Thornton Weekly Report

Week ending 20^th May

Tel 01530 230807

The unpredictable British weather, suddenly May produces a very warm week of weather, surprisingly warm as it pushed our surface water temperature to 18+ degrees.

It meant a change is the style of fishing from the majority using dries or suspender buzzer patterns to buzzers fished under an indicator or sinking lines with cats whiskers, damsel & boobies

The deeper water in front of the dam, green bay & stones produced best with some fish been taken down the arms.

Bob Menhams fished the morning session catching 6 on buzzer and damsels, Clive Cattell fished the brighter afternoon session and found a white booby worked best for him. Pete Hunt continues to use the combination of cats whisker on the point and buzzer on the dropper to help him to his catch of 12 trout, whilst Adrian Freer fished buzzers on an intermediate to land his 4 trout for the morning session.

Tom Hutchinson fished damsel & buzzer patterns for his 6 trout. Another cracking brown of 4lb8oz was part of a 4 fish catch for Bill Holland during his mornings visit with Tony Lorrimer using his successful Bunny patterns to boat 12 trout and John Simpson using his Bunny patterns to boat 9 trout during an afternoon session. Diawl Bachs worked for J Evans & T Evans catching 31 trout. Andre Russell float tubed in front of the dam during his Saturday morning visit taking 7 trout on boobies, Martin Clay caught 9 to 3lb with Kev Mailie and Pete Harris catching 39 trout on static black buzzers from green bay noting the majority were taken 20ft down. Keith Cowen fished Sunday morning using a yellow fritz blob to take his 7 trout with P Hunt & J Thomson boating 13 on buzzers for their mornings visit.

Generally last week the morning session produced best

Rod Average 2.9

Opening Times

Main Gate, Lodge & Bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boat: 8.30am – 9.30pm

Morning Boat: 8.30am – 3.00pm

Afternoon Boat: 3.00pm – 9.30pm

Last 4hr hour 5.30pm – 9.30pm

All anglers offsite by 9.45pm

www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Thornton Weekly Report

Week ending 13th May 2018

Tel 01530 230807

We enjoyed this past week the sort of fishing we expect for May, fish feeding on the buzzer, with a good evening rise and a rod average 5.6

The trout are well spread throughout the reservoir from the shallows opposite the lodge, down past the lonesome pine & from the stones into green bay. During the evening rise the majority are moving across the main basin, although you will find feeding fish up both the arms.

Monday and Phill Mee caught 13 for his mornings visit, Bob Memhams also fished the morning session with small damsel and buzzers to catch 10 trout with Dave Rossin using the same patterns to catch 6. Colin Dann fished a washing line to catch 14 trout with Mr & Mrs Ryalls on their first visit to Thornton catching 20+ trout on magpie buzzers.

Tuesday Bob Jones and his father caught 16 on buzzer, damsel and cats whisker, John Kirk fished off the stones with buzzer and cruncher to catch his 12 trout, Harold Pritchard this years England Disabled Team Captain caught 10 on crunchers and buzzer for his mornings visit, Clive Holt fished the evening rise and caught 7 on a Pearly Wickham’s

Wednesday and the farm bank finally produced with Mick Glover catching 10 on crunchers, Adrian Freer fished buzzers for his 10 trout with Clive Holt returning to enjoy our excellent evening rise on this occasion catching 15.

Thursday Tony Lorrimer used his bunny patterns as did John Simpson with both recording 14 fish, Tut & Terry Miles caught 14 for their mornings visit with Steve Orton arriving to fish the evening rise catching 7 on dries.

Friday and buzzer patterns continued to produce best Terry Ord using buzzers to boat 7 for his morning session with Szymon returning to fish with his 6yr old daughter with both of them catching, pictures on our www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Saturday Jan Webber needed just half a day with his damsel patterns to record 14 trout, Martin Clay fished crunchers and buzzers to catch 13, Mark Hunt fished klinkhammers & buzzers to catch his 15 trout, Adrian Pusey fished an afternoon session with buzzers off the woodbank to record 11 trout

Sunday Simon and his 6yr daughter continued their good sport catching 11 on this visit, Adam Gunby caught 14 for his mornings visit with Les Watson fishing the last 4hr session boating 11 trout

Bank anglers are advised that they require waders to successfully fish the bank at Thornton.

Rod Average 5.6

Opening Times

Main Gate, Lodge & Bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boat: 8.30am – 9.15pm

Morning Boat: 8.30am – 3.00pm

Afternoon Boat: 3.00pm – 9.15pm

Last 4hr hour 5.15pm – 9.15pm

All anglers offsite by 9.30pm

www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Thornton Weekly Report

Week ending 6^th May

Tel 01530 230807

At last and some normality to the fishing with some cracking evening rise sport to be had towards the end of the week.

Water clarity is 3ft+

Monday Bob Menhams found some shelter from the wind tucked in close to the woodbank catching 4 trout on buzzers during his 4 hour. Tuesday with better conditions anglers were able to fish all areas of the fishery, Nev Welsh caught 7 for his mornings visit on damsels, Peter Hunt caught 6 on buzzer, damsel and cats whiskers.

Nev Welsh returned on Friday and caught 12, Dave Slesser caught 10 with Steve Jordan catching 8 to 4lb. With a cracking late evening rise on Friday a number of anglers reported good sport to cdc buzzers along the stone bank across the main basin.

The weekend arrived and we enjoyed the best sport of the season with fish taking buzzers and damsels. With a number of anglers catching in excess of 10 fish for their visit. Brian Sibley caught a rainbow of 4lb8oz, John Thomson a rainbow of 4lb8oz with his boat partner Peter Hunt recording a rainbow of 5lb.

Successful method was to fish buzzers static or very slow under a bung or washing line, small damsel, cdc and suspender buzzer patterns

Trout are well spread across the reservoir with the green bay area and stones fishing particularly well on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Bank anglers are advised that they require waders to successfully fish the bank at Thornton.

Rod Average 4.5

Opening Times

Main Gate, Lodge & Bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boat: 8.30am – 9.00pm

Morning Boat: 8.30am – 2.30pm

Afternoon Boat: 2.30pm – 9.00pm

Last 4hr hour 5.00pm – 9.00pm

All anglers offsite by 9.15pm

www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Notice to all fishing guides & instructors

We continue to welcome independent guides & instructors on all our water.

However to ensure in this world of potential litigation that all parties are covered on advice from our insurance company if your guiding or instructing a client at Draycote, Foremark, Thornton & Eyebrook you will in future be require to produce:

1. A copy of your Liability Insurance, this you can email to us for it to be on file for 2018
2. A copy of your Risk Assessment for that days guiding / instruction

If your guiding or instructing and are unable to produce the required documents you will be refused access to the fishery.

To enable us to deal with all our customers quickly & efficiently we suggest you forward copies of your liability insurance for us to place on file and prior to your visit a copy of that days risk assessment emailed to the fishery lodge, this will enable our staff to get you & your client out on the water as quickly as possible.

We would like to thank the guides & instructors who have already forwarded copies of their liability insurance.

Thornton Weekly Report

Week ending 29th  April

Tel 01530 230807

Another roller coaster week with the weather, It’s not only affecting trout fisheries but our suppliers the fish farmers, coloured river water flowing through their farms result in them not being able to feed combined with lower water temperatures for the time of year the trout aren’t growing anywhere near as quickly as expected, it truly has been “The Perfect Storm”

The heavy rainfall on Thursday & Friday did add a bit of colour to the water but by this morning the clarity is back to 2ft+ and we should see some good sport as we move further into the week and a much improved forecast.

Monday was a good day Val & Mick Jay along with Bob Menhams fished the morning session with them taking their 8 fish limits with fish up to 4lb4oz. Jamie Scott recorded 17 fish from a boat with Norman Perkins recording 20 from the bank and Peter Broad fishing the afternoon period from the bank catching 8

Pam Shuttelworth returned and caught another rainbow weighing 4lb2oz this time on a miller buzzer, photo on Facebook www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Tuesday Pete Cox caught 8 with Phil Cross & Steve Windram fishing damsel patterns to boat 10 trout

Wednesday with rain & a colder wind sport wasn’t as brisk although Peter Wurm fishing the last 4 hours boated 5 trout

Thursday & it was great to see Tony Lorrimer out on the water again & he didn’t disappoint fishing his bunny flies he caught 23 trout. Dave Skudder fished the afternoon & despite the temperature dropping he caught 5 trout

Saturday & the clarity had dropped a little however the trout still fed with J Webber taking 6 trout, W Slesser 8 trout, Simon Szymon fished the afternoon & caught 17 with Mark Hunt using his skinny crunchers to boat 11

Sunday and it was cold, P Hunt & J Thomson caught 13 between them including a 3lb brown & 5lb rainbow

Best patterns for the week were olive or black buzzers, suspender buzzers, small damsels, crunchers, small green pea & small montana fished off a floating line.

Usually this time of year the farm bank can often hold good numbers of trout

Bank anglers are advised that they require waders to successfully fish the bank at Thornton.

Rod Average 3.9

Opening Times

Main Gate, Lodge & Bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boat: 8.30am – 8.45pm

Morning Boat: 8.30am – 2.30pm

Afternoon Boat: 2.30pm – 8.45pm

Last 4hr hour 4.45pm – 8.45pm

All anglers offsite by 9.00pm

www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Notice to all fishing guides & instructors

We continue to welcome independent guides & instructors on all our water.

However to ensure in this world of potential litigation that all parties are covered on advice from our insurance company if your guiding or instructing a client at Draycote, Foremark, Thornton & Eyebrook you will in future be require to produce:

1. A copy of your Liability Insurance, this you can email to us for it to be on file for 2018
2. A copy of your Risk Assessment for that days guiding / instruction

If your guiding or instructing and are unable to produce the required documents you will be refused access to the fishery.

To enable us to deal with all our customers quickly & efficiently we suggest you forward copies of your liability insurance for us to place on file and prior to your visit a copy of that days risk assessment emailed to the fishery lodge, this will enable our staff to get you & your client out on the water as quickly as possible.

We would like to thank the guides & instructors who have already forwarded copies of their liability insurance.

Thornton Weekly Report    Week ending 22^nd April

Tel 01530 230807

At last we have enjoyed a week of good weather, water clarity continues to improve and were seeing some of the best buzzer hatches for years with a rod average 4.3 for the week, I hope we can safely say, we have turned the corner!

Monday Pete Hunt continued his good start to the season fishing cats whiskers and buzzer opposite the lodge from a boat to record 7 trout, Norman Perkins fished the bank and caught 10 on buzzer, Clive Holt and Colin Chambers came to fish the evening rise and recorded 8 fish to the boat.

Wednesday John Kirk fished opposite the lodge from the bank with buzzers off a washing line and caught 10, Peter Wurm fished the evening rise and caught 5 again opposite the lodge

Call the lodge for latest update.

Thursday Richard Dayman & Norman Perkins shared a boat and fished down past the lonesome pine catching 21 trout between them to 5lb on a cats whiskers and buzzers, Pete Hunt returned for his second visit of the week fishing a cats whisker and buzzer this time recording 15 trout.

Friday Mick Cross fished the lonesome pine taking 10 fish for his mornings visit, Dave Price & Neil James caught 11 trout to 4lb for their mornings session with anglers reporting “lots of buzzer on the water”

Saturday and the best day of the week with numerous anglers recording double figure catches, Andy Lillie, P Mee, D Slessor, P Harris, D Mailie, Mark Hunt, Mick Huffer with most catching on skinny damsel, olive or black size 14 buzzers & crunchers

Sunday we fished the Troutmasters fish off, all the competitors caught their limit with the final result relying on the time bonus, the eventual winner was Richard Dayman who will fish the Troutmasters final at Draycote on Monday 8^th October. Catch of the week was made on Sunday with 83yr old member Pam Shuttelworth taking a boat out to fish the evening rise, fishing Lol`s buzzer she caught a 4lb1oz rainbow photo on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Best areas opposite the lodge, lonesome pine & in the evening the main basin with floating lines small cats whisker, small montana, green pea, size 14 olive or black buzzer & cruncher.

Usually this time of year the farm bank can often hold good numbers of trout

Bank anglers are advised that they require waders to successfully fish the bank at Thornton.

Rod Average 4.3

Opening Times

Main Gate, Lodge & Bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boat: 8.30am – 8.30pm

Morning Boat: 8.30am – 2.30pm

Afternoon Boat: 2.30pm – 8.30pm

Last 4hr hour 4.30pm – 8.30pm

All anglers offsite by 8.45pm

www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Notice to all fishing guides & instructors

We continue to welcome independent guides & instructors on all our water.

However to ensure in this world of potential litigation that all parties are covered on advice from our insurance company if your guiding or instructing a client at Draycote, Foremark, Thornton & Eyebrook you will in future be require to produce:

1. A copy of your Liability Insurance, this you can email to us for it to be on file for 2018
2. A copy of your Risk Assessment for that days guiding / instruction

If your guiding or instructing and are unable to produce the required documents you will be refused access to the fishery.

To enable us to deal with all our customers quickly & efficiently we suggest you forward copies of your liability insurance for us to place on file and prior to your visit a copy of that days risk assessment emailed to the fishery lodge, this will enable our staff to get you & your client out on the water as quickly as possible.

We would like to thank the guides & instructors who have already forwarded copies of their liability insurance.

Thornton Weekly Report

Week ending 15^th April

Tel 01530 230807

At last it & it feels like we have turned a corner, better forecast & our water temperature nearly 10 degrees. Our Water clarity continues to improve and we have 18inch+ of visibility.

Good, in fact excellent buzzer hatches at times with fish moving all over the reservoir, it will only continue to improve.

Members N James & David Price caught 10 fish for their mornings visit on olive buzzers, Colin Dawn found black buzzers worked best for him catching 6 trout. Members J Bebbington & Keith Coley found the fish close in on the margins catching 9 fish for their mornings visit from various areas.

Over the weekend we welcomed members of the Complete Fly Fishing Forum who were up to fish a competition in the memory of Roy Stroud. Kevin Dewey caught 13 trout to 4lb during his two days fishing, Alan Shearn fished muskins and size 14 crunchers to catch 8. You can see the full report of their visit on their Facebook page: Complete Fisher Forum Facebook

Member N Bates caught 6 for his visit, with M Cross catching a Brown weighing 3lb+ and Brian Sibley catching a rainbow 4lb+

It’s a mixture of flies and lines working this past week with floating lines, midge tips, intermediate & sinking lines with blobs, boobies, red buzzer, green buzzer, black buzzer & crunchers all taking fish. Some of the best results with buzzers & crunchers has been to use a size 14

The sand martins, house martins & swallows have still not arrived in numbers yet, its hoped the warmer weather will at long last bring them to the water, we have at times huge hatches of buzzer but as yet no dry fly evening sport, that could all change this week

Call the lodge for latest update.

Rod Average 2

Opening Times

Main Gate, Lodge & Bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boat: 8.30am – 8.15pm

Morning Boat: 8.30am – 2.00pm

Afternoon Boat: 2.00pm – 8.15pm

Last 4hr hour 4.15pm – 8.15pm

All anglers offsite by 8.30pm

www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Notice to all fishing guides & instructors

We continue to welcome independent guides & instructors on all our water.

However to ensure in this world of potential litigation that all parties are covered on advice from our insurance company if your guiding or instructing a client at Draycote, Foremark, Thornton & Eyebrook you will in future be require to produce:

1. A copy of your Liability Insurance, this you can email to us for it to be on file for 2018
2. A copy of your Risk Assessment for that days guiding / instruction

If your guiding or instructing and are unable to produce the required documents you will be refused access to the fishery.

To enable us to deal with all our customers quickly & efficiently we suggest you forward copies of your liability insurance for us to place on file and prior to your visit a copy of that days risk assessment emailed to the fishery lodge, this will enable our staff to get you & your client out on the water as quickly as possible.

We would like to thank the guides & instructors who have already forwarded copies of their liability insurance.

Thornton Weekly Report

Week ending 8^th April

Tel 01530 230807

Well that was a tough week again due to the weather and the past weeks heavy rainfall. Tuesday we had water clarity of 5in by Sunday we were closer to 18in. Not surprising few rods fished due to the conditions.

As the weather improved this week our water temperature started to climb, by Sunday we were 8+degrees, what is surprising is the amount of buzzer on the water this week, some of the hatches have been the best I’ve seen in a number of years, with buzzers of all sizes.

Friday, Saturday & Sunday we had fish moving to the buzzers with the majority to be seen over the main basin. What was surprising with the number of buzzers how quickly the trout had become preoccupied on one particular size, a size 14 black buzzer certainly caught more of the feeding fish than a size 12

Float Tube Association visited on Saturday, faced with tough conditions the fishing was never going to be easy, S. Frakes, R. Dunnett, T Parker & T Thomas all recorded a brace each.

With over 3,500 trout in the reservoir and a good forecast for the week which should see our clarity improve further combined with the excellent buzzer hatches we will see an upturn in sport.

Best method, floating line, size 14 black buzzer, bibio, cats whisker

Call the lodge for latest update.

Rod Average 0.8

Opening Times

Main Gate, Lodge & Bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boat: 8.30am – 8.00pm

Morning Boat: 8.30am – 2.00pm

Afternoon Boat: 2.00pm – 8.00pm

Last 4hr hour 4.00pm – 8.00pm

All anglers offsite by 8.15pm

Visit our online store

www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

We continue to welcome independent guides & instructors on all our water.

However to ensure in this world of potential litigation that all parties are covered on advice from our insurance company if your guiding or instructing a client at Draycote, Foremark, Thornton & Eyebrook you will in future be require to produce:

1. A copy of your Liability Insurance, this you can email to us for it to be on file for 2018
2. A copy of your Risk Assessment for that days guiding / instruction

If your guiding or instructing and are unable to produce the required documents you will be refused access to the fishery.

If you have any questions call Ifor 01530230807 or email lodge@flyfishthornton.co.uk.

Thornton Weekly Report

Week ending 1^st April

Tel 01530 230807

This weather!

Looking back over our first 9 weeks, we opened 1^st February what a contrast the two months have been, February although cold fished well especially for the bank with February producing a monthly rod average of 4.3

March however with its snow, heavy rain & cold winds was a poor month, with the reservoir blighted by poor water quality for at least 10 days and the general weather conditions keeping rods off the water our month of March rod average 1.3

April is with us the heavy rain these past two days has once again given us poor water clarity, will this weather ever stop?

The answer is in the long range forecast, by this coming weekend we should start to see lighter winds with the temperature starting to climb towards 13 degree with the following week temperatures keeping around the 14 – 15 degree mark, I for one can’t wait.

And to this current weeks report.

It was a case of keeping in touch with the lodge and fishing around the weather, Pete Hunt used an intermediate and cats whisker to catch his 5 trout, Phill Cross & S Windram decided to fish the bank opposite the lodge and caught 10 trout between them to 4lb. Norman Perkins fished the bank down past the lonesome pine in not ideal conditions catching 4 trout, but reported a brief but good buzzer hatch with a few fish to be seen moving to them.

Nev Welsh looking for a new rod took advantage of our demo rods taking a Redington Vice 10ft 7wt out on the water, he thought the rod was excellent and he managed to catch 6 trout during his mornings visit. Saturday morning and with a rising reservoir and rapidly reducing clarity due to the overnight deluge Howard Davies managed to catch a cracking 4lb rainbow photo on www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Rod Average 1.3

Currently our water visibility is poor as always we recommend you contact the lodge for latest updates

Opening Times

Main Gate, Lodge & Bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boat: 8.30am – 7.45pm

Morning Boat: 8.30am – 2.00pm

Afternoon Boat: 2.00pm – 7.45pm

Last 4hr hour 3.45pm – 7.45pm

All anglers offsite by 8.00pm

www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Thornton Weekly Report

Week ending 25^th March

Tel 01530 230807

I for one wont be sad to see the end of March, its been a tough month due to the weather.

What a mixed week, our water temperature started at just above 5 degrees & finished at nearly 6 degrees, our clarity has improved during the week and we currently have 18in – 2ft.

For most of the week the fish were tight, within feet of the bank with most anglers fishing the shallows opposite the lodge.

Monday & Tuesday with the rain, sleet & cold we had one rod fish and he lost two fish. Wednesday Dave Leavesley fished a buzzer pattern taking a 3lb rainbow from the bank, Pete Hunt fished an intermediate line with cats whisker and caught 4 for his mornings visit. Thursday and the bank fished best with Phil Cross catching 5 to 4lb on a cats whisker. Friday was the best day of the week, David Price and N James caught 11 to their boat with fish up to 3lb, Steve Windram had a few hours on the bank and caught two fish to 4lb. Saturday was a mixed day, Dave Simmonds fished the bank and caught 4 for his mornings visit, Peter Wrigley fished the bank for a few hours in the afternoon and returned 3 trout with Mark Hunt taking 6 fish on lures and cdc yellow owl buzzer. Sunday and it proved to be a difficult day, anglers reported seen fish move to buzzer hatches but again they proved difficult to catch, Jim Retallic fishing for Kirby Fly Fishers caught an overwintered 4lb brown.

Despite the water temperature struggling to make 6 degrees on Saturday afternoon we had a reasonable hatch of small black buzzers with fish to be seen feeding on them across the reservoir.

Despite what the radio & TV are saying about this weeks forecast it isn’t anywhere near as bad, some rain but overall climbing daytime temperatures, one of the online forecasts we use www.xcweather.co.uk by putting in our postcode LE67 1AR it will give you our local weather, we find the to be reasonably accurate to 24 – 48hr ahead

Rod Average 1.2

Opening Times

Main Gate, Lodge & Bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boat: 8.30am – 7.30pm

Morning Boat: 8.30am – 2.00pm

Afternoon Boat: 2.00pm – 7.30pm

Last 4hr hour 3.30pm – 7.30pm

All anglers offsite by 7.45pm

www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore