FLY FISHING - ONE hundred anglers visited Chew for the Lexus individual finals over the bank holiday.

FLY FISHING - ONE hundred anglers visited Chew for the Lexus individual finals over the bank holiday. The fishing was difficult and the stormy conditions of strong winds and heavy showers did not help, but several anglers managed to find some feeding fish and 152 fish were taken.

Six fishermen took five fish making the result close but a rainbow of 4.06, biggest fish on the day, gave Ian Gaskell the top bag on the day. His weight of 12.05 won him a Lexus car and the big fish, a trip to Norway salmon fishing. Mark Miles came second just over one pound behind. On practice day Mark landed a brown of over 5lbs, which he returned, a fish that would have won him the top prizes.

BRFFA Hidden Teams competition took place with 33 anglers in this bank and boat competition. Rod Newton was top rod from the bank section with six fish for 10.13 while last year's winner Andre Gysler was best boat angler, again six fish for 10.11. Highlight of the day was a wonderful rainbow of 8.15 captured by veteran angler Roger Stenner.

Bristol Water Fisheries have reported unsettled weather for the last two weeks with strong and gusty winds and often heavy showers. Few brighter days but always accompanied by winds.

Lake levels on the main lakes are falling slowly. Water clarity varies at each venue but generally Blagdon is good and Chew is coloured with an algal bloom and stirred up sediment. The water temperature has begun to fall and is now 16�C. Most of the weed at Blagdon appears to have died back though there are still extensive beds of weed in places at Chew.

Despite more stockings, Chew remains hard with few fish coming to bank or boat rods. The clarity of the water is poor mainly due to the constant winds stirring up the sediment though there is some algae present too.

After a quiet couple of weeks Blagdon has really taken off with 44 anglers taking limit bags this week, mainly from the shore. The weed beds have dropped away and the millions of corixa present have migrated into the shallow water giving a bonanza of fishing for the anglers on the south shore.

The boats too have been doing well but they have to find areas of shallow water where the bank fishers cannot reach and here they too are catching well.

From the Dam, through Cheddar water and Pipe bay, Polish Water, Green Lawn and Rainbow all have been producing great fishing on floating lines and most patterns. Pegs and Rugmoor are also good especially fro the boats. Here David Potter had a 7.04 rainbow.

Still a little patchy at Barrow, though there have been some better bags from both 1 and 3. Few moving fish still and little in the way of fly hatches at present although the fish are very often extremely close to the bank.

Fantastic sport at Litton with plenty of fish being found on both lakes. The heavy rain has coloured the top end of the upper lake, so concentrate nearer the dam here.

The lower lake seems to be producing fish from most areas. Nymphs and small gold heads best patterns.