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Grafham 20/03/2025

 So with Draycote still being closed and Clywedog 4 hours away I need to find somewhere else to fish. Decided to give Grafham a go, to be honest it was a toss up between there or Pitsford but fished Pitsford last October and never fished Grafham so decided to go there Decided to take the Thursday off as the weather forecast was a huge improvement on the 4-5 degrees we have had for a while so just decided to book it and go 5:15 alarm (not pleasant) and got on the road just after 6, arrived at Grafham just after 8 First impression was a large car park and well stocked tackle shop including a lot of fly tieing gear which was a pleasant surprise so joined the queue of anglers checking in and got the boat number Bright Blue sky and flat calm so decided the fish would be deepish so set up a DI5 sweep with a 3 fly cast of pseudo pitsford pea (tied with micro fritz) a black and holographic red cormorant and a sort of diawl bach with Chartreuse goose biots instead of jungle cock, couldn't d...
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Frustrating Start to 2024

 Was going to buy a season ticket for Draycote this year but hadn't got round to it when the news that Draycote, Eyebrook and Thornton would not be opening for the start of the 2024 season due to insolvency broke. Heartbreaking for all of the employees who were all very knowledgable and friendly so hopefully something will be sorted out soon after the season starts Have recently become a member of the Draycote Fly Fishers which has an excellent whatsapp group and am currently thinking that I will try and get a trip to Ravensthorpe soon. However the weather has certainly not been friendly and so have missed the 1st month of the season already, to be fair this was also due to me being away for work for most of March. Was looking to go on Monday (8th) but looking at the forecast there are 20 - 30 mph winds and I am too old to enjoy being out in that so will currently be giving it a miss Hopefully some time over the next week or so I will get a trip out
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No Fishing this week BUT........

 That is it I am fully back and committed to fly fishing After much umming and ahhing I have (sensibly) decided that I need to be tieing my own flys. The fulling mill and fly shop flies that I have been using for the last year are fantastic but are only available in certain sizes and are getting costly as I go fishing more often After much deliberation mainly centered around the number of flies that I am realistically going to tie over the course of a season (something less than 100 I think given that the number of trips is likely to be fewer than 30) and the fact that 30 odd years ago I managed perfectly well with the equivalent of a Veniard Super AA vice I decided to buy an Anvil Apex Pedastal Vice. I may regret this but really could not see what additional benefit an Anvil Atlas for an addtional 40 - 50 quid would give never mind the professional vices at £500+ Fully accepting that I will end up in the short term spending a lot of money on materials but they should last many yea...
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Frustrating Eyebrook

 Tried to get a boat at Draycote but they were full for the only day I could make it so off to Eyebrook again, at least I won't have to do battle with the sailing boats😊 Quick chat in the lodge revealed it had been fishing well to Buzzers but that temperature had dropped a bit due to rain the previous day Wind blowing straight down the lake which should enable me to have a long drift Started with 6ft slow tip with big orange FAB on the point and a couple of size 12 nymphs and essentially drifted down from Robbo's cabin, nothing doing and didn't see a fish so switched the FAB for a size 10 buzzer. Still nothing and wind getting up a bit so switched to DI3 with a small orange FAB. Little tug 3 casts in but nothing else Thought I would try Sams Dyke and the point but rather frustratingly there was a line of 8 boats anchored up 30 - 40 yards offshore which made it next to impossible to drift anywhere near there, I really do find this quite annoying. Started back up at Robbo...
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Draycote 23/04/23

 Disappointing day for me at Draycote with nothing to show for 6 hours of effort. View in the shop was North shore but try N buoy before the sailors got out (misheard that as M which basically summed up the day) Started off DI3 and a mini cats whisker, drifted over M and nothing happening but there was the odd fish showing so changed to floater and a couple of buzzers to no avail  Belatedly moved to N buoy and had a drift with the DI3 and a booby snake - I am determined to get a fish on one of these sometime this season but again nothing. Decided to g back to my original plan prior to arriving which was Biggin Bay / Toft with Buzzers/Bung Wind direction pushing away from the bank at Biggin andalso a lot of bank anglers so fished further out than I had hoped , drifted down without a touch but went round again to try the Bung with a similar result Couple of drifts round toft with various lines/flies (10ft fast tip, DI5 sweep/floater+bung) all to no avail. Back to Biggin Bay for ...
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Not this week

 Slightly disappointing that life has got in the way of fishing this week and it is a shame that sportfish is not open on Sundays as I could have managed a couple of hours there today but could not carve out enough time to get to the midlands reservoirs for any reasonable amount of time - 4 hour round trip so anything less than 1/2 a day I really cannot justify Need to get myself back into fly tieing as the commercially available flies are going to get expensive and also do not come in all of the sizes I would like, as with most things trout fishing there are a huge number of different vices at a huge range of price points, will need to have a base rather than a clamp I think which will rule out the direct replacement for my previous (40 years ago) vice which would I think be the Veniard No 12 super standard and given my experience with the Wychwood cassette reels will need to have a proper think about what price is sensible for me to pay.
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Maybe not so Bad

 Just read the report for last week and it would seem that the vast majority of the fish caught on the Sunday were from the Leicester bank with the Rutland bank (where I was mainly due to not wanting to do battle with the crowds) did not fish at all with even the competitors who started off on the Rutland bank moving to the Leicester bank (Sams Dyke) in order to catch fish My two then not a disgrace but still 'must do better'
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