Lightening Doesn't Strike Twice! It Does At Grafham

It is often said that two days are rarely the same on our bigger waters, and that is very normally the case. 

After my last visit to Grafham, and the 23 Christmas crackers that we landed, I could not wait to get back for more. Gary Humphrey was soon on the phone wanting some of the action, so the 17th/12 was on !!

After some blustery winds the day before, I was pleased to see we had somewhat calmer conditions, albeit a bright blue sky. Some anglers may think these conditions may be far from perfect, and a lot of occasions you could be right, however in the winter months, the Grafham trout, once focussed on the shrimp, really do throw caution to the text book !!

We started our day in the Bay, the dam side of the "Seat". We soon noticed Graham Willis hit 4 fish in quick succession from the bank. This in itself gave us a confidence boost that there were fish about - and there was, as I locked up into my first fish of the day. Saturday's killer skinny snake fly was at it again, followed soon by fish number two.

We soon moved to "Sludge Point" where Andy Axon and I had a field day on the Saturday,  some 4 days earlier. There were two bank anglers there, one up to his arm pits in water. I had to smile when I saw a fish crash out of the water behind them, as I new the fish would have been much closer in had they not have been wading 20 yards out in the shallow water.

We set out drift a little further out, with the bank anglers in mind, and just like the Saturday, it was just minutes until we hit into fish.

Gary hits into a fish almost immediately, using the killer skinny snake fly.

Seconds later I was in too, and recall saying to Gary "we've found them"!

The fish were in a pretty tight zone, approx 60 yds or so out from the point, where the bottom was still visible, and were very readily taking our flies in the top 10".

We did 6 or so short drifts, yielding 12 fish, all falling to the skinny snakes.

Another boat, who'd spotted our returning drifts entered the fray, however only managed 1 fish, as they were pulling their flies, and we found that this was not how they wanted it...slow...slow....slow

As often is the case, when other boats arrive, especially in shallow water, it doesn't take long for the fishing to slow down, and today was no different.

We headed to the North shore, for the last hour or so of fishing. How would this perform we wandered, as we meandered our way there. Well, true Craig Barr style, as Phil Burgess would say, I hooked one first cast, and what a fish it was too, a 5lb 2oz bar of silver muscle, taken on a Flash Attack Red Head Hares Ear

The image may look like it is in the middle of the lake. Well, this is where we finally netted the fish after hooking it just 20 yards from the bank!! 

We netted a further 4 fish from the North Shore, noticeably the two biggest of the day, 5lb 2oz and one approx 4lb 3/4, again all on floating lines.

Grafham is in phenomenal form at the moment, with some really fantastic fish about, many in only a few feet of water, as I have discovered this last 5 days, sharing 23 fish on Saturday, then a further 20 fish to the boat today. If you are planning a trip soon, i'd be looking for a less windy day, a floating line, fish in up to 10' of water, stay within 30 yards of the shore(so long as there are no bank anglers) and have a skinny snake or two to hand, oh, and fish it slow. Once we located the fish, we both went to a single fly, mainly due to the clear shallow water, as not to spook the fish too much.

I am looking forward to sharing another boat with Gary next week, as he is so keen to get a bit more of this epic action !

Visit our website, www.flashattackflies.com for all your shrimp flies and snakes, barbed or barbless.

If you would like a guided day, then please email your interest to me at craig@flashattackflies.com

Remember what happens one day, doesn't always happen the next.

Tight lines, and Merry Christmas to you all

Craig