Dry Flies on Chew

A visit to Chew Valley Lake on Tuesday afternoon presented the opportunity to fish using dry flies. The warm south westerly breeze provided ideal conditions and a few hours spent drifting slowly across Villice Bay to just past the cage produced 3 rainbows all around 2lb. These trout were caught sight casting using red Bobs Bits. A further 4 fish were lost and sadly none of the recently stocked larger fish made an appearance on this visit. Trout continued to show all evening until 8 o'clock when the strengthening wind put them down. I used a 9' 6" 6 weight rod with a soft forgiving action, a floating line and Kamasan 8lb mist green fly cast leader.

A fighting fit Chew rainbow

The sun sets on an enjoyable evenings fishing

Hectic Barbel Sport on UK's Favourite River

Dad with a large Courtfield barbel caught last month

Time again to visit my favourite stretch of the River Wye, The Wye and Usk Foundation controlled Courtfield, in search of my favourite species, the barbel. Previous visits to this brilliant river this season have produced barbel to 8lb 12oz and chub to over 5lb so I was looking forward to what I hoped would be another memorable day. We arrived to find the river running very low and clear, far from perfect conditions but none the less we set up in our favourite swims. Sport during the afternoon was predictably slow with myself and dad taking just one barbel each. The hours past and we sat through several heavy showers watching some large salmon jump whilst awaiting the forecast brighter evening in hope that the barbel would get their heads down later on as they often do. A Dynamite Baits 15mm Sardine and Anchovy boilie presented on a size 6 Drennan Specimen Plus hook tied to 12lb breaking strain fluorocarbon fished on a running 2oz lead was the set-up I hoped would fool a fish or two and as the light faded we both began to receive rod wrenching bites, barbel after barbel graced our nets, the biggest weighing an ounce short of 8lb. Darkness had fallen and was the only thing that stopped us catching more and as we packed up I found myself already looking forward to my next trip to this fantastic venue. For information regarding fishing the River Wye visit www.wyeuskfoundation.org

A 5lb plus chub caught during a previous visit this summer

Nash Monster Squid Tempts Hedgehog!

The Paddock Lake at dusk

With muggy overcast weather forecast a trip in search of Britain's most elusive predator seemed like a good idea so Dad and I made the journey to Todber Manor's Paddock Lake for a night session in search of the wels catfish. On arrival a quick chat to other anglers revealed that the lake was fishing hard with only two catfish and a single small carp caught over the previous two nights. Undeterred we set up at the deeper end of the lake and baited heavily with Nash Monster Squid pellets and boilies, this bait has quickly become a favourite of mine and since its release a few months ago has helped me catch carp, tench, bream, barbel and chub and I hoped to add catfish to the list. During the heat of the afternoon we busied ourselves catching livebaits, small rudd and perch were plentiful with the odd bigger perch and even a crucian carp making an appearance. As nightfall approached we settled into the bivvies hoping that the alarms wouldn't stay quiet all night. We didn't have to wait long as dads right hand rod screamed off just before midnight, unfortunately resulting only in a hook pull and a lost fish. As I returned to my bivvy I felt confident that we hadn't seen the last of the action for the night and I was right, kind of! A small hedgehog had taken a liking to Monster Squid and I watched as it nibbled at bits of broken boilies near my rods before disappearing into the bushes. Despite a couple of very large fish showing near the baited areas during the night the session ended with no catfish banked and as we drove home we were left wondering just how big the one that got away was. For more information on Todber Manor Fishery visit www.todbermanor.co.uk

Nash Monster Squid proved irresistible to this small hedgehog

Chew Hits Top Form as Evening Series Nears Final Round

Saturday 13^th August saw the penultimate round of the Chew Valley Lake evening series. Nineteen anglers fished to take an average catch of 5.2 fish per person with a cracking 5lb 15oz rainbow (pictured below) being the heaviest fish of the evening. My four fish for 7lb 14oz fell to teams of red pheasant tail nymphs fished off The False Island and Villice Bay. A total of thirty six anglers have fished the series this year, which started in april. For £22 you can expect four to five hours fishing on a six fish ticket, topped off with an evening meal and a pint. For futher details feel free to contact us at Cadbury Angling.

Evening Session Ends With a BANG!

I grabbed a few hours on a local stillwater on Monday afternoon, fished at 13m alternating between corn and banded 8mm pellet hookbaits over damp micro pellet.

I was getting fairly steady bites, when things went a bit quiet I would cup in one big cup of micro's to liven the swim up again.

My swim was distrupted a couple times with foul hooked carp but a big pot of micro's soon got them bubbling again.

In 3 hours I ended up with 6 carp to 12lb, 1 5lb tench, 2 skimmers and 2 roach.

My final fish was the biggest of the session, this 12lb carp was foul hooked in the tail and unsuprisingly it went off like a banshee!! It bottomed me out and was determined to get away.

After a 10 minute struggle I got the fish back on to my top kit and begin to tighten up using a pulla bung. My Preston Hollo 13 was perfect in close to control the fish but not risk a hook pull.

Suddenly the fish lunged and the 2nd section of my power kit exploded into 6 pieces, with carbon everywhere I quickly grabbed the 1st section of my power kit and played the fish on that and landed it. An exciting if not unfortunate end to my session.

Fly Fishing the River Dee, Llangollen. 17/07/2011

One of two 16'' Brown Trout, caught on the River Dee recently. I used a goldhead nymph on the dropper with a tungsten caddis on the point. The Llangollen club controls nearly seven miles of river, which can be fished on a £12 day ticket. I also had numerous smaller trout and grayling.