Bristol Water Fishery Report April 2023

Bristol Water Fishery report for 26/03/2023 - 11/04/2023

Bristol Water Fishery Report April 2023

Fishing has been excellent through this period but yet again the weather has proved challenging, we have had to cancel a few days due to strong winds. Despite this there has been some great sport to be had and all our lakes have been throwing up some real monsters to lucky/skilled anglers.

We have had several competitions to report on in this period, all with epic results making for some good rod bending action, congratulations to all our local anglers who placed well in them.

a man in a boat holding a fish

It has been nice to see some pike showing once again with one very fortunate angler netting a real true Chew specimen, sadly the batteries on his digital scales failed him and no weight was taken, maybe a lesson for us all to check these things before heading out!

Celtic League at Chew 26th March 

- 40 anglers fishing and a total catch of 170 fish
- Top Rod - 11 fish – A Clarke
- Average - 4.25 Fish Per Angler
- Catch & Release Competition

Garafit at Chew on 2nd April

- 72 anglers with a total catch of 366 fish
- Top Rod - 36lb 5oz P Golding           
- Average Fish Per Angler – 5.08
- Best Fish: 5lb 11oz

Airflo Open at Chew on 8th April

- 60 anglers with a total catch of 540 fish
- Top Rod – 42lb 6oz D Burgess
- Average - 9 Fish Per Angler
- Best Fish - 5lb 11oz

three men posing with a cheque next to a fishing lake

Chew Valley report

After a cracking start to the season it’s great to see Chew is still following this form with some sizeable hatches of buzzer. At times the fishing has been a little more challenging but on the whole fishing has been very consistent with some top class buzzer feeding to take advantage of on most days. Midge Tips and Intermediate lines have been king once again with most fish coming to Buzzers, Crunchers or Lures and Blobs. 

a man in a boat holding a fish

Mr M. Russell caught a rainbow estimated to be around 13/14lbs which was certainly a highlight and on Sunday the 9th April Mr D.Waters landed a colossal pike estimated to be around 35lbs but we think it was definitely bigger. Lots of fish in the 5-8lb class being captured regularly by our predator fly anglers.

 a man in a boat holding a fish

Blagdon report

Blagdon has started to really come to life after a slow start compared to Chew. Buzzers, Crunchers and Diawl Bachs fished on a Midge Tip or Intermediate Line have proved to be the most successful and popular techniques with the lions share of fish coming to anglers fishing this way. Plenty of fish still coming to Lures and Damsels and it seems on some days regularly changing between lures and buzzers would prove fruitful. We have noticed non quite a few days that the flies have needed to be worked pretty fast to get the takes.

a man in a camouflage coat catching a fish in a net

Anglers have been reporting plenty of fish around the 5lb mark being landed with some incredible double figure fish also being caught, this includes a 10lb+ fish for Mr S. Pope from a boat as well as Mr J. Hirst landing a cracking 11lb Rainbow from the bank!

Barrow report

Some fantastic fishing on the tanks so far, the fish have been moving between layers but are mostly sitting a bit deeper than on Chew or Blagdon. Mostly small Black Lures and Mouse tactics on Intermediate or Slow Sink lines doing the business of late here but a few reports of Buzzer feeding fish have come in, I noticed several fish rising on tank 2 just last week and have reports of steady catches on all 3 tanks.

Reports of a very large fish captured at Tank 1 on the 27th of March - said to have been weighed at 13lb 2oz.

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