Blagdon Lake 15th Sept

Chris and I headed to Blagdon at 3pm and arrived to find conditions perfect! Overcast and warm with light SW wind...but how often does it transpire that "perfect" conditions mean you struggle? And thats what happened. Began on Cheddar water but nowt so moved to Butcombe shore...Chris missed 2 pulls and it wasnt until 6 that i had, and missed my first offer. At 7pm i managed to get a 1.5lb rainbow on a cruncher shortly after missing another pull, but the lack of trouty activity meant a move back to Cheddar where it was by now flat calm but with only the odd fish moving and little hatch of fly. I got one more fish (pic) on a cruncher again but despite us both trying dries for the occasional showing fish we headed home beaten!

Plantation Lakes 14th Sept

Had a few hours to kill yesterday so threw the coarse gear in the landy and drove 20 mins to Kingston Seymour. Havent fished coarse for a year or so. I only had a few bits of kit...very basic. I set up with float rod and centrepin reel fishing 2 rod lengths out with corn or spam on the hook. Had a very enjoyable session from 12 to 4pm...end result 3 carp to 8lb, a 2.5lb tench, numerous skimmer bream and roach.Made a very nice change. Off to Blagdon with Chris in a few hours...will let you know....

Brean Beach Monday 10th Sept

Went with Bella to Brean beach this morning...i wasnt expecting much to happen as it was one of the neapiest tides of the year...8.3m only which is not good. Struggled to dig any lug but managed a few and cast out at 11am.(high water was 2pm) There was a steady 15mph SW wind which helped give some optimism. Got drenched in thunderstorm and had small whiting and at 12.45 had nice bite which resulted in 2lb bass above which was a great result!!!

Chesil Beach 4th Sept

Me and Chris arrived at Abbotsbury 9pm, greeted by strong N wind which flattened off the sea. We fished through the night for 6 dogfish, a pout and a silver eel which was not great, though we did see a big shoal of fish in close via the headlamp which were either bass or mullet. At 6am i decided to lure fish with a surface lure called a Xorus PatchinkoII which sits in the surface film and makes a great commotion when steadily retrieved. I had two mackerel straight away and then the bass came on the feed! In the next 45 minutes we had numerous follows, boils and takes and landed 6 bass from 2 to 4lb...great fun! The only downside was me getting a treble hook embedded in my left thumb way beyond the barb whilst trying to unhook a bass in haste> There was blood everywhere and i had to prise it loose using pliers...one of the most painful experiences of my life. Life lesson...always use pliers to unhook them in future.

Blagdon 22nd Aug

Hi all its been a while since I went out so took the opportunity to have an evening at Blagdon. As I arrived it rained so hard I couldn't get out of the landy for 15 minutes so I wasnt too hopeful of a good evening. I began in Butcombe bay and odd fish showed a long way out in the lake but there was no fly hatch. The lake was still at top level...unheard of in August in all my 25 years of fishing here, and the water was the temperature of a tepid bath...not good. However I persisted for a couple of hours and missed one good pull when my concentration wandered. Moved over to Cheddar water but nothing doing there so back to original

spot and managed a nice rainbow of 2.5lb on deep nymph, but as the sun set nothing at all moved. It rained monsoon-like again so went back to Cheddar for the last 10 minutes where got snapped off by a good fish and called it a night. Got soaked again as packed up ha ha!

Overnight on Chesil in the wind and rain...heaven!!

Monday went and picked up Chris from his house at 730 pm and drove us down to Chesil in the defender. We arrived at 915 and walked half way to the Dragons Teeth. There was a strong S wind and rain in the air. I had made the wise decision to bring my mini-tent which we erected before fishing, making sure it was well bedded in with lots of pebbles or we could have been chasing it down the beach. We caught 3 bass (kept one of 2lb) all caught less than 3m from beach. Also had 3 snotties (thats silver eels, so called because of their slime which gets everywhere) and Chris had the fish of the night, a lovely blonde ray of about 10lb caught on lug and squid. It pissed down in the middle of the night and we went into the tent and tried, unsuccesfully to sleep. The expected dawn bass bonanza did not occur due to the 2m waves ( a bit lumpy) but the mackerel were abundant at 530am and we brought a few home and could have filled the car.Stopped off at Ilminster Little Chef on way home for an Olympic (2012) breakfast!!! Lovely.

Brean Beach Short Session Wednesday 25th July

Well its still hot hot hot so had a quick evening session with Bella at Brean. Dug my lug for an hour and fished 3 hook flapper with size 6 hooks on one rod and ususal pulley pennel on other. Nice waves and tide but bait came in untouched...struggling to catch locally at the moment.