The Complete Fisher Forum

[tenet]

Another Brownie from Darlow to a dry daddie.

[Allrounder]

Nice Brownie, Doug!

Alan
_________________
Member of ...
The Angling Trust
BRFFA
B.A.S.S.
Pike Fly Fishing Association

If you see me on the bank, say hello... from a safe distance!

[tenet]

Thanks Al - only posting on the Farmoor thread as I am the only member (I think) who fishes Darlow and it is just up the road from Farmoor. Hoping to go afloat next week on F2 so will report in due course.

Edit: Not sure about kayaks but Darlow does allow float tubes.

[Fryfishing]

I will have to have a look at Darlow.
I am on a boat on No2 tomorrow, I am going to go deep and slow again as my gut feeling is that where the bigger grown ons may be. Also planning to take the fishfinder and maybe try for the perch with the fly setup.
P
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Floating Lines, buzzers, nymphs, stick floats, maggots and throwing lures at bitey things.

[Fryfishing]

It was a tad windy at Farmoor today, only two boats out and not that many fishing the bank.
The water remains clear and the temp was between 10 & 9 even dropping the thermometer down to at least 20ft.
I stuck to the plan of fishing the DI7 and two boobies, my theory being the stockies were high in the water and the bigger/grown on fish were down on the bottom. Due to the wind I started in the S/W corner and drifted out feeding out line. I got the first pull after drifting for a while and it was a good one which was around four pounds. I then repeated the drift and that resulted in three fish all in the four-pound mark with big tails which scrapped all the way to the boat.
It went quite after that or I was not making the right changes, but good old Barbra Cartland came to the rescue and landed me the biggest fish of the day if not the year. Five pounds all day long. On spooning it was on a mix of snails and baitfish.
I struggled to find any fish after that until I got on a drift to the causeway which resulted in some action. Unfortunately, time was running out before it was four and boats had to be in.
Mark (warden) grilled me on tactics and flies so no doubt that will be passed on to others.

_________________
Floating Lines, buzzers, nymphs, stick floats, maggots and throwing lures at bitey things.

[tenet]

What a cracker Peter - hoping to get out next week. Well done 😊😎

[RogB]

Lovely looking fish that well done - huge fins.

[Allrounder]

Some really good fish by the sounds of it Peter, and that 5lb fish is a cracker!

Barbara Cartland saves the day again.

Alan
_________________
Member of ...
The Angling Trust
BRFFA
B.A.S.S.
Pike Fly Fishing Association

If you see me on the bank, say hello... from a safe distance!

[tenet]

Shared a boat on F2 today with Pino - was hoping the wind would be kind but not to be, it was a tad fresh from SSW. Started our first drift from the NW floating diagonally into the causway with Inty and lures the method. Spent an hour or so zig zagging across the lake with both Inty and di5 without a touch or pull. Moved down south for exactly the same result. Tried at anchor at various spots for zilch. Time moving on so at 2pm ish I said to Pino that the causway has always been kind to me to motored back up and anchored opposite marker 2 with a stiff breeze behind us. Well the next 11/2 hours certainly gave us some sport. I managed to boat 4 fish and dropped at least 6. The successful pattern was a FAB (no tittering Al) on a di5 fished very slowly with a lot of smash takes whilst pausing the retrieve. Nothing to write home about regarding size but they do punch above their weight. Some guys disembarking in front of us had a cracking 8lber, witnessed by the ranger, taken on a booby from the surface whilst recasting.
Good to get afloat again.
Cheers - Doug

Post Script - I think I need to tie my FAB's on wide gape hooks as for sure I've never lost so many well hooked fish.

[Allrounder]

[Fryfishing]

It was a very wet day at Farmoor today
I had arranged to share a boat with a friend for a bit of back drifting. The BBC was spot on with wet and windy throughout the day. My boat partner got stuck in the traffic, so I motored off to the south east bank and started fishing. Almost immediately I was getting pulls and knocks from what I assumed was the stocky population. Then one came to the net and another threw the hook on its way to the boat. It was back to the dock to pick up Dave.
After loading Dave and his kit we headed back to the S/E corner as the priority was to get him into fish as he had four blanks to break. Strangely, we could not buy a pull in that corner, we moved up to the S/W corner and started a drift from there. But again, it was fairly fruitless, so we continued across, this produced a fish for me but again it was a long-distance catch and release.
As we approached the causeway Dave got his first fish and broke the duck. It continued with Dave catching fish and me watching on but I seemed to be the ghillie for the day.
We sat facing wind and rain most of the day, unfortunately we did not find a group of fish to plunder and ended with around 6 to the boat while the other boat out did find them and had fourteen to their boat.
Most of our fish took the white boobie but the odd one took the black. Barbara did not produce.
My fee was £7.50

_________________
Floating Lines, buzzers, nymphs, stick floats, maggots and throwing lures at bitey things.

[Allrounder]

Nice report, Peter.

Not much fun backdrifting when facing the wind and rain so good to hear you had a few.

Alan
_________________
Member of ...
The Angling Trust
BRFFA
B.A.S.S.
Pike Fly Fishing Association

If you see me on the bank, say hello... from a safe distance!

[tenet]

Thanks for the report Peter - I'm hoping to get out on Monday - strange that the fish haven't come on the take after a substantial stocking recently (or so I've been told). Maybe it's me but it a bit like the secret service trying to get info on what's catching and where.

[Fryfishing]

I have not asked about stocking when talking to the wardens, but they have volunteered information re a couple of delivers into no2 and of course the browns into no1.
The fish we caught yesterday looked to me to be fresh stock fish. They were also shy when it came to committing to take the fly, little knocks and pulls then nothing. We did not contact the grown-on fish I was looking for.
There were a lot of bigger fish hanging around the dock area and the other boat that was out caught in the corner by the dock and pumping tower.
I dropped the thermometer down to the bottom, 20 feet and 10 feet the readings came back as an even 10 which was warmer than the air temp at 9.
It was one of those days when we both fished the same method, leader length, fly line and flies but only one of us was connecting to the fish.
That’s fishing.
_________________
Floating Lines, buzzers, nymphs, stick floats, maggots and throwing lures at bitey things.

[tenet]

Solo boat on F2 today with a £30 sporting ticket. Had i not pre booked then would have been a no-show as the cars were iced over and a heavy mist when I drew the curtains first thing this morning. Slow drive with intermittent thick mist and was greated to a flat mirror calm on arrival at 9am. Oh joy.

Fiddled about for most of the day going hither and thither and ended up with 4 fish. Not really keen on sunk line fishing and I should have slung the hook out at various locations rather than slow drifting when the breeze finally arrived about 11 am.

Speaking to some guys on the jetty they had a crazy couple of hours to blobs on a di5 anchored at the SE corner. Sounded similar to my experience last week. The fish are shoaling up and you need to find them for consistent sport.

Water quality is excellent, almost gin clear, with at least 10 or 12 ft visibility.

My next trip out will be Darlow and I can cherry pick the day.😊