Lee Sennigton and Geoff Lambert just before completing their double limit.

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Last weekend saw Chew Valley Lake host the “Hidden Teams” competition that Bristol Water sponsor to the fantastic amount of one thousand pounds.

Lee Sennigton and Geoff Lambert just before completing their double limit.

2 – Organiser Mark Withyman works out the results.

3 – Lee Sennington and Nik Long with a brace of good fish.

4 – Dave Child on a perfect evening at Chew.
In this event anglers draw their boat partners and set out to fish totally unaware of whom they are in a team with, and only on their return to the lodge at the end of the competition do they find out their teammates. This year the teams were made up of six anglers – five boat fishers and one bank fisher.Conditions were to say the least, difficult and it therefore says a lot about the efforts that Bristol Water are making with their stocking that the 211 trout caught by the sixty-five competitors amounted to almost three and a half fish per angler. It also reflects the increasing skill level that the club anglers demonstrate, as in similar conditions ten years ago I honestly believe that the returns would have been drastically reduced.As this is not an individual competition I shall not dwell too long on that aspect but I cannot pass on without mentioning a few notable performances. On the day the best bag came from Rod Newton who fished the bank around Walley. With his time bonus for catching his limit early he totalled 25lbs 14oz. My friend Lee Sennington who is in really good form at the moment was the first boat angler to catch his limit and this lead to him (and Rod) winning one of Bristol Reservoirs Fly Fishers Association’s new fleeces. Lee’s boat partner, my near neighbour Geoff Lambert caught his limit only a few minutes after Lee but was a few ounces adrift when his fish were weighed. The pair were able to spend the hottest part of the day in the cool of the bar!Prizes were awarded down as far as sixth team, which means that thirty-six of the sixty-five competing actually won a prize! Due to late withdrawals of a few anglers a couple of the teams were a person short so the organisers decided that the average weight of the five that fished would be worked out and added to suggest the “missing angler’s” bag weight! This left the top three teams as set out below: 3rd John Braithwaite Andrew Banner Dudley Barker Peter Bessell Tom Handford Total weight 58lbs 15oz. 2nd Paul Roach John Wellman Jim Smart Geoff Lambert John Humphry Total weight 59lbs 7oz. 1st Paul Jackson Rod Newton John Toller Roger Truscott Ron Tutt Martin Cottis Total weight 66lbs 8oz.Prizes were pretty impressive with the winning team each receiving a Grey’s Platinum reel worth over £90. Each of the anglers in the second placed team received a Snowbee shirt and third place earned its team members a comfortable boat cushion. Thanks must go to Bristol Water for its generosity in providing this sponsorship.I was fortunate to have had two evening trips on the lake last week. On Wednesday I went out for a few hours with Bob Handford the fisheries manager. Everything that Bob tried worked and he completely outfished my dry fly approach. Late on the fish did actually come up on top and I managed to catch a brace of fish.On Thursday I accompanied Dave Child and the fishing on that night was spectacular! There was the odd fish moving around Villice Bay and Nunnery Point, but when we reached the shallow water off Stratford a serious hatch of big red buzzers was producing an equally serious rise of trout. Fishing as the sun set was quite magical and we both enjoyed great sport to small dry flies.I am looking forward to getting afloat on an overcast day so that I can experience Chew at its best. However I was pretty pleased with the six that I caught during the weekend competition in conditions that I do not really enjoy!Tight lines,

Martin Cottis

Martin Cottis

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