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!