Tim Small has asked me put his report from Lechlade and Bushyleaze on the Forum. Here it is:
Normally, Lechlade Lake is shut in August (and often July) and this year should have been no exception, with the hot dry weather, but Lechlade (and Bushyleaze) are fishing incredibly well. Could this have something to do with the cold winter? Not a lice in sight and the fish are feeding happily off the surface and at other depths. It does make me appreciate what a problem lice are and how much they are costing my “Industry”. We desperately need new people to come in to the sport and summer seems the obvious time to learn. Not a lot of good if you don’t catch anything and are advised to come back in the winter. I am sitting on the new government coalition’s advisory panel on fish and will keep banging away about this. At least they are fully supportive of angling and are well aware of the social, economic and environmental benefits. As you have probably read in the angling press recently, things aren’t too bright out here … soaring fish feed prices, a shortage of fish, difficult weather and impending VAT increase. The more people we get in to our sport the better. Having got them we need to keep them. Charles Jardine is doing a fantastic job with his Fishing for Schools project; I wish him all the best.
So, come and give Lechlade a go. You will undoubtedly bag up. Many of you have probably never seen the place in the summer; it is very pretty. We have cut the weed (normally an August job) and cut back trees, opening up some new swims. You can definitely take fish on the surface … a dry Daddy or Diawl Bach. Buzzers are working well too, fished at any depth. Water clarity is pretty good. The geese have now flown, I suspect they do not help. The amount of droppings on the bank make you wonder just how much “fertiliser” they are putting in to the lake. It does save me an awful lot of mowing, though! Obviously there are not many anglers so you can fish in peace.
Bushyleaze is fishing very well too. We are a bit short of kilo fish so are stocking with a lot of much bigger fish. Lots of olives and damsels on the surface (and a few daddies). Buzzers are still the best bet, fished at any depth. Water clarity is very good and there is very little weed. We saw a rather interesting weed cutter at the Game Fair which we are going to trial this week, next door, on the Carp Societies water.
IT’S OFFICIAL! The brown trout season in enclosed stillwaters has now gone forever. God, that took some time and hard work but we eventually got there. EA should be putting out a press release this week. Just you wait until December/January! That having been said, there are one or two coming out on Lechlade even now. There are some huge ones in there.
Angling Reports for the last 4 weeks.
Lechlade: 116 anglers had 337 fish. 42 were doubles. Largest went to Mr Vaughn of London at 13lbs 4oz on an olive buzzer. Mr Evans from Swansea had a fish of 11lbs 4oz on a Dawl Bach and Mr Parsley from Banbury had a fish just under eleven pounds on a gold head daddy.
Bushyleaze: 406 Anglers caught 1557 fish. Mr Mckean from Radstock had a fish of 11lbs 2oz on a daddy, only just beating Mr Roberts of Swindon with a fish of just over 11bs. Mr Bussett of Coventry had a fish just under 9lbs on a bloodworm.. There were 470 fish caught between 4 and 7 pounds. Jon Preston, from Solihull had a 6 fish bag weighing in at 37lbs 2oz!
Prospects for next 4 weeks. A lot depends on the weather but things are looking good. Daddy Longlegs are now beginning to appear and the fish are very keen to take these off the surface on both waters. Perfect as an indicator, fished on the dropper, with a buzzer underneath. Fish on Bushyleaze are also feeding on olives, especially early in the day and then during the evening rise. Moving in to September the fish on Lechlade will start bashing the coarse fish fry so small fry imitations will come in to their own. Also a good time of the year to use Corixas.
It is still raining … I am not holding my breath!
I have serious email problems…even the shortest one is taking up to 19 hours to send, so I apologise for any media deadlines I am about to miss. Something has got into my PC and I haven’t caught it yet … story of my life!
Good to see so many of you at the Game Fair. I’m very glad that these reports are well received. I met people who I didn’t even know were recipients of this so thank you for coming and saying Hello.
Tight lines,
Tim.
