Big Well Trout Fishery
It has been a very busy week at the fishery with most anglers catching. Brian Davies,Ledbury 3 fish 7 lb 3 oz, Mark Herbert 4 - 9 lb 6 oz, Rob Butcher, Hereford 2 - 5 lb 6 oz, Peter Maynard 5 - 12 lb 9 oz, Peter Heywood, Monmouth 3 - 8 lb 10 oz, Tony Baldwin, Ledbury 4 - 10 lb, Steve Rees, Pontypool 4 - 9 lb 2 oz. Catch & release permit; Mike Harwell 10, Eari Pritchard 7, DonMartin 8 and Ross Millard 9. Floating lines with Cats Whisker, Buzzers, Diawl bach
with sight indicator.
Bean Hill 01594 529846
The fishery has continued to give excellent sport, mainly from fish feeding at or just below the surface. Most anglers have been catching on traditional patterns.
Ravensnest Fishery 01291689564 Coloured and high water would usually mean difficult fishing. But not at this fishery, as Colin Davies of Newport proved by returning a rainbow of 13 lb 11 oz. John Rees, Cardiff 12 lb 10 oz r/bow, Gareth price, Pontypool 7 lb 4 oz blue, Dave Edwards, Gilwern 6 lb 4 oz blue, Ken Edwards, Blaina 5 lb 8 oz blue, Andrew Thomas 5 lb 12 oz brown, Andrew Davies 6 lb 8 oz blue, Paul Smith,Pontypool 4 - 13 lb 10 oz bf 4 lb, David Collins 4 - 15 lb 4 oz bf 5 lb 4 oz. Catch & Release permit; K. Rees 20, J. Edwards 20, Tony Hancock 18.
Bright flies worked well on float tip lines or weighted patterns.
Wentwood Reservoir 01291 425158
Once again anglers faced an uphill struggle to enjoy a days fishing due to the showers and heavy bursts of rain that fell during the week. Most of the fish that were caught were taken by the boat anglers mainly fishing with sinking lines and using “boobies”. Visitors A.Masters 5 fish-13 lb 4oz heaviest 3lb 8oz, R.Parker 4 fish-10 lb 5 oz, C.Lewis 4 fish-8 lb 12 oz, M. Capper 2 fish 4 lb 1 oz. Ken Pascoe fished the deeper water around the tower area and managed to net 3 fish-8 lb 1oz that included one at 4lb. Glyn Row 3 fish-6 lb 12 oz but boat partner Matt Smith really struggled but did catch 2 fish-5 lb 9 oz. Ron Gough 2 fish 6 lb 4 oz, and Alan Doolan 1 fish-3lb 4oz. Several anglers did manage to catch from the bank that included M.Hobbs 2 fish-5 lb 4 oz, R. Southwood 2 fish-4 lb 5 oz, and Alan Watkins 2 fish-4 lb 2 oz. The hot spots continue to be the tump and north bank areas. Bank angling will remain difficult as the fish continue to move into the deeper water which benefits the boat anglers although a few did blank after a boat session. Top flies included black buzzers, various patterns of “boobies” and on the odd occasion gold head damsels and “daddies” have been productive coupled with sink tip and sinking lines. Very few fish have been rising during the day and anglers have been using weighted fly patterns and a very slow retrieve. The weather prospects for the next week are not encouraging and fishing could again be difficult.
Dyffryn Springs 07740869620
Trout fishing is still very challenging although Michael Dow of St Athan
returned two on Goldsland including a 5lb blue taken on a buzzer. On
Waycock, Steve Walker of Cardiff had a brace of 4lb rainbows on a dry sedge
and on Thaw Tony Evans of Newport took three on Powerbait.
Bristol waters 01275 332339
There was a slight improvement in the weather this week, with fewer, lighter showers and more gentle winds - even a few dry sunny days - but still cool for the time of year.
Water levels remain fairly steady at Chew and Barrows; Blagdon is nearly full again following all the recent rain. All the main lakes are now much less coloured. Very heavy weed growth still at Chew and Blagdon in places. The surface water temperature remains at around 17°C.
Blagdon Generally the fishing has been an improvement on the previous weeks and gentler breezes have allowed the more adventurous boat and bank anglers to explore Top End, which was previously unfishable and coloured by the wave action stirring up the mud and silt. Good rises and excellent bags have been reported from around Rugmoor, Wood Bay and the withies. The weed growth on the South shore continues to make fishing there nearly impossible except at Cheddar Water and Pipe Bay, where some fish have been taken, and all areas on the North Bank and Butcombe are still well worth a try. Nymph fishing is still the favourite with Buzzers, Stick Flies, Diawl Bachs or Pheasant Tails and some boat rods have had success with dries and emergers as well.
Chew lake As conditions improved some good fishing was experienced from boat and bank. Most of the deeper water banks have seen good catches for bank rods, especially Wick, Nunnery, Woodford and Walley. The boats have caught many good bags where the water is shallow and weedy – Herriotts, Stratford, Herons Green and Villice. There fish are feeding well on corixa and snail, and good bags have come to dries and nymphs. Best flies are Red and Claret Emergers, Diawl Bachs, Buzzers and Crunchers. In the Evening League match 15 rods took 51 trout, and 5 limits were recorded. Winner was Andy Haskins with 5 fish, second place went to Paul Crook with 6.
Keith Brown and Mark Latham had a wonderful day afloat on Saturday. Keith took 8 average sized rainbows for 15lb 8oz on red holographic Diawl Bach, while Mark’s 6 weighed 28lbs, topped by a 7 lb beauty that he took on a Montana nymph.
Barrows A disappointing week for many rods given that the conditions were much improved, as many days saw only a few anglers succeeding; even the ‘Mouse’ men had a thin time. Things should improve quickly now with the better weather and lighter winds.
LittonThe Top Lake remains a little coloured with the large amount of water flowing into the lake but it’s still well worth a few casts in the deeper, clearer water near the Dam. The Lower Lake is still fishing pretty well, but few moving fish seen so fish nymphs sub-surface for best results.

This Weeks Catch:
Chew Valley: 257 fish taken by 125 rods, average 2.0 per rod.
Blagdon 332 fish taken by 177 rods, average 1.9 per rod.
Barrows: 254 fish taken by 157 rods, average 1.6 per rod.
Litton 13 fish taken by 4 rods, average 3.3 per rod.
Total fish taken from all waters: 32,613 fish to 10,330 rods, average 3.2 per rod.
Cefn Mably 01633 681101
Paul Hughes of Cardiff took 3 fish for 12.10 pounds on a hares ear, Mark
Jenkins of Cardiff used a orange daddy for 3 fish for 11.3 ,Andrew Williams, Newport took 3 fish for 11.0 pounds on a olive damsel, Terry Coles of Newport caught 5 fish on a buzzer on catch/release including a 11.3 rainbow.