Don’t Take Our Word For It……………

Alex is a friend of ours and has been down with his father and bestest chum to have a go at the Clatworthy rainbows.  The West Country has some of the hardest fighting fish in the country and here is a report of the day from Alex:-

Easter Sunday Outing:

This Easter we decided to go and fish Clatworthy reservoir, it was a place that we (Charles Jardine, Rob Thomas, and myself) had never fished before although had heard good things about it. We set off later than planned, as usual, the journey there was almost a test in itself, and the winding West Country roads had us doubting our directions and the ability of satellite navigation! Just as we had given up all hope of finding water in the rolling hills we stumbled across a mass of 130acres of water which looked stunning with shards of golden light breaking the clouds and catching the pristine waters.

On arrival we spoke to a helpful chap from Wessex Water who advised us on the best spots and flies, we then set up paid our fees and headed up the shoreline with hopeful steps. We eventually stumbled upon a shoal of fish working their way across the wind in a bay, first of all catching on the deeper set-up of an intermediate line and teams of nymphs. Then when the sun broke through the clouds for minutes at a time the fish would move up in the water feeding on the hatching Buzzers making the floating line tactics highly effective. Each fish hooked fought harder than any other Trout I have encountered this year and they made for a brilliant days sport. They are now all prepared for a barbeque!

I will definitely be going back here, I would imagine it is a superb top of the water fishery later in the year, and I would like to find some of the Brown Trout that hide in the lake too. My message to anyone looking to go here for the first time, don’t give up on the journey there really is a pot of gold at the end!

Alex Jardine

So there we go – but don’t even take AJ’s word for it…………………………..COME AND TRY FOR YOURSELVES.

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Kennick

Kennick is fishing well by all accounts. The mornings are still cold and so it is the afternoon sessions where anglers are reaping their rewards for perseverance.

The bank anglers are on floaters with buzzer/Diawl Bach combos and the boats are fishing slow sink/intermediates with tadpoles or nymphs and small lures.

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Blagdon and Wimbleball news

Blagdon is fishing very well and with the fish feeding on Daphnia, finding the correct depth at which they are lying is key. Buzzers and Diawls are scoring well as are goldhead damsels on intermediate lines. For an up to date report on fishing and conditions see:-

http://www.blagdon-lake.net/

Wimbleball is also fishing very well, but here the emphasis is more on finding the area where the fish are rather than the depth. Since opening day they have been concentrating in the margins but only in certain areas. At first with the wind blowing up the lake it was in Ruggs Bay, then Bessoms came into its own and the floating lines were finding the fish as the Diawls and buzzers started to score.

Last week the wind changed and started blowing down the lake from the bridge to the boat yard and the fish moved round to Cowmoor and it is this area that has started to score well this week.

For an interesting report on a day afloat see:-

http://www.mark-izzard.blogspot.co.uk/

The winning flies are buzzers and Diawl Bachs in the calmer areas from the bank and black tadpoles/olive damsels from the boats. The fish are so close in that floaters are scoring well, but there are still plenty falling to the sinkers too.

Fly life is very good in the Upton Arm and so given a few more days of this wind coming from the north the fish should spread out to there very soon.

 

 

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EVENT – BFCC Casting Day – Cullompton

BFCC MEETINGS CALENDAR – 2012 – FEES – DIRECTIONS

Sun 1 April 2012 at Cullompton Cricket Club  Landspeed Meadow  Duke Street  Cullompton  Devon  EX15 1DW.

10am – Tuition (until 3pm), 11.30am Distance Badge Scheme (optional) and Competition entry (optional) fee £15.00, payable in advance. B100, #5, #7, #9, T38 and T120 Distance Competitions – Members competition entry £5.00, but tuition and Badge entry FOC as usual. Refreshments available, tea or coffee £1.00, sandwiches £1.50. For more details and bookings for a good day out, please email Mike: mikemarshallbfcc@hotmail.com or ‘phone 01277 214568 (9am – 9pm please).

Directions: Leave M5 at J28. From round about travel west on Station Road B3181 for 400yds. Bear left south west into High Street then straight on into Fore Street B3181 for 250yds. Turn left south east into Duke Street and travel 400yds,  the Cricket Club is 100yds on the left past Chestnut Avenue. There is a sign at the narrow entrance.

Satnav will take you a short way into Duke Street, then follow the directions above.

For Google Earth users enter EX15 1DW  – the entrance is 100yds past Chestnut Avenue on the same side.

For a full calendar of events see: http://www.thebfcc.co.uk/events

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News From Wimbleball

Good news for all you top-of-the-water fans. The Wimbleball trout have been wnticed to the surface by this lovely weather and the amount of buzzers hatching at the moment.

On 24th March 9 of the 10 boats out were occupied by regular Wimbleball anglers who, normally quite rightly, fish lures on sinking lines until the weather and hatches bring the fish up in mid-April. The 10th boat was occupied by a couple of visiting gentlemen who thought that the weather would have brought the fish up, even though it was only the second day of the warm sunny conditions.

The morning was all about the lures. The bright sun meant that the fish were deep. However this was short lived and by lunch time the warming margins had brought the fish to within a few yards of the bank and they were taking buzzers with alacrity – only the only people that were aware of the fact were the two chaps in boat 10 fishing their floating and intermediate lines with Diawl Bachs and buzzers on the end. Enough fish were still taking the lures to keep the others occupied and it wasn’t until late afternoon when someone saw the rod of one them in a permenant state of “arch” that everyone cottoned on. By then the visitors had both caught their 7 and returned a further ten each!

It just goes to show that we can get too set in our ways, and it often pays to fish according to the conditions and not just according to the water we are on.

Having said all that – the lure boys still did ok and one of them caught a double bag limit without changing his black tadpole/humungus combination all day; so it cuts both ways.

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News From The Reservoirs

The season has started very well indeed on the majority of The West’s premier reservoirs and larger stillwaters that have opened. The levels are good to excellent with the bodies of water in the far west being full and the levels decreasing only slightly as you go east with Sutton Bingham being at the lowest level of them all. Wimbleball and Clatworthy are fishing very well and bag limits are being taken from both boat and bank from both, but with Wimbleball being the best performer of the two. Blagdon had one of its best opening days for ages despite being slightly down in level.

All in all a promising start to what some are worried might become a difficult season should the weather predictions come to fruition. Let’s hope it continues.

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Opening Day Of The 2012 River Trout Season

Pete Tyjas reports that great fun was had with the brown trout of the Taw at The Fox & Hounds, Eggesford on this rather foggy opening day. There were 37 fish caught and this figure included a couple of 10″, a 13″ and a whopping 19″ fish, all fit, in good condition and all safely returned. The latter is a real corker, and later in the season could possibly be a 3lb plus beauty. The day saw a temperature of around 9 degrees Celsius (42F) and good hatches of midges and Large Dark Olives plus the odd March Brown for good measure. A few fish were caught on the dry fly but it was nymphs that scored more heavily.

The 15th March sees the majority of rivers in Devon and Cornwall open for trout fishing. There will be similar reports to the above from the Torridge and the Exe systems and The Otter and Axe in the east of the region will have featured more success for the dry fly as they are much lower lying and can have quite heavy hatches of the naturals from the word go.

Although open for business, some of the loveliest and most remote stretches of our West Country streams will not really start producing the goods until the temperature rises just a little bit more. Areas of Dartmoor especially can be several degrees cooler than further down river and it is usually April before we venture out for a serious try up there. Until then the lower lying waters of the Teign, Torridge, Taw and Exe and their tributaries will occupy our time along with the aforementioned waters in the east.

A number of rivers in Somerset and Dorset don’t open until April 1st, and the Camel, Fowey and Fal systems in Cornwall join the fray on this date too but all in all, it has to be said, March 15th is, to most of us fly fishing folk down here in the West, one of the most important dates in the calendar.

The game is well and truly afoot. Fantastic!

NOTE: The majority of SWLT lakes opened today too – so the 15th was a real double whammy this   year!…………………………..(What exactly is a whammy?…………………….)

 

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There has been some confusion over the SW LAkes opening day dates. Below is the final list of definate, confirmed dates.

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2012 DATES

WEST COUNTRY RESERVOIR SEASON DATES 2012

WESSEX WATER

CLATWORTHY

14TH   MARCH

 TO

7TH   OCTOBER
HAWKRIDGE

14TH   MARCH

 TO

7TH   OCTOBER
SUTTON BINGHAM

14TH   MARCH

 TO

7TH   OCTOBER

 

BRISTOL WATER

BLAGDON

16TH   MARCH

 TO

30TH   NOVEMBER
CHEW VALLEY

23RD   MARCH

 TO

30TH   NOVEMBER
THE BARROWS

2ND   MARCH

 TO

30TH   NOVEMBER

 

SW LAKES TRUST

AVON DAM

15TH   MARCH

 TO

12TH   OCTOBER
BURRATOR

15TH   MARCH

 TO

31ST   OCTOBER
COLLIFORD

15TH   MARCH

 TO

12TH   OCTOBER
CROWDY

15TH   MARCH

 TO

12TH   OCTOBER
FERNWORTHY

1ST    APRIL

 TO

12TH   OCTOBER
KENNICK

15TH   MARCH

 TO

31ST OCTOBER
MELDON

15TH   MARCH

 TO

12TH   OCTOBER
ROADFORD

15TH   MARCH

 TO

12TH   OCTOBER
SIBLYBACK

15TH   MARCH

 TO

31ST   OCTOBER
STITHIANS

15TH   MARCH

 TO

31ST   OCTOBER
VENFORD

15TH   MARCH

 TO

12TH   OCTOBER
WIMBLEBALL

15TH   MARCH

 TO

       31ST   OCTOBER  **
WISTLANDPOUND

15TH   MARCH

 TO

31ST   OCTOBER

**Wimbleball bank only goes ‘til 30th November

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THE COLD WEATHER COMETH

It’s December and still very mild, but the weather office people say the cold is coming.

There is nothing more bracing or invigorating than walking a Somerset river early on a winter’s morn with a  fly or spinning rod and a couple of lures, in search of the pike that inhabit the waterways of the Levels.

Day Tickets

The Taunton Angling Association waters – These include stretches of the River Tone and West Sedgemoor Drain.

Visit: http://www.taunton-angling.co.uk/index.html

The Bridgwater Angling Association waters – An extensive choice of venues including the North and South Drains, The Huntspill River and King Sedgemoor Drain.

Visit: http://www.bridgwaterangling.co.uk/venues.htm

Glaston Manor Angling Association waters – These include stretches of the North and south drains and the River Brue.

Visit: http://fishinginsomerset.com/default.aspx

Equipment

There is no need for a huge amount of kit. The main thing is to be mobile as you need to search the waters to locate the likely areas and thus the fish.

Pike are agressive preditors and all you need is something that they will find irresistable and the rod, reel and line with which to chuck it. A powerful rod of 9 feet will be perfect, preferably one rated for an 8 or 9 weight line if fishing the fly or able to cast up to 40gr if spinning; a big knotless meshed net with a long handle (some of the rivers and drains have very steep banks), really good kevlar glove and some needle nose pliers or really heavy duty forceps. That’s really it. Take some predetor traces or some very strong nylon if you prefer and two or three bid pike flies or Rapalas and you’re away.

One thing I would say in addition to all this. The pike has a reputation of not only being aggresive but also tough. It is a fact though that they are no more able to stand poor handling than any other fish and with all those teeth it can be easy to get it wrong. ALWAYS WEAR A GLOVE, USE YOUR PLIERS AND BE AS GENTLE WITH A PIKE AS YOU WOULD WITH A SALMON OR A CARP. Allow a fish a minute or two to recover in the water before letting go completely.

 

 

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