The Complete Fisher Forum

[JCP]

When you look into the dark side careful you must be for the dark side looks back Reads like your padewan had a good day.Must be a good mentor....

JP

[Bongoch]

Having purchased a weekend season ticket I'll try to contribute some reports here this season!

As the weekend ticket permits you to fish on bank holidays I headed to Blagdon on Good Friday though I was a tad late and found it not unlike Piccadilly Circus (were the BRFFA having a comp?). Managed to get in just past Orchard Bay with the couple of guys next to me catching as I setup. Fished the floater all morning with a couple of DB's on the droppers and a buzzer or damsel on the point. Had fish from the off and a few lulls apart caught consistently well until late morning when the sun decided to put in an appearance. Called it a day around midday. Saturday was pretty much the same story though I decided to arrive earlier to get a better choice of spot. When I did arrive with frost on the ground around 6am I didn't find any other anglers, place was deserted. Was tempted to try Peg's but continued round to fish a bit further along from where I was on Friday. The first hour was great, lots of fish from the get go but things did quiten down, much as they did on Friday. DB's, buzzers & damsel all took fish as did Dr Bell's Brown & Silver nymph which features in the current FDG members magazine. A good start!

[BristolFlyer]

Apparently someone was attacked by a dog earlier in the week at the tanks. White bull terrier type dog that was with a young couple in late teens or early twenties, but was off the lead. Serious injury that required hospital treatment.

The couple left the scene and have not been traced so steer well clear if you see them with the dog.

[JCP]

All White English Bull Terrier.Pointed head. Not the Staffordshire breed.Please inform local police if description fits people and dog.People with media platform encouraging people to go out into the countyside hence they come and bring their dogs not under basic control and no leads.

JP

[tenet]

It wasnt Princess Anne perchance.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/anne-s-bull-terrier-must-see-the-shrink-75741.html

Joking aside - they can be nasty critters. My wifes cousin beats at Gatcombe and one of the beaters spaniels was savaged by a Bull Terrier owned by a member of the Royal family.

[Allrounder]

It was great to catch up with Geoff (Dipper1) on the Walley bank at Chew this morning. I arrived shortly after 7.00am to find Geoff had been working his magic in the plum spot next the reeds with a few fish already in his bass bag, having arrived over an hour earlier. He always was an early bird!


I got in about 30 yards to his right and started with a floating line with a Tadpole on the point, a black buzzer in the middle and a red DB on the top dropper but things were slow to start with. With no fish showing on top I guessed they might be a little deeper so swapped my point fly for a beadhead buzzer and that did the trick. While it was hardly a pull a cast, I started to pick up the occasional fish by letting my flies swing around on the breeze with my retrieve barely keeping in touch. The pulls when they came were not 'arm wrenching' but sometimes nothing more than the line stopping as it drifted around or short draws on the line. You really had to concentrate as they were easy to miss which made for a really enjoyable session. All my early fish came to the beadhead buzzer on the point but as the day drew on more fish came to the middle and top droppers

A few pics from the day ...

The fish I kept for the table were stuffed with daphnia and buzzer


Half my fish took this fly on a dead slow or static retrieve ...


My best fish was an ounce under 4lb ...


By mid afternoon the wind had swung to the NW leaving a flat calm in front of me which put paid to my buzzer fishing tactics. In desperation I added a bung to the end of my fly line and that eventually brought me my 9th and final fish of the day.

Geoff and I haven't fished together for a while so it was great to catch up with him again. Hopefully it wont be too long before we do it again.

Alan
_________________
Member of ...
The Angling Trust
BRFFA
B.A.S.S.
Pike Fly Fishing Association

If you see me on the bank, say hello... from a safe distance!

[Doombar]

Interesting day for me yesterday. Arrived at green lawn around 8.00 & while putting on waders chatted to bird warden Nigel who it turned out was watching the osprey very high up over north shore. With his help - it looked like a gull at that distance - but through my bins it obviously wasn't, esp when it turned & suddenly folded its wings to drop like a stone. Nigel trotted off to the shoreline hoping it would swoop further but it stayed well up & eventually disappeared over Butcombe. I'd seen Nigels superb photos on his website of the bird perched in trees near pipe bay on weds. Have a look at
http://blagdonlakebirds.com/news/ if you're interested.

Anyway, the fishing. Green lawn was busy but I was able to get in on the last spot on the right hand corner by wading in past the wooden wall. Fish were being caught regularly, method seemed to be black DBs with a FAB on the point. I'd set up with that anyway as I had shallower water/weed stems in front. Action was a bit slow for me - the fish seemed to be concentrated more around the middle of the lawn or into the bay on the right- and with 2 nice fish in the bag by 10.30 & just never feeling confident where I was I decided to move. Wind had strengthened so north shore was out & rainbow point had a few folk on it so I decided on Chew despite helpful advice from the locals on Blagdon that Chew wasn't fishing well & the fish were generally smaller.

Opted for Woodford. On arrival it looked perfect, esp as I had it all to myself. First cast with the same WL rig I had a 1.8 rainbow. Next cast its big sister(?) took the black cruncher type thing on the top dropper. That one was best part of 4lb & had me down to the backing several times.

After that hectic start it slowed but remained enjoyable fishing, medium cast & just drift it around, sink tip when it was bright & floater when the cloud came. I finished about 3 o/c having landed 6 there inc one perfect little rainbow about 9 inches long. Kept 4 nice silver fish around the 3.00lb mark to replenish the freezer.

Good to see a lot of people out enjoying some excellent fishing. Not many out in boats, but with the banks this good thats maybe not surprising. Until next time.

[arkle]

Great post & the blog of Nigel's has some terrific photo's, well worth a look,
_________________
Hi there, I have around 40 yrs exp. of tying flies, incl. some semi-pro work. I've taught at adult evening classes, written for and supplied photos for most U.K. fly magazines. Given talks/slide shows/lectures/demonstrations etc. Am founder and life pres. of local Fly Dressers Guild (27years), our members have won more prizes for tying than any other similar club, we've also won several national flyfishing comps. I look forward to both learning from and contributing to this highly respected forum.

[Allrounder]

[Doombar]

Hi Al. It had certainly slowed on Blagdon by the time I left mid morning but the regulars were predicting it would switch back on as had been happening in recent times. From your report clearly it didn't!

Result!!

[Bongoch]

Saturday saw me off to Blagdon again and with the wind still coming from the North East the northern bank was the obvious choice. Arriving around 6am I once again found the place deserted, was tempted to try Peg's but carried on round to Orchard Bay. As I parked up and got out of the car the lake was pretty much flat calm with quite a few fish rising in front of me. Quickly setup with a two Diawl Bach's on the droppers and a quill buzzer on the point. No sooner had I straightened my first cast after it landed than line went tight and I had my first fish on my first cast! I'm always wary about catching straight away as I've had a few days when that's the only pull you get but fortunately the first hour went very well with another 3 fish. After that the wind got up and it started to feel distinctly chilling which slowed things down (for me at least!). Nevertheless I managed another 5 to finish with 9 before calling it a day around 11.30. A few times I went through a lull of 30-40 mins but would then have a couple of fish in 5-10 mins before another lull would set in. Guess the fish are just cruising up and down the shoreline and you have to wait until they next come past. Perhaps I should stick it out and fish a bit longer (or even move) to see if the fish switch back on but to be honest I quite enjoy fishing from dawn to around noon!

[Allrounder]

I decided to have another go at Chew today. First port of call was North Shore but I didn't like the look of the onshore wind so I carried on around to Woodford. I arrived shortly before 8am to find a deserted bank which allowed me to slip into my favourite spot next to the trees.

Clarity was good at at least 5 feet with a light wind coming right to left but there was nothing showing on top so I started on the floater with a team of nymphs anchored by a beadhead buzzer. I was confident I would get some action but after 30 minutes without a tug I decided to try the Fast Glass with a pair of Boobies. That got me my first fish on an Orange Booby but that was it so I decided to go back to the Floater after replacing the Beadhead Buzzer with a beadhead Green and Black Tadpole . However not much happened until I tried a quicker than normal retrieve which provided the key I was looking for. Over the rest of the morning I picked up a further 5 fish to over 3lb plus a 4lb Pike that had me hoping it was a decent Brownie until things died off and it was time to move.

As the wind had swung around to a more Northerly direction I decided to look at North Shore again. Once more I found the bank deserted which allowed me to get into the first swim nearest the bushes with my floating line set up but despite near perfect condition nothing happened until I moved 10 metres down the bank. As if by magic I started to pick up the odd pull and fish but it took a long cast to reach them. After picking up 2 fish and losing another 3 during the fight I had to wait a while for my next fish which were both Pike! One of around 3lb made it to the net but a larger one beat me up by making an unstoppable run into some bankside shrubs before biting me off.

After that the sun came out which made things tricky and I had to wait over an hour for some cloud cover which helped me catch my final two fish after which I gave them best at 5.30pm.

So an interesting day with some long lulls between pulls but I always felt the fish were there if I could find the key to what they wanted. All my fish came to either a beaded or unbeaded Green and Black Tadpole except my final fish which took a Cruncher on the middle dropper.

Until next time ...

Alan
_________________
Member of ...
The Angling Trust
BRFFA
B.A.S.S.
Pike Fly Fishing Association

If you see me on the bank, say hello... from a safe distance!

[Silver Invicta]

Hi all ,
Arrived at Chew yesterday from the Mendips to be greeted with a very cold and foggy Chew lake !

I decided to start at Woodford , there were two others already fishing , very quiet !

Moved to Walley , same scenario ! ( although i heard that fish were caught at North shore , but that had dried up !

Moved to Wick green , by then the fog had lifted and it warmed up a little . Conditions looked ideal , slight ripple ( left to right ) . I never had a pull .

Decided to check out Blagdon , spoke to a regular at Pegs ( Blagdon had been as productive as Chew this morning ).

Back to Chew and Walley bank ( maybe about 6-7 other anglers ) , By midday I had the area from the club to the reeds to myself when the weather conditions changed , heavy cloud with a slight right to left breeze . Team of buzzers , immediate success, for about an hour i had plenty of fish/offers including 3 double hookups ! I managed to lose a few getting snagged on the wall , i decided against wearing waders , fishing in wellies , because of a painful unstable knee ( physio appointment today ) . The fish I kept had been feeding on daphnia and small black buzzers , all took the point or middle dropper .

All the fish were on the smaller size ( couple around the 1lb 8oz size ) . I did take 4 ( mainly for my neighbours ) who have been asking when am i going fishing !!

I think I may have dropped by 4 piece cloth rod bag ( maybe Woodford ) , if found let me know ( I have spares anyway ) .