Woodford Fly Fishery - 8th October 2008

Arrived at woodford just after 9. After a quick chat with Ted and ordering lunch I got set-up. Michael had already arrived and was set-up. After a wee chat we headed out onto the water. The wind was blowing from the north west meaning that we had to contend with the high bank which meant the possibility of catching the bank behind us. I started out with a bloodworm on and cast it out and let it sink and retrieved in a slow figure 8. After about 30mins and no takes i switched to a diawl bach on the point and black buzzer on the dropper using 6lb Airflo G3 fluorocarbon. No touches for about 20mins, and then i decided to switch to an olive buzzer on the dropper due to past success at Woodford. Next cast and fish on, very subtle take resulting a beautiful fully finned rainbow of about 2lb. I thought to myself the olive buzzer had done the trick but the diawl bach had actually done the business. I moved about the bank with the wind to my back but no more touches. At around 12 Ted shouted "GRUBS UP" and it was time for a fry, and then i got a bite just as I was reeling in, but what can you do.

After a very healthy fry we headed back out. I fished for another hour with the buzzers and diawl bach on but to no success. After seeing a couple of fish rising I switched on to a CDC hares ear emerger with 6lb Airflo G3 fluorocarbon tapered down into 4lb Fulling Mill Co-polymer to help with presentation. Nothing would look at the emerger and Neil, one of Woodfords members pointed out the hatching sedge so after carefull deliberation through my dry fly box, I decided on a CDC bibio hopper, the CDC mainly because I didnt have any gink left. Cast it out and watched a couple of fish move and then a boil under the hopper, just nosing at it, I twitched it a little bit but to no avail. I decided to switch back to the buzzers/diawl bach for the last few hours before I went home. Neil had mentioned that some anglers had been using goldhead vibrators to great success on floating lines, he wanted to try it on a sinking but didnt have any, luckily I had so gave him a brown one. Id say about 10mins later BANG and he is into a fish and it jumps out the water, me and fossil looked at each other and said it looked a big fish. I grabbed the net and Michael grabbed his scales.

Neil could not do anything with the fish, line stripping off the reel soo fast the back was out on the water. After a good fight the fish made for the weeds and wedged itself under a large clump. This is wear some teamwork came in handy, as Neil tried to coax the fish out of the weed, I got into the water with the net, after about 5 mins the fish showed and he was bagged. A quick weigh of the fish said it was roughly 8lb 4oz, nice fish by any standards and fin perfect. We then found the reason why it gave such a fight and why Neil couldnt turn the head

It was foul hooked in the anal fin, is there not a rule that foul-hooked fish don't count? lol As you can see it was a whopper of a fish.

The fish was released safely to fight another day. Now back to the fishing, Michael had to leave so left me and Neil to slogg it out. I tried the goldhead vibrator but to no luck so stuck the bloodworm back on. A few casts later and im into a fish, nothing major just a nicely finned rainbow of about 1lb 8oz. Right I thought, finally game on. Another cast resulted in me getting smashed and the fish stealing my bloodworm, Grrrrrr!!! Couple more casts with a fresh bloodworm and I called it a day.

Overall it was a hard day, with few fish being caught and we all did well to catch the fish we did.