Farmoor - 28/12/08

Freezing! 1°C for most of the day and a cold easterly getting up to 15mph.

Rory missed a good day (on the lash the day before), but Lee showed up and managed to catch 6 fish on his first ever trout session.

Marco done alright as well, although failed to catch the biggest fish (honours went to me, wheres my knicker?).

Walthamstow Fur & Feather- 06/12/08

Got up late, first lie in ages and needed it.

Managed to get to the water for 10:30 and started fishing the point on the West Bank of #4. Managed to hook a few but only managed two on the bank to boobies on my new Di7 extreme distance. Fish seemed to be around 20m's from the bank and were hard on the bottom feeding on bloodworm.

Came about 10th on the day, with Andrew Green winning top spot, and some people had caught over 10 fish come the end of the competition at 14:00.

All went over to the Ferry boat for the weigh in, a few beers, raffle and presentation.

My ticket was pulled out first in the raffle (Lucky git), and I was the proud winner of a season ticket for the East Warwick C&R resevoir. Been reading up on it and cant wait to have a crack at it, all the info here: http://web.mac.com/andrewagreen/Site/East_Warwick_Background.html

Walthamstow - 23/09/08 - Stormer!!!

This must have been my best afternoon session ever here!! Had 18 fish, with the biggest weighing in at 4lb 8oz, easily my best this season.

Wind was northerly and I started fishing with a single #14 red bodied CDC with teased out picric seals fur thorax. Later I added a ginked up black doobry to the middle which also fished well. The big fish took on a long distance cast, fish were moving all over the place and it was possible to cast at a fish nearly every cast.

As soon I turned up, I made my way along the railway bank and stopped halfway when I saw 3 fish moving along the bank 15m's out. Hastily set up my rod, and with in minutes was playing a nice 2 pounder. Eventualliy I started fishing the inlet and there were scores of fish. I even fetched a fellow angler to have a crack at them and he bagged up.

He spooned his fish and found that they had empty stomachs, this was also the same as the large fish I took. #4 had not been stocked for some time, and therefore these were not stockies, and it was strange that with the abundance of food the fish had not been feeding, although they took surface flies.

Towards the evening I tryed a booby on a Di7 and that took a fish on the first cast. I was trying to make it to 20!! All fish apart from big one I took were returned un-harmed. I think the fish might have been getting in to spawning mode, as it was near that time of year and they may have been attracted to the flow of water entering from the Higher Maynard reservoir.

Weighed the biggie at the office and entered it for Troutmasters 2008.. Gonna try it smoked in Marco's new smoker.

Farmoor 2 - 21/09/08

Exactly a week and a year since the 'second day of the daddies', organised by Complete Fisher Forum, myself and Marco had a great day with all sorts of tactics working well. Followed by a great steak and spaghetti meal at the Capri in Shepheards Bush....

We set of from the pontoon and the mortor cut out, so we decided to do a short drift nearby, the wind all day varied in direction, but it started of with a flat calm and warm sunshine. On my second cast with a single CDC cast to a fish near the bank by the poonton was in to my first fish.

Marco struggled for about an hour and finally caught his first fish before he got to despondant, and then a further 2 quickly followed, he was using a red and white booby.

The fish were free rising thoughout the day and we caught well all over the place. We found bigger fish towards the middle drifting towards #4 buoy. We both had violent snatches that snapped us off before you could do anything. I eventually hooked one of the fish, just over 3.5 lbs (biggest of the day) on a picric blob fished with a booby on a Di7.

We fished from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm and had a great day. All the fish were stuffed full of little #16 black buzzers apart from the biggie which looked like it had been on grazing on seagull shit!

Walthamstow - 16/09/08

Lorhic performed great although all I had were a couple of switrls around drys and no pulls on that rod.

Saw a massive fish, around half the length of my arm hidding about 2 foot away from the bank feeding on something (maybe snails) hiding under a mat of algae. I could just see its dorsal fin cutting through the algae, or a little swirl when the algae was disturbed. I got carried away and spent at least hour and half I pursuit of it. The first fly I got right in front of it was a blob, and he dissapeared for 10 mins. I then managed a buzzer and ptn, but nothing tempted him. Each time I got something near it, I would not see him for a further 10 mins. Could not pull away from it, but in the end had - to give up. I know where he should be next time and will have another crack I'm sure (black & peacock spider with a touch of lead?). Would have been my best fish from Wally by a long shot!!

I continued to fish from #5 to #4, easterly wind was blowing and I was a little pessemistic. Got round to the swirl by the railway bank and tryed my floater with buzzers and dries, and managed one swirl when I was lifting off to cast to another fish. Was getting late, nearly 19:00.

Had a rod set up with the 2 boobies that had been at the start of the season on a Di7 shooting head. On my first cast within a couple of pulls I had my first fish on, that I lost by the bank. Next cast had another and managed to land it, nice 2.5 pounder, had taken the deepest fly. Had more takes and lost a fish. Realised that my point booby had straightened out. Also, had my first perch from Wally. Shame I found the fish and the method so late in the day.

Of to Farmoor 2 on sunday with marco for confidence booster!!

Walthamstow - August September

Been a bit hard, with CDC still working well for some people (not me!).

Had a blank one day and caught 6 another time on buzzers when marco was there (failed to catch). Also had one great day when the fish were lumps. I was fishing from the railway bank with the wind behind me (northerly) and not much was happening, although I could see fish maybe 70 meters away breaking the surface. I decieded to put on a sight bob with 2 buzzers and a small coral blob in between and pay the line out to get it to the fish. Fair to say this worked
brilliantly. I was getting real long line hook-ups and the fish were all near 2 pounds. On spooning they had been feeding on daphnia.

Next time I returned the wind was coming from the East and I failed to get a pull.

Halliford Mere - 15/08/08

Wow, impressed. Haven't visited for at least 15 years, was put of by the previous owners when on a freezing day, myself and Marco tryed to buy some brandy in the bar and we were turned away cos we were'nt members! Talk about arsey, so we left well alone.

No the place is immaculate and layed out really well, staff really helpful and friendly. I wanted to try my new rod out (see below).

I made my way round lake 1 and spent a couple hours with not much happening. I finnaly reached a spot opposite the club house where quite a fish ahd been thrashing around. I saw a black gold bead nymph dangling from a tree, and thought I would stick it on..... First cast with it and I was christening my rod. Nice lively fish. Had one more and lots of plucks and pulls that I coulnd't connect too.

When I get a motor I will be back.

New Lorhic Rod Build - 9' #6 3 piece

While on Paternity Leave, I needed a little project to stop me going insane. Had promised myself a Harrisons Lorhic for years and was particuarly interested in a dry fly rod to replace the 'broken again' 9' 6# XL 50 from the disastorous rod building course.




First to buy it I went straight to Harrisons and eventually got a pice for the blank, this came in at about £135. I then noticed that Sparton had one a bit cheaper so placed an order with them. Sparton ordered it from harrisons and after 6 weeks had still not recieved it. So I cancelled the order and spoke to Meadow Fisheries and they had one in stock and cheaper too!! The man there was really friendly and gave me some good advice an the order was recieved a couple of days latter, including a nice Harrisons pistachio reel seat and flor handle. The stripping guides were blue with gold inserts, and blue pac bay rings.

After the build I managed to get an afternoon at Halliford Mere to try it out (more above about the fishing). The rod took a lot of getting used to and in the end I just could not cast it, although sometimes the line really gunned out.

Next time I used it at Walthamstow, and again I struggled with it, although I had a great fight from a fish that took a blob.

I compared it to Earls 9' #6 (cant remeber the make, but it was a quality rod). And my one felt really floppy. I decided to send it back to Harrisons to see if they could check it for me. After a couple of weeks, they finnaly checked in and I was told it was as good as anything they have ever tryed. They used a range of lines from 4 to 6, and they said the rod was excellant all through them.

When I got it back, I though it must have been the line I was using, so i had a spare sixth sense #5/6 which I spooled up, and now the rod is perfect. Shoots line, great fast pick up, effortless casting and very light weight - perfect with a couple of buzzers or a CDC. Didn't catch a fish it on it though (yet!!). I blame the lack of sleep and that the line size mustn't have been correct when I bought it, should have tryed the 5/6 before I sent it back to Harrys!

New Angler joined the Family - Ronnie Paul John King 03/08/08

Born at Kingston Hospital weighing in at 6lb 6oz

Walthamstow - generally up until end of May

Has continued to fish very well and I have caught on average 5 fish a go, mainly on boobies and the odd one on buzzers and very odd one on a dry.

The best method has been a very long leader on a shooting head Di7. One booby at 4' from the line, a cormorant or cruncher 10' and then another booby ay 15'. Cast as far as poss, alot of the fish have been a distance from the bank, although have had quite a few as the join between the backing and the head appears through the water. This equates to where the fish have been feeding on large snails on one of the slopes of the shelves. best boobies were: black and green and cats.

Took Rory from work and he managed 4 fish on his first outing and Mick the following week had 1!

Rory left a section of my rod on the bank that must have rolled in to the resevoir that I had to replace,a nd while casting out with my 7-piece for Mick, it became an 8-piece!!! Caught a tree previously and this must of put a stress in to the rod.

The Great Ebru - 15/05/08

Was on holiday at Port Aventura, staying at the El Paso Hotel. Weather was shite, and we all got food poisoning in the hotel which was a bit worrying as Mel was 6 months pregnant.

Anyway, noticed a guiding service to the Ebru fro carp and cat fishing in the Trafalgar pub. Met up with a great bloke called Andy who took me out for the day (Andys website: The Carp Angler). We went to Flix and the water was flooding through as they had opened the dam right up. We therefore went back on the road for another 0.5 an hour and ended up at Rio Roca. Found a really nice bay to the edge of the dam, and Andy set up 2 rods each for us. Within a few minutes we had a run, all in all, we had about 10 runs and 6 fish on the bank.

Two of the fish I manged to catch on a fly rod, with a copper thorax pheasent tail nymph. Found a few pods of fish around the bay feeding on swarms of daphnia, with a bit of stealth and plenty of time I had my piece travel rod bent in action.

Walthamstow - 22/05/08 Rory's first trip

Arrived around 4:30, took Rory from work along whom had never fished before, but shoots (rabbits with a water pistol).

Wind had warmed a bit but was still coming from the East. Had been stocked on Tuesdy. Made are way to the causeway and i set Rory up with a Di7 and 2 Boobies (black and green and a cats). I had 3 buzzers on a floater.

Cast out for Rory each time to give him a chance of catching and he had 3 takes and snapped one of within an hour from #4. I cast in to #5 for him and he had a fish on first cast, meanwhile a shoal of fish were showing in the corner of #5 and I put a cdc on the point and started to get plenty of interest but had to help Rory land his fish. When he finally got it in, it was a a beauty of nearly 3lb.

Essex Geezer with h'is trat

In the end he managed 4 fish, and I had one on a cruncher.

Not bad for his first time (although expert tutition helped)!!

Farmoor 1 - 5/04/08 Opening day

Weather was a bit blustery, but the expectaions were high.

Found out that the flies had to be international rules which was a bit of a bugger.

We fished hard all day and I managed 9 on various flies (mainly cormorants) and the biggest was 5lb and the smallest just over a pound.

Marco struggled and only caught one just over a pound. Very dissapointing day for him, he fished to whole way round the place and only had the one fish/take.

Farmoor 2 - 24/03/08

Like the classical music we had all four seasons in one day. The temperature was freeeezing, we had hail, snow, sleet, rain and gusting winds. We were suprised to see we were'nt the only nutters out braving it in a boat and there were a few fishing from the bank.

The effort was worth it though, and the last time Marco and myself fished Farmoor was back at the Complete Fisher Social in October 07. Again the result was the same, and I whooped the arse of Marco.

My first fish after a minute on the first drift weighed in at exactly 3lb and was a nice hard fighting fish. All the other fish were of the same stamp, but smaller, although all were at least 2lb.

Below is my new 7 piece rod that was well and truly christened and the 3lb fish:

My set up was Di7 with a 16' leader - black & green booby with large eyes on the point, coral blob in the middle, and a comorant on the top. The first 3 fish came to the boob, then I had 2 fish on the blob and 4 fish on the cormorant - in that order. It was funny how the fish prefered the flies in that order, must have been due the different depths as it was a sort of washing line style. I must of had a dozen in total, and Marco had a late run and had 9. All the fish were stuffed with either small #16 black buzzers or daphnia. One was even chocked right up to its mouth with buzzers.

At one stage the water was like fly soup, loads of timy buzzers taking of from the surface and the wind chill was making it close to freezing conditions!

The wind started in the North and we caught steadily from number 4 drifting past the cage and the boats. The better fish seemed to be nearer the 4 marker and then we found shoals of stockies all the way down towards the South bank.

We then tryed a drift from the inlet and the wind had turned to the NE and we only had 1 between us. The wind then went fully to the East and got very blustery. We drifted from the tower to the jetty and found it hard going. Put the drogue out and was in business again with a few more fish. Only on the last drift of the day did we not get a pull. Great day despite the freezing weather.

Went to the Capri in hammersmith on the way home and had a wicked steak with pasta.
Cant wait for the next trip on the 5th April to farmoor 1, apparently it is teaming with 5lb + r's all the way round!!

Me = 12 (plus bonus for biggest fish!! Have to decide what that will be!)
Marco = 9

Walthamstow Stocking

Have just been told by Charlie, that as well as the 2000 fish that went in last Monday (10/03/08), a further 2000 are going in this week.

Judging by the fish I saw on Saturday they all are towards 2.5 lbs and should be cracking sport in the next few months!! :)

15/03/08 - Walthamstow Opening Day

After 6 weeks without wetting a line, Walthamstow #4 & #5 were back open for business.

Been tying flies and am half way though a 7 piece 9'6" #7 Cabelas Stowaway rod - bargain at $50.

Bought this for taking on holidays and on the tube, it should fit nicely in my back pack. Also bought some great looking rings, all in blue from mudhole.com (the rings came with a few other bits to £25 and got done by Customs, the Feckers, and cost me another £14!). Think I will save these till I have the £150 for the Harrisons Lorhic blank. Unbeliveably, I found it impossible to purchase a rod bag for the 7 piecec, and have had to have one custom made from a Lady in the States - works out cheap though - $15 delivered.

Back to Waltahmstow, paid the £300 for the 75 fish season ticket and made my way to the water around midday. The wind was mild for this time of year, coming from the East, and it was pretty overcast and later in the afternoon it turned to mild steady rain. There were quite a few fishing fom the causeway in to #4 and a few fishing the houses bank on #5.

The resevoir had been stocked on the Monday 10/03/08, and this conincided with very bad storms, that I thought was a little worrying.

I made my way around to the SE corner of #4 where the wind was blowing from. From the reports on the bank, the odd fish had been caught here and there.

Set up 3 flies on a floater and fished for around an hour without seeing or getting a pull. Also set up a Di5 with Boobies and still couldn't touh a fish. then I noticed behind me a few fish breaking the surface in the corner of #5. Moved over and wind was now coming over from my left shoulder. Covered a few fish and even tryed a CDC dry for a while and couldn't entice a pull.

I then switched tactics and threw a white booby out with a coral blob on a dropper. At the end of the first retrieve I lifted the rod early to avoid the twigs and sticks that had been blown in to the bank, I could not see my dropper yet, when the line started moving to my left. I quickly raised the rod and could feel added weight to it, and then saw a massive silver slab. I quickly hoisted my rod and moved up the bank, but bollocks the fish did not hook, and my white booby popped out the water!

I had several more takes on the booby, and tryed sharpening the hook, and just couldn't turn a pull in to a solid fish.

There was some more surface movements and could see that there were some fish shoaling around. The fish seemed very nervous and this was probably caused by the cormorants having a bonnaza. I also saw at least 6 dead stockies in the corner of #5 that near to where I was fishing. I wonder how many more fatalities there were in the rest of the water??!!

I noticed a fish about 2 foot out, and picked up my floater and cast a buzzer a few feet in front of it, the fish shot forward and grabbed it. That was my only fish of the day, and it was a good size stocky, nearly topping 3lb. That was it for the day.

Am hoping the new fish will settle down soon, and that the previous stock will start to show. It's a shame to see all the newly stocked fish go to waste due to poor stocking / conditions. Feels like your getting robbed a bit, stumping up money and seeing what should be providing you with the chances of better sport, wasted in the shallows, along with all the cormorants.

Gonna try and get an afternoon in this week and try out my newly completed rod.

Ordered a Chinky when I got home and Mel told Woody we had a nice trout for him and he gave us a free box of starters to the order and we were still eating them Sunday afternoon, nice little bonus!

Farmoor on Easter Monday, hopefully to get some confidence back!

Flies I need to get busy making for the new Season

Complete Fisher Forum - Blob

Flavours: Black & Green, Orange, Red & White, Yellow and all Black.

Complete Fisher Forum - Cormorant


Complete Fisher Forum - Cruncher

Walthamstow – 30/01/08

With storms forecasted for the last day of the season, I made a switch on my annual leave and took the Wednesday of instead of the 31st. Sunny day with a cold breezy wind blowing from the SW. Tried the usual spots and never got a pull.

Decided to fish the whole length of the causeway of #5 with the wind blowing from the right. I was using a Di5 shooting head and whacking a pair of boobs right out with an apps blood worm on a dropper. Thought I would have fish lined up, but only managed one pull. If I caught one it would have been a whopper, but no joy.

Met Gerry who had hooked a 5lb+ brownie the day before in #5 on a cove nymph and was his best brown in 20 years fishing at Wally!

I managed to catch a Tesco bag that went well at first (long time since anything gave a bend to the rod). The bag had quite a few zebra mussels on it and I threw it to the side on the bank. A few seconds later I was sure I saw something flapping around in it, and was amazed to see I had ‘bagged’ a 3” perch, nicely wrapped up for our eastern European friends – better and fresher than Lidl!!

Whilst moving along the causeway I gave a hefty pull on the double haul, when whack, I felt the line hit the back of my head and the belly of the line flew over the top of my head in front of me. I thought where is my boobies! Then realised one had gone all the way through my ear lobe – barb and all. I then spent around 2 mins trying to extract it, and there was a fair amount of blood. I had to squeeze my lobe with the left had while really pulling hard on the fly to pass the barb all the way back though the lobe. Had one all the way through my neck skin before, but this felt worse, plus I was on my own. Must get a hoodie!

0 - 0 - 0

Walthamstow – 26/01/08

Managed a few hours on a cold breezy afternoon. A competition was being held and a few fish had been caught in #5.

I tried the spot in #4 where I have been having some success, but only managed one pull.
Went to #5 after the competition people had finished and a few fish had come from the corner by the hut and this was where the winner had been fishing. Met Frank who had only caught one. Started fishing the corner next to him and never got a sniff, finally lost 3 flies in 2 casts and packed up.

Gary (WFF editor) had caught a cracking 5.5lb in #5 along the centre of the causeway on an orange booby, and unfortunately caught it a few minutes after the competition had ended.
Also heard quite a few of the small stocked browns were still swimming close to the causeway in #5 and were still being caught and returned and a few of them looked like the had turned in to lepers!

Great to see fish still being caught, even though the last stocking was in November.

Reports the previous days were that fish were being hooked on bloodworms fished near the bottom on bungs.

Had a row with some c*nt on the tube who sat next to me blearing his music from a shity phone on the way there, got me really angry and I was ready for a fight instead of a relaxing few hours fishing!

0 - 0 - 0

27/12/07 – Walthamstow

Fished with Marco and he used his new rod that I built for the first time. The blank I used was a Batson RX7 Rainshadow; 9' #7 4 piece, lovely light rod with a stiff toppy action. Bought the complete kit from J Stockard in the States http://www.jsflyfishing.com/ Got done by the customs and still it probably only cost around £80 - brilliant value.

He had 3 and I had 3, all on boobies. Great fishing for the conditions and time of year.

The fly that done really well for me was a salmon chennile body and black tailed booby. Marco had his fish on a olive booby and caught a fantastic long lean fish over 3lb (he is a jammy bastard!).



3 – 0 - 0

24/12/07 – Walthamstow

Had 6 on boobies at the same spot, talk about consistent! Great stamp of fish, although the fish I knocked were empty on spooning.

Black and green, and red and white with black eye boobies done the business. Most coming to the point fly, 10’ leader.


6 – 3 - 6

1/12/07 - Waltamstow - Fur & Feather comp

Fished my first competition at Walthamstow; The Fur & Feather organised by the Walthamstow Fly Fishers Club (WFFC). Everyone to fish for four fish, and the heaviest catch won.

I turned up at 10:30 thinking that this was the kick of time, the same as the winter competition. Got to the lodge and asked Chris where was everyone and he told me that they had started at 7:00 am! Oh well, I had some catching up to do. The competition was due to end at 2:00 pm.

I made my way round to the ressie’s and was well impressed with the turnout, maybe 30-40 fishermen. Met Gary Inwards the Chairman of the club, he gave me the low-down and last years winner was well on his way, Frank.

I made my way along the causeway to the east corner of #4 and started to fish, after a couple of hours in the fierce wind, I had hooked 2 fish but lost both close to the bank while fishing boobies.

I thought about moving and it would have been a long timely walk to the South bank of #5 that may have produced but decided to sit it out where I was.

There was a sweep for the total weight of fish and the largest fish. I guessed 128lb.

Around 1:30 the spot that had produced for me in the past weeks became available, and I managed to get on it. In the last ½ hour I managed 2 fish which was a right result!

At the weigh in at the Ferry Boat Inn, the total weight of fish was 130 odd lb, so I was quite close, but not close enough, and from memory I think the largest fish was 4.3lb, caught by Franks mate and the eventual winner, who moved in to Franks spot once he had his fill!

I won a bottle of wine and was over the moon! Had a great time and a few pints in the pub and really enjoyed the day. Can’t wait till the next one. Cracking bunch of people and really well run event. Wish I had joined the WFFC years ago.

To contact the club:
wffceditor@hotmail.com