Winter is definitely here with two or three good hard frosts taking the water temperature down to more normal levels for this time of year. Consequently the fishing is cold on the fingers but red hot when it comes to the sport. The cold water brings additional oxygen and so if a fish hits you – it really hits you and they are going like a train!

We had the Christmas Fish Off this week and had an excellent turn out with 20 anglers catching over 70 fish! The grand winner catching his 6 fish for 20-9 was Perry Bamonte from Cullumpton. His tactic was a floating line with a small damsel and a very slow retrieve – not easy to do under competition conditions. Second and third place went to Ian Nadin of Cullompton Carp and Coarse and John Gilmore of Exmouth catching 5 fish each for 17-8 and 16-7. As well as the traditional prizes of Port, Bucks Fizz and Chocolates the winners also received complimentary fishing tickets at Bellbrook – not that need any more practice! I was very pleased with the way the lakes fished as that was quite heavy pressure on the water but while it was harder in the afternoon we had 6 anglers who only missed one fish and there were plenty caught in the afternoon.

Other visitors this week included Glenn Roberts from Bradnich who had his first visit to Bellbrook and took the Rover Classic. Glen managed two fish including a rather splendid 5-0 out of Ironmill – Glenn’s biggest fish to date. Both fish fell to a Damsel fished fairly slow on a floating line.

John Carpenter of Exeter was back for more managing to catch his limit of 5 fish from the normals for 12-4. John likes to challenge himself and decided to take one fish from each of the normal lakes – it took him all day but it’s not an easy thing to do so top marks John!

Ricky Cox from Bishop Lydeard fished the Rover Classic and managed two fish for 8-0. Ricky used an Orange Fritz and found a “quickish” retrieve worked best.

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