Bob Sharp’s 2018 River Report

Bob Sharp, Martin James and occasionally Keith Allison went river fishing from April through September 2018. This is Bob’s report of their experiences.

This summer’s weather has dictated the quality of the river fishing in the south of England. We have experienced floods, low water and lots of combinations in between. We delayed starting fishing until nearly the end of April, only to find the River Avon in flood! This was followed later in the year by very hot weather with open, bright blue skies which adversely affected the fishing.

Martin [...]

November 20th, 2018|

Wherwell Weekend 2018

November 18th, 2018|

Speaker Evening – Chris Skillen 2018

Chris Skillen returned as a Guest Speaker following on from his previous presentation in November 2017.

The theme for the evening was fly tying techniques and their demonstration on specific fly patterns – particularly detached body daddy, crippled midge (loop hackle and parachute) and deer hair sedge.

Chris showed a range of deer hair skins to illustrate the variety of deer hair that exists and some of the particular fly tying properties associated with them. He then demonstrated a technique for tying the detached body for the daddy using deer hair [...]

October 19th, 2018|

A Grand Day Out on Draycote Water

Keith Allison and Stuart Foulds, after hearing about John Goldie’s and John Poote’s spectacular session at Draycote Water the previous week, decided to try their luck on Wednesday, 8th August.

The previous day’s fishing log showed the fishing to be very difficult with numerous single fish or nil returns. So with some trepidation, they set off to Rainbow corner. The weather forecast for the day looked good – overcast sky and moderate south westerly wind. Initially the boat was anchored in Rainbow Corner followed by drifting to A buoy. With [...]

August 14th, 2018|

Spectacular Day on Draycote Reservoir

John Goldie and John Poote fished Draycote reservoir on Thursday, 2nd August, 2018.

The weather started comfortably warm in the morning, became hotter in the late afternoon but with some cloud cover and sunny spells. There was a nice breeze most of the time coupled with a good ripple.

The fishing started with a drift from A buoy to B buoy with John Poote fishing dries and soon catching on a fiery brown shipmans buzzer. John Goldie fished a floating line with diawl bachs and buzzers.

During a period which John Poote [...]

August 3rd, 2018|

Secretary’s Plate Competition – 21st July 2018

The Secretary’s Plate (Largest Fish) 2018 competition was held at Draycote Reservoir on 21st July in some of the hottest conditions ever experienced for this competition.

Six brave souls set out in 3 boats intent on capturing the single biggest trout in order to win the Secretary’s Plate. Armed with Di 5, 6 and 7 sinking lines seemed to be the only way according to recent catch information. Everyone took advice from the Draycote staff and headed out across the water to try their luck and test the advice that they [...]

July 23rd, 2018|

A Foggy Day Out at Grafham 29th May 2018

Stuart Foulds and Keith Allison had an interesting day fishing from the boat at Grafham. Having kept a close eye on the weather with thunder storms being a daily occurrence over the last few days, the weather was forecast as a misty start to the day and 11 -12 mph north easterly wind. How wrong was this!  Boats were not allowed out first thing due to fog and it was very breezy! We retired to the restaurant for refreshments and eventually headed out at 9:30 am.

We decided to get [...]

May 30th, 2018|

Ray Bull Trophy Competition Farmoor II 19th May 2018

The annual competition for the Ray Bull Trophy (heaviest bag) was held at Farmoor 2 on 19th May 2018. The day also included a BBQ prepared by our celebrity chef, John Goldie supported by John Pearce whose wife prepared the traditional CFTFFC tiramisu.

A total of fourteen fishermen entered the competition with 10 fishing from the 5 boats and 4 fishing from the bank. The weather was warm and sunny with a very slight breeze from the south west creating an almost flat calm. Boats headed out in various directions [...]

May 25th, 2018|

Speaker Evening – Lindsay Simpson

Lindsay Simpson, who is described as a fanatical fly fisherman, was the Guest Speaker on 29 March 2018. The main theme for Lindsay’s fly tying demonstration was grayling flies, particularly patterns and flies that are appropriate for harder to fish grayling streams – Wherwell? He started with a fly called the Mull Killer – a jig pattern tied on size 14 Hanak BL450, with a 3.5mm tungsten bead, Andrews Scruffy Highland Peat Dubbing, silver wire rib and Globrite #4 collar. Lindsay introduced “Andrews Scruffy Dubbing” – a blend of [...]

March 30th, 2018|

Speaker Evening – Jeff “Razors” Wilkinson

Jeff “Razors” Wilkinson runs Razor Sharp Flies. He ties quality flies commercially to order and also supplies a limited range of fly tying materials prepared by himself.

He is perhaps one of the most innovative and creative fly tyers that we have had as a Guest Speaker at the CFT&FFC. He is also a successful angler on the competition scene and is a regular fisherman at Grafham and Farmoor 2. His flies are often used by competition anglers and have proven to be highly successful, often when other, normally successful, [...]

February 16th, 2018|