13th October 2021
It’s that time of year again at Grafham, when I dug out all those shrimp patterns tied during lockdown, took a floating line a good pair of waders and headed off to do a bit of bank fishing.

It was a perfect morning , the only slight disadvantage was the westerly wind but at 8 mph this was manageable whilst fishing off my favourite bank G marker near G buoy. Approaching the water with a 15 foot leader, a  Tequila FAB on the point and to start with a #12 diawl bach on top dropper and # 14 shrimp with a red head on lower dropper. I cast off the bank and 10 yards out had a fish on in first 5 minutes.The method is to just keep in touch with the flies and let the movement of the water move the flies.

By 11 am I had netted 3 fish , all on the lower shrimp and by this stage I had shrimps on both droppers. The fish were in excellent condition and were not easy to get in the net. I must have hooked 10 by lunch time and netted 5.

I got chatting to a local season ticket holder , that’s the wonderful thing about our sport you meet friendly folk. He had caught 13 fish last week all on shrimp, but was finding it more difficult today. However he ended up with 4 fish.

The afternoon session continued to be just as good as the morning, the highlight being a fish of 4 or 5 lb, hitting the shrimp , and leaping like a salmon 3 ft in the air three times, unfortunately the third time saw it wave bye bye to me, but what a fish!

The last hour I decided the fish had dropped a bit deeper . I changed point fly to a black and green #12 lure, my  version of a Pitsford Pea. This was a good move as first cast saw a lovely 3lb ish rainbow in the net followed by 2 more.

I called it a day at 5 30 pm, having hooked 18 fish through the day and netted 8 of them. . With  the car park gate being locked at 6pm. What a wonderful day and one for the memory banks. If you want some excellent sport at Grafham this time of year, forget the boat and head for the bank.