Blagdon 30 Sept 2001

After the glorious day before at the Barrows, the weather forecast told a different story, and for once they were right. Strong winds poured down the valley slopes and sheared across the water.

Officially the boats start fishing at 10am in Blagdon, but generally the bailiff will have them ready by 9 - 9.30am. Every boat was booked despite the wild looking weather.

We had a brief chat with Chris Timothy, a local angler, about tactics. He had seen the fish feeding in the top of the water and taking dries at first light. We were a bit sceptical, given the howling gale, but accepted that Chris knows his stuff.

If you were there, you would know which boat we were in. We were the only ones rowing. Everyone else had an electric motor, mostly hired from a local pub in Blagdon, the ‘Live and Let Live’ (Tel: 01761-462-403) Cost £11.00 for the day, supplied with two batteries (Tip: check the batteries are FULLY charged!!).

We rowed out of the lodge bay and threw out the drogue. We did see a fish rise, but not enough to tempt us straight on to the dries. My initial attempt was the deadly Cats Whisker and it really was deadly. I had to take it off almost immediately as the wind was deliberately sending it just past Walter’s ear.

Even with the drogue, the boat was drifting too fast and the lines were under the boat before we could retrieve them. When we reached the far bank we were going to anchor in Butcombe bay near the dam wall, but there were good-sized waves piling into it and I doubt the anchor would have held.

There is an area in the middle of the dam, which is out of limits for boats using anchors or buoys, so we rowed just outside it, closer to the lee shore and picked up a small buoy.

I put on a fast sinking line with 2.44m (8ft) of leader and fished a booby on the point and two buzzers on the droppers. Walter had a floating line and was fishing buzzers too.

We fished from there for an hour when the rain came down in driving sheets and the wind got stronger. Walter got his two golfing umbrellas out and we tried to fish and shelter under the onslaught. Added to that, I was beginning to get a bit cold, as I’d only put on a light summer shirt and a thin shell waterproof jacket.

Foul weather on Blagdon

Presently, we realised we were no longer outside the restricted area, the buoy was dragging. We cast off and rowed to the next substantial buoy, still sheltering under the brollys.

We kept this up for another hour, until the waves started slopping over the side of the boat. It wasn’t much fun there, so we rowed to the lee shore and managed to get under the wind close to the dam. The rain stopped for a while and I managed to get a light fleece on and felt a lot better for it.

Seeing substantial rises all around the boat, I cast a very short line and suspended the leader between the rod tip and the booby fly. First cast and a nice looking fish took one of the buzzers savagely, the leader snapped at the dropper knot and the trout leapt out of the water. Aarrrgh!

I was using Sightfree fluorocarbon 6lb leader material. I lost a fish like that the day before, so went up to an 8lb leader.

Fifteen minutes later Walter had one on and kept it on, despite it diving beneath the boat. After trying the shortlining technique for a while longer, I switched to a floating line.

Walter had another fish on soon after and again it headed under the boat. He had a job getting it to the net.

Finally I picked up a fish on a black buzzer and landed it after a brief, but good fight. The fish were all around the 1½ lb to 2½ lb mark.

As it got darker, the wind lightened up and we rowed into the bay at the end of the dam, where a lot of trout were rising. Walter took another fish here and not long after I hooked and played another, which circled the boat for a while before diving under it.

It wasn’t quite my day. One of the droppers snagged on the anchor rope and the fish got off. The 8lb fluorocarbon was able to take the substantial shock as the fly was still attached, a size 18 red pheasant tail nymph, kindly given to me by a local angler at the Barrows.

Just before dark, Walter hooked yet another fish, this time on a rather well worn green fritz type lure. All of the fish were of the finest quality with fully formed tails, and all fought like hell!

The row back was against the wind, but taking turns we managed it no problem. We should have paid more attention to Chris. Some big bags were taken on dries, although boobies also did well. Still, we didn’t really disgrace ourselves.