The Fry Bash

The Fry Bash annual invitational match is a great competition organised by Chris Gurthrie. The match consisted of two days, the first is on Grafham on Saturday and Rutland on Sunday.  The match is fished to an 8 fish kill both days with no time bonus and the ethos of the match is to help and support all anglers to catch as many fish as possible. It was great to see everyone in the car park exchanging flies and sharing ideas. I arrived at the lodge on Saturday morning along with the other 90 plus anglers excited as I had heard Grafham was on fire and there were lots of 3lb plus fish being caught. The car park talk was there were fish everywhere, fish could be caught tight to the banks, washing lining hares ears on a floater or a sinking line with the bug stuff.

I had been drawn with Mike from wales. Mike had been out on Grafham since Wednesday so I was in safe hands. He was happy to drive so it was a day sat on the pointy end. I often find myself driving so was nice to sit at the other end for a change. I managed to convince Mike  not to go with the armada and head over towards savages. I was keen to fish the mouth of savages into sanctuary bay. There was only us and two other boats heading that way so things looked good. We wet the drift straight across the mouth of savages and the wind then pushing us down the bank into sanctuary about 60 yds off the bank. In the first half hour we saw a couple of fish caught but nothing for us, then Mike got one on a 3 sweep and pink snake. As I was watching him play the fish the line ripped out of my hand, great the blank was off. Both fish were on the small size so not what we were after but a fish is a fish. I then got another fish very quickly, again on the small side. I got a call from Mark Rose who had caught a decent rainbow off the lodge frontage. Mike and myself made the decision to move over to the lodge to see if they would have a go at the big stuff. We dropped into the sailing club side of the lodge frontage, second cast the line again was viciously ripped out my hand this time after a good fight I was greeted with a good size rainbow around the 4lb mark. A second drift accounted for another fully finned silver Grafham bar again round the 4lb mark. Four fish now in the bag with two bigger fish, I was a little more relaxed. We moved up to the buoy line at the nature reserve, we had 2 drifts drifting of the buoy line into open water but we both agreed it just didn’t feel right as I said last cast lets go the line went tight greeting me with my 5th fish. We stayed a bit longer after this but still didn’t feel like it was the right place to be.  I was now on five and Mike was stuck on one fish. He was doing the same as me with the same flies but just couldn’t get it to work. We made the decision to go back to savages as we knew there was a good head of fish there and I was keen for Mike to get into some fish too. As we motored over there were some 15 boats drifting the mouth of savages and down the bank in sanctuary. So, we joined the back of everyone and Mike was quickly into a good fish. Great work Mike! He then got another fish quickly after, gaining a good stamp of fish. I have noticed this happen a few times of Grafham this year, the fish caught in an area in the morning being small and then the same area in the afternoon being of better quality. Over the next hour the fish being caught had slowed down across the boats. Had the fish moved from the pressure? So, we pushed back to rainbow point and drifted the open water of the point. This proved to be a good call as I managed to land fish my next three fish pretty quickly, all fish again well over the two and half lb mark. Mike fished for the last hour and managed one more fish to bring him to four fish for the day. 

Once we got back to the lodge there was chat of a lot of limits being caught and they had come from all over the reservoir so seemed there had been good head of fish spread out all over. I had weighed in my 8 fish for a good bag weight of 21lb 7 oz which at the half way stage left me sitting 5th with only a few oz between 1st and 5th I was in the mix for what was going to be a tough day on Rutland. I had been drawn with Ceri Jones and he hadn’t fished Rutland for many years so was excited but apprehensive about what the day would have in store. Ceri was just back from doing the trails for the welsh national team for 2020 and he had qualified to represent Wales next year in the home internationals so congratulations to him on his first senior cap – a great achievement!

The talk again in the car park was that there was a lot of fish in the basin and across in Sykes lane and around to Barnsdale with fish reported in carrot creek and Armley wood also. Most of my fishing this year at Rutland have found me fishing in the south arm. The reports from the guys who fished Friday were that the south arm, especially Manton, was very dirty. Ceri had given me control and the important decisions were left in my hands. Did we follow everyone out of the lodge and right or did we go left? Sat waiting for the horn to go off I still hadn’t made my mind up where to go, then I noticed around 10 boats looking like they was going into the south that was my mind made, I was going to go left and said to Ceri we would head up to NZ point to start. The horn went and we were off.  I was right, 10 or so boats head up the south. Most boats stopped around A buoy drifting towards the sailing club mooring and into the mouth of the bay. I was surprised when I turned the boat on D buoy just above NZ point that there was just one other boat! The first drift took us straight onto the point. I had opted to fish the same method as I did the day before Di 5 40 plus and tube. Ceri went for the same set up.  We both got a good yank but nothing to the boat, hmmmm, it felt like it was going to be one of the days. We re drifted and with a bit of a shout I looked over and Ceri was in Ceri netted a great fish around 4 pound.

We worked NZ point pretty hard for the next 2 hours and I was rewarded with two rainbows, one pushing well over 4lb.  I kept trying to hit the normal fish holding areas in the south. We pushed down to do a drift between A and b buoy that rewarded me with one fish and a fish lost for Ceri. I had that feeling again that it didn’t feel right. I looked back up the arm to notice that no one had been fishing yellow stone but more importantly the water between K and M buoy which is one of my favourite places to fish on Rutland as all year round there always seems to be fish to be found. We lined up at the back of K buoy and it looked good. First cast the line locked up half way back only for it to be lost by some bad angling and getting the line wrapped around my foot dooohhhhh! I then lost a fish as I lifted off on the second cast and Ceri also missed one but we had found a good concentration of fish all to ourselves!! A further three drifts and I did manage one more fish. I was then rewarded with my fourth fish of the day, the biggest fish we had had to the boat. We had estimated around the 5lb mark only to be told by the scales he was 4lb 4 oz more work required on our weight estimations . It was now 2 o’clock and the match was finishing at 4. A bit of panic was setting in and the rumour on the water was there was a few anglers on 6s and 7s. We could see there was a lot of boats drifting the open water from omega buoy all the way to 15 buoy in east creek.  As we came to the back to join in I had a quick chat with Chris Bobby he was on 5 and had said there was fish being caught so we decided to join in. I persevered with the tube for not even a follow.  I decided to change I opted for a pink snake.  After 15 mins of fishing the pink snake it had accounted for a further 3 fish. I was now on seven and the limit was in sight. I had 40 mins to catch 1 more. Ceri managed 1 more fish and dropped a couple on the hang. We re drifted every time frying to find clear water hoping for one more chance but it never came. That was the day over and it was back to the lodge to weigh in.

On the jetty the talk was that it had been hard, there was a few people who had caught 7 but there were no limits caught so it would be over to the scales to do the talking. I knew I had a half decent bag of fish so it would be what it would be. 

On this occasion the scales looked after me and I was crowned the 2019 Fry bash champion and also won the Tony Beven memorial trophy which was awarded for the heaviest bag on the second day at Rutland. I was made up as I have had a few frustrating results over the past couple of months. 

For anyone who hasn’t fished the Fry bash I would highly recommend it. I had a great two days fishing and the banter and car park comrade was exceptional. It was great to see a vast array of anglers from the uk at the top of their game to lads that had never fished before or done much fishing all sharing stories and helping each other out which I know is why Chris organised the match. To not be all about winning but about helping others to catch fish and enjoy the sport as much as he and the rest of us do.

A massive thank you to Chris for all of his hard work and to the rest of the northern drifters for all their hard work making the match run smoothly and for a top weekend with some great people. Thanks to all the AW staff who had the busy job of looking after all of us needy anglers as always, they did a great job. And finally, I have never been to match and seen so many top prizes on offer. Chris did a great job; it was great to see people being rewarded for their hard work and prizes were randomly given out from 1st to 75th so everyone could get in on the action. So, a big thanks again to Chris and all the sponsors of prizes – Snowbee, airflo, sonix there is too many to list but a big thanks to all of you.

Now on to The Lake of Mentith next week for the UK combined services.