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Grafham boat day Saturday 14^th June 

This our second boat day of the series as usual fished on our home water but to different timings this year and re named the ‘Mid-Summer Boat Day - Early Away’.  The difference being that instead of our 9.30am to 7pm with an hour for lunch we started slightly earlier at 9am and finished at 5pm but without the break for lunch.  The idea behind this being to make the day a little shorter especially for those coming from afar and to help attract greater attendance.  

We had an interesting days fishing with some 18 members taking to the water for what I thought would be fairly easy fishing.  As I am sure you are aware Grafham has been fishing from the banks extremely well, in fact I cannot recall such a prolonged period where we have seen such high numbers of surface feeding fish close in to shore and takeable on dries, nymphs etc.  In short the fishing for my evening visits has been marvellous, and it has been great to see the level of buzzers coming off and the trout and bird activity mopping them up.  

On the day many boats headed for G Marker ‘the hot spot’ however a party of visiting anglers had got there before us and had duly dropped anchor and camped out on the spot.  Whilst they are perfectly entitled to do so it is frustrating when clearly they are preventing anyone else from drifting through the area.  As it happened the buzzers were not hatching, no bird activity at all, and fishing from the anchored boats was seeming slow although they were catching.  I drifted outside of this and upwind drifting from DWP and then on down to the Willows.  We took fish but it was far harder than I expected and for some proved a fairly difficult day.  Meanwhile Norman & Harley had just about cracked it as I understand fishing Slow Glass and nymphs for the top results for the day.

I would appreciate some feedback from those fishing and those who did not on what you think of the new boat day timings. For my part I missed the lunchtime social and a chance to find out who was doing what with the usual misleading tales, it all adds to the camaraderie of the day!  However, on the day as hard as it was I was not upset to come off at 5pm!  Please let me know your thoughts or drop me an email at mark.brinkman@btinternett.com  I will be pleased to hear from you. 

Full match results below. 

Mark Brinkman

GWFFA Spring Boat - Pitsford on 17^th May

GWFFA’s boat match series started with an away day to Pitsford on 17^th May. The weather conditions were good and a turnout of 19 members made for an enjoyable day with some friendly competition.  I was paired with Nick Preston and we decided to push straight through the causeway and fish alongside the dam, whilst most stayed in the small half.  First cast Nick was into a fish and a couple of casts later a second, then with moving the boat a couple of times the fish disappeared.  We fished on for a couple of hours but with no offers and with growing concerns that no others had come through from the small half. 

Eventually we went back through to the small half to be greeted by a sea of bending rods, we had obviously got it wrong.  Chris Lane and Stephen Ellerbeck fresh from the AMFC at Pitsford on Wednesday and on top form from their NFU win at Rutland on 15^th May were on the method, or at least Chris was. (DI7 & Orange Booby Blobs)  Steve was practicing his line management skills early on with tangle rectification while Chris had 5 in the boat by 10.30am.  No pressure mind! 

Meanwhile by 2pm I only had one fish and with Nick on 3 we had to do something different.  We had missed the main action in the small half as things had definitely quietened down and few rods were now bending.  So we went back into the main basin and worked our way up the narrows until eventually we reached the pines.  Nothing at all on the way up but as we drifted past Mosely Point we saw fish rising in Table Bay at the mouth of the creek.  We quietly slid the boat into the bay and dropped anchor as the fish were actively feeding on buzzer right on top.  We then had some excellent fishing, taking fish off the top as they moved up the ripple feeding in the surface.  Pitsford fishing at its best, casting to sighted feeding fish. A perfect end to the day! 

Top honours for the day went to Stephen Ellerbeck who went on to take some good fish in the afternoon on Buzzers in the Dam and Creek area.  John Batter was hot on his heels with 17lb 06oz with Richard coming a close 3^rd.  A great day out.  We now look forward to the Mid-Summer boat day on Grafham on 14^th June. 

Mark Brinkman 

The first bank match of the season took place on Sunday 13 April. A field of 13 had all checked out the forum on the GWFFA website and knew that there were lots “big” stockies from Bulldog off the seat and in Plummer – except for Richard Kesek who decided to spend his day alone looking for something special in the bowl of the dam.

I decided that an early start was in order to make sure of a place at the seat and for the first time ever I managed to beat Harley to the water. However, the early start seemed a waste of time as bright sun had pushed the fish well out from the bank. I managed one cracking over wintered fish at 7.05am

then it went quiet – until Andy Linwood turned up at least. He dropped into one of the gaps in the trees to the right of the seat and quickly had a brace. Captain Mark followed Andy down the sludge bank and was also soon into fish.

By 10 am those of us on the seat were starting to get nervous that the fish had moved off. Derek Bravington decided to check out the dam just before the cloud came over (a decision he soon came to regret). Harley moved quickly into Derek’s spot and within an hour had 5. Chris Lane, Steve Ellerbeck and I were beginning to wonder why all the fish were in front of Harley. However, at 11.30 the fish moved around the corner and the rest of us started catching quickly – and what fish they were. Overall there were 91 fish caught averaging 3lb 2oz, including 7 over 5lb.

Congratulations to Chris Lane who won the match with 8 fish for an incredible 31lb 4oz. Other notable achievements worthy of mention are for Peter Waterhouse who started fishing at 3 pm and still managed to bag 6 fish, Kevin Appleton who found the big fish off Plummer but could not get enough of them, and Club Secretary Lianne Frost who managed to steadily accumulate a tremendous bag (her first limit ever) and so nearly beat me!

Chris Bobby