April Fishing Competition
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Fishing competition report for Blagdon,
22nd April 2026
How the mighty were humbled
All 15 paid up members again attended, plus of course our “honorary” member, Pat, so another full turnout after the one at Hawkridge.
Blagdon has fished really well recently, but in more clement conditions than we faced when we arrived – Bright sun, a blustery wind bordering on too high to fish, and in the East as well. Just about as horrible fishing conditions as we could have ordered…
Some people scattered to the Top End, Rugs Point & Wood Bay, but the majority of the fleet soon sought the relative shelter of Butcombe Bay, where they found a reasonable head of quite stunningly fit & large fish.
Jim’s first fish, caught at about 9:20 was a quite beautiful over-wintered brown trout, still recovering from his winter spawning in the nearby stream. He was of course released after being netted and photographed by Jim’s ghillie, Steve.
As you can see, he was caught in the top lip with a size 14 buzzer.
Denis was soon into the first of what turned out to be a winning bag of Rainbows:
Both Denis & Pat plugged away all morning, while Jim did his best to keep up. However, most boats seemed to struggle with the conditions, picking up only the odd fish here & there, mainly around Butcombe Bay.
Steve struggled to get properly started, despite being given the flies Jim was using all morning – A scruffy 14’s black nymph on the top dropper, a 14’s buzzer on the 2nd dropper, then 2 size 12 quill nymphs on the third dropper & point.
Lunch was held in Blagdon’s fabulous lodge.
Most people reported thin pickings, Jim had 6 at lunchtime (Plus the brownie released), Denis 4 and Pat 2. Most of the others none or one.
The afternoon was again mainly fished in Butcombe Bay, with Steve picking up a fish to add to the one he caught in the morning, Jim one to add to his total, Denis 4, and Pat 2. Gary Williams had his first fish with us, and Dave Green one or 2 to add to his mornings total.
The weigh-in was at 5:30, and there were 3 prizes on offer: Best Bag (a day ticket at Chew or Blagdon being the prize), best fish (wine) and best Boat (wine again).
In total we caught 35 fish weighing just under 117lbs, an average of 3lbs 5oz, with the results being as follows:
Name Pos'n Lbs Oz
Denis Wilmot 1 29 14
Jim McLaughlin 2 25 15
Pat South 3 14 94
Dave Green 4 8 14
Bob South 5 8 0
Dave Price 6 6 13
Dave Glen 7 6 12
Chris Leat 8 6 11
Steve Coles` 9 5 7
Gary Williams 10 3 14
All others blanked
The mighty were indeed humbled, with the winners of the last three years, Steve and Terry, well at the bottom of the board.
The boat results were:
Best fish on the day was a tie between Dave Green & Jim at 4lbs 10oz
After the second round of the championship, the standings are:
Name Pos'n Weight
Denis Wilmot 1 31 lbs 10oz
Jim McLaughlin 2 30 lbs 5oz
Dave Glen 3 21 lbs oz
Dave Price 4 20 lbs 9oz
Bob South 5 18 lbs 15oz
Steve Coles 6 18 lbs 7oz
Chris Leat 7 13 lbs 3oz
Terry Feest 8 9 lbs 6oz
Dave Green 9 8 lbs 14oz
Nick Boyd 10 5 lbs 4oz
Len Harris 11 5 lbs 0oz
Gary Williams 12 3 lbs 14oz
Dave Wheeler 13 2 lbs 8oz
Simon Reece 14 2 lbs 4oz
So, all to play for at the top of the league for the second part of the season.
Steve's ghillie.MP4A rare occasion when Jim acted as Steve's ghillie.
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