Beanhill Lake
Oliver Burch fished the lake with a Jack Ketch fly and was surprised to see good carp moving. It wasn’t long before a grass carp took it. To the best of his knowledge, none of the grass carp at Beanhill have been caught over the last two seasons and they are rarely even seen during the winter. It happened in the deeps in front of the dam, on a stormy day when the trout were being very dour. There was no dramatic tussleI, but in reality it was a slow slogging match. Unusually, but fortunately, he was using the 7 weight sewin rod “to give the line a stretch” and a fairly strong leader. The carp, when finally netted, measured 26 inches and was in lovely condition, chub-like in dimensions with heavy shoulders and a brassy colouring, and that strange flat “vegetarian” mouth which puts me in mind of grey mullet.
While so many people living in the flood plain of the Severn and other western rivers are trembling as to whether the water is going to invade their kitchen again, it seems selfish to be moaning merely because the fishing is out of sorts. But the fact is that river fishing around here has been unavailable since Christmas, and some of us are starting to run out of options. Oliver had at least one day on all the local lakes offering year round fishing, and even spent a morning sat on a box offering float fished sweet corn to baby carp at one of the local ponds . While some of the Forest of Dean syndicate ponds have been quite coloured by the streams running in to them, they have been fishing surprisingly well. But importantly it seems, like Henry Ford, you can offer any colour at the moment, providing it is black. Black often does do well in coloured water, and he had one excellent session on Soudley Ponds, using nothing but black lures and flies. Alternating between two rods, one with a slow intermediate line and one with a floater, he chased a couple of shoals of rainbows moving around the centre of the lake with Black Widow lures, followed up by Black and Peacock Spiders when a few fish had been taken and released, causing the rest to get nervous and nip at the tail of the larger lure. He continued to fish the Spider . The line used and the fishing depth was probably more important than the actual pattern of fly. However, one very nice rainbow of about 4 pounds took a Jack Ketch: a fly you don’t often see these days. Originally designed by Geoffrey Bucknall and intended to imitate a water beetle, it is really a weighted variant of the BPS, with a body of back seals fur with a hint of blue and crimson over the lead wire, the usual long black hen hackle and a tag of silver tinsel.
Cwm Head Fishery 07980 562876
The bad weather last week made fishing extremely difficult,with only the west bank and inlet bay fishable due to strong westerly winds and heavy rain. Ken Pascoe 3¾lb on woolly bugger,Russell Way two to 5½ lb on a cats whisker.Roy Davies 3lb rainbow taken and three released on cats whisker.
Severn Oaks 01446 775474
Fishing has been excellent last week with fish in a taking mood. Graham Morris of Aberbargoed took 3 fish for 11 lb. Neil Appleton-cardiff had the best fish of the week a 12 lb 12 oz rainbow on a black rubber legged daddy. Jason Rees- Bridgend returned 9 to 5 lb. Andrew Thomas 8½ lb plus one other. Henry Bute – Rhondda 3 – 11 lb. There are a few places left for the Saturday competition 26 th January. 9 am to 1 pm, please phone to book your place.
Big Well Fishery 01600 772904
Cold wet weather did not spoil the fishing./ Dark Lures worked best on intermediate or floaters.
Grham Jones of Abertillery 2 fish for 25 lb 3 oz. Alvin Jones – Ledbury 3 – 7 lb 2 oz. Malcolm Davies – Ledbury 2 – 5 lb. Dave Cottrerham 4 fish 9 lb 3 oz. Greg Cox- Monmouth 4 – 9 lb 3 oz. Released fish were ; B. Davies - Tewksbury 8. Andy Phillips 7 he had a shock when he hooked into a mighty 10 lb plus rainbow which was also returned. Hughies Wilson – Gloucester 7. Roger Williams – Bristol 5. David his brother 8. And Gary Gray of Ross on Wye 9.