Grafham Water has a problem, it’s lack of water! Currently at the end of September the water level was the lowest I have ever seen it. Was this going to be a problem for my three days fishing I had planned for the week ahead? Well, the answer is both yes and no. “Yes,” because the South West shore was now a very dangerous mud bank and therefore unfishable also the top half of the North shore around Home Farm and the Stumps was very tricky fishing with exposed weed and more mud. But “no” because the dam was now fishable all day and nearly all the coastal hugging trout decided that “G” buoy was the place to be!
Apparently Anglia Water are selling some of their water to Thames Water (silly thing to do) and will only refill the reservoir with water that has percolated through the soil — excluding all run-off water. Will they fill the 50% volume required to fill it by next Spring? Most unlikely especially as currently it is going out as fast as it is put back due to the demand from the huge new housing estates now surrounding Cambridge.
So, back to the fishing. On Monday first call was the Fishing lodge over at Perry. Had a long chat with Clive, he said the dam was currently rubbish and to concentrate on the shore around “G” buoy as the fish had already decided to meet up & party in that area! I only had a couple of hours fishing that day due to our late arrival . Floating line with a 3 shrimps, couple of pulls over the next hour, changed to point Foam Daddy and 2 shrimps. That created lots of interest, they nudged it, bumped it and tried to drown it but eat it — oh no. Worked out that zipping it over the surface was the answer, trout would follow and have a go at it. Interesting couple of hours but just one fish landed and a number lost.
The next day, Tuesday, started fishing at 10am 40 metres south of that famous buoy. I problem though, the wind was quite strong and blowing directly on shore making casting awkward and colouring the water up to 5 metres out, also lots of weed out there as well. BUT… the fish were there, what they wanted this time was a very small coloured booby in the point left almost still and they took it like a dry fly. The shrimps further down the line did generate a few pulls but the point booby was doing most of the work. Interestingly, the fish went right off the take around 2pm and then at 4pm (fish teatime!!) they woke up and came back on again. I was getting a pull at least every 3rd or 4th cast e at this point. Many of the fish came off, partly me, partly the thick heavy weed and partly barbless hooks, still I did land five, nothing huge, so happy with the days fishing.
Wednesday, was my no fishing day, Penny and I went to NT Wimpole south of Cambridge for the day — good place to visit if you are around that area & a National Trust member, bit expense otherwise!
Thursday, final fishing day, guess what the wind was still blowing hard into the shore at G buoy. Water still coloured up to 10 metres out BUT beyond that distance lots of fish showing. Next to my coloured-up spot two Grafham fly fisher members were catching lots of trout. Two reasons, They were using the right fly at the right depth and more importantly they had chest waders and I only had my thigh waders so they could go out a lot further to the edge of the clear water where the fish were. The flies to use, so I found out after a while were small orange/yellow boobies on the point and shrimps on the droppers, caste out and very slowly retrieved. I eventually caught another 5 and lost a hell of a lot.
Overall yet again a challenging but enjoyable trip, will I go next year, yes please!
Tony Marchant October 2026
