My brother and I fished Farmoor yesterday from the boat, we started at 10.00, the weather was breezy, s/sw gusting strong! intermittent heavyish showers with occasional sunny spells and about 16/18 deg, water was slightly coloured and about 4 ft down. Set up a floating line with Black Buzzer on 1st dropper, green and black stick on 2nd and a bead head red buzzer on 3rd, leader of about 16 ft. 1st drift, rainbow of 2 lb on green and black stick after about 10 minutes. That was it then for the rest of a frustrating morning / afternoon!! in-between driving rain and horrendous squally winds we had an odd pluck and plenty of casting problems!!
We broke for lunch at about 14.00 and chatted to two chaps who were also fishing from the boat, they had 8 fish to the boat, which they informed us had all come to black buzzers. We started again after lunch geared up with black buzzers, nothing, nada, nichts!! but we watched the two gents about 100 yards away land two more fish on a similar drift, they appeared to be taking on the hang! We ended the day with a short hatch, which saw us change to dries and put a total of 6 fish in the boat for a total wieght of 13 lbs, taken on hoppers and daddies!! biggest fish was 3.5 lbs, the hatch lasted about 1 hour then died with the next storm front! all in all there are plenty of fish to be had, as was shown by the two gents in the other boat, but our lack of experience/skills was shown by the amount of time we spent untangling etc!! incidentally the two chaps in question "bagged" (16) then went on to C&R!! I would love to have just had one look at their buzzers to see exactly how they were tied!
Royston the Warden informed us that they have released 800 fish at 15" this week and some 2500 since July 2nd.
We also saw some bank anglers catching an odd fish or two.
Hope this is informative enough gents/ladies.

I was there on Sunday for a few hours and had my limit. With the exception of one fish taking a Silver Invicta all my fish came to a Black Buzzer/Spider. The flys had to be fished almost stationary and takes were extremely positive, in fact I didn't miss one all day which for me is unheard of. Things only really got tough when the ripple disappeared.

Best fish went 4lb, the quality of all fish, as has been the case all season was exceptional.

Well worth a visit!

EF Duck, I've only fished Farmoor once, and speaking to the bailiff I was informed that you could either do a kill ticket from the boat, or a C&R, not both. So should the two chaps have packed up after their 16 fish limit?

Or am I wrong? Confused!

I must get back up there at some point.

H

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Born to fish - forced to work

http://www.2minutes.org.uk/

Hi Howard, you can C&R after you have reached your bag limit, from the Boat Only though, and this has been in place for the last year and a half that I know of. Also mate, they do a "sporting" ticket for £35, two people, boat and 1 fish each then C&R all day, great value!!

Well you learn something everyday, I will raise that next time with the warden EF. I was fishing from the boat on the sporting ticket, but when I asked about killing then C&R, I got a no! And certainly not, “take one fish, then C&R”, which would have been great.

Thanks for the info buddy, will pop back up again soon. Although I fished in terrible conditions all day back in early June (bright, flat calm, bloody hot and sunny) I did manage one of about 2.5 pound which was in perfect condition. Fought like a fish possessed! And one fish that day was above average! I did manage to top up the tan though, also anchor up and have a wonderful snooze in the boat! Don’t worry, I’m short and could stretch out in the boat, I didn’t go overboard! Made sure of that!

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Born to fish - forced to work

http://www.2minutes.org.uk/

Let us know when you are across again Howard, we are local and fish regular as we are season ticket holders!! maybe have a little sociable one day!!
You are absolutely spot on about the quality of the Farmoor Fish, they punch way above their weight!!

Will do Bob, thanks for your kind offer, would be good to have a "guide" for the day! I'll bring the lunch and beer!

Living down in Sussex, it’s a trek up for me, but will definitely be back soon. Maybe fry bashing / daddy time, September. And hence the C&R being a great option for me too, sweating fish in the boot of the car is not great! Must invest in a big cool box.

Tightlines for now Bob, and thanks again for your kind offer.

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Born to fish - forced to work

http://www.2minutes.org.uk/

At Farmoor there is either catch and release from boats or an eight fish ticket, there is no catch and release once an eight fish limit has been achieved. We have plans for the future that will offer more flexible options but not during this season.

We are having a BBQ for anglers at 21:00 on Friday 17th August so that may be the time for you chaps to meet up after an evening fishing session.

Matt Prior
Farmoor Reservoir Ranger Team

Cheers for clearing that up Matt, thanks a million. Looks like the chaps Bob was referring to were breaking the "rules" then!

Cheers for clearing it up. Oh, any news on the big fish water side of things at Farmoor?

And welcome to the Forum Matt!

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Born to fish - forced to work

http://www.2minutes.org.uk/

I saw on breakfast TV news that the awful Midlands summer floods hit Abingdon over the weekend. Is Farmoor accessible at present ?

And yes I know this reads a bit like "apart from that Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play...."

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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