A double booked Wye

 Yes when we turned up in the car park on the Wye there were other anglers there and we started to get worried. The keeper explained that they had a new system for bookings and there had been a couple of teething problems. However he said that our party could fish on the members water today - what a treat!

It was a bit damp and there wasn't much fly coming off at all so fishing was hard. I went up the pool with different dries and nymphs without success. however what a fantastic place to be. There were dippers and great wagtails bobbing around all day and as i looked through the bridge there was a water vole just crossing the river. 

I thought the fish would be in the deeper water so for the afternoon i decided to try upstream where the flow was a bit slower and see if i could target fish. Martin had fish rising in front of him so i walked a little further upstream and there was a fish rising on the far bank between two bushes. I did a really smart cast across, mended my line and saw the fish come out of the deep and hammer my black klinkerhammer. What a beautiful brownie.

  

I had a few other takes on the same method but they didn't stick. The mayfly by now had started to come off and as i sat by this pool i watched one hatch by the bush and drift downstream only to be hammered by a trout. So i changed to a Grey woolf and cast the same way and crash, it had taken me and i landed another brownie. 

A little wile later i could see martin into a fish that was really bending his rod so went along to net it for him - it was great 2 pound rainbow. 

It was definitely a real treat to fish the members water and learned loads about the beat should i ever be lucky enough to fish it again.

A wet Draycote

Its been ages since i fished with Mike so a day on Draycote was eagerly anticipated. However after some decent weather it was forecasting torrential rains and very high winds. 

Fortunately they hadn't called it off but had restricted it to just half the lake. It wasn't a great disapointment as we were going to fish just up from the Sailing club anyway. The rain was due at lunchtime so we agreed to get on with it just being a 4 fish limit.

Mike was on form and first cast he was into fish. Can you believe it 2 on his cast and fighting like fury. He managed to net one, and played the other on his net till i netted it. 2 fish up on me already. I turned round to get out and there i am in a tangle. I manage to get out of it and Mike is in again and it is all over the place. I manage to get out of the way while he finishes playing it and netting it. As i cast back over i am in a tangle again. Can you believe it but as i cast out again Mike is in. That 4 fish down and i've not had a proper cast yet - mad!

We then started to catch together. They were taking on a Damsel or green buzzers. mike was on a 15ft midge tip and me a 3 ft midge tip. He had the depth perfect but i had to leave it a little but they were coming and by lunchtime i had 3. It then started to rain and got persistently harder. After an hour we were getting bit more miserable. The banter had increased and i was put under massive pressure to catch my last. However i hung out as long as i could and just after he had reeled in and said thats it, i managed to catch. 

We hot tailed it into the cafe to dry and then to the pub before we had to get back for the weigh in. 

Clearing had won and barclaycard were second. My team Radbroke was a person short so never expected to be in the prizes. However we had both had a really eventful day.   

Pitsford Coaching

 We are back up and running with the Pitsford coaching again with Cid secure measures in place. Anyone can book on a an hours free casting lesson as this link. 

Book a Casting lesson