My 1st Chew 30lb Pike this season on the fly

At long last, the Chew pike have made an appearance - and what an appearance!

I fished 4 times this week with clients and we have had some cracking sport, with the best fish weighing in at 30lbs 10ozs.  That fish fell to my rod, although my guest for the day, Stephen Bates, also had a Personal Best fly caught pike of 20lb 4oz, plus we both had doubles and jacks to take our score well over the 100lb mark!

PAC Chairman John Synnuck and I started the campaign off with 14 fish over 2 days for 250lbs; the best fish weighing 23lbs 4ozs.

Later in the week I fished with Vincent Middleton and we had a 20lb and 19lb fish in our 10 fish haul.

It looks like the roach shoals have started to congregate and this is always the key to the best pike fishing, as they simply do not target the trout in their absence.  This season has been difficult for pike due to the very late spawning and unprecedented high water levels - in fact, the lake is still overflowing, which has never happened before in August in Chew's 56 year history.

Trout fishing also good

The trout fishing is good on Chew providing the wind and sun does not conspire to ruin things.  Try along the edge of the weedbeds off Moreton and Stratford for some truly huge rainbows, using washing line tactics with Diawl bachs and Crunchers.  Dry fly is also working, but don't be afraid to twitch them to simulate corixae.

Herons Green is also another top spot, with straight lined nymphs being favourite.

But due to the high water levels and the lack of weedbeds this season, the trout are really well spread and anglers are even catching over the Roman Shallows area and across the middle.  The North Shore and Picnic Areas also hold plenty of fish and Wick Green is fishing well.

Blagdon has been fishing it's head off for weeks now and the quality of the fish is superb.  Rugmoor is great for the boats, with any of the points around the lake good for bank anglers.  Try Butcombe Bay and Pipe Bay with both nymphs and dries, but on tricky days, I have had loads of success with a DI3 Sinker, using an Orange blob on the top dropper, 2 Diawl bachs in the middle and a Sparkler Booby on the point - believe me, it is truly great sport having follows and bow-wavers chasing your flies!

Salmon here I come!

I am off to Ireland to fish for salmon on the Rivers Mourne and Finn next week.  Apparently there are loads of fish in the river systems due to the wet summer and levels are still unusually high for the time of year.

We will be filming the trip and Peter Gathercole will be taking the stills to cover the action in Trout and Salmon Magazine.

Lexus Final on 1st September.

Yesterday I completed the last Heat of the Lexus Individual Championships at Draycote Water near Rugby.  We also had a Heat at Ravensthorpe the previous day, so now we have 100 Qualifiers who will be fishing at Chew Valley Lake on 1st September trying to win the ultimate prize in fly fishing - the keys to a Lexus RX450 Hybrid SUV worth over £50,000!

Sky TV will be covering the event and some of the World's best fly anglers will be taking part.