Check Out The 3 Flies Used To Bag 15 Grafham Beauties !
Posted by Craig Barr on
Firstly, apologies I haven't been able to deliver more regular updates of my fishing ventures - I do not know where this last month has gone - It has been a busy one.
As we head into June, our big waters start to change. The buzzer fishing can slow, and nymphs and dries can really come into their own - as we discovered yesterday on Grafham. (30/6/22)
Grafham is a real gem of a water at this time of year, hit it right and you'll get a day to remember.
The weather conditions were some what perfect, light cloud, light Southerly winds, and 16 degrees, and plenty of buzzers on and off the water.
Grafham's Gaynes Cove(South Shore end of the dam) is a renowned area for fantastic buzzer hatches, with the perfect depth of water throughout the bay( 4-12'). Upon arrival, fish were already moving, as far as the eye could see. I was joined with Wycombe based Patrick, whom wanted to brush up on his boat fishing skills, having had a little time out. I told Patrick, we could be in for a good day, as fish continued to rise, and buzzers continued to skate across the surface.
We both set up with floating lines, and a combination of buzzers and Diawl Bachs, giving the fish a nymph option too, as well as the obvious! 18' leader, 2 quill size 10 buzzers, and 2 size 10 diawl bachs. Just minutes in and my line pulled tight. This fish had taken the buzzer, and was soon followed by 4 or 5 more, and it wasn't long until Patrick joined in too, also taking the buzzer.
The fish continued to move throughout the morning, as we managed to boat 8 fish.
We headed over to the North Shore for some different scenery after 12.00 noon. It was a little bumpy on this side, as the wind had increased as a hefty shower was heading our way. However Patrick soon hit into a fish just 30 yards off the shore, again on the same quill buzzer.
As the wind increased we headed back across to Gaynes Cove. We fished the same areas as the morning, and it was noticeable the feeding fish had all but stopped, with just the odd ones now moving, something that always tends to happen - after all, the fish had been munching on buzzers all morning ! Experience however tells me, at some point in the day, they will come on the feed again - and they did just that.
The wind dropped, the water calmed, and within minutes the rather big buzzers were back - skating across the surface, and just as if someone had flicked a switch, the fish were back too, sipping them off the surface - and some good ones too !
As I was changing cast, I saw a pod of 3 good sized fish move within 10' of each other, just 15yds in front of the boat, so told Patrick to quickly cast his flies in there direction -he did just this, and BANG, hit into this 4lb 7oz beauty, that set off like a missile. (His biggest reservoir trout !!)
As the fish continued to move, I switched to my favourite buzzer feeding dry fly - the Big Red. My go to fly when fish are right on the surface feeding on buzzers. As Patrick looked over his shoulder a fish sipped through the surface twice, and before Patrick had time to tell me, my fly was already in its path, and right on cue, up it came, and sipped in my fly right in 'front of our eyes'.
It was a fantastic day, with 15 fish to the boat, and some real belters to boot, all falling to 3 patterns, a quill buzzer, Chew Diawl Bach and the Big Red dry fly. (The 3 links to take you to the killer flies)
https://flashattackflies.com/products/quill-sunburst-buzzer-code-c152-s10
https://flashattackflies.com/products/fasna-hook-chew-favourite
https://flashattackflies.com/products/barbless-big-red-code-bd10
If you would like a guided fishing day on any of the Anglian Waters, please email at craig@flashattackflies.com for details, and date availability.
Two other happy anglers after a recent trip on Grafham Water, showing off the quality of Grafham Water rainbows.
At Flash Attack Flies we have all the flies you could possibly need for a successful days fishing. If you are unsure what flies you need for any particular time of year, or are bamboozled as what flies you should buy, then why not drop me an email. We set up 10's of boxes of flies for beginner anglers, or anyone who really isn't sure what flies to choose for a particular venue. You can get in touch by emailing me at craig@flashattackflies.com Let us take the confusion away, and let us put a set of flies together for you.