. J Scott fished a damsel & diawls to take his 10 trout with Mark Hunt fishing a midge tip with small olive buzzer & grey buzzer to catch his 12 trout

Saturday morning and our water temperature was 21c but with the low cloud the trout were in the top few feet with intermediate & midge tip lines best. Damsel, small green buzzer, red diawl & pin fry with the main car park, dam wall and green bay best. Excellent mornings fishing with a rod average 5.1 evenings a bit more difficult as the heat of the day pushes the temperature upwards. B Perry caught 10 on damsels, all water member J Scott caught 14 on green buzzer & pin fry patterns, Brian Sibley & Alison Toon caught 6 for their mornings visit with M Ward fishing a midge tip with a foam daddy & red diawl to catch 5 for his 3hr mornings visit with Thornton member Carl Bond fishing a fab & damsel combination to catch his 6 trout

Sunday with the combination of higher water temperature & the football the anglers all opted sensibly to fish the morning session that currently takes you to 3pm. With the water temperature at 21c at 7.30 it was always going to be the intermediate or midge tip line possibly a sink 3 that was going to work with damsel, red diawl & buzzer. Andrew Wilson fished red diawl & buzzer to catch his 6 rainbows & 1 brown with Andrew telling us as the morning went on the fish went deeper.

Stocking Policy As we enter the period of the year with expected higher water temperatures we alter the average size of trout we stock our stocking policy for Thornton is explained on our website Stocking Policy | Fly Fish Thornton – Leicestershire Fly Fishery

Draycote Fishery Weekly Report – 01788 812018

“New Email address”  draycote@flyfishstore.co.uk

Week Ending Sunday 11th July 2021     Rod Av:  3.3   Water Temperature:   18-20°C

We were greeted on Monday morning with overcast conditions, a light south westerly and the chance of things brightening up through the afternoon. Draycote once again fished quite well overall, with a lot of anglers getting in to double figures on dries. The fish remain very high in the water column despite the current water temperatures and indeed can be seen in the surface at a number of points across the reservoir. The boat pairing of Lee Patten and Peter Elliott had 21 fish between them on dries such as the midas, catching a lot of their fish drifting off the front of the pontoon. Kevin Rees netted 10 fish using a crippled midge. Mr E Hallam and his boat partner had 13 fish to the boat on brown and red shipmans buzzers.

Moody skies all day Tuesday with winds that picked up in the afternoon, but thankfully the rain did hold off for most of the day. On the bank season ticket holder Steve Lees enjoyed a great day landing 7 fish all on dries. Out on the boat fellow season ticket holder John Dickens landed 12 fish again on dries with either Midas or size 14 crippled midge being his best pattern. Using the ridder to great effect Steve Barby landed 15 fish. The good fishing continued into the evening with the 2 boats out on the last 4 hours enjoyed great sport. T & G Wilson using snakes stripped fast around A buoy to land 19 fish in 4 hours. While Tim Grove fished with Hare Ear CDC shuttlecock to land 9.

Wednesday was a blustery day with south westerly winds and some quite heavy showers at times. Consequently the fishing was a bit all over the place, but the rod average came out at three and a half with most anglers doing quite well. Tim Grove netted 15 fish on small damsels from various points around the reservoir. Richard Walker had 11 fish on black and green snakes fished on sinking lines. Richard and Jim Hall had 10 fish between them on dries such as emergers. Draycote manager Tom Bird and his boat partner had 7 between them in an afternoon session. The fish all came from the Flat Stones area on crippled midge, midas and hares Ear Culs.

A change in the weather yet again for Thursday with a light breeze and overcast conditions to start with. Tony Broadway did quite well off the bank netting 9 fish on nymphs from various areas around the north shore. Tim Grove netted 8 fish on dries and damsels. Tim has fished Draycote on one of our popular package deals and over the 3 days netted a total of 31 fish, with a damsel being his most popular pattern. Rod Wilson and Jim Dempsey fished on DI 7’s and lures up in rainbow corner to net nearly 13 fish between them. Richard Pelly and Gary Turner commented on “A fabulous time”, after netting 17 fish on dries around the aerators. Trevor and Robert Moore used buzzers during an afternoon session to net  6 fish, whilst Dominic Boulton James Maplethorpe netted 12 on diawl bachs and buzzers.

A flat calm, muggy day on Friday with the chance of some heavy showers from lunchtime. Generally speaking the fishing was not very good with a rise in air pressure through the afternoon.

The fish could be seen moving around in the surface but were proving very hard to catch. It seemed to fish ok in the morning with staff member Lee Henfrey netting 8 near A buoy on a sunburst blob. Dan Mcelligott  netted a total of 5 fish, using a washing line through open water in the morning, and then a DI 5 with blobs and boobies around the aerators in the afternoon. Mr P and Mr D Newman used DI 7’s and boobies through the deeper water to boat a dozen fish. Jim Brennan and Chris Discombe caught 5 fish using humungus and snakes.

Saturday was a much better day for fishing overall with some light breezes and cloud cover. Once again there are a lot of fish moving around in the surface of the water at various points around the reservoir, and just by drifting along and constantly covering them, anglers have been putting in some reasonable returns. Season permit holder John Dickens caught 7 fish on dries such as crippled midge and the ever popular midas. Mark Braun managed 12 to the boat on nemo crunchers. Paul Davidson and Steve Peart boated 11 fish between them again all on the midas. Ian Reeve and Paul Mariette caught a bakers dozen using diawl bachs. Blobs and snakes. Dan and John Mcelligott had 9 to the boat using a roly poly retrieve with snakes fished on a DI5 in the aerators. Ivor Jones and Jim Dempsey used lures fished on sinking lines to net over 20 fish between them, the best of which was about 4lbs.

Sunday, saw a bright start to the day, with cloud arriving later in the day. We hosted Thornton Fly Fishers, winning their match was Martin Vernon & Pam Shuttleworth with 7 fish for 18lb 12oz, Pam who is 80 and only started fly fishing for her 70^th Birthday was individual top rod along with winning the biggest fish and was over the moon. She used a di 5 sinking line with a barred olive snake booby fished out the back. We also hosted the Alex Booth Fly Fishers for the Steve Parton memorial match. Winning the day was Graham England who landed his fish down the Farnborough Dam wall on hares’ ear and also hoppers, taking 8 fish and losing a number of others. Outside of the two club competitions Ian Reeve landed 11 fish using booby snakes and tubes on various sinking lines with long drifts off the Hensborough Bank being his best drift. Paul Calvert fishing with brother Phil used the bung to land 16 fish to the boat drifting from Rainbow Corner to A Buoy.

Eyebrook Fishery Weekly Report – 01536 770264

“New Email address”  eyebrook@flyfishstore.co.uk

Stocking Policy As we enter the period of the year with expected higher water temperatures at the Eyebrook we alter the average size of trout we stock. Our stocking policy for the Eyebrook is explained on our website Stocking Policy | Fly Fish Eyebrook – Leicestershire Trout Fishery

Week ending 11^th July 21               Rod Average:3.1                  Water Temp: 20.5C

Monday saw a quiet start to the week with only a few boats venturing out to tackle our hard fighting and hard to temp trout. The cooler weather from the past couple of days have seen the fish start to come up into the surface again and move out in to open water. Fishery Management Guide Andy Miller was out guiding David Powdrill. Between them, they put a good number of fish in the boat and reported lots of follows from some big Browns coming up from deep. They were mainly fishing sinking lines and olive or black snakes. David enjoyed his day out with Andy and learned a lot out on the water. Eyebrook manager Jim managed to venture out for a few hours in the evening and managed to tempt 13 to the boat on various methods and flies. Starting on a 6-foot slow sink tip line and hen switching to a full floating line, he caught on dries, damsels and FABs, catching in the main basin, mucky bay and Sam’s Dyke

Good sport continued on Tuesday with a rod average approaching 9. Ian Jobe and Clive Moore took over 20 to the boat, and a comprehensive report by Clive can be found on the Eyebrook fly fishers face book page. Lyndsey Bates was also on the water and has 9, whilst Tim Coles had 6. Wednesday was very quiet, due to a combination of adverse weather conditions and the football, whilst Thursday was a lot better with some good catches being recorded. Top rod was season ticket holder, Mr Havard who fished the washing line, with the Tequila Blob on the point accounting for all of his 11 fish. Damsels also accounted for fish as did crunchers and pin fry patterns.

Friday proved too be a difficult day with little wind and hot humid conditions. With fish moving all over the main basin, especially in Harrison’s corner, it looked to be a red-letter day, but the trout thought differently. They were feasting on the prolific damsel hatch as well as the shoals of pin fry and fish were hard to come by, the daily rod average being one. Brian White did well though, taking 10 using a uv cruncher just sub surface, whilst Paul Haymer, fishing the first day of his 3-day break took 4 on a white Humungus.

Saturday continued with similar conditions to the Friday. Lots of fish activity in and around the surface, but anglers having that difficulty of making the fish stick or even take. A few anglers were saying that they were getting lots of follows but the fish were turning away as soon as they got near the boat. C Farrell had a great day out in the float tube and managed to land 9 fish. Eyebrook Season ticket holder M Farrell landed 7, as did M E Parsley. Fantastic angling considering the fish are being exceptionally pernickety at the moment.

Sunday started off bright and quite humid. As the morning moved on, the clouds started to give our anglers some welcome shade from the bright sunshine. Andy Miller was once again out on the water guiding Mr Will McKeague. A very keen Sea Angler who wanted to try something a little bit different. He managed a lovely brace of trout in challenging conditions. We were also joined by the Colwick Fly fishers, they enjoyed varying levels of success, but the biggest surprise was for Kez Saxton who landed a large Brown estimated to be around the 10lbs mark. Ewan McGregor Joined us for the second day of his 2 day package and managed 7 fish to the boat. But once again, Mark Hunt had a spectacular day out fishing a single grunter to catch well into double figures. Once again showing how good a dry fly angler he is. Well done Mark.

This past week has seen the fishery staff working hard to clear out a lot of areas on the Rutland bank to enable our anglers to get easier access to the water. If you are venturing up that bank next week, no doubt you will come across members of the fishery staff out strimming back more of the undergrowth to help get you access out into the areas that have not seen as much angler attention this season.