A couple of people asked me for an update on Grafham, and as my wife and I ventured out this morning I thought I'd post and share our experiences.
Wind 5 - 9mph Westerly
Temperature 3c - 8c
Water Clarity - Very Clear, 8 to 10ft visability
60% cloud with intermittent sunny spells
As its been pretty cold this last week we were in no rush to arrive early as we thought any overnight frost may knock the fish off initially.
09.30am arrival and started 50m left of the lodge ( basically in front on the car park)
I set up a floater, 16ft leader of 10lb flurocarbon with a Olive snake on the point, followed by a red holo cruncher and a Diawl Bach top dropper ( both size 12's)
Long cast, a count of between 12 and 20 seconds to get everything settled and down about 12ft deep then a slow figure of 8 back. During the first hour, I picked up 2 nice rainbows about 3 lbs and the wife 1 - all like peas in a pod, well mended and silvered up.
Our set up was 8ft to top dropper ( diawl), a further 4 ft to the cruncher, and another 4ft to the olive snake on the point.
We plugged away for no further action so moved at about 10.45am and dropped on The Seat sticking with the same method and flies.
I immediately picked up a cracking 4lb 4oz rainbow on the snake at distance, only to be upstaged by the good lady who managed a cracker of exactly 6lb again on the snake.
With it now around 12.30 we decided on a spot of lunch and a change of methods ......so it was a short break before heading over to the North Shore and into the nasty cold wind.
13.30hrs we arrived at Hedge End, armed with a Di3 - 7ft leader of 10lb flurocarbon and a single brown booby snake with 7mm eyes. It was just a case of punching the line out as far as possible, counting to 30 and a slow figure of 8 back
It was much colder and casting was a right pain, I knew we weren't going to last long at all.........after 20 - 30 minutes I had picked up another 2 fish one around 3lb, the other just over 4lb before our fingers became numb and we decided to head home at around 14.00hrs.
Considering we fished half a day in a variety of spots, the sport was truely excellent. Some great fish in magnificent condition.
5 of our 7 fish came to snake patterns fished very slowly and in the bottom 1/3 of the water column, the other 2 fish came to the red holo cruncher ( which was the deepest nymph)
Grafham is definately worth a trip out, providing you pick a day with favourable conditions and are prepared to move once you have picked up a fish or two.
I'm told there are good numbers of fish on G Buoy and at the Willows ( G buoy side of the Dam) but we didn't even try there.
Cheers Rob
Wind 5 - 9mph Westerly
Temperature 3c - 8c
Water Clarity - Very Clear, 8 to 10ft visability
60% cloud with intermittent sunny spells
As its been pretty cold this last week we were in no rush to arrive early as we thought any overnight frost may knock the fish off initially.
09.30am arrival and started 50m left of the lodge ( basically in front on the car park)
I set up a floater, 16ft leader of 10lb flurocarbon with a Olive snake on the point, followed by a red holo cruncher and a Diawl Bach top dropper ( both size 12's)
Long cast, a count of between 12 and 20 seconds to get everything settled and down about 12ft deep then a slow figure of 8 back. During the first hour, I picked up 2 nice rainbows about 3 lbs and the wife 1 - all like peas in a pod, well mended and silvered up.
Our set up was 8ft to top dropper ( diawl), a further 4 ft to the cruncher, and another 4ft to the olive snake on the point.
We plugged away for no further action so moved at about 10.45am and dropped on The Seat sticking with the same method and flies.
I immediately picked up a cracking 4lb 4oz rainbow on the snake at distance, only to be upstaged by the good lady who managed a cracker of exactly 6lb again on the snake.
With it now around 12.30 we decided on a spot of lunch and a change of methods ......so it was a short break before heading over to the North Shore and into the nasty cold wind.
13.30hrs we arrived at Hedge End, armed with a Di3 - 7ft leader of 10lb flurocarbon and a single brown booby snake with 7mm eyes. It was just a case of punching the line out as far as possible, counting to 30 and a slow figure of 8 back
It was much colder and casting was a right pain, I knew we weren't going to last long at all.........after 20 - 30 minutes I had picked up another 2 fish one around 3lb, the other just over 4lb before our fingers became numb and we decided to head home at around 14.00hrs.
Considering we fished half a day in a variety of spots, the sport was truely excellent. Some great fish in magnificent condition.
5 of our 7 fish came to snake patterns fished very slowly and in the bottom 1/3 of the water column, the other 2 fish came to the red holo cruncher ( which was the deepest nymph)
Grafham is definately worth a trip out, providing you pick a day with favourable conditions and are prepared to move once you have picked up a fish or two.
I'm told there are good numbers of fish on G Buoy and at the Willows ( G buoy side of the Dam) but we didn't even try there.
Cheers Rob