Trout fishermen found differing sport last week on the Bristol Water trout fisheries.

Chew valley had an excellent week but at Blagdon fishermen found things getting harder after a good start to the week.

At Chew things got better as the week progressed and boat anglers had wonderful sport although bank anglers found things more difficult.

Although conditions were far from ideal there was no shortage of hatching buzzers and now there are large blooms of daphnia appearing which has possible encouraged the fish to stay well offshore but anglers from Walley Bank, North Shore and Nunnery have had some success.

For the boat anglers around the Island, the False Island and Roman Shallows there have been lots of fish and these are being taken on most methods.

Although Blagdon is only five miles from Chew it’s amazing how different the two fisheries can be. After a good start to the week things have got progressively harder and at the week-end both banks and boats were finding feeding fish difficult to locate.

Most of the bank areas have seen some fish caught but nowhere has really turned on and the Top End and Cheddar Water which were the boat hot spots have also been difficult.

The colder conditions have meant less surface activity and anglers have found pulling lures the most successful method than the static nymphs and dries.

Mr Lockyer took the best fish of the week with a fine 6 lb 15 oz rainbow caught from a boat.

There were few moving fish at the Barrows so most anglers are fishing nymphs sub-surface or the mouse. Things should start to improve for dry fly anglers as the water continues to warm and sunnier days arrive.

Chew produced a total catch last week of 1009 fish averaging 2 lb 3 oz topped by a brown of 4 lb 0 oz and rainbow 4 lb 3 oz with 55 limit bags.

At Blagdon 555 fish averaging 2 lb 6 oz were taken topped by a brown of 5 lb 2 oz and rainbow 6 lb 15 oz with 19 limits. The barrows yielded 173 fish averaging 1 lb 6 oz topped by a brown of 4 lb 1 oz and rainbow 2 lb 4 oz.

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Saturday saw the Chew Valley heat of the Lexus European Teams event. This contest is for teams of six anglers and nine clubs had their teams practicing hard over the previous days hopeful for a good result and a place in the English Teams final to be held at Chew in July.

Practice days had seen an upturn in the sport at Chew and anglers found fish in various places around the lake and falling to a variety of methods and flies.

Competition day started in almost perfect conditions – alight SW breeze and overcast skies so hopes were high as the boats set off from the jetties. Most anglers headed for the Island and False Island where there had been plenty of feeding fish found.

And they were still there when the boats arrived and rods bent straight from the off. Some boats went further afield to the Dam area and they also found fish but not in the numbers that seem to be near the Island.

By mid afternoon when the sun appeared several anglers had completed their ten fish limit bag.

The appearance of the sun made fishing more difficult and for the last couple of hours many struggled to catch.

At the weigh in every angler brought fish to the scales. 362 fish were caught with a rod average of 6.7 fish per person. Phil Cotton took his limit bag before 2 pm and with his time bonus topped the 54 rod field with 30 lb 10 oz. He took most of his fish on blobs pulled fast on Di sinking line.

His catch helped his team Tightlines to first place. Only two of their team failed to take their ten fish limit and the team total was an incredible 57 fish.

Blagdon Fly Fishers came second with 47 fish closely followed by BRFFA Team Orvis with 45 fish. Other qualifiers were BRFFA Park Retail and Carbotec Kingfishers.

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Members of Bathampton AA are enjoying top sport at all of the club fisheries. The two lakes at Lydes Farm are fishing very well and will be even better as the water temperature rises.

Widewater in particular has provided some startling silver fish sport with nets of bream totalling 60 lb or more made up in the main with fish averaging 2 lb.

Most baits and methods are producing fish with short pole and sweetcorn or red maggots bringing bites all day long. Kevin Maggs took a nice mixed bag of fish including tench to 2 lb, carp to 6 lb and plenty of bid skimmers.

Ted Hill also a good bag of 25 lb of bream on pole fished sweetcorn.

Paul Harris took a 30 lb bag of rudd, roach and skimmers in a four hour session on waggler fished red maggots. Tory O’Donoghue fished the margins of Dragonfly Pond with luncheon meat and sweetcorn on pole for a net of tench, small carp and roach weighing 25 lb plus.

Newton Park Lake near Bath has been kind to 13 year old Mitchell Pope. Although a newcomer to the sport, Mitchell has an excellent teacher in Rob Delaney who is a salesman at Veals Fishing Tackle and has many good catches at Newton Park.

Once Rob showed him what’s what the youngster was in his element soon catching his first ever carp of approximately 7 lb, and then landing a further five mirrors up to 9 lb 8 oz. Incidentally Rob also managed to catch six nice mirrors – all double figure weights to about 15 lb.

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The GOT Baits Open match fished at Landsend Fishery produced fairly even weights. Top honours on the day went to Anton Page of GOT Baits with an all carp catch weighing 91 lb 5 oz taken alternating with pole fished paste and pellets for a comfortable win.

Alan Oram of Dynamite Baits took second prize with another carp catch weighing 81 lb 0 oz taken on pole fished pellets.

Gary Wall of Landsend clinched third prize with a carp catch weighing 53 lb 5 oz taken on pole fished pellets. Other placings: 4. Nick Collier GOT Baits 52 lb 15 oz; 5. Dave Sawyer Landsend 41 lb 12 oz.

The Wednesday Open match fished at Landsend Fishery was another good day for Mosella star Tony Rixon who gained a runaway win.

Tony drew a peg on Special Lake and proceeded to take an all carp catch fishing with long pole fished pellets fished shallow.

Gary Etheridge from Devizes carried off second prize with another carp catch weighing 69 lb 13 oz taken on pole fished pellets.

Kevin Molton of Maver Veals finished a close up third with a carp catch weighing 66 lb 15 oz with Chris Edmunds of Avon Angling in fourth spot with a carp catch weighing 60 lb 10 oz.

The silver fish prize went to Nick Collier of GOT Baits with a mainly skimmer catch weighing 29 lb 10 oz.

The Sedges Open match produced mixed sport with carp making up the bulk of the weights.

Top honours on the day went to Dave Evans of Dynamite Frys MG with a carp catch weighing 41 lb 9 oz taken on waggler fished pellets for the narrowest of wins. Paul Locke of Sedges Mosella pushed him to the final whistle to take second prize with another carp catch weighing 41 lb 8 oz taken on pole fished pellets.

Alan Jones of Enterprise Angling clinched third prize with a carp catch weighing 33 lb 7 oz also taken on pole fished pellets.

The silver fish prize went to Martin West with a skimmer catch weighing 16 lb 1 oz. Other placings: 4. Brian Shanks Avon Angling 26 lb 13 oz; 5. Anton Page GOT Baits 21 lb 4 oz; 6. Tony Rixon Mosella 20 lb 1 oz.

After a settled period of weather, the cold and continual rain made for uncomfortable conditions in the Bathampton Over 55s/Disabled match fished on Thursday at Bridge Pool.

However, despite this there were some good catches made and John Bennett from Bristol made light of the conditions to carry off top prize with a carp catch weighing63 lb 2 oz taken on short pole fished paste.

Bob Warren from Oldland clinched second prize with another carp catch weighing 61 lb 10 oz also taken on pole fished paste.

He was followed by Dave Bacon from Bath with a carp catch weighing 47 lb 3 oz taken on pole fished pellets.

The silver fish prize went once again to Mike Nicholls from Bitton with a mainly skimmer catch weighing 13 lb 15 oz. Other placings: 4. Bob Price Bristol 36 lb 7 oz; 5.

Dave Poole Bristol 34 lb 2 oz; 6. Martin Alexander Bristol 31 lb 15 oz.

The Wilts Angling Open match fished at Rood Ashton on Thursday produced even weights.

Top honours went to Matt Skyrme of Trowbridge with a carp catch weighing 71 lb 4 oz taken on pole fished paste for a comfortable win.

In form Pete Neate from Holt again framed in second spot with a carp catch weighing 57 lb 0 oz also taken on pole fished paste. Martin Bright of Westbury used identical tactics to clinch third prize with a carp catch weighing 50 lb 4 oz.

Other placings: 4. Sean Rhodes Trowbridge 43 lb 0 oz; 5. Darren Fordham Devizes 42 lb 0 oz; 6. Dave Bancroft Trowbridge 39 lb 6 oz.

Todber Manor was in good form on Sunday for the Wilts Angling Open event with carp feeding well.

Jamie Smith from Frome carried off top prize with a carp catch weighing 126 lb 8 oz taken on pole fished pellets fished shallow.

Nathaniel Johnson from Melksham was a close runner up with another carp catch weighing 122 lb 0 oz also taken on pole fished pellets fished shallow.

Pete Neate from Holt again put in a good performance to take third prize with a carp catch weighing 117 lb 10 oz taken on pole fished pellets fished shallow. Other placings: 4. Steve Gardner Chippenham 111 lb 4 oz; 5. Gary Etheridge Devizes 104 lb 4 oz; 6. Sean Rhodes Trowbridge 89 lb 12 oz.

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Future events: Friday May 15: Airsprung match K & A Canal Tithe Barn Sunday My 17: Frys match at Emerald Fishery Ridgeway match at Landsend Fishery Thursday May 21: Bathampton Over 55s/Disabled match at Withy Pool Friday May 22: Airsprung match K & A Canal Moulton Drive