Chew Valley Reservoir

As Xmas and new year festivities seem long in the distant past and the days keep rolling into the new year, time doesn't half fly by these days.
I finally received my dates for Chew and was lucky enough to have the opening day. I was optimistic but reserved because despite all the press coverage about big Pike left right and center Chew can be a tough nut to crack, i have seen many a disappointed face leaving the boat stations due to high expectations.

A plan was made as to where and how to fish, due to the current cold weather i reckoned the Pike would be deep and lethargic and lures would be a waste of time. I chose an area over some old dwellings and river beds some 26feet deep where i had seen good fish taken previously.
My boat partner was my old fishing companion Paul, it was good to have him back on the banks after absence due to sad circumstances. There s no one that can spin a yarn quite like Paul.
After breakfast at the lodge and boats issued it was a mad dash to claim positions wish was easy enough as every bugger went the other way to us! To say our decision was right would be an understatement, a fish was on within 15 min of casting out a herring a nice double around 13lb that fought superbly and was in mint condition, then Paul took a nice one around 11lb. I had to chuckle as he remounted what can only be described as the oldest manky herring of enormous proportions one could ever imagine upon his trebles, obviously big bait big Pike mentality. I soon had egg on my face as this bait was picked up pretty sharpish and a tussle ensued but we won, a lovely fish of 16lb (pictured below)

The day continued like this with fish lost too, some felt quite hefty, but for me the highlight was watching a low twenty get the better of Paul, i swear there was about 3 times that fish lunged deep and fast nearly taking Paul with it.... thank god for the clutch!

The culprit below nearly had him paddling!!

Towards the days end it went really quiet then at last knockings my float went, but it was brief as the fish escaped the hooks. In total we had 11 pike 9 of which were double figure fish and cream being a twenty one pounder to Paul. No obscene sized Pike Chew is noted for but who cares when sports as good as this! There was one thing that was noticeable, all our fish were covered in leeches suggesting they were holed up hard on the the bottom so our choice of tactics was spot on.

The approach to the jetty was quite amusing, it looked absolute chaos. The bailiff was having a fit boats approaching all angles bumping and banging, i avoided this lot on approach but got yelled at to dock back round the other side, this was only possible if captain pugwash and his crew of idiots weren't causing a "mucking fuddle". Finally docked and unloaded we escaped the madness quite content on our fruits of the day.