Saturday 25th May - Afternoon session on Chew Valley Lake

With the wife working late lates on the Saturday, a family and friends BBQ arranged for Sunday and a day out on BH Monday an afternoon session somewhere was on the cards. I had thought about Plantations, Bullocks, Apex or going back down to Hawkridge where I had success last week. I still had not got around to sorting out my top kits and most of my rigs needed attention, Kev Perry spoke to me about Hawkridge on Thursday night at a Clevedon Committe Meeting he was thinking about going down on the Friday and suggested to me the BH Traffic would be murder to get through over the weekend. I did not make a decision until Saturday morning around 11:00, even then I was considering Barrow Tanks but made a phone call to Chew Valley instead to enquire about a boat. They were all booked but when I asked how the bank anglers were doing a positive reply came back, so that was it, even though I have never fished from the bank at Chew before.
I got up to the Lodge which is only 15 to 20 mins from home around 15:15, an afternoon ticket from the bank is £15 and you can take 4 fish plus catch and release as well, bargain. I went into the Lodge to get a few more bits of information and who should be working there but Paul Barnfield. Paul fished the Bristol Avon a lot the same time as me, we used to meet up when fishing the Avon Commercial League (formally Post Office and Telecomms League) between 1978 and 1990. He was a very good river angler and later went on to fish for the Amalgamated Fisheries Match Team.

Paul is bottom row second in from the left.

I know he still does a little bit of match fishing with the Coffin Dodgers on the odd Thursday at Hunstrete Lake (controlled by Bathampton AA) but due to being an employee of Bristol Water gets free fishing so does a lot of fluff chucking now. So whats working I says to Paul, 'booby on the point and a couple of buzzers fished washing line style' he says, guy had an 8 fish limit on this earlier today from the lodge bank. Well that was it a nice 2 min stroll from the car park.

Washing line method, basically keeps the flies up in the water.

I walked across the grass down to the lake shore just to the right of the boat jetty, about 5 other anglers were already there and one came along after me, none had caught yet. The bank was excellent and was composed of stones in wire cages, there looked to be about 6 foot of water in the margins which deepened to about 15 foot 30 meters out I saw a couple of fish rise but they were too far out, still I had until about 8 p.m. so plenty of time.

Lodge bank at Chew.

I set up using the washing line method as advised with a black buzzer and a diawl back as droppers, the booby on the point was bright orange to attract the fish. The wind was a bit awkward at times with the odd gust from right to left but manageable. After about an hour not a pull and it was a little chilly so I took the booby off the point and put on a red diawl back. After casting out and about 10 meters of a retrive I had a pull which caught me out, a quick draw on the line moving the flies about 2 feet I had him go for me again but very finicky and I did not connect. 15 mins later though I did connect and soon had a rainbow of just under 2lb on the black buzzer. This brought a couple of visits from the other anglers enquiring what I had caught on etc. Another hour passed an a better fish this time, just under 3lb, again another visit from the angler to my right, no one else had caught yet. I had a text message from the wife and will I was replying had the rod between my legs after a full cast and I had a pull but missed it. Straight out on the same line and instantly connected with a cracking fish which took me all over the place. There was nood weed about so was able to enjoy it and take time. This fish weighed 4lb 2oz. I had another couple of pulls but no more fish and decided to pack up just before 8 p.m.

My 3 fish for around 9lb.

Really please with my first session from the bank at Chew and will be hard push to go back to Barrow Tanks, although they are closer to home if I am in a rush.Will definetly be sorting out my pole and rigs this week.