Chew From The Bank

Another assault on Chew Valley Reservoir was done only this time it was to be from the bank, with some ten miles of bank to choose from it was some what a little daunting. Only having previously fished from the bank once with little to show for it my confidence was low. To make things even more difficult the weather forecast was to be dreadful, sleet and lots and lots of rain, what joy!
In the early part of the week a monster Pike of 40lb was taken from the bank at an area with deep water close in, it was reported in all the angling weeklys and the bank from which it was caught was also published. This being an area i fancied i just had to review it as such publicity would see that bank shoulder to shoulder with anglers, one to avoid i think. My companion for the day was to be Paul but as he was off gallivanting up the Amazon on a 15 day cruise his stand in was to be the lovely Lesley, my wife, and believe it or not she actually volunteered. I did try to put her off due to her dislike of all things cold and believe me it was to be bloody freezing!

Leaving home at 4.30am did not fair well with my wife yet the deal was if she was to leave at this time then I'd take my bivvy, bed chair, plenty of water and my stove all for her comfort of course. We arrived at 6.ooam and sneakily entered the car park through a no entry where a van had just opened the gates. Early arrival bank anglers will know that it can be tricky to park as the bailiffs don't like to get up early to open all the gates. I dashed to the waters edge with all the creature comforts for Lesley, bivvy being of importance as dark clouds were looming. Bivvy up and back to the van to grab the gear and a very unimpressed bleary eyed wife! Rods were baited with popped up herrings, chest waders were donned as i waded into the margins to punch the baits out to shelf around 8 to 10ft deep. All traps laid i retreated to shelter as the temperature plummeted and the hail started to fall. Time to warm the wife with a cuppa, well that's as close I'll get after handling smelly herrings believe me! Looking out from the shelter distant lights of blue, red and white seemed to dance on the water, these were actually other anglers sending out their armada of toy boats to drop baits some 150 yards plus. Not only can i warrant the cost of such equipment but have always believed the bankside shelves to be the best features and most are within casting distance, anyway who wants to lumber all that extra gear about.
The day dragged on as did the sleet and rain and all that food and hot drinks that my wife insisted i take were a god send, their always right you know, then around 3.30pm the alarm sounded and the indicator rose to a taking fish...... finally action stations. Allowing a few feet of line to be taken i wound down and struck into what felt a reasonable fish, some good head shaking and a couple of hard surges really started to raise the estimated size of the fish. Once in the shallows some good hard lunges were stopped and some fellow anglers from Essex came down to net her for me. What a stunning looking fish and definitely over 20lb, quickly unhooked in the cradle onto the scales she went, the needle read 26lb 4oz! Even Lesley ventured out of her home for the day to have a look even if she did look unimpressed, deep down i knew she was? So a long day, bad weather and only one fish, was it worth it? You bet it was, only takes one good fish to change the day.

And back she goes.................

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.

Exeter Canal

As time is precious and DIY still being a priority i still managed to sneak out to my local Exeter Canal for a four hour trip after a Pike or two... or not as it turned out.

I opted to walk the not so busy side of the canal as most days its like Piccadilly Circus here and weekends are a no no for me as every man, boat, dog etc. seems to be on a canal outing, not my scene at all. I walked a good half mile away from all those worn down popular fishing spots to an area that has produced a few twenty pound Pike for me in the past, the traps laid were in the form of two baits fished under a float one popped up and one hard on the bottom. The chosen baits were half a Herring and a plump Rudd. A proven method to search out these Pike for me has been to reposition the baits every 45 mins, soon enough you'll be near some Pike.

Conditions were good, nice cloud cover and that gut feeling that something could pick those baits up at anytime, but unfortunately it didn't happen and Mr Pike didn't want to feed so a blank was drawn. Whilst packing the gear up i was distracted by a huge flock of Starlings doing that mad dance with every bird moving with every sudden change in direction, great to watch, so many types of formations and the wind certainly made it a challenge for them yet they were all synchronised in flight. Incredible. Well the canal will have a few sessions yet so Pike, you can swim but you can't hide.

Thinking of Perch

As the weather is now getting more and more wintry and the Pike season is in full swing i feel myself drawn to pursue this perfect predator, yet i felt the need for one more try at the Perch.


My thoughts were torn, do i go to Spires a busy commercial lake, or do i go to the little fished farm pond with the hope of a surprise or too? Well it had to be the latter as so much magic of the unknown doesn't exist these days as our waters get busier and the fish start getting their own names after numerous repeat captures.
The day itself was more suited to kite surfing down the coast as the wind was irritatingly blustery and very strong, there were moments where an audition for Mary Poppins would have been more appropriate as i held down my umbrella from the offending gusts. Perhaps i should have gone pike fishing i thought, but i was here now so best get on with it. The Rudd were as ravenous as ever and a bite a chuck was had, once again it was a case of persistence with these greedy Rudd and anticipating the arrival of a perch or two.It just took 30mins before my first reasonable Perch came, not a monster but a fine looking stripey, the best part of the middle of the day was full of Rudd and then another nice Perch fell to my float fished worm. All the interest had taken my attention off the weather and upon looking up an almighty black cloud decided to drop its load...... didn't it come down! what with the wind as well everything got saturated, me included! This little pond always chucks out a surprise so when i hooked what i thought was a Crucian carp i was surprised to find it actually was a Goldfish, this amused me immensely. No more big Perch were caught, and my soggy gear and myself retreated back to the van en route to home sweet home. It is definitely time to dig out the pike rods.

Honestly! a Goldfish!

Spires Lakes

Still on a Perch mission a day at Spires lakes was done, if your like me and you favour escapism and solitude in your fishing, then commercial fisheries like this, especially at weekends are to be avoided but occasionally these waters can sustain species to specimen sizes such a place is Spires. Two small lakes, well ponds really, make up this fishery with the top pond being the carp lake. The lower pond is full of silvers and Perch were introduced years ago to control Rudd populations. This pond has produced Perch just short of 5lb and even today is throwing up many two and three pounders. Perch were introduced to the top lake a little later and now this too is producing three pounders, so avoiding the pressured lower pond i opted the challenge of the higher lake to see what lurks.
Arriving at dawn i settled down at the dam end in the deeper water and the usual fat worm under a float was presented close to the margins by an over hanging tree, within minutes i was missing bites as little silvers try to do away with my worm. Inbetween these nuisances small Perch started to show and some sporting carp to 9lb kept me busy as i tried to filter out a big Perch.

Unfortunately that huge Perch never showed and the largest i had was around a pound. Despite the struggle i was entertained by a Kingfisher that chose to fish right from the tree next to me throughout the day which was superb to watch and to top that my last fish of the day was a cracking Golden Orfe of 4lb.

Return to an Old Haunt in Search of Perch

An early morning start was executed, off to an old schoolboy haunt of mine that once held a good stock of hefty perch, unfortunately its only recently that the perch have again become established having disappeared from this pond some years ago, why is any ones guess as the water has always been healthy and food a plenty? The carp here have previously reached near 30lb but many of these fish have died of old age and a younger generation are now packing on the weight, will there be twenty's? The pond in question is delightful, very under fished, somewhat neglected and not of any particular size and still offers a bit of the unknown.
Arriving in the dark i made the small ramble towards the pond only to be ambushed by a flock of hedge hopping pheasants! i think they were as startled as me shrieking aloud as they dashed for cover. After settling down in a swim a fat float fished worm was placed in the margins and bites galore were inevitable as this pond is stuffed with Rudd, even if i had a worm of abnormal proportions these greedy little buggers would attempt to eat it.

As it started to get lighter a few hand size perch were caught along with a carp of around 10lb, a stunning common that made an account of itself on my 6lb float tackle. Another three immaculate double figure carp were caught and then my target fish, a Perch of just under 2lbs,

a nice fish that i doubt has been caught before and i honestly believe if you can get pass the Rudd, bigger Perch could be there for the taking.

One other highlight of the trip was the awakening of a toad under my bait tub, funny fat fella he gave me a pose on some old timber in the autumn sunshine.

CHEW BEFORE THE CIRCUS

A trip to Chew Valley reservoir was done mid September in an attempt to nail myself a decent pike on the fly before the pike trial circus arrive on the 15th of October. I have previously done the trials but due to some bizarre allocation system boats this year were bloody hard to come by.

On entering the lodge i did feel kind of uncomfortable without my fellow pikers around me, instead there was a gathering of trout anglers preparing for a competition scouting to see who is who, even today the sport still attracts those pretentious pompous idiots that look down on you if trout on the fly is not your thing. I took great delight in the end announcing that the pike was my chosen quarry of the day..... many faces of disgust i received!
It was nt long before " engines on and anchors away" motoring off towards stratford bay my chosen area of attack. I chose to use my own tied flies which were basically epoxy heads with a big eye and plenty of mirror flash on a fast sinking line, second cast and my first chew fly caught pike was had (above), and to be honest as chew pike go had to be the bloody smallest in this reservoir! Oh was i wrong, i ended up with a dozen around the same size with a biggest of 6lb but two big girls did follow my fly to the boat but just weren't to be fooled. A good day with plenty of action but will chew ever give up its beasts to me...... watch this space!