Major Clubs Final at Grafham Water

The sun sets on my two days at Grafham

My first visit to Grafham Water on Friday 5^{th Oct}ober, was to practise for the final of the Major Clubs Association Competition. The final round was set to take place the next day. I met my boat partner for the day, Graham, in the cafe at 9.30, on the banks of the sixteen hundred acre reservoir and after a quick cup of tea, we went to board our boat. Weather was overcast with a slight breeze, good conditions. We had chose to fish the catch and release ticket and some local information had told us fish were being caught at G buoy. Keeping this in mind, but wanting to explore other areas, we started off at Savages Creek. Fishing midge tips and a selection of nymphs, after two drifts, with no pulls, we moved to try the North Bank, where I had read on forums, was fishing well. Changing tactics to a fast glass line, a pair of blobs and a hares ear muddler, produced my first Grafham trout, a fish of 2lb 8oz. We carried on fishing all the points down to the dam wall, taking fish on every drift. Recently, Grafham has become well known for its population of killer shrimps, a non native species, which grow to over an inch in length. The trout have grown to love these and so I had tied some hares ears with red heads to imitate them and I was keen to give them a go. Fishing the midge tip, we drifted further toward the dam wall and both Graham and I had furious takes from much bigger trout, the biggest around 3lb 8oz. The rest of the day was spent catching steadily. Things looked good for the competition the following day. 

    I woke Saturday morning to bright skies and very little breeze, what a difference a day makes! Forty boats were fishing today and on the whistle we all headed out. I had been partnered with a chap from the Rutland team and we chose to drift from G buoy to the dam wall. I used similar tactics to the previous day and my boat partner opted to pull lures. To cut a long story short, we struggled. I had a single fish on one of my red head hares ears, my boat partner managed three. Two very different days, but that's fishing for you!
 

A hard fighting Grafham trout comes to the boat