Chew Valley Lake

On Tuesday my guest Neil Leaver boated this beautifully marked 32:08 pike - his Personal Best by a long shot!
Neil was fishing with John Synnuck and I on the second day of the 2014 Spring Pike Trials.

The previous day, all boats were cancelled due to the very strong Southerly winds, so John and Neil were forced to return home to the London area and drive back the following day.  My boat was cancelled on the Monday and they had a boat booked for the Tuesday, but they had no hesitation making the 300 mile round journey twice in as many days - and thank goodness they did!

Neil's fish took a floatfished mackerel deadbait in Villice Bay just after 12:30.

I then decided to have a fish and threw a few lures in the vicinity.  Within 10 minutes, a cracking 27:10 pike took my soft plastic lure and made it a great day to remember.

Since then, the boats have again been cancelled due to the high winds on the Wednesday, but bank anglers continued to do well and this culminated with Chew's biggest ever pike coming out at 44:06 - what a monster of a fish and congratulations to it's captor.

The next week of trials begins tomorrow (Monday) and I have a boat with my good friend Daryl Hunter.  Let's hope that the winds drop as they are forecast and we can cover lots of water using lures rather than deadbaits.

I truly believe that Chew Valley will produce a record UK pike for some lucky angler in the foreseeable future - and personally, I hope it comes out on a fly.  Now wouldn't that be amazing?

The 2014 Lexus European Flyfishing Championships is now launched and Online Entry Forms can now be downloaded.
Europe's biggest flyfishing Championships kicks off for another season on 5th April at Rutland Water, with 14 Individual Heats and 6 Team Heats across the UK.

Once again, the Individual Champion will win a Lexus RX450 Hybrid SUV for the coming year.  Anglers World Holidays are putting up Holiday Prizes for both the Individual and Team Finals.  Hardy & Greys are our main sponsors for superb tackle prizes throughout the Championships, while Ugly Fish Sunglasses and new sponsors Minox will provide other excellent prizes.

Entering the Championships could not be easier.  Just visit the Lexus website at www.lexusflyfishing.co.uk and download the appropriate Entry Forms.

Chew Valley Lake now overflowing

Chew started to overflow at the weekend and this means we are assured of top levels for the forthcoming Pike Trials in February and the start of the trout fishing season on 24th March.

Catch us pike fishing on the Sky Podcast

Tony Donnelly and I were featured on Sky TV's Tight Lines programme last Friday.  If you missed the episode or don't have Sky, then you can still watch the whole programme on the Sky Podcast.

Simply log on to: http://www.skysports.com/podcast/0,20494,19916,00.html

During the recent Chew Valley Pike Trials, I filmed two sessions for Sky TV's Tight Lines program.  My fishing partner for the day was Bristol Water's Assistant Fishery Manager Tony Donnelly.  We fished using deadbaits on one day and lures the next.

The bait session is being shown on Friday 20th December and the Lure session on Friday 10th January 2014.

We managed to get some great footage on each session and the shows go out on Sky Sports.

Tarrant back on Chew

Following our recent TV Series on C5 - Chris Tarrant Goes Fishing, both CT and I were back together again on Chew fishing for pike at the end of November.
This time Chris was accompanied by long time friend Howard Mann and they managed a very creditable 7 pike to the boat over the two days - and all on lures.

The biggest fish weighed a fraction under 20lbs and CT caught it - with his very first cast - on the first day!  He really is a fishy bloke!!!!

Howard hooked a monster as well but sadly lost it during the fight.  Next time Howard.

 World Flyfishing Championships

What a busy month August was!  I spent almost 3 weeks in Norway fishing for England in the World Flyfishing Championships.
We finished in 8th place from 25 countries and I had a top 20 placing individually, coming 17th from 128 competitors and becoming Top English Rod.
All but 3 anglers had at least one blank and those 3 ended up in Gold, Silver and Bronze medal positions.  I had just the one blank, but some poor soles had 5 in a row!

The Championships were very hard, with many of the river and lake pegs not producing a single fish for 15 hours of fishing - basically not good enough for a host nation such as Norway, where there are so many great rivers and lakes!
The Norwegian controllers were superb and very friendly.  Scenery spectacular.  Prices of everything were rediculous though.
We didnt complain too much, but I really felt for countries like Australia and the USA who travelled on up to 7 flights and a team spend of around 100,000 dollars to fish bits of lakes and rivers that were completely devoid of fish!

The organising body, FIPS Mouche should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen!

Lexus Team Final

On 23rd and 24th August I returned and ran the Lexus Team Final for 22 Teams and 132 anglers.  Rutland Water was the venue and the match was excellent.
The new Lexus Team Champions are Seighford Sharks, with Harvey Angling Margam runners-up and 3rd were Hanningfield.

Sweden trip

Then it was off to Sweden, with a few days of guiding on Chew before I went.  We were taking the Lexus Prizewinners to fish for trout, pike and other species in an exclusive venue near Ribbinforrs.  Rob Honour and Andrew Esplin were the guests and Martin Founds of Anglers World Holidays provided the holidays as a main sponsor.

Both Rob and Andrew caught trout, pike and perch, while I had a day on Lake Vanern - the biggest freshwater lake in Sweden - and had pike on lures to double figures, but I also had 3 Asp - the biggest of which went over 12lbs.  Asp are predatory fish and this was my first introduction to them.  I certainly want to go back and catch some more - they are awesome!

Lexus Individual Final

A few days after I returned from Sweden, I had the Lexus Individual Final to run on Chew Valley Lake.  100 qualifiers were coming from all corners of the UK, plus Belgium, Norway and France.  Anglers were practicing on Chew for days prior to the Final and the lake fished really well.

The new Lexus Champion is Ben Dobson who runs Stocks and Bankhouse Fly Fisheries in Lancashire.  Ben not only won the car, but had the biggest fish as well so won the holiday prize too.  Well done Ben.

You can read the full story of both the Team and Individual Finals in Trout Fisherman Magazine and on-line in the Total Flyfisher site.

Ireland filming

Next week I go to Ireland to finish filming for the Irish Tourist Board.  Des Taylor and I will be fishing for bream and pike, while Baz Smith will also be joining us for some of the same.  

Guiding on Chew & Blagdon

I've recently been guiding on Chew and Blagdon and both lakes are superb!  Quality trout with loads over 3lbs and most feeding in the top 2 feet of water at the moment.  Dries or Washing Line tactics are the best methods and the back-end looks like being as good as last year - and that was incredible!!!

Once I return from Ireland it will be guiding until the end of the season.

I still have some availability, so if you fancy a day, then please drop me an email.

I am now on Facebook & Twitter and update these social media sites on a daily basis.