Grafham Water Grown On Rainbow's - Plentiful !
Posted by Craig Barr on
Grafham Water is producing some stunning over wintered fish at the moment. Encouraged by recent posts on FB, I decided to pay it a visit.
A south west wind saw us being blown nicely onto the North Shore. We set our drift 100 yds off the Hedge End point. As we neared the shore we started hitting fish. My colleague was using a Di-8 line and two boobies, whilst I used a Di-7, Candy Fab on the dropper, & a Black Cormorant booby on the point, on a 15' leader.(Wychwood Ghost Mode 9lb tippet) ( Other black boobies also caught)
There were plenty of overwintered fish around, and boy, what a scrap !!
We discovered the fish were not just within the usual 50-60yds of the shore, but they were out as far as 200 yds. This is where we picked up the bigger fish. These fish were feeding on Daphnia.
We continued to work our way along the North Shore, targeting the points, Deep Water point, Pylon Point and G Buoy, starting our drifts at least 200 yards out, and drifting towards the shore.
G Buoy seemed to hold more fish than the other points we fished, and also produced more of our bigger over wintered fish. Fishing partner, Gary, netted a real beauty here of approx 4.5lb.
(This cracking fish had both Daphnia and Shrimp in its stomach)
Two flies fished 12' apart appeared to be the best set up. A black booby on the point, and varied flies on the top dropper worked best. I landed 6 fish on the top dropper (Candy Fab) and 10 on the point flies(Varied black booby patterns)
We finished our day at the Gaynes Cove end of the dam wall. There was a good number of fish here too. It was slightly sheltered here, so we both tried buzzers, but with no joy ! As we switched back to our fast sinking lines, the result was immediate, consolidating what we found wherever we fished, the fish were lying deep.
We landed approx 30 fish between us, with at least 10 of them being 3lb and above. The fishing was excellent! We did speak to two different anglers in the car park, one of whom had 1 fish(single angler) and two anglers who had 6. After telling them of our catch, and tactics, it became apparent these anglers were quite simply, not fishing deep enough, once they told us of their line choices.
TIPS FOR GRAFHAM AT THE MOMENT -
A) Make sure you have a fast sinker - DI-7, DI-8, or any other fast sinker.
B) An all black booby available.
C) Fish onto the points along the North Shore. We never anchored all day !
D) Do look further out than just the shore lines, up to 200 yards out.
Follow the links to see the two best patterns of the day.
https://flashattackflies.com/products/barbless-cormorant-booby
https://flashattackflies.com/products/fasna-barbless-kandy-fab-code-hb3
Tight Lines, keep safe...
#grafhamwater #overwinteredbeauties #takeyourfishingfurther