Went to Grafham last week expecting to see lots of shrimps - very few! In previous years my waders have been covered with them. Does anyone know what has happened to them? The trout were near the shore and up in the water and I did catch - on a PTN! The one trout I took home had a virtually empty stomach.
Grafham - where are the killer shrimps?
- Thread starter kingf000
- Start date
JayP
Well-known member
There were plenty at hill farm last week with fish and shrimp around my knees, where did you fish?
delray
Well-known member
Recent, I think, video from Grafham. Not sure if it proves the shrimp are there or not.
I was fishing off Deep water point. I saw the video but they didn't seem to be catching as much as I would expect on the shrimp patterns.
JayP
Well-known member
I've found the most prolific areas for shrimp is savages across to hill farm and the willows down to the south corner of the dam when fishing off the bank. To be fair I rarely fish the section between deep water point and the willows so can't really say whether it's good or bad at the moment.
Rob Edmunds
Well-known member
There are loads of shrimp about.....Stumps, Seat, Deep Water Point, Willows etc...they are pretty much everywhere........you may need to kick over a few stones over to get them swimming about though
I wonder if that is the key? The couple of times I've been before, there were a lot of other anglers wading out, disturbing the bottom and presumably churning up the shrimps. This last time the water level was high so we were fishing off the top of the gabions and so not disturbing the lake bed.
JayP
Well-known member
You've never heard of the Grafham shuffle?
Yes, but I'd thought it was unethical and forgotten about it! I fish for grayling in the autumn/winter and it is reminiscent of the 'grayling shuffle', that is, rightly, regarded as unethical and has been banned on many waters. Thinking about it though, the grayling shuffle was banned because it disturbed the trout redds. Of course, that isn't relevant for Grafham!You've never heard of the Grafham shuffle?
Rob Edmunds
Well-known member
I think it's all down to the conscience of the individual angler.....but just pick up any large stone ( size of your hand or bigger) in Grafham and turn it over and look closely at the stones underside.....I'll bet you cant find 2 clean " shrimp free" stones in every 6 you turn..
At Grafham "The shuffle" is acceptable and considered normal - I'm not sure that says much about us Midlands anglers ( myself included)...I've even been known to tow the anchor out the back of the boat just to turn the stones over and get the shrimps out !
Then again we also used to walk through the long grass just to get the " daddies" up and on the water at Rutland or Elinor etc........and plenty of my Welsh team mates tell me they did exactly the same with the "red legs" or heather fly on Llyn Brenig...
At Grafham "The shuffle" is acceptable and considered normal - I'm not sure that says much about us Midlands anglers ( myself included)...I've even been known to tow the anchor out the back of the boat just to turn the stones over and get the shrimps out !
Then again we also used to walk through the long grass just to get the " daddies" up and on the water at Rutland or Elinor etc........and plenty of my Welsh team mates tell me they did exactly the same with the "red legs" or heather fly on Llyn Brenig...
