Blagdon Lake opened last Saturday and the fishing was fantastic. My 8 fish weighed a massive 28lbs 10ozs and all were taken using a floating fly line.
I fished with Simon Pledge and he too caught his 8 fish limit and they weighed over 22lbs, making it a combined limit bag of over 50lbs!
The best fish on the day was a superb overwintered rainbow of 5lbs 4ozs which took my size 10 Black Diawl Bach Nymph off Polish Water.
Most of our fish took the Black Lure on the point and all had some daphnia in them but little else due to the very cold water and air temperatures.
A couple of days later I fished with Dougie Grant and due to the strengthening Easterly wind, we spent a lot of the day in Pegs Bay and off Rugmoor Point.
The water here was a bit dirty, but it made no difference to the trout - they fed well all day and once again, we fished floating lines with a Black Lure on the point with Diawl Bach Nymphs on the droppers.
We had 4 fish over 4lbs, including 2 overwintered rainbows of 4lbs 2ozs and 3lbs 2ozs. Again my 8 fish weighed in excess of 28lbs!
Bewl called off
I was due to fish Bewl on Saturday for an England get-together, but due to the awful weather and the distances our team had to travel, it was postponed. Just as well as there was 3 inches of snow in High Wycombe where I had been staying.
Because of this, I was to miss Chew's Opening Day for the first time in many years, although I was due to be out on the Sunday.
As it happened, I also missed that day and have to admit I was not too sorry. I popped in to the Lodge mid afternoon and spoke to some of the anglers. Scott Roberts showed me a pic of the ice that had formed on his rod rings. Another angler told me he had put his rod down in the bottom of the boat and it froze solid, making it hard to prise away again to fish!
Plenty of trout were caught on the opening 2 days, but most from the top of the wind around North Shore, False Island and the main Picnic Area. I am sure that as soon as this cold spell of weather relents, the fishing on both lakes will be explosive, with plenty of overwintered fish being caught.
What a difference a year makes .......
Just to give you an idea of what this time last year gave us, here is a pic of Opening Day on Chew last year. We fished in shirtsleeves and needed sunscreen!
