30am there were twenty

First of all they were hit by the Foot and Mouth crisis, then they had early algal blooms (which fortunately didn’t last too long), this was followed by incredibly hot weather which put the fish off feeding and so culminated in rapidly diminished catch returns. Finally, the waters have dirtied up again and there is worry as to whether it is more alga or just sediment due to the strong winds that we have had.In spite of all this Bob and Kim have remained optimistic, stocked the lake to a level never seen before and introduced many new features to the visitors who frequent the fisheries. I mentioned earlier this year about the successful Open Day at Chew Valley Lake. The lodge too is gradually being “decorated” with ‘fishy’ things such as antique tackle, specimen trout in glass cases, a fantastic aquarium and information for all.The latest development was a new competition that Bob introduced last Sunday. As a kind of “thank you” to the main clubs that use the lakes for their trout fishing he invited teams of six to compete for a fantastic piece of wood carved into a most lifelike trout. I believe that it was the work of a trout angler that often visits Chew, one Ian Barfoot Franks, but I may be wrong about that. In all Bob had ten teams fishing, although a couple did not manage to field a full complement of anglers. A special discount price of £20 was charged for the fishing and a ten-fish limit was set. Conditions looked great as competitors set off. Those who had arrived early watched huge numbers of trout sipping down spent buzzers from the glassy surface of the lake!I had been out a couple of evenings in the week and chatted to a number of anglers who had done well. I thought that I might be one of the few boats that would opt for Heron’s Green rather than Villice! How wrong could I be? At first there were about fifteen in all but as the first hour progressed the bay gradually filled up and by 11:30am there were twenty-two boats! Far too many for me to be comfortable, but my partner had lost one fish and had a couple of very good pulls. I, however, had not had one serious take! Just after noon I persuaded Richard, my boat partner, to try Villice as, in the previous drift lasting just over twenty minutes, we had seen only four trout caught by the armada.In Villice there were only six boats and my friends Geoff Lambert and Tony Baldwin were sharing one of them. Geoff was still on a blank, but Tony had caught five on nymphs. Soon afterwards Geoff landed his first and Tony had another. I guessed that Tony might be on superglues, so I changed to a much longer leader and put on a couple of black buzzers. The success was almost immediate. Next drift I caught my first fish and had two more shortly after that. In the next hour I had several small perch, but no trout; in fact very few were being caught during this period as boat pressure increased. We had a few spells of rain and then conditions started to look good for a spot of dry fly fishing. The wind decreased, cloud thickened and there was a muggy feel in the air. I set up a team of dries on my five-weight outfit and suggested to Richard that we drift on out from Villice across the lake. I cast my flies and a trout rose right next to the boat; I quickly short lined over it and it took with a swirl. My partner was incredulous! In the next hour I must have risen about thirty fish of which four more took the flies properly, and I was delighted to end the competition on eight fish weighing one ounce under sixteen pounds.Simon Hodges was the only angler to catch a ten-fish limit, Glyn Hopper had nine and Tony Baldwin had eight. But this was about teams. Would Tony’s Blagdon team prove to be best, or could Bristol or Bath rekindle some of their past glories? Might the Welsh team Margam come through in a good position, and what about the old stagers in the Chew Grenadiers team?The result was really close and it took Bob quite some time to check it through. We all had a pretty decent buffet – all part of the day that was laid on for us and then Bob started the announcements. He gave every team’s position from tenth up to first. I will give the top four.In fourth place with 22 trout were Blagdon Fly Fishers (44lbs 11oz); in third place with 23 trout were the Welsh club Margam (49lbs 1oz). Second place went to my Bristol Reservoirs team in spite of two of the team blanking. We had 25 trout for 51lbs 8oz, whilst the winners were Bath with 26 fish weighing 58lbs 9oz. Amazingly Bath had a blank as top man-of-the-moment Lee Sennington failed to catch a single fish!It was agreed that the competition was a great success and should be held each year. The fact that there were no prizes certainly didn’t detract from the event. Thanks Bob for a good day on Chew Valley Lake.Tight lines,Martin Cottis