Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire is a venue I have fished several times before but this trip was going to be something special! Grafham is a predator anglers paradise. It has produced Pike over 30lb, Zander to unofficial record size (over 21lb) and Perch to nearly 5lb. No other venue in the UK can boast all these predators to these sizes.
I was to be fishing with my mate Giles and to say we were excited would be a massive understatement! We arrived at the Lodge early and had a chat to a couple of Pike anglers. This was a good move as we picked up a couple of tips regarding Perch and Zander locations. We paid for our days fishing and loaded the boat with all our gear ready for action. A fish finder is a massive edge on Grafham as it is vast. You could be fishing for hours without so much as a bite if you fish blind so to speak, without a fish finder to help locate fish.
We steamed straight out to the man inlet tower as this is where fish seem to be in permanent residence. We would target the Perch here 1st thing then move on to drift for Pike and Zander later in the day. Our method of attack would be drop shotting as we felt it would offer a great way to present rubber worms in a way that offered precise presentation. Giles was 1st out of the trap and dropped his rig down into the depths. It was around 30ft deep so a heavy weight was required to get down fast. Within a minute he was into a fish. It fought hard and we thought it may be a Trout? A big stripey Perch then popped to the surface to tell us otherwise! It weighed in at 2lb 8oz and was a great way to start the day. As soon as my rubber worm touched down it too was taken and I also had a hard fighting fish on! I dare not think it could be a big Perch but sure enough a big stripey popped up and was scooped up in the net. It too was a 2lber and weight 2lb 10oz and was now my biggest Perch to date.
If that was all I caught that day I would have gone home very happy. But my next drop down was met by something in a different league. I struck into a fish that started taking line from the off! It fought like the previous fish with violent head shaking. The power of the fish surprised me but I had never caught Perch fight as hard as these before. It surfaced and I knew it was far bigger than the previous fish. It weighed in at 3lb 12oz and I was shell shocked. My next drop down was taken very quickly again and produced another 3lber at 3lb 6oz. Was this really happening I said to Giles?! Lol
Giles was next to get something special. He boated another Perch of 2lb 10oz but was soon followed by a massive Perch! As soon as it surfaced we saw it was bigger than the high 3lb fish I had. The look on Giles face said it all. It was a monster! All 4lb 2oz of it. It was a long deep bodied fish that could be around 5lb later in the season. All of the fish we had were long and will easily fill out as the season goes on. Giles followed this fish up with a 3lb 12oz fish. I think maybe half an hour had passed by this point.
The fishing gods were certainly favouring us as we went on to catch another eight 3lb+ Perch (4 each) with several back up 2lbers by lunchtime! We were the only anglers targeting the Perch that day but we decided to move on from the tower to give the fish a rest. To be honest we needed a rest too! We had some much needed lunch before we upped anchor and headed down to the Dam end. The waves were pretty big on the trip down there and we got a bit of a soaking with the spray! No pain no gain though. We picked up a good number of fish on the fish finder and did a drift over them hoping to get into the massive Zander that live there. The depth was around 40ft and the fish were in the bottom 5ft. A 20g jig head was needed to present my ripple shad and fish it effectively in the botton 5ft. I had a few taps before I got a take and my Korum snapper jig rod bent double. It was a strong fish and I was hoping for a Zander but I was not disappointed when a Pike around 7-8lb surfaced. He spat the hooks just as we were about to had it out but I was happy enough as it saved the fish from being handled in the boat.
We had a fish around the Dam tower and had a couple of small Perch but moved on as it was slow. We found lots of fish on the way to a large bay so we dropped anchor. Some good fish were showing on the fish finder but only small Perch were taking the lures. We stayed for a while as the bigger predators were surely in the area. Unfortunately the bigger fish were not playing ball! It was late afternoon by now so we decided to have one last go at the tower. We dropped our lures down but it was hard work to get a response from the Perch this time round. We did manage to finish the day of by boating another 2lber each. We were more than happy to call it a day and win some brownie points with our partners by getting home early. We ended the day with 13 2lbers, 11 3lbers, 1 4lber and a few smaller ones.
Grafham is a venue that can leave you wondering why you bother putting in the time, effort and expense? But occasionally it lets you know why : )
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