It has been a long time since I visited Bewl, chased away by the behaviour of the eastern european lure anglers. I went back on Friday and Saturday for the last match of the Major clubs series. Friday was windy and wet with a rather cold nip in the air. fish were showing all over the main bowl but catching them was another thing. We managed 4 to the boat, One on a static sunburst blob, another on a dibbled Daiwl Bach after it chased a small orange blob to the boat. I lost a third fish when it broke me for no apparent reason (Casting knot?) and missed one good pull that nearly had me out of the boat. How those don’t stick is a mystery! My boat partner had his on a static popper hopper and an orange blob. We tried pulling but got no response and even a black snake on a DI5 didn’t work. Ray French was out there and he struggled to two fish as well. Best return on the day was 5 fish, best boat had 9, mainly on blobs . I did find a big shoal of perch just off the boat dock but they were very small although very obliging.

Small but beautiful and greedy

Match day saw me in a boat with Lou, from the Army A team. She had a method not to far away from mine and we agreed to fish away from the crowds in the main bowl. The Army team had nothing to fish for being safe from relegation and not in the running to win so we agreed on a relaxing day with shared information and a few laughs. Bewl had very sensibly asked the lure anglers to stay in hook straight and 7lb creek away from the main bowl to avoid any conflict and for the most part they did. We started in the main bowl near Chingley wood and it went well with a follow on the first cast then a fish after 30 minutes. Lou lost the next one and then I got one that hit the flies as they landed taking both top and middle droppers . Fish were still moving but not feeding all over the shop. For most it was a struggle. Those who did well in the end either fished a long midge tip static with nymphs and a small booby or pulled like crazy with two blobs. I can’t physically do that all day so stuck to the nymphs but apart from a stray fish on a Jersey Herd (Yes you read that right) and a few more pulls it was very quiet. Lou managed a fish and then lost a good one for no apparent reason and the last four hours were purgatory, we couldn’t raise an eyebrow let alone a fish. The day was spoiled by two things firstly a boat load of lure anglers kept coming onto our drift, I asked them nicely to go back to their area and initially they did but then they came back and trolled two spinners right across the front of our boat at which point i had to have words. They eventually moved away and in fairness didn’t come back but that was probably due to the rangers chasing other lure anglers away from the main bowl at the same time. The second thing that spoiled the day was we got relegated. We had to beat one team in our group and they won the group , we were second. Then one of our team got DQ’d for having fished the spring association match too so its Div 3 for us next year. Will I go back to Bewl? It is my nearest fishery and there were plenty of fish even if they were difficult to catch. But I really don’t want to share the water with lure anglers who show no respect for anyone else so I’ll have to think on that one.