Draycote Water AMFC Group 1 With The Soldier Palmers

Draycote Water AMFC Group 1 With The Soldier Palmers

I jumped at the chance to fish Draycote with the Soldier palmers as it is one of my favourite waters. I got my dates mixed up and thought match day was Sunday and I would be practicing on the Saturday but unfortunately match day was Saturday so no practice for me. The Army team had 2 teams fishing as it was also group 3 match on the same day. For practice day the team was faced with sunny and blustery conditions and the water was a brown colour. Paul Kitchen was into fish from the off. The best method for him was an orange daddy top dropper with 2 hoppers and a gold arsed cat booby on the point. He was fishing a floating line and fishing the angle and the fish where sliding off for him. Ben Worley (Upavon flyfishing) was catching well on 2 daddies’ again on the floater. Our Team captain Sean was getting a lesson from his dad in the old school art of wet fly fishing. John Hanlon was fishing a floater with a daddy top dropper, a mallard and claret on the middle and a Wickham’s fancy on the point he took 12 fish in practice on this which shows how well old patterns work. Sean did manage to sort the method for him a floater orange daddy, claret dabbler in the middle and a gold arsed cat on the point. 

We had a team brief over the phone as there were 4 of us who could not practice. The plan, an orange daddy top dropper, claret hopper, claret dabbler and a gold arsed cat on the point using a floating line. Areas A buoy to inlet, B buoy to dam and anywhere open water onto the dam, D to E buoy. Even though dries had not worked I still set up a cast of dries just in case as I have always done very well on dries at Draycote but to be fair the forecast did not look great for dries with bright sun and wind forecast.  

A very early start leaving the house at 5am but full of excitement looking forward to the day ahead. On arrival I had a team brief from Sean. I had brought a resupply of flies for the team – the main pattern being the gold arsed cat. The draw went up and I had drawn a lifelong friend Graham Person who had first helped me back in 1991 on Draycote when I was a youth. Graham had practiced the dam the day before and had a good day. He asked me to drive but wanted to start at B buoy which I was more than happy with as that area had been one of the best spots for the Army. We had a good chat and he was going out on 3 hoppers and fab on a 12 foot slow tip, his plan was to keep the flies high in the water. Due to the wind I had decided to start on the 6 foot slow tip to just help cut into the wave and give me a bit more of an anchor effect than a straight floater. Sean was going to start at E and D buoy and the rest of the team were heading to the dam area. We set up about 200 yards up wind from B buoy and as I was getting the drogue sorted Graham was already playing a fish, great I thought, one fish behind us already. Graham missed a good pull and I was starting to think maybe slow pulling was the answer when the line ripped from my fingers, fish number 1 was quickly netted on the gold arse cat booby. I had already given Graham one of these boobies and we were both happy sharing all info and working together in the boat. A few casts later I got fish number 2 again on the booby but this time on the hang. Graham lost one close in so all in all not a bad first drift. We went around again this time starting 300 yards up from B buoy. Graham had 2 fish in 2 casts on a red nemo cruncher. I took the dabbler off and put a red nemo on and the very next cast a fish took the red nemo on the hang. Three a piece now and we were having some great banter and both very competitive but in a friendly way. That drift had been a bit slow but the sail boats had become a real pain showing very little respect for any of us fishing. We decided to push much further into open water to do a very long drift onto B buoy. I had a lovely fish head and tail over my orange daddy for fish number 4. Now time to debarb. Just as I was doing this Graham hooked into a much better fish and after a great fight, he netted a lovely fish just under 4 pounds on the booby I had given him (sorry Sean). We were now on 4 piece and speaking with other people it seemed to be fishing hard with a few blanks and 1s around us. Graham had a few missed pulls as I did then I got snapped on the take on the claret hopper. All of a sudden out of the blue I had another on the orange daddy, very next cast one took the booby just like a dry off the top. As we approached B buoy Graham got his 5th and I got my 7th, one more to go and only 2 hours in. 

Things really switched off now and we went 2 long drifts with nothing. But rather than panicking we stuck to the plan and just as we got to B buoy I had one take the claret hopper of the top After a great fight I netted a great conditioned fish for number 8 – A look at the time and it was 12.58pm.

It seemed I had managed my 8 before it switched off as now Graham could not get any interest. Sean came over he had managed to finish at 12 which was a great achievement and his plan to go away from the fleet had really worked. Most of the boats had now moved and there was only us and 2 other boats fishing the area. Graham has been competition fly fishing for a long time and was convinced the area would switch on and stuck to his guns. As we approached 3pm he hooked his 6th fish which he netted and by 3.15pm he was finished. It always great to have a double bag up so off to the bar for a well-earned beer. I had 4 fish on the gold arsed cat booby, 2 on the orange daddy, 1 on claret hopper and 1 on the red nemo. Graham had 5 on the red nemo, 1 on the gold arsed cat booby and 2 on a ginger hopper.

One of my teammates fishing group 3 had managed to finish, Ryan Bull and his partner the only other double bag up of the day – Great fishing Ryan. As the boats returned and people started to weigh, we knew it was going to be close between the Soldier palmers and Rutland. They had 3 limits and 3 4 s we had 3 limits and a 5 and 2 4s. We had a great meal in the restaurant at Draycote as the results were announced. We had managed to win the day with Rutland coming second, I had also managed to take top spot by having larger fish in my first 4 than Sean.The rod average was just over 4 in tough conditions. 

Shows just how good this fishery is. Well done to Ifor, Tom and leigh for running such a great fishery. Now the prep starts for the international Airflo Anglian Water with the Welsh Hawks at Rutland water.