Thornton Weekly Fishing Report 12th April 2022

Weekly Fishing Report: Draycote, Eyebrook, Thornton

Visit our Fisheries Websites: www.flyfishdraycote.co.uk   www.flyfisheyebrook.co.uk  www.flyfishthornton.co.uk

Online Shop: www.flyfishstore.co.uk      Tuition & Guiding: www.flyfishtuition.co.uk

Fishery YouTube Channel: YouTube Flyfishstore

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:  10^th April  Rod Av: 3.3  Water Temperature: 9c+

Good start to the week with buzzer, diawl bach and cruncher patterns fished on floating, midge tip and intermediate lines doing best. P Mee fished a morning session catching 9 on buzzer, Mr Mansell & Bethel caught 8 for their visit with Darren Dodd fishing an afternoon catching 9 on damsel and cruncher patterns.

Tuesday a fresher wind with anglers looking for the shelter provided by the corner of the wood. Bob Jones opted for a cats booby on a sinking line catching 15, All Water member D Skudder on his first visit of the year caught 8 on diawls. A few fish coming off the bank but the strong wind made it difficult to fish.

The bank at Thornton can fish well during April, you will need chest waders.

Wednesday poor forecast had everyone cancel with the fishery cancelling Thursday due to average wind speeds exceeding our 25mph limit

Friday, better weather, but still cold. Mixed day with some struggling while others found the method. All water member Paul Walker fished buzzer, diawls & fab to catch his 20 trout with George Jackson finding the sinking line & booby was the method to catch his 11 trout with P Hunt fishing diawl bach to take his 8 trout

Saturday and another frosty start with the water temperature having dropped to 9c which is a full degree lower than we would expect for this time of year. Not surprising therefore that the booby caught the lions share of Saturday trout.

Sunday we welcomed 8 members of the All Abilities Fly Fishing, not the easiest of days with a cold breeze during the morning into early afternoon. Phil Bruce & Chris Davies caught 10 with a red diawl the successful pattern with Shaun Higgins and Felicity Appleton finding the fish in the afternoon catching 7. Thornton members S Swinfield and S Zeleny caught 9 on fast sinkers and booby along the lonesome pine with S Thompson catching 4 on buzzer and diawls for his mornings visit

————————————————————————————————————————–

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/

2022 Prices & details on our pre-payment visit our website www.flyfishdraycote.co.uk/about-us-2/day-permits/

Week Ending: Sunday 10^th April 2022       Rod Av: 2.7       Water Temperature: 8°C

A blustery start to the week which rather limited the anglers as it would have been a bumpy day over on the North Shore which had been the previous days hotspots. All water season ticket holder Peter Harris fished along the Hensborough bank landing 4 fish on buzzers and also boobies. Fellow all water Lorenzo Serrano fished with Tom Morris for the afternoon with the pair landing 5 fish from Biggin Bay. Draycote member Tom Gay fished for a morning landing 3 fish on Diawl Bach’s on a midge tip at the Hensborough Bank.

The wind made for a challenging day Tuesday, with a gusty South West winds meaning the North shore hotspots couldn’t be fished effectively. On the bank Draycote member Brian Allwood landed a brace including a cracking fish over 8lbs on a morning session, Brian took the fish from Car park number 8 near Dunn’s Bay. A brace on the bank seemed to be the average catch on the bank with 4 other anglers landing 2 fish each. On the boats John Jones landed 5 fish from the Hensborough Bank on Buzzers fished on a Midge tip line.

Another windy day with heavy rain showers in the afternoon. Draycote member Stephen Dewhurst fished from the bank in Rainbow Corner to land a brace of fish using Buzzers on a midge tip. Sam Smith fished for half a day from a boat landing 13 fish, Sam landed these from Farborough Spit. His tactic was to use a Di 3 or a Di 5 with a Black Humungus.

Thursday, unfortunately all boats were cancelled due to the high winds with the mean speed at times in the day hitting 30mph.

Friday was the complete opposite to the day before with a flat calm start, with a light breeze picking up n the afternoon. However there was cold start to the day with a frost first thing resulting in the water temperature being below 8°C. On the bank S King fished along the Cornfield to land 3 fish, using a team of buzzers. On the boats Graham Homer fished in Biggin Bay using Diawl Bach’s and black buzzers to land his 7 fish. All water member Craig Middleton fished with Steve Cullen with the pair landing double figures to the boat, finding the fish in a number of places across the reservoir but in no large concentration of fish with a Midge tip being their best line.

Another frosty start to the day Saturday, with more bright skies with a South Westerly wind. On the bank Draycote season ticket holder Mark Braun landed 7 fish from Car Park 8. With fellow Draycote season ticket holder Mike Garner landed 3 from the Old Pipe in Biggin Bay also on crunchers. Out on the boats Ian Richardson landed 5 fish using the Bung and buzzers. With Ian taking his fish from the Tower Bank and also Biggin Bay. Rob Plume & Ben Gilbert enjoyed a good day from the boat with the pair landing 20 fish using a Di 3 sinking line and Damsels in Biggin Bay. The boat pairing of D Baxter & Matt Smith landed 6 fish to the boat with Matt taking 3 of them on his first ever time fishing. Well Done Matt hope it’s the first trips of many.

A bit of a nip in the air again on Sunday morning, with southerly winds and bright sunshine. The rod average overall is in a good place, with successful days being had from the bank as well as the boats. The bank fished quite well on Sunday with John Crowley netting 11 fish on black and green lures from the Old Pipe in Biggin Bay. Mr Alan Tupping also did well, netting 8 fish in Biggin Bay using a damsel pattern fished on an intermediate line. Mark Johnson Jones and Mr J Fox Had 4 and 5 fish respectively from the bank on buzzers. Mr Tim Russell netted 4 from the bank  using damsels on a slow intermediate line. Season permit holder Out on the boats young Bob Askew had 11 fish whilst Ed Douglas had over 20. Paul Newnam and Matt Crisp had 25 fish to the boat between them using holographic diawl bachs, buzzers and crunchers. Peter Elliott boated 14 fish using buzzers on the bung and middas. Jay and Funky Ali had 5 fish to the boat between them during an afternoon session using damsels and buzzers. The Draycote Fly Fishers held their Spring Pairs Match on Sunday with good attendance. In third place was Richard Hanlon and Will Hunt with 3 fish to the net. In second place was Mike Nolan and Paul Ward with 4 fish. The overall winners on the day were Stephen Dewhurst and Paul Walley with 9 fish between them. Paul remarked that he used boobies on a DI 3 by the Swans Nest in Toft Shallows.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Eyebrook Fishery Weekly Report – 01536 770264

Email: eyebrook@flyfishstore.co.uk

Stocking Policy Details of our stocking policy for Eyebrook is explained on our website

www.flyfisheyebrook.co.uk/about-us-2/stocking-policy/

2022 Prices & details on our pre-payment visit our website www.flyfisheyebrook.co.uk/about-us-2/day-permits/

Week Ending: 10 April       Rod Av: 6.6       Water Temperature: 10C

After a cold wild week last week, the conditions for the start of the week look a little bit more settled. The temperature has been increasing but there seems to be a constant wind speed sitting above the mid-teens this week. Monday seen Richard Watson and Bill Whittle visit us for a day out and it was good to see some long-term boat partners out on the water again. Richard managed to get up in to the teens while Bill had a nice Half dozen in a half-day session. Mark Woolnough had a great bank session fishing washing line static and just let the wind do a lot of the work for him. It’s a great way to fish. Other boats out on the water were finding fish from Pollards Jump to the Willows. From the Chestnut tree to the Cow Sheds and from Sam’s Dyke to the Island. There are still pods of fish moving up and down the bank from Sam’s Dyke all the way to the front of the lodge. Washing line with Buzzers or just a straightforward bung set up has been proving deadly. So, it might be time to give the snakes a rest for a little while. Buzzers are very much top of the menu at the moment.

1. Horner and G. Horner are visiting us for a 7 day period. They have been showing that they are getting to grips with the fishes feeding habits and where they seem to be hiding in the lake They have been fishing Black Buzzers and FAB’s to devastating accuracy and enjoying the fantastic sport on the lake. S. Farmer ventured out on the float tube. The wind was a little bit strong, but he managed a fantastic haul with fish falling to Black Buzzers, Red Diawl Bach’s and Tequila FAB’s he reported catching fish up to 4lbs and had a great day out there.

Wednesday seen the wind get up to 20mph. but due to it being a south westerly, there seemed to be enough shelter along the Leicestershire bank for boats to get in close and drop anchor. As well as the individuals who have joined us on the 2 and 3 day packages, The Police had half a dozen boats out and then a further 9 boatloads ventured out from the Soldier Palmers later in the morning. The Soldier Palmers were introducing some new anglers to fishing loch style from a drifting boat. Traditionally they would have been out on Rutland, but due to the winds, and the fact that Eyebrook could offer some protection for new anglers to experience fishing in this way was a great benefit to them. The Police had a rod average of 12 at the end of the day. The Soldier Palmers were about 4.5 and with all other visitors reflecting a rod average of 10.7 on the day, just shows how well Eyebrook is fishing even when the weather is against us.

Thursday was very high winds at 29mph for most of the day which called for the boats to be cancelled. Only one angler braved the elements on the day, All water ticket holder Ken Key. Despite the horrendous wind, he managed to catch 6 hard fighting rainbows from the casting platforms. Fortune favours the brave!!

Friday seen more settled conditions and we soon seen the anglers coming out to see if the strong winds had caused any disruptions to the buzzer fishing that they had been enjoying. It soon became evident that fishing the Bung with a couple of buzzers was still coming up trumps all over the lake. A few anglers were out practicing for the up-and-coming Scierra Pairs this weekend, we know that some of the comp anglers like to keep numbers close to their chest so sometimes the Rod average can be quite conservative during these periods running up to a big match. From the information we have been hearing, white boobies, corixa patterns and size 10 buzzers seem to be accounting for the majority of the fish being caught.

Saturday seen the weather improve again. The temperatures were still low in the morning but improved steadily during the day. Garry Mickley arrived on site bright and early and hit the bank in amongst a cold frosty snap. He fished away through the morning till just after 1 and managed to get well in to double figures and was top bank rod on the day. The bank sport is still fantastic at the moment as the weed has still to make an appearance. Most of the boats out on the day were yet again practicing for the Scierra Pairs match on Sunday, So there was limited information coming back at this point. Lots of anglers were being quite conservative with their catch returns in the hopes of not drawing attention to themselves the next day.

Sunday morning started off with a bitterly cold frost. The morning boatman had his work cut out for him as he was doing everything he could, to ensure our anglers were getting in to clean and safe boats for the Scierra pairs match. 23 Pairs were taking part and the remaining 3 boats in the fleet were booked out by Kirby Fly Fishers.

The first boat to return to the pontoon was Boat 11 with Ian Buckley and Mark Harrison at 11:23AM and weighing in a bag a 12 between them at 24lbs 04oz. Would this be enough to be the winners on the day or would they be pipped at the post by a boated pair that have found some bigger fish?

The Scierra pairs finished up with 19 of the 23 boats landing their 12 fish to the boat.

1^st Bruce Blackshaw & Mark Parsley

2^nd Ian Buckley & Mark Harrison

3^rd Paul Kitchen & Brian Blackett

4^th Terry Bayes & Pete Webb

The top 3 went through to the final later on this year. Terry and Pete may go through depending on future results.

Well done to all those involved and thank you to Phil Dixon for running such a well oiled event.

Damsel Nymphs fished under a bung was deadly on the day and those that saw bungs being used, seemed to automatically assume that they were fishing buzzers. Sometimes you need to think outside the box.

The next week or so is starting to fill up fast, so it’s best to call and get booked in to avoid missing out on a boat for the day.