The fishing in the past week or so has been as variable as the weather but as the trout start to adjust to the changing conditions, they’re starting to get back on the feed.
Stocking levels in Blagdon have been heavily maintained with over 2,800 fish released in the past 10 days and the anecdotal evidence is that these fish have dispersed much more evenly than the earlier introductions although the main density of fish still seems to be concentrated on the Northern side of the top (Ubley) end of the lake.
With the majority of the trout in shallower areas feeding on buzzer, bloodworm, alder nymph and daphnia, tactics from both the boats and the banks are largely unchanged : try a goldhead GRHE (natural or olive) or heavy red wire-ribbed diawl on the point of a long fluorocarbon leader with pearl or red holo ribbed diawls and/or orange biot cheek buzzers on the droppers. With most of the fish having seen a lot of artificial flies in the past month, the trout are naturally somewhat line shy so retrieve speed and style are starting to be something of an issue : try casting across or quartering downwind and keep your retrieve as steady and slow as possible – when takes do occur they’re usually pretty positive.
As an alternative, in deeper areas (around the 8-12 foot depth) the fish will chase blobs or fritz goldheads (olive, orange and/or coral) if you fancy pulling an intermediate, Wet Cel II or DI3.
Best Bank Areas :
Green Lawn, Rainbow Point (evenings), Peg’s Point and Ash Tree.
Best Boat Areas :
Ash Tree, Orchard Bay, Wookey Point and Home Bay
