Boat Match at Grafham 20/09/2008

The Weather

Unexpectedly, after such a terrible summer, the sun came out and the temperature was up to 20 degrees. With very little cloud cover the breeze started as a gentle one from the west but soon swung round to come from the south and even the south east for a short while. This was good in that one’s back was too the sun so no sun tan lotion needed. Unfortunately this gentle breeze died away in the afternoon. At stages the reservoir was just like a mill pond, calm all over, but this did not deter many anglers who persevered to catch fish.

The lack of wind meant that a drogue was not necessary.

There were a few rises to be seen all around the lake although there were the favorite spots, mainly the north shore, where there may have been a few more.

The match

It was very variable. Those with the skill and the ‘know’ struck with fortunes. Ron, who claimed he was a veteran of Grafham and knew the lake’s good spots and what the fish wanted, was one. He was using a ‘washing line’ technique on a sinking line where by the booby on the tip kept the end of the line higher than the ‘cruncher’ on the dropper. This paid off and he caught his limit on the north shore to win the day. Ray, also with good knowledge of Grafham also did well but was clipped by Ron on weight.

However, there were some surprises. Roy caught two fish by 10am and was set for a good day. But that was the end of his catches, nothing else in the net all day. His partner, Bill, had the opposite luck. He had blanked until about mid afternoon when the Gods were with him and he picked up four fish.

Ron’s partner Danny was frustrated, alongside successful Ron, by having many follows but few in the net. A disappointing day for him!

Everyone else was using a variety of flies (boobies, blobs, buzzers, etc). Lines varied from floaters and intermediates with fish reportedly being several feet down (lack of wind and suuny?). Malcolm had a good teacher for Grafham! He did well and picked up six fish, and even used a HiDi to catch two of them.

Eddie picked up a nice fish in the north west corner at Savages Creek as the heaviest of the day, well done.

Commiserations to Ken and Allen. They tried everything, including Floaters, Intermediates, HiDis, Blobs, Boobies, Buzzers, etc and although they each had one follow and Allen lost one at the net, they both blanked. C’est la vie!!

Bad luck to John. Having packed up and loaded his car, with the key on the seat, the automated locking system locked his car after a few minutes of no use. He could not get into his Skoda! Malcolm to the rescue (good chap). He took John back to Harrow to get a spare key and then returned to Grafham. ‘Once bitten twice shy’?

Results

Name	Num Fish	Weight	Biggest R.Bow	Heaviest Weight
Ron Lusardi	8	16lbs 3ozs		16lbs 3ozs
Danny Peet	3	6lbs 9ozs
Ray Simpson	7	15lbs 4ozs
Malcolm Golding	6	12lbs 4ozs
John Weaver	4	9lbs 8ozs
Eddie Gray	4	10lbs 1oz	3lbs 9ozs
Roy Palmer	2	4lbs 7ozs
Bill Johnson	4	6lbs 13ozs
Ken Williams	0	-
Allen Dixon	0	-