West Lydford, The River Brue

A couple of days after the start of the river fishing season and I headed up to fish the river Brue with my fishing buddy, Jason. We met up early morning and had the pick of swims along the stretch we had selected. As it turned out we made the right choice and not only started catching decent fish straight away but had the benefit of being under the shade of a tree, which given the hot weather was a huge relief.

Jason started straight away with maggot and worm fished on the float rod and was immediately catching some very nice chub.

I opted to try out the fly rod to begin with and did manage to catch a couple of smaller fish using a small dry fly. I then switched to a foam beetle for that added “plop” which seemed to help attract attention from a slightly better size of chub.

Whilst catching fish on the fly was thoroughly satisfying, it was hard work casting amongst the early season overgrown bank-side foliage all the while watching Jason catch some very good fish a few yards downstream from me on the float rod. After a while I couldn’t bear it any more and decided to change tactics and join him in the float fishing.

Fishing was pretty consistent for the majority of the morning, but tailed off as the morning wore on. We caught mainly chub of varying sizes along with gudgeon, minnows and even an accidental brown trout that snaffled a worm. All in all quite a varied day.

By about midday we felt that we’d had our fill of fish and headed for home satisfied with our endeavours. I drove home reminiscing about the pleasures of a successful fishing trip and pleased I managed to get back out after having had quite a break from fishing over the last few months.

A Belated Start to the Coarse Fishing Season

A busy life got in the way of Jason’s & mine usual fishing trip to mark the start of the coarse fishing season. We eventually got a date in the diary for only a couple of weeks after the glorious 16th.

Glaston Manor Angling have now upgraded their website to allow the purchase on day ticket online which is fantastic for us and saved the hassle of trying to get to a tackle shop to buy the license before fishing. Anyway, with electronic proof of our purchases on the phones, we kicked off our 2022 coarse fishing by meeting at one of our favourite haunts – West Lydford on the river Brue.

All the usual swims were fishable and we had great weather, but water that was reasonably coloured. Hardly any fish visible at surface which didn’t bode well for fly fishing. We started off with a quick walk of the bank – I took my fly rod and Jason his light lure rod. We gave the stretch a quick exploratory effort that wasn’t rewarded with any immediate success so re-tackled with float gear.

I float fished maggot and had a few gudgeon and minnows before managing to pull out a fun sized cub of around or just under a pound by casting in under an overhanging tree on the opposite bank.

Jason had quite a few small chub plus a really heafty chub on double maggot. Quite a monster!

Despite the success it wasn’t long before we decided to explore other sections of the Brue and headed up to Wallyers Bridge.

This is one of my favourite stretches of river but today it was very windy, more overgrown than usual and looked pretty unfished. In fact it was largely unfishable for the whole stretch except the first corner.

We persevered for a while, in which time I landed a few fun sized roach and a perch – all on float fished double maggot. With the fishing proving less than thrilling we moved on again to Flight Weir.

Again it was breezy and only really the weir swim fishable. The rest of down stream river was either fenced off or overgrown, and the upper section above the weir – its usual state but super windy.

We settled into the weir swim and started catching numerous small roach and chub. Jason caught plenty of nice chub and perch before the sun started to set, the temperature drop and we decided to wrap it up for the day.

Good to be back out – successful to some extent but not quite the day’s fishing we had thought.

Windy Fishing at the River Brue

Met up with Jason to fish the River Brue, but I arrived late due to the summer holiday traffic. Met Jason at the Cowbridge stretch of the river, where he’d been fishing for a little while by the time I eventually arrived. A pretty lively wind was blowing straight down the river making conditions not exactly idyllic. Jason had been catching roach and rudd for a while and drawn the attentions of one of the resident pike which was trying periodically to snatch fish as he brought them in. Fortune was smiling on him, as he managed to hook and land the marauding pike on his coarse gear before I’d even managed to wet a line. Nice angling! not that I was jealous, honestly….

With this success recorded for posterity we decided to move on in search of some shelter from the wind. Given the rather exposed nature of the Somerset levels, we didn’t really manage to find much in the way of shelter from the wind so just had to persevere. One of our favoured spots was showing quite clearly the affects of our long hot summer with the weir running dry and actually leaving dry steps from which to fish.

We both float fished maggot and had a steady stream of fish (chub, roach, gudgeon, perch and minnows) – although nothing big. Still – all good fun.

It was really strange because despite looking insanely fishy, the weir just didn’t produce the quality of fish it has done in the past for us. Maybe it was the low water levels, lack of flow or just “one of those days”.

As dusk approached the wind did finally drop to give us some nice fishing conditions and at this point I had a small chub decide to take a minnow – showing its not just the pike and perch that the little fish need to look out for!

Summer time on the River Brue

What a summer! It’s been so hot for so long! Today’s trip was no different – very very hot and sunny although a bit breezy at times.

I mainly concentrated on fly fishing although without massive amounts of enthusiasm. I think the heat installed a general malaise in me that sapped my willingness to perservere after the first few casts at each new place.

I did catch a couple of small chub on fly. Although it wasn’t until I switched to float fishing with maggot that I started to catch a little more regularly with gudgeon, perch and minnows.

Jason coarse fishing throughout and had a good variety of fish including: chub, rudd, roach, perch, gudgeon, minnow and hybrid.

We started off at West Lydford in the hope of making use of the shade of the trees we knew were along that stretch, before ending up at the Cowbridge stretch. I had fun stalking large chub that could be seen on the surface basking in the sunshine, and managed to tempt one of the biggest to take a daddy-long legs fly, only for me to miss the take! If only!

 

Start of the Fishing Season on the River Brue

It’s that time of the year again – the start of another coarse fishing season. As has become a bit of a tradition for Jason and myself we headed up to the river Brue on the Somerset Levels near Glastonbury. I love the fishing in this part of the world and as usual had really high hopes for the start of the season. I’d really been hoping for some still and sunny conditions so that I could stalk some chub with the fly rod.

The weather unfortunately wasn’t quite as good as we’d have hoped for and we had to make the best of the conditions. The weather was cloudy and breezy with a short spell of heavy rain.

Caught a couple of gudgeon, numerous minnows, chub and roach. All on float fished maggots.

Jason had a nice chub amongst his steady procession of chub and roach. Probably the highlight of the trip, not for size, but due to it being a first was that Jason caught a Ruffe. Quite a pretty little fish and very similar in appearance to a baby perch. Now there’s something for me to aim for in the future!

Whilst we had fun, the fishing was undeniably difficult all day – possibly not helped by the long spell of dry weather we’ve had and the amazingly low water levels. Don’t think I’ve ever seen the water level as low on the Brue as it was. It also didn’t help that despite the hot weather of late, the temperature did drop in the evening and it actually got a little cold – first time we’ve felt that sensation for a while!

River Brue – Summer Roving

I met up with Jason at the river Brue; after yesterday’s solo fishing I was looking forward to having a fishing companion. Much like the previous day, the weather was quite spectacular. The wind had died to a slight breeze and with cloudless skies and blazing sun, temperatures were scorching hot. We started off fly fishing; searching out shoals of chub visible amongst the lilies & reeds. We caught a steady stream of chub, mainly on bead headed flies but some fell to dry fly. Nothing big graced the net but we did see some very large bream basking near the surface obviously enjoying the sunshine too. The larger chub were all very skittish and would inevitably melt away before we could get within casting distance despite our best efforts at stealth and the help of the verdant bankside vegetation.

A few hours of stalking chub in the sunshine was enough for us, and we moved along to the West Lydford stretch of the river Brue to try some more sedentary fishing. The glorious weather had brought people out bridge jumping & swimming, so we put as much distance between us and them as possible. We settled into a couple of swims and tried float fished maggot and bread baits but after an hour or two had little to show for our efforts. Some good chub were visible on the surface lurking under the far bank vegetation so with a lack of action on the float rod, I switched to fly fishing with a large wasp dry fly. Almost the first cast one of the larger chub idled over to the fly and slurped it down – somehow in my eagerness or possibly surprise I mis-timed the strike and pulled the fly out of it’s mouth..! Cursing my stupidity I recast only for one of the smaller fish to intercept the fly, which after playing and landing meant that every other fish in the vicinity had become instantly more wary. No more fish followed after that.

With evening approaching we jumped in the cars and headed to another section of the river hoping for some of the large perch we had encountered there several times previously. We arrived to find a section of the bank and a large tree had fallen into the river right at one of our favourite and most productive spots, but set up anyway on the basis that the tree would only provide the fish a nice bit of cover. I found I’d left my rod rest in the car and could face the trudge back to the car in the heat, so had to improvise with a conveniently shaped and proportioned stick. Who says you need to spend a fortune on fishing tackle?

Jason built up a swim opposite the new feature and had a steady procession of bites and fish; numerous chub, roach and gudgeon – & even a cheeky little brown trout not to mention a decent sized eel. In the meantime I float fished maggots at various spots and really struggled to get bites, eventually concluding with a small chub, roach and a solitary gudgeon. The days exploits were nicely finished off with a fantastic Chub that Jason tempted on a ledgered lobworm from beside the new submerged tree feature.

For me the evening ended with a half chewed gudgeon that was savaged by something with teeth on pretty much the last cast. Whilst not the spectacular end to the day I might of wished for, we could at least face the drive home with memories of a varied and fun days fishing.

Plan B – The River Chew

In a perfect world, everything would go to plan and we’d always catch loads of big fish etc etc. Today’s fishing trip was a good example of how things don’t need to be perfect or to even go to plan in order to be classed as an enjoyable day out.

Jason & I had planned to pike fish the River Avon near Keynesham, Bristol, but a match on that stretch of water put pay to that idea. I’d travelled up to Bristol to meet Jason with only my pike fishing tackle in the car which as it turned out, proved to be a bit of a school boy error. Not being able to fish the Avon we scratched our heads and came up with a plan B. Fish the River Chew! Hopefully we’d pick up some grayling and chub. Thankfully Jason was able to lend me a rod and the requisite gear plus provide maggots and worms to make plan B viable.

We met at day break, and proceeded to try various swims along our chosen stretch of water. It was a cold start with no wind at all, although the temperature did begin to rise as the morning wore on.

My first trot downstream resulted in a nice (but out of season) brown trout on single maggot under a waggler, set pretty shallow. Jason also swiftly had another, before things went quiet and we moved on. Things didn’t get any easier and after this we moved frequently to scratch out a few gudgeon and numerous minnows. Jason did bring in a couple of small chub, but the chub just didn’t seem to be feeding in any numbers today. We had hoped for a grayling or two as well on the upper sections of the Chew but these also eluded us. Whilst it turned out to be a day of small fish, at least it was a lovely morning weather wise. What was particularly educational was getting to explore the river without the mass of summer undergrowth hampering access to the bankside. This allowed us to explore and fish swims that just weren’t accessible during the height of summer. It also helped give me at least, a slightly better understanding and knowledge of the river which should all help for next time I return.

 

Kia Ora Lakes and the Squirmy Worm

The weather today has been amazing for October! Amazing full stop in fact. Hot and sunny and not a breath of wind. Isobel and myself headed to Kia Ora lakes near Cullompton this afternoon for a chilled out session.

We set up on the smaller of the two lakes to fish for the ‘Silver fish’ and proceeded to pull out a steady stream of quality roach, rudd, skimmers and small tench along with a few hybrids and gudgeon. All were on a short pole and double maggot. Isobel really got into the swing of things and amazed me not only with her patience (not a quality 9 year olds usually have), but her enthusiasm for pole fishing. I would have to admit that she definitely takes after me when it comes to striking bites though… not exactly lightening reflexes shall we say. In fact she made me look positively on the ball… Still – loads of fun and she enjoyed herself.

The ‘Gold’ lake containing the carp was just a couple of yards away from where we were fishing, so I popped over there to stalk a few carp with the fly rod, whilst Izzy was making a dent in the food supplies.

Floating baits aren’t permitted at Kia Ora and as I didn’t want to fall foul of the bailiff should he visit, I fished a sinking fly – my squirmy worm fly.

There wasn’t that many carp to be seen, but I did spot and get to cast to a few that were sunbathing or just cruising around. I probably managed to cast to half a dozen, and hooked 3 of those. It was really satisfying to cast to a stationary sunbathing carp and land a fly a foot in front of his nose then watch him suddenly swim purposefully forward to take the slowly sinking ‘worm’. All close range stuff and pretty arm wrenching.

I had 3 carp in total, the biggest 8lb and the others around 6lb.

Izzy did’ take that long to demolish the sandwiches and before I knew it I was called back to catch more of the ever obliging roach and rudd. Will have to bring more food next time to buy myself a little more time to myself…

The Benefit of a Local Fishing Guide

The local knowledge of a water is invaluable in most cases and can make all the difference between success or failure. In effect having someone guide you acts as a bit of a short cut with you avoiding the need to explore a water and build up a knowledge of swims, times, best tactics, tackle and bait etc.

Last year I had a couple of successful trips to the River Chew, near Bristol. My fishing buddy, Jason had been catching quite a variety of species including barbel, trout and grayling. I joined him for a couple of sessions on the Chew and managed to catch my first ever barbel. Nothing big, but a new species at that time all the same. Whilst I did manage to catch barbel last year, the grayling was another species that has always eluded me, and at the start of this year was one of my main goals.

This weekend’s trip highlighted the benefit of having someone familiar with the water you’re fishing, showing you around. Jason had been exploring the upper reaches of the River Chew with some success this year and discovered a few locations where he was confident in catching grayling. Needless to say, the prospect was too tempting to resist, and we met up with the principle goal being to find a grayling or two.

We were going to be float fishing with maggots for the fish today, travelling light and hopping between various swims. The dense undergrowth and tree cover that greeted us proved that the minimalist approach was definitely the right way to go. Grayling on a fly rod would have to wait. The River Chew is a delightfully wild and overgrown river in places and you can very quickly forget you’re only a short distance from Bristol. The river varies in depth from shallow fast runs where you can stand in wellies to deeper sections which might be too much even for chest waders.

The first swim was fished by standing in the stream and trotting a float down with the flow. I fished with double maggot on a size 16 hook set only just over a foot deep. It was quite difficult fishing with the bankside vegetation closing in over the river. There were numerous bites straight from the off and frustratingly it took me a while to get my eye in, with me missing lots of bites and bumping off a good few fish too, before the first, a trout, came to the net. A couple more trout and several small chub followed whilst Jason patiently and very gentlemanly watched on, giving me free rein. A solid resistance on the line signalled a better fish and my first ever grayling gave it’s all in the current to try to get away. It was such a relief when the net slid under the fish I have to say!

It was to be the only grayling we saw that day, but was well worth it. The fact that it came from a swim that I probably wouldn’t have fished in a million years on my own just reinforced the value of having someone showing you where to fish.

We fished a couple of other lovely swims in the section of river, and had more trout, chub, roach and some monster gudgeon! I’ve always liked gudgeon – they always bring a smile to my face but to catch them at this size was another highlight of my day. Not very often you see them quite so fat – I had to check twice to make sure they weren’t small barbel.

With time running out, we headed downstream to the ‘Mill Stream’ section of the river where we hoped to find a few barbel where we’d had them in the past. We did try several swims with Jason consistently catching trout – and some of them were a good size too. I on the other had struggled to catch, and the barbel eluded both of us. Small chub and minnows made up the numbers on this section.

Not looking forward to the long drive home, I threw in the towel, said my goodbyes and drove home happy. I was absolutely delighted to catch my first grayling, and had a thoroughly enjoyable days fishing. It’s so much fun to travel light with just one rod exploring a new river never knowing quite what you’re going to hook next. Really must return again soon.  Just need to find the time now.

River Brue – Big Perch in Murky Waters.

Why do I bother paying any attention to the weather forecasters?! Looking at the forecast leading up to this weekend and it all pointed to a cracking start to the coarse fishing season – warm, overcast, dry and little wind. In fact there was supposedly no rain in the Somerset region for a good few days leading up to our planned trip to the River Brue. Perfect for stalking chub on the clear, lily lined waters of the river Brue, or so I thought…. One look over the bridge told a different story… the water was high, flowing fast and the colour of hot chocolate. All this water hadn’t come from nowhere – damn those weather forecasters!

I thought sadly of my boot full of fly fishing tackle and was very glad that some sixth sense had told me to pack a float rod, reel and bit of coarse tackle. Guess some little hidden corner of my mind had remembered all the times the weather didn’t quite live up to expectations and prepared for the worst, just in case. In stark contrast, Jason had come prepared properly with full compliment of coarse fishing gear and bait which as it turned out was the right choice.

We started off at a churning, foam flecked weir pool and realised that to have any chance of catching fish would mean ledgering. I’m not a fan of ledgering when coarse fishing and much prefer a float – I spend enough time watching a rod tip when sea fishing so don’t really choose to did it when tackling fresh water. First cast and Jason was into a lovely perch that took his ledgered lob worm. Not a bad fish for the first one of the years open season, in fact first fish on the first cast.

Having planned on fly fishing, I’d stupidly brought very little in the way of bait other than a few small and pathetic worms from my compost heap. Jason being the gent he is shared his maggots which got me off the mark with my first fish of the season – a minnow. A steady trail of minnows followed, along with the odd small chub and gudgeon. Jason followed his first perch by loosing another, only to catch it a short while later to afford the opportunity t remove the baited hook he’d lost in it on his first attempt. The next rod bender turned out to be a foul hooked eel – oh the shame! Whilst the next turned out to be a surprise brown trout of around 2lb.. unexpected to say the least!

I managed to salvage my reputation by landing two nice perch and loosing one, but couldn’t quite compete with the trout.

When the bites dried up, we tried a few other spots at various places along the river with only limited success from the river’s smaller inhabitants. I eventually decided to give the fly rod a go, when I saw evidence of the occasional fish rising. Given the murky water, and knowing that there are some big old chub lurking in the river Brue, I decided for the biggest and most visible dry fly I had – a ‘Chernobyl Ant’. Not sure what kind of creature if any it was supposed to represent but I felt it would at least make an attention grabbing plop when it landed in the water and would be pretty visible. Hopefully a hungry chub would mistake it for some kind of hapless terrestrial and devour it without looking too closely. As it turned out, I did get two fish have a go at the fly. Sadly I didn’t connect with either, but oh what could of been!

Such a frustrating day! good but frustrating. We did have a few feisty perch between us, along with the bonus trout, but I can’t help but wish conditions had been better and that we could of stalked the big chub of the Brue in clear water. If nothing else, the session wetted my appetite to return again soon!