Farborough Spit
Walking along, and away from the lodge, we come to a peninsula – Farborough Spit, this is a shallow mound with a deep shelf either side that is often a collecting point for food, depending on the wind.  Also it is an area where patrolling fish will forage for a while before turning back along the banks.  With the now consistent higher water levels, I tend to favour fishing just either side of the point.

Toft Shallows
This part of the lake is probably one of the most consistent and therefore popular.  It is an excellent buzzer and dry fly area with easy casting and shallow entry making it a good choice for relative beginners.  The only drawback that I see, year after year, is the people who make up for their inability to cast by wading out as far as possible, pushing not only their fish out, but everyone else’s.  I very often drive around the lake and I have frequently seen fish actually rising behind these people!  I am inclined to fish small, lightweight patterns here for nymphing, tied on B400s, not only is it shallow now, but many roots remain from even shallower times.

Toft Shallows is altogether a very reliable area for an evening rise, given the right conditions. Farborough Dam then continues on towards Toft Shallows - this section of the dam can be exceptional nymph water, especially with a nice westerly on it.  In these conditions casting almost parallel to the bank can catch a lot of fish, as they do tend to come very close.  Like most dams at Draycote they don’t get crowded, so if you want a little solitude then give them a go.

Cornfield
Round on the other side now, on what is known as the natural bank, the Cornfield starts in a spot where the water begins to deepen and it is worth noting that all along this area you should try to get to any points and peninsulas available. 

This was the most productive bank for myself and many other regulars this year – May was just out of this world on the buzzer.  I did find that being able to cast a good line here was the difference between one or two fish and a lot of fish, it also allows you to get over the shelf into deeper water.  Throughout May I found the bulk of my trout were taking at around 10 feet deep, so you need a long leader and a heavy fly to find them.

Lin Croft
Carry on along the vicinity of Cornfield and the next feature you will see is Lin Croft point, an outcrop of natural bank with lots of trees and shrubbery offering cover and rest for millions of water borne and terrestrial insects – you will always see swifts and swallows working the air above here; a good indication of the intensity of the day’s buzzer hatch.  The new high water levels have done away with bank fishing in front of this point, but the bank fishing adjacent to this area is excellent; another good area for an evening rise as oviposting female buzzers abound here late evening, as do the sedge in large numbers.

Draycote Grass Bank
As we come out of Biggin the valve tower comes into view and a meadow of grass bank appears.  This is one of my favourite fry feeding banks and you will see from the high, sloping

"This is a good area for an evening rise to egg laying buzzers"

bank that there is a good depth of water here.  During long spells of easterly winds food collects in the valve tower corner and strong undercurrents move vast amounts of food up and down the bank.  From the road above it is easy to spot fish working these diverse currents and the valve tower paddock itself has produced some enormous fry feeding trout over the years.

Draycote Bank
This is the deepest area of bank fishing available – you only have to look behind you to see the height of the dam wall.  The area around the valve tower can produce some very good backend bags. The rest of the dam gets very little attention from bank anglers until we reach the flat stones, just before the inlet. 

Flat Stones
Flat Stones is an area of dam wall, which can be fished very easily due to a level area extending some 100 yards or so, providing very consistent sport all year round for all methods.

Inlet
Water is pumped in here from the River Leam, down a concrete chute extending out over a shallow peninsular.  Wading is pretty much essential here as the water is very shallow for some way out.  Numerous small trees and bushes flanking the water always ensure a head of trout, which can produce excellent dry fly sport on summer evenings.

Barn Bank
The other side of the inlet is the dam known as Barn Bank.  Immediately adjacent to the inlet is quite shallow, but can provide some fantastic evening sport on buzzer and sedge.  A substantial amount of my over wintered fish have come from this area – these are fish that come in from open water for an evening feed.  A resident shoal or two continually patrol up and down providing both ends of the dam with good sport. 

Rainbow Corner
This area is probably as popular as Toft Shallows.  The dam wall ends at this point and from the corner there is a natural grass bank with shallow water that extends for approximately 150 yards.  Very popular with locals, it provides easy casting and consistent buzzer sport throughout the season.  Weed can be a problem here from late August until the cooler weather arrives.  Corixa patterns offer a good alternative to the buzzer along this stretch.

Hensborough Bank
Some very good sport can be experienced here but it doesn’t tend to get over fished by bank anglers.  If faced with an early westerly breeze you could well have this bank to yourself and you would not be disappointed.  If I can, I will wade out to the stones by the overflow and fish from there; you can put out a huge line from this vantage position and, therefore, cover a large amount of water – a favourite of mine for buzzer and backend fishing.

Boats

The bank tends to fish better than the boat for the early part of the season.  When mid-May arrives the buzzer hatches intensify and fish will start to spread out over the lake.  You will find an unusual amount of boats using the anchor in early summer when they are inclined to congregate around favourite buzzer hot spots e.g. Lin Croft, Biggin, Toft and Rainbow.  You can’t blame them, the buzzer fishing at anchor this season was just out of this world!  I would advise taking your own additional anchor to stop the boat yawing from side to side.

From June onwards I’ll be drifting over the islands – Middle Shoal, Croft Shoal and Musborough Shoal, one of my favourites, with a team of nymphs or, even better, dries.  Try some drifts right out in the open water – always worth a visit and I’ll guarantee you will see several huge, over-wintered fish travelling upwind in small pods.  Sedge plays a large part in these mid summer months, pulling or static, whatever you fancy.  Dull days with a breeze are the key to consistent dry fly sport here.

During spells of hot weather and low oxygen levels, the aerator pipe is turned on attracting great numbers of fish to congregate in this area; unfortunately large numbers of boats do too.  I try to get there early on a hot day and fish until the boats start to arrive ‘en masse’ then I leave, as the area becomes ‘boated out’ quite quickly.

A northerly wind can give some cracking wind lanes off the boils and usually contain more fish than the boils themselves.  Every year anglers are requested not to anchor over the aerators, but every year some anglers do, not only costing money to replace them but also ruining everybody else’s drift.

The backend on the boats can present some of the best sport of the season, especially for Browns and large Rainbows.  Reports of 6lb and 7lb fish go off the scale from mid-September to end of October, many doubles are caught year in, year out.  As I write, in the last week of September the record limit bag has been beaten again by an eight fish limit of 32lbs!  Individual fish, one over 11lbs and two over 10lbs in this week alone, admittedly many of these came from the bank.  These are not your ‘put and take’ stockfish - we’re talking fully tailed, muscled up, bars of silver and pink that will make your heart race.

Over the front of the boat, pulling Muddlers and Daddies, can provide lots of exciting follows and swirls and frequently good bags of fish, but far more consistent sport.  I tend to drift, bow first, along the dam walls about 50 to 60 yards out, with Di3 + Intermediates out the side and on the swing I am aiming for good solid connections with Minkies and Arctic Fox patterns, from size 8 up to size 4, white or grey in colour.

There we have it – you might say I am biased living so close, but for consistency, quality and accessibility, Draycote will take some beating and it keeps getting better.  Value for money? -  It’s got to be right at the top of the ladder.

Gary Lyttle