guided trout fishing

What a great start to the 2016 fly fishing season this has been on the Bristol Waters.  Superb quality rainbow and brown trout being taken from all corners of both Chew Valley and Blagdon Lakes on a huge variety of methods.
Although the weather has seen cold winds and many layers of clothing have been required at times to keep warm, the trout have never been very deep and on Chew they are feeding hard on small black buzzer, while on Blagdon they are stuffed with daphnia.

Dry Fly!

Whenever the wind drops on Chew, the fish have risen to hatching buzzer and people were reporting catching on Dry Flies as early as the 18th March - the day after Opening day on Chew Valley!  This is almost unheard of on any of our reservoirs.

Teams of nymphs on Midge Tip lines have been very effective and on the colder, windier days, a DI5 with a bright Blob on the top dropper, a Black Diawl Bach Nymph in the middle and a Black Booby on the point has normally taken plenty of fish.

Buzzers everywhere

Every year the buzzer hatches on Chew seem to get earlier and definitely more prolific.  Black buzzers are already covering the surface of the lake and ducks, gulls, sand martins and swallows are feasting on them - as well as the trout!  Now that the winds have dropped recently, the nymph fishing is really taking off and some quality trout are being caught.

Pike slowly starting to feed again

Fishing for pike on the fly has been slow this season.  We are not sure why this is, but water temperature and possible spawning might be the reasons.  Every year the times that the pike spawn vary, so no-one ever knows how this affects the fishing. 
Thankfully a few have started to feed again as the days have grown longer and warmer - the best two being one of 32lbs and another big double - both taken while trout fishing on a Blob and Booby by the same angler; Dean Kibble from Wales.  Every year Dean catches big pike at this time of the year on small trout flies, so it's no coincidence.

Guided fishing on both lakes

Now that the season is in full swing, I am already heavilly booked for Guided Days, but still have plenty of mid week dates available throughout June and a few remaining in April and May.  The trout fishing should become more "top of the water" in the coming weeks and the pike fishing will become top drawer during may and June.

Both Blagdon and Chew are now open for a new season of fly fishing and what an amzing first 2 weeks it has been!
The trout fishing on Blagdon has been superb, with fish averaging 2:12 and plenty of limit bags being taken from both bank and boat.
The brown trout in Blagdon have been in superb condition and I personally have only used a floatying line for my trips there.

Chew opened last saturday and I fished the boat with Bryan Brown, with both of us taking limit bags from the North Shore area in very cold conditions.  Once again, I used a floating line while Bryan opted for a midge tip.  Both lakes we have found black flies to be the best, although lots have caught using bright flies on sinking lines.

On day 2 at Chew, I was guiding 4 Italians who were filming for Sky Italy and who had fished Chew for pike in the past but without any real success.  A few jacks was their only captures.

Well, all that changed dramatically on saturday at last knockings when Enrico Pini landed a massive 40:08 specimen on a white and red fly from Villice Bay.  What a fish it was and the barbless hook was barely in it's huge mouth and came out with ease once i had her safely in the landing net!  We filmed the whole procedure and then released the trophy fish unharmed back into the lake.

Guided trips

With the weather now warming up nicely, my bookings are pretty heavy for the coming weeks but I still have availability if you fancy targetting some of Chew and Blagdon's quality fish on the fly.