FlyFish30Plus

 Getting excited again, managed to sneak another day of fishing into the diary so will be spending tomorrow at Draycote hoping to have a better day than last time - forecast is certainly better Never been on a boat by myself before (and in fact have never driven one) so that could be a bit interesting, shouldn't be too hard though methinks and so am looking forwards to it Not a great day - boat and driving it etc not an issue (this feature being helped by the flat calm) but toiled in vain for 10 hours (8:30 - 18;30) without so much as a single pull Need to get myself into the position of having a number of methods that I am confident will get me fish. It is all very well reading the reports saying x or y method worked well but due to me not fishing for the last 30 years (and also even then being much more a sea trout fisherman) I have no actual experience of catching proper numbers of fish regularly on any of these methods and so just need to find the methods that work for me, this...

 Reflecting on the last (somewhat disappointing) outing I am coming round to the conclusion that confidence is a large factor. I have only actually fished 4 tines in the last 30 years and consequently have caught very few fish on the flies that are currently in my box as most of them were not actually invented when I last fished, add that to the fact that I was never much of a reservoir fisherman and never went on a boat and I guess it is not that surprising that BP (who has continued to fish regularly over the last 30 years) out performs me as he has confidence in the flies and methods he is using So I need to get put on the water more regularly and build that knowledge and belief in the patterns and methods/retrieve rates I am using as with the best will in the world concentration starts to drop if there is no action and you do not have the inner confidence that the patterns/methods you are using are effective With that in mind I am going to try and get out at least once a month ...

 BUMP - that was a sobering day out. Got there early full of optimism on a chilly and breezy day, quick chat in the shop revealed that the water temperatue had dropped significantly and the fishing had consequently got a lot harder, never mind we thought (myself and boat partner - BP from now on) we had a fantastic day here last October so should be able to tempt a few fish. Started off essentially drifting down the Farnborough Bank from the pontoons me on a 10ft sink tip with Cormorant, Red Diawl Bach and Zulu, BP DI5 sweep and Orange Blob No activity at all and the wind started to get up and the temperature fall so we quickly decided to head for some shelter in Biggin Bay (along with every other boat on the water it seemed) There were 1/2 a dozen boats anchored at various points in the bay and so we started a drift from around about Buoy D down, got all the way down to Lincoft point without so much as a sniff (I had by now changed to a DI5) but just at the end of the Drift BP bri...

 Firsttrip of the new season planned for Saturday 9th at Draycote and I really can't wait. I have been a nightmare for the last 3 days checking my gear (mostly new so no need) looking through flies to try and decide the first cast, preparing the leaders with 2 droppers (10lb and 8lb) and generally just checking again and again that everything is in order. Last trip to Draycote was a really good day and turned out to be my best days reservoir fishing ever so that has set a pretty high bar but to be honest just getting a day out on the water will be enough although I will be somewhat disappointed to not catch anything Tickets all paid for, alarm set for 05:30 and sandwiches made😁 roll on tomorrow