Boat Match at Draycote, Saturday 12/4/2008

The conditions :-

There was a moderate chilly breeze from the west – one had to wrap up well. Although the sun occasionally broke through, most of the time it was overcast, with the occasional hail storm.

After the recent cold spells, that day being no exception, the water was also cold, so much so that the fish were deep in the water. Those using floaters would have struggled and most used fast sinking lines (wet cel 4’s or 40+Di7’s or similar) with boobies. The effect on drifting was that one needed to get the line down quickly to the fish before the moderate breeze finished your cast run. As a consequence most boats anchored up at some point where they could suspect that there were fish.

The board in the club house said that the average return was just over 3 fish per angler.

The match :-

Many went straight for the dams, where there was deeper water, and they used their fast sinking Hi-Dis. They stuck it out all day and for most it paid off. Mick caught a superb rainbow of over 5lbs and Stan caught a nice brown of 5lbs which are now back in season (may get him the Brown Bowl!).

However, not all using this method (deep & anchored) were totally successful. Martin, who was with Stan, was so frustrated because he kept losing fish after fish and at the end of his day only caught 5 fish. Could it have been because he was using a six inch tube fly? No doubt Stan was using a wrazzler.

Steve, fishing with Mick, also thought that he only had 7 fish until it came to weigh in. He then found that he also had 8 fish. Perhaps it was an excuse to carry on fishing and have a good day!!!

Meanwhile John and Allen started off near the tower by the dam, anchored up using fast sinkers, but nothing. So they drifted across the reservoir, the westerly wind taking them parallel to the northern bank, a few hundred yards out. Eventually, well after 10am, on the drift, they started catching. Until that point they had considered the possibility of blanking. They were now finding fish and soon after lunch had half their limit each. While continuing to drift they noticed that a non-Iver boatman was doing well, anchored up, near the northern bank. It was around 3pm and he had caught 11 fish(!!!). So John and Allen anchored up nearby and, when the anchor finally set, started catching.

At this point Ray and Danny were seen to be drifting by along the same northern bank, but not doing very well. Apparently they had tried to anchor up but the anchor did not hold (I wonder whether the anchor had not dropped the right way up so that it could not dig in?).

John, using his 40+Di7 and a yellow eyed boobie was now pulling them in. He had the magic. Allen, his partner, slowly progressed but kept losing them (including one which tangled up in John’s line) and at the end could only manage 7 fish.

I did not see Reg & Brian but apparently they had good day.

Finally, after having sat through 2 heavy hail storms, it was time for weigh-in, accompanied by a massive rainbow in the sky.

Danny and Ray were not happy and wanted to depart as quickly as possible but Danny did weigh in his 3 fish – the master had failed that day. Mick and Stan were proud of their large fish, Stan having the heaviest bag.

Name	Caught	Weight	Heaviest Rbow	Heaviest Brown
Martin Tinald	5	11lbs 0ozs
Stan King	8	21lbs 2ozs	Heaviest bag	5lbs 0ozs
Danny Peet	3	5lbs 8ozs
Ray Simpson	Nil (not weighed)
Steve Radcliffe	8	13lbs 12ozs
Mick Hill	8	20lbs 12ozs	5lbs 8ozs
Reg Renn	5	10lbs 7ozs
Brian Whitty	4	7lbs 4ozs
John Weaver	8	13lbs 6ozs
Allen Dixon	7	12lbs 12ozs