five and thirty

We all know that the major reservoirs are stocking more fish these days as they struggle to compete with the small stillwaters. However, in spite of the large numbers of trout in lakes like Chew and Bewl, the fishing has become increasingly difficult. The “dog days” of July are certainly with us!I had a trip to Bewl Water in Kent last weekend and experienced the most frustrating sort of fishing that I have endured for a long time. I fished with local expert Vince Brooks and feared that he would want to spend the majority of the day in the main basin where practice had shown there to be some feeding fish. What, I can hear you say, is wrong with fishing for feeding fish in the main basin? Well mostly the fact that they are between twenty-five and thirty-five feet down! To be able to catch fish that are lying at that sort of depth requires the use of a good drogue to slow the boat down and a seriously fast sinking line. The drogue is not a problem but the sinking line is. I am quite happy to admit that my strength lies in fishing a floating line to moving fish. Anyway back to Vince. He was happy to try one or two alternatives to the main basin, but he did want to check it out first in case the fish fed well in the first couple of hours. Forty-nine of the fifty-four boats started in the basin and in our first twenty minutes we saw not a single fish boated. We decided that that was enough time to devote to the area and we moved over to the Nose instead. I had one drift there with a sinker and then opted to try the floater as I couldn’t do much worse by using it. It was not to be, as neither Vince nor I caught a fish in the Nose area in spite of seeing a couple caught by other boats. At about one o’clock we moved back to the basin to see how things were doing. Fish were now being caught steadily, though boobies seemed to be the main source of their downfall. I went back to my DI-7, which proved not deep enough as most of the successful anglers were using DI-8 lines.Vince caught two fish in successive casts around mid afternoon. I neither moved a fish nor had a pull from one (apart from the small perch that I caught early in the day), and when Vince suggested trying Hook Straight I was quite delighted. One of Vince’s teammates stopped us around the cages and informed us that the fish were “up” and that in the previous hour several had been caught on floating lines. I changed from my DI-7 in a flash!We had just over an hour to go and, in that time, I saw about seven trout move close enough to get a cast vaguely near. Each one of those trout moved straight towards my fly, even if the cast was not very good. Each would swirl, follow, lunge and generally pretend to be interested in my dries…but not actually take them. At least it was a bit more interesting than hauling a fast sinker in and out.I ended the competition blank, not for the first time and our team didn’t fare well in general. Rumour had it that some of those anglers that fared well were letting their lines sink for three and a half minutes before they retrieved them and that obviously meant that their flies were fishing behind the boat. This is illegal in competition fishing. If this is the way the weather is going to turn our fishing round then roll on autumn!Back at Chew I had a day guiding. We started well as I found a small area where there were a good few corixae feeding trout. My client Neil soon caught a decent fish on a red dry which is generally my favoured pattern for fish feeding on corixae. He then missed several, through waiting for a pull rather than striking as the fish took the fly. By lunch-time we had four fish but ominously the wind was getting pretty nasty. We went into the lodge for our sandwiches and on our return to the water found conditions so bad that fishing was just about out of the question. We persevered for about an hour longer than we should have and called it a day. That was Tuesday and since then the water quality has deteriorated to such an extent that the Bristol Water Company employee’s competition on Friday fished by thirty-four anglers including Bob Handford and Steve Taylor, recorded just four trout.There is talk of algal blooms, large amounts of sediment and warm water. I sure hope that the forecasters are right when they say that we are in for some cooler weather. Bristol Water are offering three boats for the price of two for the rest of July and for August so if you do have some holiday time and want a few trips then once the fishing picks up there is some good valued fishing to be had.I said last week that I would report on the second “Fishtec” day at Chew. Another tough day was won by Tony Baldwin. Tony is in such a good run of form at the moment that I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins the National this year. Blagdon came out top team and you had better believe me when I tell you that Tony virtually beat the second team by himself! Tony caught an amazing nine trout which were just ounces lighter than the next team of four’s total catch! The rest of his Blagdon mates all caught a couple of trout to leave them well clear. Tony fished a booby on the top dropper and two holographic “Diawl Bachs” behind. He fished around Villice Bay.I have had a few trips to the River Test in the last couple of weeks. I may report on that next week.Tight lines,

Martin Cottis