New Season only days away!!!!!

 The 2013 season is just a few days away when Chew Valley Lake will open for the Spring Session of Pike Trials.
Thanks to constant rain and recent snow melt, both Chew and Blagdon are still overflowing.  Due to the increased water coming into the lakes, the colour of the water is dirty near to the inlets.  Recent heavy winds have also stirred the water up, but today it is calm and most of that sediment will fine down and clear. 

The dirtiest parts of Chew are in the "out of bounds" areas and the majority of the lake is easily fishable.  What we do not want is more windy weather, so its "fingers crossed" for some settled conditions.

A few years ago I fished a Spring Trials when the whole of Chew was chocolate brown.  You could put your hand into the water and not see your finger tips - it was that coloured!  Amazingly, that was one of my best trials ever for lure fishing.  The majority of boats were doing what they normally do - anchor-up and watch floats all day.  But I watched Bob Jones and Pete Climo as they fished lures on the drift and land a couple of crackers early doors, so decided to copy their lure fishing tactic - and boy did it work!  You could'nt fish those lures fast enough as the pike were whipped into a frenzy by the vibration of the lures.

Lets hope that these trials are productive - I really enjoyed the Autumn Trials, especially when my client Peter Mersh got the best fish of those sessions at 35lbs 5ozs!
Some people were having the usual moan as it was a bit harder than usual, but hey, what do they expect?  It cant be easy all the time and Chew being full to overflowing for most of the season is something none of us have ever witnessed.

I am expecting the pike to be well spread at the moment, as there is water in some of the margins that has never reached there before!  It should be a great season for both trout and pike and I for one cannot wait to get cracking again.

Tight Lines for 2013!