John Horsey Fly Fishing Web Log

John's Fishing Blog

Chew Autumn Pike Trials begin

I fished the first day of Pike Trials on Chew Valley Lake this Monday - what a day it was!

70 degrees heat and bright sunshine greeted the boat anglers - most of whom anchored and fished deadbaits.  This was definitely the hottest ever start to a pike trials session and my boat partner, Simon Pledge and I headed for Herons Green.  Our other friends Gavin and Gary also headed for this area - all of us determined to fish lures on the drift.

Thankfully, most of the anchored boats kept to the deep water in front of the Sailing Club or in front of Woodford Bank.

The 4 of us ended the day with over 40 pike on lures.

Simon had the best bag - his first three pike weighed 20lbs, 24lbs 8ozs and 26lbs.  Gavin Young had fish of 23lbs, 23lbs 08ozs, 19lbs and 17lbs 08ozs.  Gary and I also chipped in with several doubles up to 14lbs.

What an opening day!

Simon Pledge 26lb opening day pike
John Horsey Fly Fishing

Pike Trials begin on Monday!!!!

Today I ran a Corporate Flyfishing Day at Testside lakes in the Leckford Valley during the hottest day of the year!  I cannot remember a hotter day this season apart from the World Championships - and they were held in Italy!

Temperatures soared to over 80 degrees farenheit in many parts of the UK and in just 2 days time, we begin the Pike Trials on Chew Valley lake.

I fly fished for pike yesterday and the previous day on Chew and it was very hard - we managed just 3 jacks but saw some massive fish.  The trout fishing recently - and all through the season - has been amazing on both Chew and Blagdon Lakes, but even the trout have been hard to tempt over these past few days.

On the River Test, during this afternoon, there was not a single rising fish.  The lakes at Testside fished exceptionally well during the morning and early afternoon, but come 4:00pm, even these fish had stopped feeding.

Is this the effect of Global Warming?  Will this be the norm for our coming Autumns?  Who knows?

I bet that by Monday, the present spell of windless, hot, sunny weather has passed and is replaced by cooler, windy weather - and for once - just once; I will be relieved.  And so, I hope, will the fish.  I bet the pike trials will be brilliant and the trout fishing at the back-end on both Chew and Blagdon; will also be superb.

Watch this space ........

 

John Horsey Fly Fishing

Alba Orvis Flyfishers are new Lexus Team Champions

After a thrilling final day, top Scottish team Alba Orvis Flyfishers have been crowned the 2011 Lexus Team Champions.
On Day 1, they were in 3rd place, just 1lb 7ozs off the top spot, occupied by Blagdon Flyfishers, with Rio Masters in 2nd place.

Amazingly, those same 3 teams occupied the top 3 places on the 2nd day, albeit in a different order.

Blagdon Flyfishers from the West Country dropped to 3rd place, with Rio Masters again taking the runners-uop spot and Alba taking the 2nd day honours.  And it was the size of Alba's win on the final day that helped them to the top overall spot over the 2 days.

Top Individual Rod was Paul Roach from the West Country who was fishing for Team Snowbee.  Roach had 13 trout weighing 28lbs exactly.

 

  Team Results
        Fish Total Weight
1 ALBA ORVIS FLYFISHERS   55 117 lb 9 oz
2 RIO MASTERS     47 103 lb 0 oz
3 BLAGDON FLYFISHERS   44 97 lb 10 oz
4 PEREGRINE ESTHWAITE   38 79 lb 15 oz
5 ANGLO WELSH FLYFISHERS   33 73 lb 12 oz
6 TEAM WELLBANK     36 73 lb 6 oz
7 MARGAM FLYFISHERS   34 72 lb 9 oz
8 SEIGHFORD SHARKS   30 70 lb 9 oz
9 TEAM SNOWBEE     34 68 lb 15 oz
10 TEAM FROG HAIR     34 67 lb 13 oz
11 BRFFA EMERGERS     30 64 lb 14 oz
12 NYMPH-O-MANIACS   32 63 lb 13 oz
13 CLAN CHIEFS     32 62 lb 5 oz
14 GREENWELL PERSUADERS   29 62 lb 5 oz
15 ANGLO SCOTS     28 58 lb 12 oz
16 CHATTON TROUT FISHERS   26 54 lb 15 oz
17 TEAM FROZEN NORTH   23 53 lb 6 oz
18 STOCKS FALCONS     24 52 lb 13 oz
19 OSPREYS     24 50 lb 7 oz
20 TEAM AIRFLO     27 50 lb 0 oz
21 STOCKS HAWKS     16 32 lb 2 oz
Alba Orvis Flyfishers - 2011 Lexus Team Champions

Lexus Team 1st day Results

Day 2 - 13:00hrs

The 2nd day of this year's Lexus Team Championships Final is now underway.  Stronger winds and bright skies - normally the kiss-of-death for fly fishing - greeted the 126 anglers this morning.  Once again, the majority of the boats headed for the main basin, but 9 brave souls went straightr down the South Arm and I think they have made a good decision - but time will tell!

Top Team yesterday were West Country nymph and dry fly specialists Blagdon Flyfishers, with Rio Masters 2nd and Orvis Alba Flyfishers from Scotland 3rd.  The rod average was a respectable 3.34 and average weight of trout 2lbs 2ozs.  Top individual rod on Day 1 was Martin Barrett of Anglo Welsh Flyfishers - again from the South West of England.  Martin is one of the country's top coarse anglers who is quickly building a reputation on the fly fishing circuit.

Here is a run down of the results from Day 1.

        Fish Total Weight
1 BLAGDON FLYFISHERS   30 65 lb 14 oz
2 RIO MASTERS     28 64 lb 9 oz
3 ALBA ORVIS FLYFISHERS   29 64 lb 7 oz
4 PEREGRINE ESTHWAITE   27 57 lb 3 oz
5 SEIGHFORD SHARKS   23 51 lb 13 oz
6 TEAM SNOWBEE     25 48 lb 12 oz
7 NYMPH-O-MANIACS   25 48 lb 4 oz
8 ANGLO WELSH FLYFISHERS   21 47 lb 6 oz
9 TEAM WELLBANK     20 42 lb 10 oz
10 MARGAM FLYFISHERS   21 42 lb 6 oz
11 TEAM FROG HAIR     20 39 lb 14 oz
12 ANGLO SCOTS     20 39 lb 2 oz
13 GREENWELL PERSUADERS   17 37 lb 11 oz
14 CHATTON TROUT FISHERS   15 35 lb 8 oz
15 BRFFA EMERGERS     17 33 lb 13 oz
16 TEAM AIRFLO     18 33 lb 6 oz
17 CLAN CHIEFS     17 33 lb 2 oz
18 OSPREYS     14 28 lb 12 oz
19 STOCKS FALCONS     12 26 lb 5 oz
20 TEAM FROZEN NORTH   12 25 lb 15 oz
21 STOCKS HAWKS     10 19 lb 12 oz

 

  Individual Results
    Fish Total Weight
1 MARTIN BARRETT 10 21 lb 5 oz
2 NICK DUNN 10 19 lb 5 oz
3 PAUL ROACH 9 17 lb 14 oz
4 GREGOR FLEMING 7 17 lb 5 oz
5 PHIL DIXON 7 17 lb 0 oz
6 ALASTAIR BEAUMONT 8 16 lb 9 oz
7 JOHN BRAITHWAITE 7 15 lb 8 oz
8 NEIL ANDERSON 7 15 lb 6 oz
9 ANDREW HEDGER 6 14 lb 3 oz
10 ROB SOSBE 6 13 lb 9 oz
11 BEN BAYLISS 7 13 lb 8 oz
12 PAUL LITTLE 5 13 lb 6 oz
13 ALLEN HUGHES 7 13 lb 5 oz
14 JAMES GARDINER 6 13 lb 2 oz
15 PAUL WILD 6 12 lb 12 oz
16 RON GENT 5 12 lb 11 oz
17 JON TURNER 6 12 lb 10 oz
18 MARK MILES 6 12 lb 4 oz
19 JULIAN HUBBARD 4 12 lb 2 oz
20 JIM TWADDLE 6 11 lb 15 oz

Lexus Team Final Day 1 nears completion

Day 1 - 17:45hrs

Just 15 minutes to go and the weigh-in for Day 1 of the 2011 Lexus Team Championship Final will begin.
The competitors were treated to some cloud during the afternoon and plenty of trout have been caught.  We think that nymphs on floating, Midge-Tips and slow sink lines have been the main tactic with the majority of the boats fishing the basin due to a localised brown algae bloom in the South Arm.

Full results from Day 1 to follow.

John Horsey Fly Fishing
John Horsey Fly Fishing

Lexus Team Final - Day 1

12:30 Sunday

It's 13:10 on Day 1 of the Lexus Team Final and all 21 Teams are present, meaning that 126 anglers are out on the water.
Yesterday the fishing was very hard, due mainly to the awful weather - strong winds with intermittent rain and sunshine.  Later in the evening, the heavens opened and it tipped it down for over an hour.

This morning, it felt like Autumn, with low air temperatures, bright skies but thankfully; very little wind.

Many of the Welsh contingent were up early to watch the rugby, with Wales beating Samoa, closely followed by England's win over Georgia - so spirits were high in both camps!
 

9 boats ventured up the South Arm, with 54 heading for the main basin.  Within 6 minutes of the start, we counted 6 fish being netted, so things had definitely improved on yesterday!

13:13 Sunday

Some anglers have now taken their 4 fish limit bag and are on Catch and Release, so Fishery Manager John Seaton is happy that the Rutland trout have come back on the feed.  If the weather remains settled, this looks like being a fantastic competition.

I will update whenever possible over the next 36 hours.

 

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