My old fishing pal Richard suggested we fished Bewl together today, so how could I refuse having remembered how well it fished this time last year. He kindly offered to provide the transport so we had a good catch up chat on the way down.
The great thing about fishing with Richard is that he just loves being there and doesn't complain if he is not catching. The challenging thing, for me, is that he sometimes out fishes me!
In preparation for the trip I had read the latest fishing report from Janet in the Fishing Lodge. Here it is:-
Fishing has been a bit more difficult this week . Very strong winds and heavy rain have made conditions on the water uncomfortable. However, rod average for the week still a reasonable 2.34.
The fish have remained in the top 1-2 feet of the water. Best areas for boats have been Chingley, the Main Bowl and Hook Straight and for bank fishing have been Bramble Point, Ferry Point, Ward's Lane and Chingley. Successful flies are again Minkies, Minky Boobies, Cormorants and Daddies. (We have sold out of all Minkies and Minky Boobies in the Bewl Fishing Lodge). Vince Brooks' Annual Charity Competition took place on Saturday in high winds. 83 anglers caught 168 trout giving a rod average of 2.02. The winner was Keith Lawrence with 7 fish weighing 13lb 1oz. £1,307 was raised
for Fishing For Forces. Boat fishing runs to end of November but part of fleet is now off the water for winter maintenance so a reduced number are available. To avoid disappointment and a wasted journey, prior booking, especially at weekends, is strongly advised. Lodge open through November 0830-1030 only.
So I imagined the fishing would be a bit challenging, but having been briefed on a few tips by my personal Bewl mentor (RB) I switched to fishing a minky booby and a couple of black hoppers on droppers using a 6lb leader. I was still tying on my droppers when there was a tremendous splash and Richard was into his first fish. Sadly after a brief encounter it shot away to live for another day. Shortly after that I took a fish on the minky booby and having played it very carefully coaxed it into the net. It's rainbow colours were stunning. We motored the boat round to drift over the same spot. I like to drift from a known position, usually a buoy, so if I find fish I can repeat the drift and hopefully find them again.
I then experienced a savage take, so savage that the line parted at one of the dropper knots and I said farewell to fish and most of the leader! Fortunately I had used the dodge mentioned in a recent Bewl Angle Magazine and brought with me some fresh leaders, complete with flies, carefully wrapped around a length of foam pipe insulation as shown. Well actually not as shown because I used the flies and leader!
Within a minute or two I was back in action. We both rose several more fish and had "takes" but we did not hook up and then the breeze dropped and the surface activity stopped. We did all the usual things, changed location, Richard used an intermediate line with lures and all the time we were watching the other boats. Then we did a bit of a tour, got drenched by the odd shower and even tried the dam where the waves were a bit uncomfortable. Finally we went back to where we had started and as the sun dropped towards the horizon the fish started to move again and we had some swirls and follows. Sadly we had to be off the water by 3.30pm as we are now on GMT and it gets dark quite early.
Walking back to the car we chatted to another boat fisher, who said in the afternoon he had seen 15 fish showing on the top. Using a single sparkling booby on a 15 foot leader he had managed to catch 5 of them! So obviously Richard and I just need more practice!
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