Fished from mid-afternoon until closing time. It was sultry with heavy cloud cover and a light easterly breeze that later veered round to the south. I was told that a recent storm had made the fishing difficult and I soon found this out for myself. Made my way to the south-west corner.

I never had a sniff of a fish until evening when, out of the blue, I took a cracking 3lber. Shortly I fluked another fish as I was pulling in to re-cast. I then chased the ripple further round the bend where I took two more fish. These fish took nymphs figure-of-eighted rapidly near the surface. I tried emergers but the fish would only swirl at them.

The effective flies were perl ribbed seal fur buzzers in claret or black tied on size 12 Fulling Mill 31550s. I used a copolymer leader to help keep the flies near the surface.

The fish had been feeding on small (size 14-16) green buzzers.

Once again, I was hugley impressed with the quality of the fish at Farmoor.

Mugsy

I fished Farmoor from the bank on Saturday.

Despite quite promising conditions the bank fishing wasn't too easy and 3 fish seemed to be a good bag. I had 2, both from the western bank, one before lunchtime on a green buzzer at middle dropper in a washing line set up and the second on an ugly damsel nymph fished midwater during the afternoon, from further up the bank under the copse by the car park. The first fish had been feeding on daphnia and the second on a mix of daphnia and bloodworms. As Mugsy says the quality factor is high, my first fish in particular, a fighting 2-10, looked like a little grilse

Packed around 3:30pm as I did not fancy fishing in the approaching heavy rain and thunder.

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"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

I'm sure that the recent unsettled weather is responsible for the difficult fishing. As soon as the weather settles down I'm sure Farmoor will fish its head off. The fish seem to be feeding on pretty small items at the moment so fishing tiny flies might be worth a go. I've tied a few in readiness but I'm not sure when I will be able to get there to see if my theory will work in practice.

Mugsy

I know where you are coming from, but the perennial question is what chance would your very small imitation, as opposed to a host of naturals in that very rich water, have of being accepted by a trout ?

I think next time in similar circumstances I am going to hedge my bets with a visible but not OTT weighted damsel nymph (as was successful for me last Saturday) on the point and a small green superglue buzzer on the dropper. And work the depths carefully with the aid of a stopwatch to ensure accurate sinking times.

__________________
"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

You could well be right, John. That may have been why I had more success the other day fishing my nymphs fast rather than at a more natural speed.

Mugsy

Anybody been there this week ?

Charlie

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Sonik Sports Team Pitsford Pirates

Fished Farmoor from the bank last Saturday Charlie, Took seven absolute belters they all went really well.Fish quality this year has been superb, my best on Saturday going to 3lb with all the others over two. Fished the far "straight" because they had an open day. Weather was unsettled but warm. Caught all my fish on either red or green buzzers on the top or middle dropper. Spooning reveled various feeding:Red,green buzzers,Daphina and snails.

Tim