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Eyebrook 09/04/23

 Hurrah, the day is finally here, up early and left the house at 06:00 clear run and got to Eyebrook at 07:46 so good start to the day.

The Greys pairs Eyebrook heat is today so there will be at least anothe 22 boats out on the water - hopefully will be spresd out and I can find a few pleasant places to fish

Quick chat in the lodge reveals fish all aroung Sams Dyke and the Point and also Willows down to Watsons cabin (which I misheard as Robbos cabin) buzzers is the advice either washing line or straight

Started off main basin with snake as planned, lodge had mentioned there were fish there but spent 20 minutes with no sighting so decided to head down to mucky bay thnking I could always come back to Sams Dyke - Big Mistake

Buzzers on a 6 foot slow tip resulted in precisely nothing so decided to head over to Robbos cabin - this coincided with the start of the competition and 22 boats flying out of the mooring - about 12 of them headed for Sams Dyke and most of the rest down to the willows and watsons cabin, I started by Robbos cabin with straight line buzzers on the 6ft slow tip

Couple of drifts and no interest at all but a few fish showing so stuck a booby on the point to hold the buzzer up a bit

Still no interest and now getting on for 11:30 so decided to rig up a bung to replace the DI5 Sweep I started with

Hothead weighted buzzer on the point and size 12 black buzzer on the dropper 3ft and 6ft from the bung

Hurrah almost instant success as nice 2lb fish succumbed to the point fly, soon in the net and rather helpfully unhooked itself so straight back in without me needing to touch it at all (my 1 fish ticket is just in case a fish gets badly hooked and I need to take it home)


 

20 minutes later and the bung slides under again and a nice fish this time on the dropper - feeling properly pleased with myself for changing


 

Another couple of drifts and nothing despite me tinkering with the point fly (which may have been a mistake), tried a lead bug and an unweighted blob to no avail.

Headed back over to mucky bay to have another look - sams dyke still rammed but nothing doign so thought I would try the main basin again with the slow tip as I can get a nice long drift in - absolutley nothing doing.

Hawthorns is a possibility, there are fewer competition boats out now as I suspect a few have their limits so head over there, again nothing happening and rather annoyingly 3 boats (there are actually still 10 there in total) who I assume are not in the competition are effectively blocking the way into sams dyke by being anchored some 20 yards apart - no rules against this but I find it quite annoying and cannot be arsed pushing my way in

Head back over to Robbos cabin for another drift or two but time now is 15:30, have had a pleasant day with a couple of fish avoiding the crowds so decide to call it a day rather than head down to the willows and watsons cabin which are now empty with I suspect the competition anglers that were there having bagged up.

All in all a pleasant day with a couple of fish, was quite surprised at how concentrated the fish/anglers were in 2 very specific parts of the reservoir with the main basin which on previous visits, later in the year,  has been busy being empty.

Shouldn't have started in the main basin with a DI5 and snake but should have gone to Sams Dyke witt buzzers as indicated by the lodge (tbf they also said there were fish in the main basin) as this was to me impossible once the competiton started - I come fishing to get away from crowds and hassle not to have more of it.

Could of easily gone down to Olivers copse instead of going back to the main basin as it had emptied out by then and in terms of fish catching probably should have

Tinkering with the bung setup I probably shouldn't have done so quickly but the problem is I am trying to see what works, this is after all only my 2nd real season for 30 years

Another minor point is that I should only use the tapered loop to loop leaders on one of the rods, towards the end I was wondering wether to change to a DI3 but rather ridiculously probably didn't because of the hassle changing the loop to loop to a different line

On the plus side I had no breakages and only one major tangle today😊

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