Hi just recovering from a disapionting hot day at Grafham.
I blanked and not a single pull to lift up the spirits, I used every colour combination and even blobs but nothing around me there were boats catching every where. There was very little wind and so I was fishing on the drift on a floating line should I have anchored up?
I heard the fish were on buzzers something I still haven't been succesfull with
I tried fishing buzzers using a long leader but using a 10lb line it was very hard to tie them on, should I be using smaller strength line and changing varation of buzzer colours.
Anyone got any hints or tips on how to fish buzzers

Big subject Macman.

Key for me is keeping the buzzers all but static and then depth control. Need to have some idea of the fish depth at the time you are out. I find it tough from a moving boat.

You then need to use straight line nymphing technique, bung or washing line set up etc to keep the flies in the right area.

Good reading on buzzers fishing from Arthur Cove 'My Way With Trout' and Gordon Fraser 'Mastering the Nymph'.

It's a huge subject

The only time I fished Grafham I had nothing all day. Went into a bay late in the day where boats were catching. They were using sight bobs. I didn't have any but used a CDC Shuttlecock and a bung fly. Got six fish in about and hour and a half. The takes were so subtle, they would take the buzzer at 2 foot down, pull the CDC under and spit it instantly and the cdc would bob up again.

Cheers,
Mark

I'm not massively experience when it comes to buzzer fishing, but i'm getting a lot better recently and beginning to understand it more. I'll share with you what i've learned.

- I like to anchor the boat, and cast in a fan shape to cover the most water i possibly can.

- You should definitely not be using 10lb line with buzzers in my opinion, unless you're fishing somewhere stocked exclusively with monsters. I would bet that some fish came to look at your buzzers but saw the 10lb line, especially a large knot. I use an 18ft leader of 6lb line. Its more than strong enough to land double figure fish, and is very thin too.

- Look for wind lanes and let your buzzers drift about in them

- I've been fishing with a green and black buzzers on the dropper, and a heavier fly such as a goldhead hares ear on the point.

- do the slowest figure of 8 you possibly can, and keep the line straight at all times

- I have found that buzzers with 'hot heads' work very well.


Thats the stuff i've learnt recently. Hope it is of help to you, but switch down to 6lb!

Hi Macman,

I agree with some of what has already been said, but also disagree with some of the advice.

As long as it's not blowing a hooley, fish from a drifting boat. As long as you can keep in touch with your flies you will almost always catch more fish, as you will be covering more fish.

10lb leader is fine. When buzzer fishing I use Sightfree Platinum 10lb straight through, whether on the bung or straight lining. Once you get confident with a leader material, don't be tempted to change - stick with it. It's very easy to blame your leader when it's usually something else that's the problem.

The most crucial factors (in order of importance) for catching fish on the big ressies are:

1. Area (If you're not over fish, you won't catch any)

2. Depth (If you're fishing under them, you've only got a chance on the drop or the lift/hang). Depth of water can also be important, generally aim to be over 10-15ft water.

3. Concentration (Keep your rod tip above the water surface and use the flyine coming from your tip ring as a swing tip to get an early indication of a take)

4. Fly (Anything buzzer shaped in the correct size will catch fish when they are hard on the buzzer, which they are at Grafham at the moment)

5. Retrieve (sometimes they want them static, sometimes sink and draw can do the business)

6. If other boats are catching well and you can't touch them, try approaching them very slowly from the side and politely asking how they're catching. Most people will be only too pleased to tell you, if only to show how clever they are! )

Reading your post you didn't really seem to be doing a great deal wrong. I would suggest next time to start by using a bite indicator (dons tin hat) with your buzzers at 4ft, 8ft and 12ft from the indicator. Aim to keep a straightish line to the indicator without moving it unnecessarily. If this doesn't work then a draw of about 12 inches can sometimes induce a take.

Once you start to catch fish you should get an accurate indication of what depth they are feeding at. Don't be tempted to fish the indicator all day, you can now attempt to fish more than one fly at the correct depth by straight lining with a booby on the point. Knowing what depth the fish are at will give you a lot more confidence while doing this and you'll fish better for it.

You don't have to use anything too fancy fly-wise, in fact PM me your address and I'll send you some buzzers I have had a lot of success with on Rutland and Grafham.

Hope this helps,

Graham

I fished Grafham on Sunday in similar conditions from a drifting boat and had 20 nice fish from different areas.

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hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com

Fishing buzzers (actually I prefer to call them chironomid pupa) is probably my favourite way of catching trout in a reservoir.

Keep your leader as fine as possible, 5 lbs fluoro is what I use most of the time and I have landed rainbows up to 11 lbs and browns up to 8 1/2 lbs on this sort of leader. A rod with a forgiving tip will help here. I find that the Sonik SK 4 91/2 foot 6/7, one of the best rods around for reservoir buzzer fishing.

What is most important is to pull your leader several times through Ledasink to degrease it so that it sinks immediatly below the surface. Most experts will tell you to retrieve your pupa slowly, or even let them hang below a bung. This will work of course, but what often catches a lot of fish as it did with myself today was to pull the flies quite quickly after they had sunk, on a 15 foot leader.

There are all sorts of dressings for the humble chironomid pupa. I think the colour is most important and in my box are green, red, black, olive, brown, grey and claret imitations.

I had 7 nice fish this morning, all on buzzers.

I'm sorry but I strongly disagree with this.
It's not so much the diameter of the tippet that's the problem, but the difference in suppleness is huge between a 10lb & 5 or 6lb tippet.
This is only exaggerated when using smallish flies of size 12 or 14, making presentation pretty dismal.
The extra stiffness of the 10lb leader prevents these small flies from rising & falling through the water columns basically under their own weight as they should.
Use a 10lb leader if you want to miss plenty of chances to catch.

I personally only use a 7lb tippet at Avington & such where double-figure fish abound.
What on Earth is the reasoning behind using such heavy tackle for buzzer fishing?
You're not going to flip the fish straight out of the water over your head á la the line caught tuna boys?

I can only speak from personal experience.

I've lost count of the number of times I've caught a fish to find another anglers leader and flies trailing from it's mouth. In fact this happened again on Sunday. I can't remember the last time I was snapped off and will continue to fish a 10lb leader until I think it's affecting my catch rates.

I was trying to convince someone that the reason he wasn't catching on Grafham was not down to his leader.

To my mind you fish the strongest leader you can get away with and still feel confident that it's not going to put the fish off. If I have to fish very small buzzers/nymphs then I may drop down to 6lb but can't remember the last time this was required.

The water at Grafham is crystal clear in places at the moment and it certainly didn't seem to affect my catch rate. I'm convinced that the fish just do not see flurocarbon in these breaking strains and I know a lot of very successful competition anglers who fish even higher breaking strains with the nymphs and buzzers.

As for "The extra stiffness of the 10lb leader prevents these small flies from rising & falling through the water columns basically under their own weight as they should.". The day that a team of four varnished buzzers rise and fall through the water columns will be the day after Swindon Town win the Champions League!

Anyway Steve, I'm prepared to be proved wrong so if you fancy showing me what I'm missing out on, then drop me a PM and we'll share a boat on Grafham and you can educate me.



That statement speaks volumes about you Ron.

Tight lines,

Graham

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hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com

Steve,

I'm the first to advocate light leaders on Small Waters..... but buzzer fishing on a reservoir that's full of buzzer such as Grafham...... your crying out for trouble on a light point.
When there on em there they are on em !........ with a team of buzzers a double shooter isn't un-common, and this is certainly one good reason to up the poundage. Another reason, right now as Graham rightly points out they are HARD on buzzer at Grafham......... and in situations like this the trout don't give a flying poop about the leader, there simply avin it !
When there semi on the buzzers and a bit fussy then you can scale it down a bit.

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Trout Fisherman Magazine.
Hardy/Greys. Fulling Mill.

Graham, as I'm sure you're aware a standard retrieve for buzzer fishing is a smooth, slow 2 foot-long pull followed by a wait of 20+ seconds before pulling again.
This imitates the natural rising/falling of chironomid pupae in the water column.
The only style more natural in presentation in my opinion is to fish 'em static under a bung.

Buzzer Fishing

Buzzer fishing can be a whole heap of fun, but it's quite important to understand a little about the reasons for fishing buzzers, and why they are so effective. This is a nice site to get you started.