Blagdon Lake
Bristol Water
Everything looked good. The weather was warm and overcast, with a good breeze from the east or south east. There was a good wave. The water was clear and not cold. Surely today Blagdon would be kind?
News at the Lodge was that plenty fish had been caught last week, mostly at the top end. So we joined the armada of boats steaming steadily up the lake. And like the rest we failed to make much of an impact. There were swarms of buzzers hatching off, but nothing dining on them. So we set off in search of the elusive rainbows. Where were they?
The wind was getting stronger and so some locations weren't really fishable without anything less than a sea-going anchor and a wire hauser! Foolishly having forgot to pack such things we opted for Butcombe Bay, casting towards the gabions. The wind was coming down the lake, bringing plenty of food. Not until my partner decided to fish very deep, did we find the fish. They were on the bottom hoovering up the soup of buzzers and daphnia. And they were great fish. Days such as this, when you do finally work out what's going on, are rare and to be savoured.