Elinor Report

Weather wise perfect, overcast, mild with a light NW breeze. Eight tubers mixed it with a full compliment of boats and three bank anglers. Think the effect of the Cricket World Cup final, the British Grand Prix and men's final at Wimbledon all on Sunday meant that anyone wanting to fish this weekend needed to out on Saturday as I've never seen Elinor so busy and in July !

So with space at a premium it was very much a case of pick a spot and fish it. Gary was the first to register a pull has he set off across the middle to the bank opposite the boat dock. This would be the first of many pulls he had during the day but unfortunately he was unable to turn any of them in to hook ups and he wasn't alone on this front.

Mick bagged the first fish of the session fishing at the dam end where unusually the boats had not bothered to take anchor. Ric and I had also opted for the quieter area of the lake, I had a pull on a Cats Whisker on the intermediate but that was one of my only pulls of the day and Ric wasn't doing any better either.

The rest of the field decided to mix it with the boats and worked hard all day to register enough pulls to keep them interested and the odd fish through the session. All of us were employing similar tactics, generally floating line or midge tip with a combination of Diawl Bach, Buzzer, Sedge, Damsel and Blob patterns. Bob managed a couple of fish on a small Damsel Booby fished on the point of a midge tip. Talking to the boatmen this pretty much summed up their approach as well. It was noticeable that three boats anchored just off pylon point were consistently hooking and landing fish, the was obviously a pod of fish they were sitting on and as usual for the smaller waters once they were on them they were not going to move. Having launched two hours after the boats it was always going to be a challenge to get in amongst the shoal. Having said that there was plenty of fish showing all over the lake. Getting them to take was the issue, one factor that didn't help was the elevated surface temperature of the water, this was a marked difference to the bigger waters in the midlands where temperatures have remained reasonable.

All in all this was a tough session, everyone worked hard for the few fish we caught so well done to Bob and Steve for landing four fish each. Personally I'd have been happy with four decent pulls as my day ended at 3.00pm after registering two pulls and one follow. Gary joined me 20 minutes later probably more frustrated as he had numerous pull but couldn't hook any. Strange session for both of us as we were on exactly the same tactics as those that caught. Steve elequently explained the issue later stating that we were just a pair of numpties - today it was hard to argue otherwise !

Our thanks go to Ed Foster for hosting us and providing a small prize that was shared between Steve & Bob. Next meeting Eyebrook on August 10th then we are looking at the pairs competition on Toft on August 24th (TBC).

Andre.