Walthamstow - 21/05/07

Think I've sussed it!

Arrived around 3:00pm, was allowed to park by the pylon. Made me way to the Platform 2 in #4 and cast a team of buzzers under a bung. Wind was blowing nicely from behind (northerly), sky was overcast and the swifts were on the water and a few buzzers were taking off.

I saw a couple of rises, but no action, and ven tryed a booby and still nothing.

Made my way to the inlet and saw the odd fish rising. Cast my team on top of a few fish and waited thinking I was definately about too get a take, but nothing happened. Tryed all sorts of naturals on the fish's noses and still nish. Saw a massive carp take something of the surface.

Went on to the sinker / orange booby. As the booby was on the surface I got a pull and played the fish to the bank and saw the booby eyes sticking out of his mouth. Then.... Bollocks, not again, this was the 3rd fish in a row to come of this fly and line in the same location. Was desperate to get a fish to spoon for some clues. I fished here for a little while longer and thought I would give #5 a go. Got to the corner and spoke to a fellow angler, and he said only 1 fish had been caught on a ccats whisker and nothing had been showing. On my first cast a Comorant popped up in front of me, and I thought, sod this! I'm going back to the inlet on #4.

I stuck on a intermediate and an #10 ls orange rassler, cast it over the swirl and something boiled underneath it. I then stripped the fly back fast on the surface and the fish continued to chase and thrash at the fly. Then around 2 rod lengths out, it lunged and took the fly. Finally. Managed to bank a fish. The fly was right down in the stomach, and upon spooning the fish, it was full of large green daphnia.

I had 2 boils at full cast under the rasller.

Daphnia = Orange lure stripped quickly, dont even think about naturals, go for the aggresion.

That was the key! Ended up with 3 fish in about an hour and is started to get dark, the fish went down and the action stopped, left about 9:00.

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Walthamstow - 17/05/07

Arrived around 3:00 pm and wind was blowing from the railway bank (northley). I fished the second platform with a team of wets / buzzers and also tryed 2 Boobies on a Di7 Extreme Distance. Had an hour and half here and never got a pull.

Was going to move to the causeway, but noticed people fishing there were moving around a bit, so concluded that not much was happening there. So moved along the bank to the inlet.

Saw a few fish moving around, quite far out. Tryed with my new floater (thanks Pitsford Pirate), that went out nicely on my Bloke 10' #7. Then changed and cast out an Orange Booby and had a take far out while the fly was dropping. Nice fish, played it around a minute then... all went loose. Bollocks, first pull all day.

An hour later had another take retrieving the same Booby, hooked the fish played it a little longer and all went loose again! My hook was sharp, the barb was good cant explain it.

The conditions then became ideal for a hatch as the evening drew in. Wind dropped, lenty of sedge flying around the weed bushes along the bank, size 14 buzzers hatching - but, no fish moving up. Never got a take, and was pretty dissapointed, left at 8:30pm. Had tryed G&H Dry Sedge, invicta, dials bachs, buzzers wets, etc. Returns for the previous days / week showed a lot of -NIL-'s.

Hopefully things will pick up next week!

Hanningfield - 13/05/07

Marco and myself visited Hanningfield, at last moment we complicated going to Farmoor, but as the wind was breezy we didn't chance the trip to Oxford.


The weather was extremly wet, with some terrential showers during the day. The reservoir also looked nice and full. On going to the boats we noticed that there was some signs of algae.

We started a drift in Middlemead and things looked very promising. The wind was blowing us straight out from the bank. I had a take on my second cast and third cast had a fish that I released that took a Dial Bach.

Marco used a Booby setup.

We drifted over to the other side where the tower by the forest is and never got another touch between us, I was fishing a team of buzzers.

What became the order of the day was algae on the flies / lines.

We found fish eventually at the Inlet and Marco managed 2 to an Orange Booby. I had a few takes on Boobys but never managed to attach properly to fish.

We were the last boat in and learned that most people had a very hard day.

Competition results
Marco 2
Vince 1

NB Macro = Orange = 7

Walthamstow - 11/05/07

Things had changed from Wednesday. Headed for the same spot I had been on Wednesday, arrived around 13:00pm.

Tryed hard all day, moving around.

Blanked!

0 - 0 - 0

Walthamstow - 09/05/07

Got the tube and arrived around 1:00pm. Had tied a few flies the night before, more black, green holo buzzers, a few pulling buzzers and a few Black Joe's. Wind had died down a bit from the previous day, and the water in both reservoirs was crystal clear. Few Swifts flying around enjoying the flies.

Had a couple of casts in #4 on the platform nearest the pylon, and was hard going casting in to the wind. The wind was fairly strong and blowning from the South West. Then moved around to the causeway and fished in to #4 with a team of buzzers under a bung. Spent a while without getting a touch. Tryed an intermdediate and still no joy. Fish had been rising behind me in #5 so had a go at casting in to the wind and could'nt get a pull.

Moved around to #5 and started to egt some action. The fish were shoaling up and swimming along the surface. The first fish I caught was over 3lb and was a cracker, chock full of green Daphnia, fish took black holo buzzzer. It was a matter of waiting for some surface disturbance and casting too it. Had a few pulls, and then noticed what seem to be a large pike head breaking the surface coming through the shoal of trout. Saw this happen twice, never knew there were Pike around, also had a comorant sticking its nose in a couple of times. Took a fish on a Black Joe, thanks to Sotfly for doing the step-by-step!

Click Picture for full size

Had a couple more in the three positions above, last one I chased along the bank and caught it opposite the Comorant Island. The Comorants are even nesting on the ground as the trees are decimated, and there aren't many branches left for there nests, shows how much they have adapted and how safe they are with no natural predators around.

Had to leave early to get home for the Chelsea v Mancs game, so packed up at 6:30. The fish seemd to be on sedges as the bloke next to me was getting quite a lot offers to his G&H sedge and there were plenty flying around the margins. Will need to tie up some silver invictas and G&H's. Hopefully will be back on Friday.

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