Leicestershire Fly Fishing Association Pleasure Day

Draycote Water - 31st August 2003
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Notes:
The Leicestershire Fly Fishing Association held a 'fun' day at Draycote Water on Sunday 31st August 2003.  There was a good turnout of members who had a very enjoyable day even though the fishing proved to be a little difficult. 

It is general policy of the association that detailsof each individual's returns on 'fun' days are not published so as to encourage as many members to take part as possible without worry as to their efforts being made public.  I can however report that I only managed a couple of fish of around the 2lb mark each.  My boat partner, John, did better!!
I arrived early at the water, not having had far to travel, and found a lovely calm reservoir under a nice early morning sky.  I was pleasantly surprised to lean that the association was paying for all members' day tickets (@£17.00), so I only had to pay my share of the boat fee (half of £21). 

With a little time to spare I had time for a welcome cup of coffee and a chat with Keith about tactics and 'hot spots'.  Other members arrived in due course and John and I were soon motoring out of the harbour heading for Toft Shallows.  There were a number of boats moored up in the shallows so we decided to try a few drifts into the area around buoy G. 

After some time without any indications of fish we decided to anchor up and have our lunch.  
Observations showed that those boats anchored well into the shallows were catching consistently whilst those further out were strugling.  A move towards the Toft Bank car park area together with a switch to orange cheeked black buzzers proved to be beneficial and we soon had a couple of  fish in the boat. 

John had a nice fish of over 5lbs, pictures of which can be seen below.  Another fish followed shortly after but then all went quiet again. 

After some time we decided that a move to another area was needed and so we tried a few drifts around the Croft Shoal area.  Despite John managing to boat another fish the going was difficult. 

With evening approaching we decided to call it a day, it had been an enjoyable day despite the shortage of fish.  I had had my first real experiance of fishing on the drift and despite being unsuccessful on this occasion I was determined to try again another day. 

Thanks for the company John.

Action from Draycote
John enjoys the fight Is it ready for the net? Not yet!!
Ready at last ... Safely in the net - a nice 5lb 4oz rainbow