The Continuing Adventures of the Fluff Club, Episode 68 *

 

“… when my life is over,

And my time has come to pass,

Bury me upside-down,

So the world can kiss my ass”.         – Blackberry Smoke

 

 Alarmed before dawn, and in the car before 06.00, …”Brrrrrr” … the coldest morn for some time, but the heat from my stereo soon warmed things up; coordinates set for our northerly destination Draycote Water, for the annual Fly Dressers Guild John Watts Competition. The event is as social as it is competitive and everyone who fishes it always looks forward to the next; as the years mount so do the friends made from being boat partners for eight hours, there’s much meet n’ greet first thing.

 The Fluff Boys’ competition section ‘Wessex Flyers’ were going to be a man down but the Fly Fishing Forum’s Fly Dressers Guild thread enabled us to find our fourth rod, one Paul F, who was very welcome indeed. The remainder of our team was made up of the Professor, Inspector, and Whytee. Strangely, despite all the boat movements during the day I didn’t see hide nor hair of t’others until it was all over. The day was forecast to be cloudy with sunny intervals, the wind still northerly as per the past couple of weeks.

 Whytee sauntered to the lodge to look at the boat draw, identifying one Simon L as boat partner for the duration, turned around and Simon introduced himself! Greetings exchanged, the riffing commenced and Whytee learned two things straight off: Simon had not only won the Grayling Classic on the River Test for the past two years, but was also considerably more experienced in boat and competition fishing. The selection of skipper had been accomplished at a stroke!

 In due course the armada set off, each angler aiming to C&K the first four fish, thereafter up to eight more on C&R, each counting as a nominal two pounds. Exactly seven days earlier the venue staged a prestigious event attended by a large field, the cream of competition fishermen. Would the fish stocks have recovered? Most boats headed for the opposite bank through to Toft, which had fished best in recent days. After just one or two drifts boats began to spread in all directions, obviously trying to find the shoals, setting the pattern for the entire morning. Simon L’s boat handling was exemplary, having set up the drogue at the dock he threw it over the side on our first drift, thereafter touching it just the once, when pulling it inboard while we headed in at the end.

 We tried all the methods gleaned from reports and returns: washing line with FAB and nymphs, a team of dries, snakes on a Di5, lures on an intermediate, nymphs on an intermediate, even a ‘Booby basher’! For the first five hours the only action we had were five boils at Simon’s dries, but not actual takes, and a ‘follower’ which turned away at the boat. Earlier, at the three hour mark, we discerned a concentration of boats in the area of the aerators and had decided to join them. Sure enough, the odd rod was bending into fish, all the time the area becoming busier. One chap caught three in successive drifts, then I recognised Malcolm Hunt (Manningford TF) catching two, (out of his eventual five). There were soon so many boats we thought it was becoming a farce, and all the motoring back and forth just had to be scaring the fish, so we kept drifting, moving into the area around B buoy, leaving the aerators behind.

 Nil desperandum, around 15.00 Whytee managed to net a small Rainbow which took a PTN on a washing line of FAB and nymphs fished static, just taking in the slack line as the drift progressed. Skunk avoided! Simon L was quick to change over to the same approach. Boy, did he make it work! He took seven trout in the next hour and a half, losing an eighth close to the net! Meanwhile, Whytee couldn’t buy a bite, the penny finally dropping too late to make a change: Whytee’s leader and cast totalled seventeen feet, whereas Simon’s was thirty feet overall! Talk about ‘line shy’!

 As we came ashore to weigh-in, stow away gear, and so on, the scuttlebutt was flying around: “One guy had maxed out (12)”, “three boats had blanked”, “most found it tough”, “fish coming short all the time”, “the fish boated had all been close to the surface”; the usual mix or rumour and misinformation and hard to decipher!

 For them as wants to know (forgive a little Dickens) here are the salient points, in no particular order:

~ !0 anglers blanked, from the field of 60

~ 196 trout were caught

~ the best fish  fell to Ralph Painter,  (my former boat-partner), at 3lbs 9ozs … [one of Simon’s C&R fish was easily over 4lbs]

~ Winners were North Kent Salad Dodgers with 24 fish

~ Second were Trout n’ Gout with 19

~ Third came Thames Valley Invictas on 18

~ Wessex Flyers were 14^th, (one off the bottom, thank goodness).

~ 13 branches entered the 15 teams of four. More next year, please.

Bis zum nachten mal.

 

*in which the names of the participants are pseudonyms in an effort to be as inclusive to others as possible, an attempt to attain the widest readership. I will be grateful for any comment the reader cares to make. Thank you.