Grafham Fishing Holiday – Early November 2022
Penny & I arrived at Grafham Water fishing lodge on Monday at 2pm. As usual Pauline was on the
desk and helped us with four day car parking permit allowing our motorhome to use all three car
parks at any time up to 4pm . I purchased fishing tickets for the first 3 days leaving the last day to
be decided pending events.
Now the horror bit – the harbour was completely dry and all the fishing boats were moored further
out in the lake in twos and fours. Due to this, just ten fishing boats were in operation each day so
consequently my idea of boat fishing one of the days was knocked on the head as ALL boats on ALL
four days were already booked. Never mind Pauline said as the water was 15 feet below normal the
dam could now be fished all day. NB – The dam, with normal water levels, no fishing is allowed after
9am for so called safety reasons! The rest of the lake was way down and very muddy, so I chose to
fish the dam.
Advice from the fishermen on the dam was to use white snakes and minkies on a slow sink line.
Most had caught some fish – things looked promising!
What a sight though – 50 odd cormorants were working the water about 75 yds out from the dam
and at the edge of the dam really immense shoals ( millions!) of perch fry about 2/3 inches long
could be seen, all pushed in by the birds. Trout could be seen moving mostly just out of casting
range.
Tackled up with a white minkie and D3 line but it was only when changed to a brown minkie did I
start to catch fish. NOTE – Previous day 30 fishermen had hammered the dam in a competition, feel
they might have put the trout off white things zipping through the water!
Back to camp site (Caravan & Motorhome Grafham Water) in Grafham village. Wild night with huge
winds and lashing rain.
Back on the dam @ 9am but oh so windy. Hundreds of dead perch fry on the side of the dam,
suspect a large wave swept them up the dam and they got stuck up there. Wind was a SW wind so
good for the dam but still tricky to cast a decent line. Fishing was however really good and had 5
and lost 2 (long-range release) all on a small white snake on my D3.
Filleted my catch and froze the fillets in the freezer compartment of the motorhome fridge. In bed
by 10pm as a bit knackered!
Wednesday morning the wind was still extremely strong and had moved more westerly making
casting even harder. However, fish were moving and being caught. Tried shrimp patterns on a
midge tip but could not get the trout interested. The perch were interested though and kept taking
the flies and became a nuisance. So back to white snake and caught 6 nice rainbows. Good day
despite the weather being a bit wild. No sign at all of the huge fry shoals and very little sign of the
Killer Shrimps. One of the locals told me that the huge perch fry population was being eaten by the
400 cormorants, estimated at ½ a ton a day, and the perch fry were demolishing the shrimp
population. This was confirmed by all trout caught being clear of cormorant damage.
Back to the campsite, filleted all the trout and froze them. Had trout fillets for supper – very nice.
Last day Thursday, wind totally gone so decided to fish the dam (again!) and this time Penny came to
join me. I had trouble getting a response from the fish until a changed to my slow sink glass line
with, you guessed it, a white snake. Soon had a really large trout (5 to 6 lb) take and on for 5 mins
before biting through the line (very rare but has happened before to me). Penny took over the glass
line rod and got a 4lb+ trout the biggest of all the ones caught, she landed another, and a few got
off. That’s female fly fishers for you!
Able to continue to dark as Paul, a regular, with a car-park key let us out . He was full of information
and says it will be touch and go as to whether Anglia Water will be able to fill the lake before next
Summer.
Back home on Friday, unusual fishing trip but really enjoyable.
Tony Marchant
Worcester Fly Dressers 