Grafham Special

Group action

In days gone by like-minded individuals would meet a few times a year. They'd hire a room in a pub or just find a quite corner to discuss their shared interests. The smoke would hang in the air, beers would sit half drunk on the table while the guys chatted away in hushed tones. It was all very secretive, exclusive and to anyone not involved, maybe a bit sad. Fast forward thirty years and things have changed somewhat. The Internet and in particular Facebook has spawned hundreds of fishing groups in all manner of formats and sizes. 

Those of you that have followed this blog for years will know I started out as a bit of a loner. That all changed when I set up a small Facebook group to get away from the usual free-for-all of the larger angling groups where posts would usually end up in pointless arguments or start off with ridiculous claims. That was a couple of years ago now and people have drifted in (and out), most by complete coincidence and loose recommendations. There are nearly thirty of us now much to everyone's amazement we've become firm friends. We post and chat almost daily, mostly complete rubbish. We are not at all secretive or elitist, we are just those sad blokes sat huddled in the snug, the difference being- you are more than welcome to pull up a chair and join us........

Grafham

At the start of the month six of us had arranged a visit Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire. Built in 1965 it is the third largest reservoir in England by surface area at 1,550 acres. With water introduced from the Great Ouse it didn't take long to be colonised by coarse fish. Although artificially stocked with Trout Anglian Water lets predator anglers fish for the resident Pike, Perch and Zander in the winter months. 

Andy and Dave were paired together leaving myself and Carl in the second boat and Leo and Jamie bringing up the rear. After a five am start I was second to arrive, my boat partner Carl was already there, keen as mustard as usual. Now Carl wont mind me saying this- he is a bit of an enigma. Massively enthusiastic while at the same time incredibly laid back. Carl is a rig man, detail and finesse is his thing. Myself on the other hand, has only just learnt how to tie a palomar knot and that's only because modern braided line forced me into it. I thought we'd work really well together. After a quick chat I wandered over to the on-site map. I looked at it slightly bemused. I asked Carl where he fancied starting and although he had fished it before he gave absolutely no indication that he had ever seen the place let alone fished it. 

Ten minutes passed before the others arrived and we made our way down to the shop to purchase our tickets for the day. The boats had to be in for four-thirty pm so we were charged a reduced rate of £26 each, very reasonable. That included use of a boat with a petrol motor, a drogue and landing net. A killer shrimp apparently necessitated the use of their own equipment. I spotted another famous face in the shop too. None other that Steve Collett, lure angling supremo. It will be interesting to see where he goes I thought to myself with still no clue whereabouts we were going to fish. 

Carl and I headed blindly into the reservoir. The little I did know about the water was that, at times, the North tower could be productive. Carl was happy to try that first too. A biteless hour and half later and we rang Andy in desperation. He and Dave had caught a fish and had a few knocks which was good enough for us so we steamed over to them. On the way over we saw three men in a boat. Two of them looked remarkably like Leo and Jamie. It suddenly dawned on us where Mr Collett had ended up- in their boat the lucky sods! They were catching a few too........

Shaking our heads at each other we eventually spotted Dave and Andy. They were drifting out of a shallow-ish bay and were happy for us to join them. At the end of their drift neither Carl or I had received any interest in our lures whatsoever. While the other two motored back into the bay we decided to continue our drift into some deeper water. As we steadily drifted it did indeed get deeper, 30ft, 40ft, 50ft. In around 54ft of water Carl had a bite.......which he missed. I wasted no time in pilfering one of his lures from him. A ripple shad. I was sure I had taken it on permanent 'loan' but Carl must have sneaked it back off me so you'll have to make do with this library picture.....

As soon as I dropped it down I too had a bite. Up came a small Perch not much bigger than the lure. I had also brought it up too quickly and although it went back fine I vowed to take my time with any more should they be forthcoming. A few missed takes later and I began to think tactics. A stinger was out of the question. I didn't want to put a treble in a Perch no matter how small. A quick rummage in Carl's lure box provided me with a smaller lure in the same pattern as the ripple shad. I was also fishing fairly light (15g) so my line wasn't vertical but I fished a short distance from the boat. I was standing up and ripping it off the bottom both up and sideways before feeling it back down. I had five fish in quick succession. I'd cracked it. What the bloody hell was Carl playing at though? 

I swapped places with him in the boat. Mr laid-back was now under a bit of pressure. Luckily he soon started to catch. I was also started catching in his spot. It was just that first fish that we both needed to boost our confidence. We swapped back and Carl was flying, he very nearly caught me up. Andy was right, working together is really very helpful. They weren't big fish but it after our slow start it really was great fun......

After our first drift we rang Dave to share the wealth.....................

Two drifts and twenty odd Perch to our boat later and our lures were spent. Carl only had a couple of the small shads we were catching on so we were forced into using other patterns. You can see the effects of being almost constantly bitten on the top lure........

One of Carl's fish handily coughed up a recent meal so we matched the hatch albeit slightly differently. Carl used a small Cannibal Shad while I stuck on a Perch pattern Mini-Fry............

We had four drifts in total and took around forty Perch between us. In the end it didn't really matter what lures we used. There must have been thousands of Perch down there. I even measured one for any of you into that sort of thing.........

It was hard to drag ourselves away from so many fish but they were only small. Carl had a couple over the pound mark but it wasn't really what we had travelled so far for. We rang Leo. He and Jamie had caught a few small Zeds and Perch. Both had lost good fish and Mr Collett had caught a fine 7lb Zander, sadly they were just dropping him off at the lodge.

Carl looked quizzical. He was thinking. Somewhere in a dusty, dark corner of his brain he'd actually  found a couple of vague memories of his previous visits. He recommended a shallow corner where he'd caught some bigger Perch before. We had a steady motor over to the spot looking for any interesting features on our fish finders as we went. It would be fair to say neither of us are particularly proficient with the finders. Other than the depth the other signs may as well be sheet music to me. In fact come to think of it Carl is probably an expert, he either couldn't remember or just wasn't saying. Anyway we ended up in a nice little spot, plenty of depth variations and features........

Carl cast towards some overhanging trees and before his lure had hit bottom it was taken. His eyes lit up as his ridiculously expensive rod took an alarming curve. Whatever he was attached too wasn't happy and it gave him the right runaround. I didn't help by trying to manoeuvre the boat with an otherwise laughable lack of dexterity. The fish went under the boat more than once but Carl stayed cool and eventually boated this fine looking Brownie........

Despite a few more follows from turbo-charged Trout (including a Brownie of about 8lb that scared the bejesus out of me as I lifted my lure out) no more fish were hooked in the shallow corner. We were both keen to try for a Zander in deeper water before we went so we agreed to spend the final part of the day drifting over some really deep spots.

As we motored over I choose my favourite lure- the Hot Olive mini fry. Not a noted Zander lure but the limited experience I had told me it was a catch-all pattern and more importantly one I had confidence in. All three colours had taken Perch that day............ 

The finder soon began to show up some deeper water as we motored across the reservoir. 60ft, 65ft, 70ft. If the Zander were going to be anywhere they would be here we surmised with our limited knowledge. I dropped down my lure with a slightly heavier 20g jig head. Fishing almost vertical I was lifting a good way off bottom, holding for a few seconds and feeling it down again. Just a couple of minutes into our first drift and while happily chatting away I had a take. It was a decent sort of bite, I was feeling the lure down and I had one knock, I struck. This was the scene a few moments later.................

Whatever I was attached too was not only not very happy it was also seemingly very heavy. After a few mighty lunges and impressive head-shakes it sat defiantly just off the bottom and refused to move. Carl was talking all the way through the stalemate. I wanted him to shut up, even he wanted him to shut up. Despite our reluctant expansive conversation neither of us had mentioned what we both dearly hoped it would be- a big Zander. How big was big though? Neither of us had seen a big one in the flesh. Begrudgingly the fish was coaxed (expertly I might add) from the depths and it was some relief to actually put some line on the reel. "Maybe it's a British Record Perch," Carl added helpfully. We were both stood up when we saw a silvery flank about ten feet down. The conversation stopped and a deathly silence took over the boat. No words were needed, I just needed to get this fish in. It came to the surface and we both gasped. Annoyingly it shot back down to about ten feet again. A minute later I had it on the top for a second time. "Get that fucking net in Carl," I said as I drew it towards him. With the fish safely netted Carl and I both jumped up and down like kids at a party. If my gear hadn't been scattered all over the floor I'd have hugged him, maybe more.  Not big by some standards but easily the biggest Zed me or Carl had ever clapped eyes on and easily one of the most impressive fish I've ever caught........11lb...........

Back at the lodge Andy and Dave had done ok, lots and lots of Perch and worried a few Zeds, nothing massive but a fine day. We were informed nobody had caught the previous day and lots of people were predator fishing so we could be pretty pleased with ourselves. Leo and Jamie were late back much to the consternation of the boat attendant. I had been pre-warned some of the Grafham staff could be a little belligerant and this chap in particular was not happy. He was in a right old strop. When we left our boat he shoved the anchor off the bow with his brush and it hit the boat bottom hard. It was quite pathetic really. I his defense he may spend hundreds of days of the year waiting for returning anglers. Don't really know why I am trying to defend him, his behavior was terrible.

When Leo and Jamie finally docked they also had enjoyed a fantastic day (after a brief lecture). They had caught everything, Perch, Zander, Pike and Brownies. Jamie with a Brownie...........

That was that really. The bolshie attendant came and harrassed us in the carpark. Obviously he had a family member desparately ill in hospital that he needed to visit urgently (or he was just a vituperative prick). We departed to a nearby pub. Chosing to sit right in the middle, the locals eyed us suspiciously as they walked in. The guys got into an in-depth conversation about fish-finders and something called 'pelagic'. I was a bit lost to be honest but very satisfied. Carl and I had prevailed through a combination of many factors- watercraft, teamwork, a sprinkling of ability and a good old fashioned dose of lady luck. 

Andy's account of his day

Dave and I made for Grafham with a plan. To date this Autumn there had not been any kind of cold spell and unseasonably mild weather continued. We reasoned that perch, our primary target, could still be in relatively shallow water. The north tower has a track record and is where many head for, it's never been kind to us in the past so we decided to resist temptation and head for a large bay that had given us a few perch the year before in similar conditions. A few large seedbeds can usually be found in this bay where depths vary quite nicely giving features to fish to. On the day with the res being fairly full we were to find between 12 and 20 feet. Entering the bay, some fry was evident as were numerous predatory birds ie grebe, egret and an odd cormorant. We felt confident, the fishfinder was showing plenty of food fish present plus odd larger ones. After a couple of hours we had little to show apart from a couple of bumped fish, possibly perch and one solitary rainbow trout. We remained optimistic though and conveyed this to Carl and Phil when they arrived on the scene mid morning with nothing to report. Unlike us though they drifted out over deeper water and soon reported hectic sport from small perch. This proved too much to resist and before long we were following and getting our share of pristine little Percy's. When this happens you always hope that amongst the shoals somewhere a big job is on the prowl or even a Zander, but it didn't happen. Even the skoolie zeds which abound were conspicuous by there absence at first. Late in the afternoon a spot was found with fewer but slightly bigger fish showing on the screen and they revealed themselves to be zeds around the pound to two pounds before I lost a very nice brownie right at the boat and that was that. Conditions were fair and most fish for me came to vertically jiggled lures while Dave favoured the drop shot. As on our previous Grafham trips green or chartreuse lures both fork tails and spikey shads were most consistent fished relatively tight to the bottom

Links

Steve Collett's Blog

http://fishbashbosh.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/marmite-man.html#comment-form

Leo's Blog

http://fishermans-journey.blogspot.co.uk/

Till next time..............