Boat Match at Grafham, 8th Sept 2007

Before the match started Ray said ‘you will be glad to get home tonight, it is very hard’. And so it was.

The weathermen indicated that it would be warm with some sunshine. However, it was overcast all day with a chilly north-westerly wind. Conditions did seem good but reports indicated that for many weeks it had been VERY hard. Having said that there were many big brownies coming to bank anglers fishing from the jetties. And today was no exception. At finish time we discovered that several big Browns had been caught there, but returned. As the angler said, a Brown can live for 10 years unlike a rainbow so they were put back. Nice to see conservation. Furthermore one boat had anchored up at the entrance to the jetties and had caught 7 fish each. They were using a 3 inch tube fly. We now know that the fish were after the fry that were abundant in the harbour and that a suitable fly could reap benefits. Hindsight! Danny and Roy tried there at the start, with some success but moved off right over to the other side. Nearing the other side they saw a boat catching fish so they settled there for the rest of the day – more on that later.

As for the rest of us, well, it was very hard, fish being few and far between but with a few semi successes. The fish just did not want to know (unless you had the right kit and in the right place?). A glance at the results indicates how hard it was. As Ray said at the start, I was glad to be going home. The crew were trying everything, floaters, midge-tips, intermediates, sinkers, HiDis, drifting, anchoring up, the dam, but with only the occasional fish if you were fortunate.

Now to the success story. Danny and Roy, after trying at the harbour, moved over to the other side where they could see fish being caught. Danny was using a booby minky and a Di 3 and Roy (not having this fly) used just a minky. Danny had a successful day and finished his limit at 4.45pm. Right place, right fly, right line, right technique – what a boy!! But partner Roy only had 2 fish when Danny finished. So Roy borrowed Danny’s tackle and caught one more before it was time to come in. So was it the booby minky that did the trick? Fry bashing? All credit to Danny whatever it was.

Mick Hill also had some success with the heaviest fish.

Highlights? Two very large bream were caught, one by Steve and one by Ray. Ray thought that he had caught the fish of a lifetime until he realized that it was behaving strangely whilst playing it. He thought that it might be a brown, but alas no.

 

Name

Num Fish

Weight

Best Rbow

Best Brown

Danny Peet

8

15lbs   3ozs

 

 

Roy Palmer

3

  6lbs   8ozs

2lbs   8ozs

 

Mick Hill

4

10lbs   2ozs

3lbs   6ozs

 

Steve Radcliffe

0

 

 

 

Ken Williams

1

  2lbs   3ozs

 

2lbs 3ozs

John Weaver

1

  1lb   12ozs

 

 

Ron Lusardi

2

  4lbs   8ozs

 

2lbs 3ozs

Jeff Hickson

0

 

 

 

Allen Dixon

1

  1lb   13ozs

 

 

Ray Simpson

0