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!

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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!

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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!).



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