pike on the fly

2020 Season one of the best ever - despite the Pandemic

Despite 2020 being such a disastrous year due to Covid 19, once our lakes and rivers reopened following lockdown, the fishing all over the country has been nothing short of sensational!
This applies big time to Chew Valley and Blagdon Lakes, where the trout fly fishing has been sensational.  Countless big rainbows and browns being caught before and after the resumption of fishing, with Blagdon being open for business 7 days a week.
Sadly Chew has been open intermittently due to staffing shortages at Bristol Water, but when it is open,  boat sales hit the roof!
In fact, some trout fisheries have recorded record bookings from June through to the current time. 
Rod Licence sales are up by over 500,000 on last year and fishing tackle companies have made record sales.

Guided Days

My guided days have sadly been reduced to single rod bookings due to social distancing in the boats.  In fact, I did not guide at all for over the first 3 months of the pandemic as my wife is high risk.  Once the lakes reopened, it became clear that John Harris and the staff at Bristol Water were employing strict safety guidelines and to be honest, once out on the water in a boat, things could not be much safer!

We have had some great days on both lakes, with fin perfect trout falling mainly to floating lines and either Dry Fly or Washing Line tactics.

I did not target the pike as much as usual as Chew was closed for a big part of the season, but when I did we boated fish up to 25lbs 12ozs.

River Guiding

Recently I guided Barry Hawyes on the fabled River Test at Leckford - Beat 12 for his surprise 70th Birthday treat.  What a fabulous day!  Barry has fished rivers in New Zealand and caught many specimen browns and rainbows, but he was obviously blown away with the history and beauty of our own premier chalkstream.

Pike Trials

The pike trials on Both Chew and Blagdon have produced huge numbers of smaller pike so far this season, but even so, at least 6 pike over 30lbs have been landed on Chew, and one of these fell to Chris the Ranger on a fly!

If you fancy a guided day on Chew or Blagdon in the coming weeks, please contact me via the Contact Form on the WebSite, or pm me on Facebook.

Daryl Hunter with his 25:04 Blagdon Pike taken on the Fly!
Barry Hawyes on the River Test
John Horsey Fly Fishing

The season so far ......

Its amazing to think that we are already into August and another season is flying by!  Apart from a week or so of scorching hot weather, this has been a cool Summer with plenty of rain and even more wind!!  As I write this blog the rain is pouring down outside but that does have the helpful effect of cooling down the water temperatures on our lakes and reservoirs - as I'm out on Chew for pike on the fly for the next 2 days, this will be very welcome indeed.

Trout

The trout fishing on Blagdon in recent weeks has been incredible.  First with grown on rainbows and browns feeding on damsels, migrating leeches and corixa at the Top End, then to deep fished nymphs and boobies at the Dam where the fish fought like fury!  Barry Hawyes and I had a great couple of days boating fish after fish, with Barry taking browns to over 5lbs and rainbows over 4lbs.

Chew has been harder of late, but a month ago everyone was heading to Stratford and Herriots where overwintered trout were feeding amongst the weed on bloodworm and corixa.  There were some monsters to be caught but the weed growth and increase in water temperatures stopped this for a while.

Pike

Pike have been feeding during the cooler days and some cracking fish have fallen to the fly this season.  One of my regular clients ian Gregg had a superb 36-04 pike using a tiny baitfish pattern at Stratford, and there have been a couple more over 30lbs and plenty over 20lbs.
My season so far has been fine as regards numbers, but high doubles have been my best to the boat, although we have lost some bigger fish which we could not hold!
As the water cools, I reckon things will pick up and more of the big girls will begin to show.

Barry Hawyes with his amazing 5lb 2oz Blagdon Brown trout
John Horsey with a superbly conditioned Blagdon rainbow
Ian Gregg's 36lb monster from Chew on a fly

40lb Pike on the Fly!

Both Blagdon and Chew are now open for a new season of fly fishing and what an amzing first 2 weeks it has been!
The trout fishing on Blagdon has been superb, with fish averaging 2:12 and plenty of limit bags being taken from both bank and boat.
The brown trout in Blagdon have been in superb condition and I personally have only used a floatying line for my trips there.

Chew opened last saturday and I fished the boat with Bryan Brown, with both of us taking limit bags from the North Shore area in very cold conditions.  Once again, I used a floating line while Bryan opted for a midge tip.  Both lakes we have found black flies to be the best, although lots have caught using bright flies on sinking lines.

On day 2 at Chew, I was guiding 4 Italians who were filming for Sky Italy and who had fished Chew for pike in the past but without any real success.  A few jacks was their only captures.

Well, all that changed dramatically on saturday at last knockings when Enrico Pini landed a massive 40:08 specimen on a white and red fly from Villice Bay.  What a fish it was and the barbless hook was barely in it's huge mouth and came out with ease once i had her safely in the landing net!  We filmed the whole procedure and then released the trophy fish unharmed back into the lake.

Guided trips

With the weather now warming up nicely, my bookings are pretty heavy for the coming weeks but I still have availability if you fancy targetting some of Chew and Blagdon's quality fish on the fly.

Enrico with his 40:08 Chew pike
Cracking overwintered rainbow
Lovely Chew brownie for Glade Gunther

NEW PIKE FLYFISHING COMPETITION

On 11th June Chew Valley Lake will play host to a brand new Pike Fly Fishing Championship.

There are already over 20 competitors entered and it promises to be a great days fishing for both pike and perch.

Entry Fees are just £30 and competitors must pay for their boat fishing fees.

Please contact me by email to book your place in these inaugural Championships.

Blog Archive

December 2016

January 2016

December 2015

April 2015

August 2014

December 2013

September 2013

February 2012