2013 Season Starts on Chew Valley Lake

The 2013 season on Chew Valley Lake has kicked off and I've made a few trips already.
The first, on Tuesday 2nd April was a bright, breezy day. Setting off for the North Shore I knew the fish would be down deep so I set up a die 7 sinking line with two boobies on a short leader. Six fish were soon boated and so I changed tactics to practice for Saturday's upcoming floating line only competition. A longer leader with a pair of heavy buzzers and a small lure was cast out and it was soon apparent that this set up was going to be much trickier to tempt a trout on. Several drifts produced a few pulls but no fish. Saturday was going to be tough!

Chew Valley Lake - I'll be spending a lot of time here
during the next few months

Saturday arrived and with it the first of the ten floating line only competitions. My boat partner and I headed across to the North Shore and set up a drift, but with the wind in a different direction to Tuesday, we found ourselves drifting across to Hollow Brook and fishing different water to where I had caught fish earlier in the week. After three drifts with no fish we moved to the False Island where, in theory, the shallower water should make fishing with a floating line easier. I was again fishing two heavy buzzers and a small lure and we both soon found some trout, my boat partner and I catching a brace each. A decent enough start!

Saturday 13th April saw me fishing the Snowbee Boat and Bank Competition. This was going to be a rough one, with a south westerly howling and rain forecast all day! Wearing my new Vass jacket and waders, my boat partner and I set off to drift from the East Shore towards Denny Island. Choosing to fish die 7 sinking lines with two boobies proved a good decision and it was not long before we were in to fish. We continued to catch on this drift until the wind direction changed, blowing us from Spring Bay to Hollow Brook. This change of wind brought some really heavy rain, testing my waterproofs to the limit. By late afternoon I had caught seven fish and my boat partner had managed six. We called it a day and headed in, taking over twenty minutes to make the journey back to the jetty in weather conditions that had whipped up waves like the ones you see out in the Bristol Channel! My fish weighed 18lb 8oz and the winner was helped to 26lb 8oz by a 6lb plus rainbow, the biggest fish of the day. Congratulations to him!

Waves breaking on Chew