The weather had warmed slightly

The weather had warmed slightly – at least the daytime temperature was up to fairly normal April temperatures. On the other hand the night-time temperatures were amazingly cold. We had to scrape the ice off the car windscreen before we set off and it was well into the day before the frost on the grass melted. On the Mendips you could still see the snow that had fallen heavily during the week!I fished at Chew Valley with my friend “Biker” Humphry who is ever the optimist. I wasn’t so sure about things – I have never been an enthusiastic early season trout angler, much preferring to wait until May before venturing out in earnest. We started fishing behind the island opting for the area that had been most productive on opening day last year. I started on a Wet Cell 2, whilst Biker went for a floater with leaded nymphs. The wind wasn’t too strong but it was cool and it kept veering round. We anchored as is common at this time of the year. The news from the bank anglers who had been out since the crack of dawn was not encouraging, as it seemed that not one single fish had yet been banked. In the first two hours or so we saw four trout caught – not exactly full-on action! I had a couple of half-hearted pulls, and eventually caught a fish that convinced me that it was some weed. I didn’t exactly strike or even lift into it; I more like tried to shake the “weed” off! Still, it was determined to hang on and gave a most spirited fight befitting of a silver trout just under the three-pound mark. My first trout of the new century and no surprises for guessing that it took a jungle cock viva!Following “advice” which I have been advocating over the past few months, we upped anchor regularly and tried to look for fresh areas to fish. The result was that by two o’clock we still had just the one fish in the boat. Very few others were catching fish either. One canny angler had winkled out five trout – he was on a “slime” line and was drifting – not what you would expect on such a cold opening day. We tried the same method in more or less the same area, but didn’t add to our bag. Eventually Biker caught a fish – he had gone back to his floater and nymphs. We plugged away and by four o’clock Biker had two fish whilst I still had the one. At about this time we tied up with another boat to chat over the day. This was when my major success of the day came. I glanced up at a bird flying past and noticed that it was an osprey. It circled around and to my utmost amazement suddenly swooped down in front of about seven or eight boats and took a trout off the surface! I was chatting to Dave Monks at the time – he is one of our local “characters” – I cannot repeat the words that he used to describe this event especially as he, like me, only had one trout in his bag!We returned to our fishing, but I can only report one more trout in our boat – to Biker. Not a spectacular way to start the season fishing-wise, though outstanding in my overall memories. I should also here add that I saw another most unusual bird – an albino coot, though Bob Handford tells me that it was around last year.A fine 9-pounder was taken from the boats on opening day – on a floating line and buzzer, whilst on the second day of the season bank angler Steve Welshman caught a lovely looking rainbow of 8lbs 8oz. I have included a picture of the angler with his fish.So, what happened to all of my great preconceived ideas? Many of the anglers who had a bad day tried to blame it on lack of stocking. I don’t hold with that view. Enough fishermen caught good bags of silver fish to, I believe, dispel that notion. What I think was up was that, even though it was cold and it was the first day of the season, the fish were higher in the water that we were expecting and, possibly even more unusual, feeding well. There were buzzers hatching all day and the fish that we caught when spooned were crammed with buzzer.I will be out tomorrow to see if I can prove or disprove this theory and see if I can manage more than just one fish!Tight lines,

Martin Cottis