While on holiday in Somerset in August I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pay a visit to Blagdon Lake. It’s one of those places you read about and see in books and looks like the perfect idea of fly fishing heaven. Earlier this year we fished Eyebrook which is a very similar fishery and as Eyebrook is one of my favourite places I was really looking forward to a day at Blagdon, especially as the fishing reports were looking good to!

We’d had a week of generally good weather while on holiday with the odd rainy afternoon and some cloudy days. I’d booked a boat for an afternoon in the end as I couldn’t make a full day and the weather 3 days before was looking perfect – a light breeze and cloudy.

In the morning my afternoon at Blagdon was looking great. Cloudy with a light breeze. Perfect. I had to go to Chew first to sign-in (and watch a 10 minute health and safety video – Really!) and then on to Blagdon. It’s an amazing place. Driving down steep narrow lanes through Blagdon village and then through the trees and out onto the grass near the lodge, the lake looks majestic nestled in rolling hills and quintessential English countryside. The nice chaps at the lodge had said the last few days had been fishing well and sticking a Bobs Bits or Hopper on should do the trick. Lovely.

A fisherman’s curse part 1

Out on the water there were a few fish rising and I spent the first hour or so trying to slowly move round and drift across them. There were fish but I couldn’t tempt them. And then the cloud disappeared, the sun came out and the wind dropped. Flat calm, bright sunshine and the fish disappeared. For the next few hours I tried everything to tempt them; different flies, different locations but with no luck.

A fisherman’s curse part 2

The bright sun, warmth and calm conditions didn’t do the fishing much good but it was ideal for one thing – flying ants! Later in the day there were thousands of them spread across the top of the water in slicks. There still weren’t many fish rising but the ones that were I’m sure were supping down the ants and nothing I had would tempt the fish away from an easy meal.

I saw a few other catch throughout the afternoon but not many. Sometimes its just nice to know that you’re not the only one having a hard day.

Blagdon is a fantastic fishery an on a good day would be a joy to fish. I’ll definitely be going back.