Thornton weekly report week ending 28th May 2017

Tel: 01530 230807

70 acre

The hot spell of weather last week was more like the weather we expect during mid July, not normal weather at all for late May.

By Friday the heat had pushed our surface water temperature towards 20 degrees usually for this time of the year we would be expecting it to be no more than 16 degrees

The trout moved away from the warm surface layers and moved into the cooler water column 10 ft down, were they continued to feed on the buzzer.

Longer leaders 20ft – 25ft with a heavy, tungsten buzzer on the point with buzzer patterns above that fished static was the most successful method.

Damsel have shown in increasing numbers with the first of the pin fry spotted around the pontoon on Sunday afternoon

Best areas as you would expect with last weeks heat was the deeper water with green bay, dam wall & stones fishing well.

Alan Johnstone fished a morning session catching 6 trout on size 14 green buzzers, Adrian Freer used an intermediate and damsel patterns in front of the dam wall to catch his 8 fish during the cooler morning session, K Maile & P Harris fished heavy buzzer patterns on a 25ft leader static catching 16 to the boat.

Thornton Fly Fishers fished their boat pairs competition on Sunday with 7 pairs taking to the water, they averaged 3.5 for their match with two pairs sharing first place weighing in 12 fish for 21lb14oz, the joint winners were Russ Jackson, Jim Retalic & Tim Ward, John Foster, pictures on our facebook page www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

This morning with the cooler conditions our water temperature has started to drop back to were we would expect it to be, with a much cooler forecast for this coming week I would expect to start seeing fish move again during the evening especially from Tuesday onwards.

Call the lodge for latest updates 01530 230807

New for 2017, Thornton has joined the Troutmasters competition, entry forms to be found next to the booking out sheet you will need a member of staff to countersign your entry, good luck and get those entries rolling in.

Overall average for the week was 2.5

Current Fishing Times:

Car Park, Lodge and bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boats: 8.30am – 9.45pm

Part Day Boats: 8.30am – 3.00pm /  3.00pm – 9.45pm

Last 4 hours:   5.45pm – 9.45pm (last 4 hour permits on sale from 5.30pm)

All anglers off site by 10.00pm

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Thornton weekly report week ending 21st May 2017

Tel: 01530 230807

70 acre

This past week’s heavy rain at times did little to encourage anglers out, however we desperately needed the rain. With crops in the field & plenty of leaf on the trees the rain had no effect on our clarity, with water clarity currently excellent, gin clear.

It’s the time of year when the fish can pick & choose what they feed on with buzzers of all sizes & coming off. Caenis is also starting to feature in the evenings. We are yet to see our first damsel but we are spooning fish that are feeding on damsel nymphs, it won’t be long before we see them.

This past week success on the buzzer was down to size & colour, size 14 & 16 olive buzzers generally fished high in the water, with the washing line working well. Of course there is always an exception with some anglers still catching on epoxy buzzer fished deep.

Trout are spread throughout the reservoir, although the change in wind direction to the south west has seen a greater concentration in the green bay & dam area.

With some caenis showing I often find single tups or sparkle gnat works well, fish as fine as you dare, presentation is the key, look for a low diameter leader, it makes a difference.

Richard Watkins on Monday took our advice and fished green bay catching 12 for his mornings visit, Tuesday Terry Ord caught 16 for his mornings visit on a static cdc with Norman Perkins fishing buzzers to boat 14, Trevor Pegg fished a 14 buzzer catching 18 for his visit. Mark Hunt took a different approach to many fishing the open water of the main basin catching 10 with a dry daddy pattern working for him. Adam Gunby & Rodger Guise fished green bay area, commenting that there were a lot of fish in that area boating 15 trout between them.

Water clarity is excellent with the water temperature perfect at 14 degrees.

New for 2017, Thornton has joined the Troutmasters competition, entry forms to be found next to the booking out sheet you will need a member of staff to countersign your entry, good luck and get those entries rolling in.

Overall average for the week was 2.9

Current Fishing Times:

Car Park, Lodge and bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boats: 8.30am – 9.30pm

Part Day Boats: 8.30am – 3.00pm /  3.00pm – 9.30pm

Last 4 hours:   5.30pm – 9.30pm (last 4 hour permits on sale from 5.15pm)

All anglers off site by 9.45pm

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Thornton weekly report week ending 14th May 2017

Tel: 01530 230807

70 acre

Towards the end of the week the wind started to swing out of the east to a more favourable westerly, south westerly.

A real mix this last week with trout caught on boobies on a fast sinker to dries on the top and everywhere in between.

Evening rise has been getting better with good numbers of fish moving, especially from the mouth of the Markfield arm across to the main dam

Chris Goodwin & Mick Glover fished in front of the wood boating 18 trout on lime green buzzer, diawl bach & muskins, Trevor Pegg caught 12 to 3lb+ on suspender buzzer. Diawl bach was the fly of choice for Peter Wrigley boating 15 with Mark Perry taking to his float tube for a morning session catching 7 on buzzer, Kev Maile & P Harris fished straight line buzzer to boat their 17 trout. Phill Mee found the fish off the corner of the wood boating 12 for his morning session with S Clay & J Bowman sorting out the fish on the evening rise catching 10 on dries.

A few hawthorn & lake olives still about with caenis starting to show on the warmer evenings. Buzzer in the main is the main food item. Still early for the damsel although a few of the fish spooned are feeding on damsel nymphs, especially fish caught up the arms.

Good forecast this week, Monday & Tuesday some much needed rain to freshen the water, wind in the south, south westerly and daytime temperature between 15 – 18 degrees

Water clarity is excellent with the water temperature perfect at 14 degrees.

New for 2017, Thornton has joined the Troutmasters competition, entry forms to be found next to the booking out sheet you will need a member of staff to countersign your entry, good luck and get those entries rolling in.

Overall average for the week was 2.9

Current Fishing Times:

Car Park, Lodge and bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boats: 8.30am – 9.15pm

Part Day Boats: 8.30am – 2.30pm /  2.30pm – 9.15pm

Last 4 hours:   5.15pm – 9.15pm (last 4 hour permits on sale from 5.00pm)

All anglers off site by 9.30pm

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Thornton weekly report week ending 7th May 2017

Tel: 01530 230807

70 acre

Yet another week of cold easterly, with anglers reaching for their intermediate and slow sink lines, although anglers who managed to tuck themselves away out of the wind enjoyed good sport on floating lines with the hawthorn fly active in the shelter of the wood bank

Any evening rise was generally short lived but with a drop in the wind speed on Sunday evening resulted in a good evening rise with Peter Wurm and his son catching 8 trout.

Richard Dayman & John Kirk caught 20 on buzzers with John Simpson fishing small bunny patterns to boat 12, Peter Wrigley caught 18 on buzzers with T Pegg finding a diawl bach worked best for him boating 16, Mark Hunt found the fish to be a bit finicky but a change of approach and a single dry fly fished close in along the wood bank produced 22 fish including a brown

Best areas, wood bank, Markfield Arm & green bay

Water clarity is excellent with hawthorn, buzzer and a few pond olives bringing the fish to the surface.

New for 2017, Thornton has joined the Troutmasters competition, entry forms to be found next to the booking out sheet you will need a member of staff to countersign your entry, good luck and get those entries rolling in.

Overall average for the week was 4.2

Current Fishing Times:

Car Park, Lodge and bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boats: 8.30am – 9.00pm

Part Day Boats: 8.30am – 2.30pm /  2.30pm – 9.00pm

Last 4 hours:   5.00pm – 9.00pm (last 4 hour permits on sale from 4.45pm)

All anglers off site by 9.15pm

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Thornton weekly report week ending 30th April 2017

Tel: 01530 230807

70 acre

Cold easterly winds all week took a whole degree off the water temperature, dropping the water temperature to 11 degrees.

Despite the cold winds buzzers were the dominant pattern with the fish feeding hard on the buzzer hatches. With the cold winds buzzer patterns fished on an intermediate or slow sink line worked best with the majority of the fish caught in the top 5ft of water. As you would expect for late April the trout are spread throughout the reservoir although the corner of the wood and Markfield arm are holding goodnumbers.

During the odd evening when the wind dropped away we enjoyed a good evening rise especially in front of the dam and orange buoy area with anglers using a floating line with buzzer, cdc and dries.

Jim Strachan & John Goodwin fished black buzzers and boated 20 trout, Richard Dayman & Norman Perkins fished a slow sinker with buzzers to also boat 20 trout, John Simpson fished mini lures to boat his 20 trout with David Woodall finding plenty of trout in the mouth of the Markfield arm boating 8 for his mornings visit, Peter Wurm concentrated his fishing to the last 4 hours catching 10 during the evening rise. Mark Hunt is a man on a trout fishing mission, fishing the Eyebrook on Saturday morning to win the Troutmasters heat before going to Thornton in the afternoon to catch & release a further 8

Other patterns that have worked during the week, green pea, damsel & blob

During the last few days the hawthorn fly has been blown onto the water especially down along the farm bank.

Water clarity is excellent

New for 2017, Thornton has joined the Troutmasters competition, entry forms to be found next to the booking out sheet you will need a member of staff to countersign your entry, good luck and get those entries rolling in.

Overall average for the week was 4.8

Current Fishing Times:

Car Park, Lodge and bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boats: 8.30am – 8.45pm

Part Day Boats: 8.30am – 2.30pm /  2.30pm – 8.45pm

Last 4 hours:   4.45pm – 8.45pm (last 4 hour permits on sale from 4.30pm)

All anglers off site by 9.00pm

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Thornton weekly report week ending 23rd April 2017

Tel: 01530 230807

70 acre

Cold wind at times resulted in not as many fish to be seen moving as you may have expected for late April but the fish were still hard on the buzzer but feeding on them 6ft down with anglers using mid range sinking lines, lines that sink between 3 – 4 inch per second producing some of the better catches of the week.

On the milder evenings we saw plenty of fish on the surface during the last hour, although at times they proved a bit tricky to tempt the boats on the drift using cdc patterns or traditional wet fly patterns managed to catch a reasonable amount.

The trout are well spread out throughout the reservoir with the mouth of the Markfield arm, dam wall and orange buoy areas holding good numbers

Best patterns, black buzzer 12-14, damsel and blob

Jamie Scott fished Thornton twice in the week catching 28 fish. Member Bob Jones fished buzzer and damsel to take his 8 fish limit, David Woodall went into the Markfield arm and found the feeding fish taking his limit with Neil Bates taking an 8 fish limit including fish of 4lb and 3lb, Mark Hunt picked up his 3inch second sinker boating 15 on damsel and black buzzer.

Water clarity is good with the surface water temperature between 12 – 13 degrees, we should if the weather allows see an increasing number of fish on the surface with an evening rise.

New for 2017, Thornton has joined the Troutmasters competition, entry forms to be found next to the booking out sheet you will need a member of staff to countersign your entry, good luck and get those entries rolling in.

Overall average for the week was 3

Current Fishing Times:

Car Park, Lodge and bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boats: 8.30am – 8.30pm

Part Day Boats: 8.30am – 2.30pm /  2.30pm – 8.30pm

Last 4 hours:   4.30pm – 8.30pm (last 4 hour permits on sale from 4.15pm)

All anglers off site by 8.40pm

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Thornton weekly report week ending 16th April 2017

Tel: 01530 230807

70 acre

It has at times this past week been bitterly cold out on the water with the air temperature in single digits, however when the wind dropped usually going into the evening it allowed the air temperature to rise and we had, if at times a short evening rise.

Trout are spread well throughout the reservoir with green bay, orange buoy & mouth of the Markfield arm producing best.

With the cooler conditions it was a case of adapting your approach, trout are still feeding hard on buzzer but unlike last week when all you required was a floating or intermediate line this week you fished the same team of flies however it was time to put on the medium sink line ideally with a sink rate of 3 – 4inch per second. The trout were still on the buzzer, but happily feeding 6 – 8ft down.

Chris Sayer and granddaughter Millie caught 12 for their visit with Chris returning a few days later and catching a further 9 trout, Neil Bates took 8 as did Phil Cross fishing buzzers and damsels. John Bebbington caught rainbows of 3lb14oz and 3lb12oz with David Slessor catching a brown of 4lb4oz photos on  www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Best patterns, black buzzer size 10-12, damsel, dawsons olive, diawl bach & snake

Water clarity is excellent and with the bright weather bank anglers have done best during the first few hours and last few hours of the fishing day while boat anglers have caught steadily throughout the day.

Boats and float tubers are fishing best with bank anglers catching during the morning and evening. We advise bank anglers to bring waders.

New for 2017, Thornton has joined the Troutmasters competition, entry forms to be found next to the booking out sheet you will need a member of staff to countersign your entry, good luck and get those entries rolling in.

Overall average for the week was 3.4

Current Fishing Times:

Car Park, Lodge and bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boats: 8.30am – 8.15pm

Part Day Boats: 8.30am – 2.00pm /  2.00pm – 8.15pm

Last 4 hours:   4.15pm – 8.15pm (last 4 hour permits on sale from 4.00pm)

All anglers off site by 8.30pm

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Thornton weekly report week ending 9th February 2017

Tel: 01530 230807

70 acre

With our surface temperature hovering between 11 – 12 degrees our buzzer hatches continue to improve with an evening rise bringing large numbers of fish to the surface.

Its that time of year when anglers can pick up fish from all over the reservoir. Some fish are still on the shallows opposite the lodge, but remember we are on week 10 of our season, some of those fish have seen a great many flies since we opened back on February 1^st and are therefore a little educated! Time to think about leader diameter, length of leader & fly size.

The farm bank has started to produce a few fish with fish moving along this area during the evening, this next week or so will see the farm bank area become quite productive. Green bay has fished well this week with Mr & Mrs Warren picking up 6 fish from this area in just over 3 hours fishing.

Those fishing the evening rise have found the area in front of the dam past the orange buoy has been the best area, you will usually find during an evening rise the anglers on the drift will outfish those on the anchor.

Complete Fly Fishers forum held a competition at Thornton on Sunday in memory of Roy Stroud, 13 anglers took part with the honours going to Paul Evans winning the boat section catching 13 trout with Ian Lindsay top float tuber also catching 13, thanks to Richard Jamieson and Nigel Organ for organising another successful forum meet.

Floating, midge tip and intermediate lines with orange blob, damsel, buzzer, suspender buzzer, diawl bach all patterns taking good numbers of trout.

Great time of year to try float tubing with Mark Perry visiting Thornton with his tube catching 14 for his mornings visit.

Water clarity is excellent and with the bright weather bank anglers have done best during the first few hours and last few hours of the fishing day while boat anglers have caught steadily throughout the day.

We advise bank anglers to bring waders.

We would remind boat anglers that they are required to give way to bank anglers and unless mutually agreed to keep 40yds from other boats and bank anglers

New for 2017, Thornton has joined the Troutmasters competition, entry forms to be found next to the booking out sheet you will need a member of staff to countersign your entry, good luck and get those entries rolling in.

Overall average for the week was 4.8

Current Fishing Times:

Car Park, Lodge and bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boats: 8.30am – 8.00pm

Part Day Boats: 8.30am – 2.00pm /  2.00pm – 8.00pm

Last 4 hours:   4.00pm – 8.00pm (last 4 hour permits on sale from 3.45pm)

All anglers off site by 8.15pm

Follow us on facebook www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Thornton weekly report week ending 2^nd February 2017

Tel: 01530 230807

70 acre

Towards the end of the week it certainly felt as if spring was arriving, first swallow on the water, good buzzer hatches & our first evening rise.

The trout are starting to move away from the shallows were they have been for the last 9 weeks (yes 9 weeks have gone by since we opened) with the trout starting to move further down the arms & out over the deeper water.

Bank anglers continue to find fish opposite the lodge and corner of the wood with the lonesome pine area and farm bank producing. As the days become brighter and longer the bank is fishing best during the morning and evening session.

Boat anglers towards the end of the week found fish feeding on the buzzer hatches from in front of the dam wall past the orange buoy.

Peter Wurm fished a late evening session picking up 4 trout, John Kirk fished an afternoon session catching 8 on damsel and buzzers, David Wilson fished a morning session catching 5 including a brown estimated at 5lb – 6lb which he returned. Mick & Val Jay caught 8 on buzzers for their mornings visit.

Floating lines, midge tip or intermediate lines best with size 10 – 12 black buzzer, suspender buzzer & damsel.

We advise bank anglers to bring waders.

We would remind boat anglers that they are required to give way to bank anglers and unless mutually agreed to keep 40yds from other boats and bank anglers

New for 2017, Thornton has joined the Troutmasters competition, entry forms to be found next to the booking out sheet you will need a member of staff to countersign your entry, good luck and get those entries rolling in.

Overall average for the week was 3.00

Current Fishing Times:

Car Park, Lodge and bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boats: 8.30am – 7.30pm

Part Day Boats: 8.30am – 2.00pm /  2.00pm – 7.30pm

Last 4 hours:   3.30pm – 7.30pm

All anglers off site by 7.45pm

Follow us on facebook www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore

Tuition Day

Jim Williams will be running a beginners day at Draycote this weekend 8^th & 9^th April, full days tuition including fishing permit adults £65 juniors £35, contact the Draycote lodge

Thornton weekly report week ending 26^th March 2017

Tel: 01530 230807

70 acre

Mixed week of fishing, the weather certainly did not help with some rain, wind & at times a bitterly cold north easterly.

It was a case of keeping in touch with the lodge & fishing around that days weather forecast.

Howard Davies kicked off our monthly entries to the Troutmasters competition with a rainbow of 4lb4oz, Saturday proved to be the best fishing day of the week with Mark Hemmings fishing a part day session boating 8 on damsel patterns with Martin Clay also fishing a damsel to catch 14. Steve Zeleny & Roy Swinfield fished the lonesome pine area, traditionally a good place to try this time of year & were rewarded with 15 trout to the boat.

When the wind dropped & the air temperature picked up we enjoyed good buzzer hatches which have coincided with the return of the sand & house martins, the swallows will quickly follow, a sure sign that spring is on its way

Boats due to the cold wind fished better than the bank but with an improving forecast this week we would expect to see the bank fishing improve.

We advise bank anglers to bring waders.

We would remind boat anglers that they are required to give way to bank anglers and unless mutually agreed to keep 40yds from other boats and bank anglers

New for 2017, Thornton has joined the Troutmasters competition, entry forms to be found next to the booking out sheet you will need a member of staff to countersign your entry, good luck and get those entries rolling in.

Overall average for the week was 2.0

Car Park, Lodge and bank fishing open 7.30am

Full Day Boats 8.30am – 6.45pm

Part Day Boats 8.30am – 2.00pm /  2.00pm – 6.45pm

All anglers off site by 7.00pm

Follow us on facebook www.facebook.com/FlyFishStore