Chew Valley 12 May 2018

Boats heading out to Herons Green

The day started overcast, warm with very little wind at all. Any anglers headed towards Woodford Bank or Heron’s Green with a couple going over to Spring Bay. Early reports were of a good head of fish showing in Heron’s Green but were being tricky to catch. Spring Bay fished excellently 24 hours earlier but was now proving to be harder probably due to the lack of wind. The day before saw winds gusting to 20mph but fish were much more obliging to take the fly.
As the morning progressed the fishing in Heron’s Green picked up with pockets of fish feeding more regularly, but Spring Bay/Wick Green area was only producing the odd fish even though there were signs of fish in the area. By mid-afternoon the fishing was tough, still overcast and mild but with no wind to give a ripple on the water. Woodford Bank was still producing a few fish on a regular basis and with a large hatch going on down the end of Villice Bay the fish seemed to start feeding in that area.
A few anglers had located some fish on North Shore and were catching for a period of the day. Also a head of fish were located tight against Walley Bank. This saved a couple of anglers from a dreaded blank late into the afternoon.
It was time to see how each team had fared. It was a mixed bag in every team; some anglers had caught a maximum while others only had the odd one or two fish. The final result saw BRFFA come out on top with 67lb 12oz. The standout angler of the day was Neil Loughrey of RNRMAA who had his eight fish by 12:00hrs with a total bag weight of 21lb 10oz. Bristol Water kindly donated a free boat for two people on Chew for the best bag weight – well done to Neil for winning the prize with an outstanding performance. The best fish of the day went to BRFFA’s Graham Currie at 4lb 8oz – well done Graham. The rod average for the day, which reflects the tough fishing coditions, was 3.27 with only four limits caught.

Bewl Water 16 May 2018

It was well known on the day that the majority of the fish in were within 400 yards of the dam wall.

All fifteen boats headed in that direction and stayed in that area all day! It was a cool and cloudy day, with a moderate North Easterly wind before midday that soon developed into a very rough force six or more. Another reason to stay close to the shelter of the dam.

There were three bagups and four blanks amongst the thirty anglers. The water was 100% full, and gin clear. The fish were a lot closer to the surface than a lot of people thought, which may have caught some of them out.

The top rod on the day was Trevor Bourne from Bewl’s ‘B’ team who finished at 1.15pm. He was on a fast glass, pulling as soon as it hit the water, with two smallish orange blobs. It should be noted that although he started near the dam like everyone else, he drifted a lot further out than any other boat, by as much as another 400 yards, getting interest all the way out past the end of Chingley Wood. Then only turned back because it became too rough.

Rod average was 3.3, and average weight of the fish was 2lbs 7ozs, with the largest being 4lbs 4ozs, also landed by a Bewl ‘B’ team member, Ralph Painter.