John Horsey Fly Fishing Web Log

John's Fishing Blog

Scintillating back-end sport

 It looks like being a superb back-end on the Bristol Waters with both Chew and Blagdon fishing really well to top-of-the-water tactics.
Dry Fly or Washing Line techniques with floating lines seem to be getting the best success, although fish are still coming to the fast pull using Fabs or Boobies on Intermediate to slow sink lines.

I have spooned every fish that has come to my boat this Autumn and the main food source is empty buzzer shucks, small buzzer pupae and a few terrestrials.  I have yet to spoon a fry from any trout, although there are more roach and perch fry this season than for at least 4 years.

The levels have dropped drastically on both lakes but thankfully the weed is also dying away quickly.

The pike are still proving hard to tempt, but with such unusually warm days and a water temperature on Chew still over 16 degrees, I expect they will make a better showing once the temperatures drop.  Having said that, I am guiding for them a lot at the moment and getting several small fish every trip, plus Jan Munnick had a cracking 15lb pike a couple of days ago.

Perch on the other hand, are just starting to hit the fry and Alex Mason and his father George had 26 in 2 hours yesterday, with the best at 4:02, 3:06 and 3:11.  They both had their PB's and it was great watching them and unhooking these beautiful fish - one after the other!

Bristol Evening Post drops Angling column

Sadly, the new Sports Editor of the Bristol Evening Post has decided that fishing does not merit an Angling Column after more than 30 years.  Roy Garland has provided a great service for many years, but it now appears that the new Editor; Mike Norton, feels that there is no demand for an angling column to satisfy the needs of one of the UK's biggest participant sports.  
Bob Feltham is running a campaign to get the popular weekly column reinstated, so if you want to add your support, then contact him on:

bob.feltham@rsj-international.co.uk

 

Alex and George Mason with a nice brace of Chew perch
Jan Munnick with his 15lb Chew pike
Barry Hawyes with a cracking Chew Rainbow taken on a dry fly

What a busy month!

 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.  

 

Taking a 48cm brownie to my Controller - thanks to Gillies for the pic
Seighford Sharks - 2013 Lexus Team Champions
Ben Dobson - Lexus Champion - gets the keys to a Lexus RX450 SUV

The Heatwave continues

 We are now officially into the longest sustained spell of hot weather for 10 years - and it looks like getting even hotter!

Earlier last week I fished with Mike Purseglove on a hot, sunny and near calm day on Chew Valley.  There were fish rising so I couldnt wait to get out and at 'em!  However, none of these fish rose more than once and it soon became clear that they were not feeding on the surface.  What they were doing escapes me.

Thankfully Mike soon had a nice rainbow on the washing line.  But then it got really hard and it wasnt until I fished a DI7 near the aerators that I started to catch fish - and one was a cracking 4lb plus brownie.

I am back on Chew tomorrow for pike, so it'll be interesting to see if they are feeding in this hot weather.  With all the fry around, they can feed easily and without much effort.  I have a feeling we might get a decent fish tomorrow - but I'll let you know.

Lexus Stocks Heats

I am typing this blog sat in the Lodge at Stocks Fly Fishery near Blackburn.  Over 100 anglers have supported the 3 days of Heats and suffered some of the hottest weather this year.  Thankfully the catch rates have been pretty good.  day 1 saw a catch per rod of 1.9 and an average weight per fish of 2lbs 3ozs - but it was a Floating Lines Only Heat, so we thought it would be hard.

The next day, 40 anglers averaged 3.0 per rod at the same average weight, but most reverted to sinking lines.  Top man was Derek Moore who had 8 fish, as did his boat partner John Brown - so 16 fish to the boat.  Good Angling!

Today is the last Team Heat of the series and 3 teams will progress to the Grand Final to be held over 2 days at Rutland Water in August.

Places still available at Draycote for the Lexus Individual 

Next weekend sees the final 2 Heats of the Lexus Individual Championships at Draycote Water.  There are still some places available, so please contact me or Draycote to reserve your place.

Mike Purseglove's Chew rainbow
My decent brownie
A very low Stocks Fly Fishery

Summer arrives - at last!

 This last week has been incredibly hot.  7 days ago I was wearing a coat, leggins and fleece - hung my leggins out to dry in the morning and during the afternoon the sun came out and dried them nicely.  since then, it's just got hotter and hotter.

Chew has been baked in sunshine, but that vile wind wont leave us alone - some days it gusted to 20mph - and fish simply hate those conditions.  The trout have put up with it though and washing line tactics in the Dam area has still produced lots of good fish, including a cracking overwintered brownie for one of my guests, Oliver Goldrick.

Behind Denny I have found some good fish feeding deep on hoglice and a long leader with Diawl Bach nymphs has proved successful on a number of days.

The grown-on fish along the reedbeds have been harder to tempt and the gin clear water, combined with bright sunshine has, I fear, driven them to slightly deeper water - but they'll be back.

The daphnia is incredible in lots of areas on Chew and in the sunshine it always comes closer to the surface - NOT the other way round.

PIKE

The pike are still proving hard to locate and I have found myself roving all over the lake to pick up fish.  Kiwi visiting angler Dave Leathwick caught his PB last week with me weighing over 12lbs and in two days we boated 6 including 3 doubles - and we also lost a big fish.

The weedbeds are holding incredible numbers of roach and perch fry and I believe the pike are feeding on them, so hopefully with a bit of cloud they will move out into the open water.  Small fish need to feed on the daphnia and that is not amongst the weed, so when they venture out, I'll be waiting for them!

Dave Leathwick playing a pike on Chew
Dave with his PB pike
Oliver Goldrick's Chew Brownie

Chew Special on Sky TV

 Only 2 days to go before I go into the Sky Sports TV Studios to join Keith Arthur in the "Bothy" for an episode-long Chew Valley fishing "Special".

Keith and I fished Chew a few weeks ago and the Sky cameras were there to film it all.

We began the day fishing for trout and the Chew rainbows did not let us down.  Plenty of action with some cracking trout being caught.

Then we turned the attention to the Chew Pike - again on the fly.  Keith had a near double, so did I, but later we had something special.
All will be revealed on Friday's show.

Tight Lines, Sky Sports 3, Friday 5th July at 7:00pm

Keith Arthur and the Sky TV Crew

Ireland, Filming and Fishing

 The last 2 weeks have been pretty hectic.  First I guided each day on Chew and then filmed a "special" on Chew with Keith Arthur and the Sky TV cameras for Tight Lines.
We started off the day fishing for trout and had some cracking rainbows to over 4lbs - with Keith taking the best on a floating line with a Diawl Bach Nymph.
Then we had a go for the pike and both of us had one pretty quickly, but as the day went on, the rain got heavier and heavier.  We were about to call it a day when we landed a beauty - but you'll have to wait until Friday 5th July to see the action on Sky's Tight Lines when I am joining Keith in the Bothy for a "Chew Special" programme.

Ireland and Lough Derg

The very next day I caught the ferry from Liverpool to Dublin and then drove the 3 hours route down to Portumna and the mighty Lough Derg.  At 29 miles long, this is a brute of a lough, but full of fish.  We were filming for the Irish Tourist Board and along with top matchman Baz Simth, we landed over 200lbs of quality roach, bream and roach/bream hybrids over the two day-sessions.

I also lure fished for pike and along with top Irish Guide Dave Harris, we landed plenty of fish with 3 decent doubles and a couple of big fish lost upon the way.

There were also lots of mayfly coming off and I had a few chances at the big brownies, but sadly blew my chances when I was broken twice and then missed the best take of the day by striking too quickly - BAD ANGLING!!!!!

Back to Chew

Yesterday I fished with Anthony Tabor and his father John.  The weather was awful - strong, cold winds and unrelentless blue skies - fleece weather but also high factor sunscreen!  We fished long and hard with nymphs and floaters, but John managed only 1 good rainbow in 6 hours of drifting and fishing the known hotspots.
Anthony was happy to try the sinking lines, so on went a DI3 and our fortunes changed instantly.  
We drifted from the North Shore across to Denny Island and in 2 hours had boated another 10 rainbows and lost several others.  John also switched to a slow sinking Intermediate and he too joined in the action.
 
Boobies, Blobs and Nymphs all caught fish and the action was at times frantic, with some great fighting fish. 
 

Lexus Heat on Blagdon

Today I held the first ever Lexus Individual Heat on Blagdon and it was a raging success.  In the sell-out Floating Lines Only Heat, the average catch per rod was 8.5, with an amazing average weight of 2lbs 11ozs.

Top rod was Mark Stevens, who qualified for the Grand Final at Chew in September and won an emboidered Greys jacket and a pair of Ugly Fish Sunglasses.  The other qualifiers, who all won Greys reels were John Piper, Wayne Aitken, Jim Purvis, Mark Thomas, Alex Johnstone, Steve Ebdon and John Glanfield.

 

Baz Smith and me with Lough Derg Bream and Hybrid
John Tabor with fin perfect Chew Rainbow
Keith Arthur's best Chew rainbow

Blog Archive

December 2016

January 2016

December 2015

April 2015

August 2014

December 2013

September 2013

February 2012