Keith nets his first fish, first cast!

This was the first Fishing Day Out of this season for CFT&FFC because of Covid-19, and had just Keith Allison, Mark Robson and John Gamon and John Goldie fishing for the ‘Secretary’s Plate’, awarded for the biggest fish weighed in.  Earlier in the week the weather forecast for Draycote on the Saturday had been pretty awful with a likelihood of thunder and lightning.  But on the day the weather was not nearly so bad.  The morning started with heavy overcast skies and a fresh SW breeze. Keith and Mark were first off the jetty and headed for Rainbow Corner – most boats were fishing off the dam for a little bit of shelter from the wind.  By the time the John’s arrived on the scene, Keith was netting his first fish, taken on a DB with his first cast!  In the first hour Keith caught another 2 fish and John Ga had a couple on but lost them.

As the morning progressed the wind picked up and became quite unpleasant and made the fishing quite tough.At lunchtime we anchored in the small bay behind the tower and had a very convivial hour of chatting about all sorts.  By the time lunch was over we realised that the wind had eased off and turned to the west so that we could have a good long drift along the north shore – and there were fish rising!  The weather stayed very pleasant until 3.00pm when the heavens opened, but we continued fishing until the agreed 5.00pm for the weigh-in – by which time the rain had stopped and the sun was starting to show through the cloud.  But a weigh-in was completely unnecessary as after that first hour none of us had as much as a pull so Keith was the very worthy winner of the ‘Secretary’s Plate.  Especially as Keith went back out again after dropping off Mark and had some good evening action on dries! 

Talking to other anglers coming off the water, it was evident that it had been a tough day for most people, with some exceptionally good anglers catching just a few fish or finishing with a dry net.  But the adage that ‘there’s more to fishing than catching fish’ was as true as ever and we all had a great day and it was so good to be able to get out fishing together again.