We have enjoyed some lovely spring days for the past few weeks and some of the afternoons are positively balmy! We have had some rain as well meaning there is a good flow through the lakes and stock ponds and so overall the conditions for fishing have been about as close to perfect as you can get. The best flies continue to be the blue flash damsel and the small catswhisker but we have also had some sport on more summertime tactics such as buzzers fished on a sight bob.

Mark Morris of Torquay commented “Good Day” after he caught his bag on the specimen lakes referencing his best fly as a size 12 Catswhisker fished just under the surface. His 4 fish weighed in at 19-4 with 2 fish over 6lb!

Paul Grisley from Exford and Graham Lavender from Hawkcombe paid us a mid week visit and both took the half day Rover. Graham caught his limit of three fish for 9-2 favouring the Catswhisker while Paul just managed two fish from the normals. They both then headed off to an interesting evening’s fly tying with John Dawson over at Exbridge.

Regular visitor Ian Nadine from Collumpton also paid us a mid week visit taking the Rover Classic which is 2 specimens and 2 normals. He caught his limit for 14-10 favouring a skinny black buzzer.

Christian Bulter of Wellsbourne also had a good day having to take an Add on ticket after bagging up before he was ready to go home! In the end he caught a bag of 11-3 from the normals. He used a blue flash damsel and reported “they are taking on the drop”.

Paul Becker of Kings Nympton and his fishing pal Peter Killow had a mixed day with Paul catching 4 normals for 13-4 but Peter only managed one fish – bragging rights to Paul I guess. That day the Gold Ribbed Hares Ear (GRHE) did the trick.

Nigel White of Uffcombe had a rewarding afternoon taking two fish on the specimens for 8-6 and he used a Gold Headed Montana.

Adrian Buckle from Moretonhampstead took the Rover Classic and caught his limit of 2 specimens and 2 normals for 13-4 using a Gold Head Daddy Long Legs which I think would be the first of the season!

We had the first heat of The Bellbrook Cup on Sunday 15th  March which was an exciting occasion. We had 15 anglers all fishing their first heat and it fished brilliantly with 5 anglers catching their limit of 6 fish and a further 6 anglers catching 5 fish each – nobody blanked! I have written a separate report under the News section of the website for those who would like to see more details. For the league table for the competition please go to the Competitions page.

If you fancy taking part in a similar day these are taking part all year with The Bellbrook Cup and details can be found on the website at www.bellbrookfishery.co.uk/competitions .

Any questions about the fishery please call Chris on 01398 351292.