Above) Joe Keating, Dave Chapman, Nick Tamlin, David Richards, Colin Combe, Tom Rushby, Tony Buckland, Bill Pink, Roy Pink, Andrew Facey, Steve Burnell, Brian Sedgebeer 

Bulldog Trout Fishery held their first Christmas Competition with twelve keen anglers competing for the top prize of a Christmas Turkey and all the trimmings. I arrived shortly after 8:30am to find competitors tackling up in the fishery car park full of optimism for the day ahead.

Nigel and Tom assured all taking part that the lake had been well stocked and talked of a few special fish with a twinkle in their eye and shared their hopes for a grand days sport.

The fishing lodge was well stocked with coffees and teas to last the day with boiling water on tap. The competitors were briefed on the rules as bacon rolls were handed out and eagerly devoured.

            The atmosphere was  certainly full of Christmas cheer with a few warm spirits to warm the inner soul before heading out onto the lake.

            The lake had been pegged out with twelve pegs with the peg number written on the bottom of the coffee cups which was an ingenious way of sorting the draw. The plan for all anglers to rotate around the lake with an air horn sounding every twenty minutes ensuring that all got a chance to fish each peg throughout the day.

            Cast off was at 9:30am and the anticipation was tangible as anglers paced towards their pegs. It was a grey overcast morning with light drizzle driven by a light south west breeze. Pretty perfect  conditions for fishing I thought as I watched on enjoying the opportunity to observe without taking part.

            Most anglers elected to start the day with lure fishing tactics with black and white being the predominant colours along with the popular olive blue flash damsels.

            I walked out onto the lakes central spit and stood beside Joe Keating who connected with the first trout of the day on his first cast just 15 seconds after the horn had signalled the start. a hard fighting rainbow of over 3lb.

            I looked around the misty lake and noted that most had well bent rods as the lakes residents seized the anglers offerings. I dashed around keen to capture some  of the action and share in the fun.

            I noted that the angler fishing in the corner was locked in battle with a larger than average fish and walked around to witness the tussle. Brian Sedgebeer was carefully parrying the lunges of a good fish and I shared in the tension as the fish was slowly coaxed towards the waiting net. I sensed that Brian breathed a big sigh of relief when the trout, with its broad marbled flanks eventually slipped over the rim of the submerged landing net. A large fin perfect spartic trout that was undoubtedly one of those special trout stocked prior to the competition.

            The action was frantic in that first half an hour with good numbers of trout succumbing to the early bombardment of large lures. Cats whiskers and black lures proving most effective.

            It was no surprise to those of us who had fished small Stillwater competitions when the catch rate plummeted as the fish appeared to wise up quickly.

            Nigel and Tom appeared mid-morning with a tray of hot mince pies and clotted cream.

            I did several laps of the lake chatting with anglers some of them long-time friends and others total strangers who all chatted freely about all things piscatorial as anglers do. From time to time a line zipped tight and a rod bent as a hard fighting trout tested the anglers tackle and skill. I did my best to capture the moments of triumph and each anglers success.

            Dave Chapman had certainly tuned into the successful tactics for the day being the first to complete his six fish limit bag just before dinner with the help of his young son Freddie wielding the landing net with a degree of skill and dexterity that would put many senior anglers to shame.

            The warm fishing lodge and roaring wood-burner proved a welcome respite from the grey cool heavy drizzle of this winter day. Dinner was served; roast pork baps, apple sauce, stuffing, roast potatoes and crackling. The air was full of  cheery laughter, tales of fishing, reminisces and those things that fishers and men talk about on such days.

            With appetites satisfied the rivalry reconvened as anglers resumed their circuit of the lake. There was general expectation that there would be a flurry of sport after resting the lake over the dinner break. To my surprise this was not the case and for half an hour or so the trout proved difficult to tempt.

            As the afternoon drifted by there were flurries of activity and trout began to rise around the lake from time to time. A wide variety of flies lures and tactics were employed with floating lines, intermediate lines and sinking lines all put to good use.

The last hour of the day saw Colin Combe complete the second six fish limit of the day, a bag that contained a brace of really chucky rainbows that would undoubtedly give him a good chance of victory.

There was a flurry of activity as the light faded towards the close of play and when the horn sounded to signal the competitions end there were at least three anglers in contention.

The weigh in  revealed some superb bags of quality trout with the top three taking away some superb prizes consisting of food and fishing.

 The winning bag of six trout was caught by Colin Combe and weighed a total of 24lb and included a fine spartic of 4lb 14oz along with rainbow trout of 5lb 7oz and 5lb 6oz. Runner up was Dave Chapman with six trout for 19lb 1.5oz and Joe Keating third with five trout for 18lb 10.25oz. The biggest trout of the day was caught by Brian Sedgebeer a stunning Spartic trout of 8lb 4oz.

Winter is often the best time to visit these smaller Stillwaters with the trout in peak condition in the cold clear well oxygenated water. Nigel and Tom will be hosting regular events over the coming months and are being supported by the Angling Trust as a venue to host Go Fishing and well-being events.