He ended up with a total of 28lbs 15oz

According to reports, backed up by fisheries staff, the reservoir was fishing well with trout being caught from a number of areas. Recent stocking had distributed fish all over the lake, so we hoped that it wouldn’t be the usual Llandegfedd trick of all thirty boats drifting into the dam just in front of the jetty!A blustery day greeted us, but there was the promise of plenty of sunshine, which came earlier rather than later and probably pushed the fish deeper than many anglers expected. After the briefing the anglers all loaded into the boats and headed off to…you guessed it…the dam. All but two of the fleet of boats stopped just in front of the jetty and it wasn’t long before the first few trout were being played.Boobies were the answer so it seemed as, when John and I did the fly checks, every cast that we inspected contained at least one booby. Some anglers used slow or intermediate sinking lines, but those that caught quickest were generally using fast sinkers, such as the DI-7 or the Rio Deep 7.Of the nineteen anglers who managed to catch their eight fish limit, Stuart Watkins came out in a clear top spot. Stuart was the first angler to achieve the magic eight-fish mark and, therefore, had the largest amount of time bonus to add to his weight of trout. He ended up with a total of 28lbs 15oz. Just 1lb 11oz behind Stuart was David Evans, and in third place was Royston Pascoe with a bag weight of 24lbs 12oz. The final qualifying place went to Kerry Richardson who totalled 22lbs 15oz.Bob Woodward travelled from Essex with a couple of his ECTel teammates. In fifth place Bob missed out on a qualifying spot by just 5 ounces, whilst Jonathan Williams was just one ounce further adrift. The biggest fish qualifier at Llandegfedd went to Gethin Williams with a rainbow trout of 7lbs 3oz.This weekend sees a break in the proceedings but next week I will be heading on to Brenig in North Wales. John Horsey has been invited by Peter Petzer, the boss of one of the competition sponsors, Worldwide Fishing Safaris, to accompany him on a trip to the Bahamas, so I am hoping that Simon Newman will be available to help me. I actually found the time last week to participate in a competition. Along with my good friends Lee Sennington, Jerry Clarke, Simon Hodges, Royston Jennings and Gareth Jones we entered the Hardy Team event being fished at Chew. With eleven teams taking part in the event I am pleased to report that ours, Bath and District, came out as clear winners on what can only be described as the most perfect of fishing days. With all six of our team catching the ten fish limit that Bristol Water allowed for the competition, Lee was the first to get to the magic mark, whilst I was shortly behind him. With a few larger fish in my bag I managed to pip Lee by six ounces, though individual honours are never so important in these team events. Our team were a good eight pounds clear of second placed Bath Team Fulling Mill, which contained England World team men Iain Barr and John Lindsay.

Witcombe filled the third spot, to qualify for the Bewl English final. These three teams will fish against day one qualifiers Blagdon Fly Fishers, Innis and Kingfishers.