Pike Venues in Bristol/Swindon

[Neil G]

Cheddar varies from 6 to around 19ft down towards the sailing club, there are some underwater 'humps' or changes in depth on certain areas which are worth fishing to.

 

I've almost always fished from near the towers and have some good sport but due to the nature of deadbaiting there it can be very very slow with runs all being within the space of an hour or so (usually in the afternoon).

 

Had the best fishing there in the summer late on in the day but had some real bad blanks as well, mostly in the winter when conditions have seemed to be perfect...just goes to show pike don't play be the rules!

 

Kind of gave up fishing Cheddar on a regular basis, even with lures it was hard to find fish and TBH too far to travel when there are rivers which can keep you busy etc all day so close by.

 

Good luck if you do go, if it's windy be prepared to hang on to your brolly!

Edited October 5, 2008 by Neil G

[joso]

Ended up fishing cheddar on Saturday after. Got there about 8AM, would have been a bit earlier but the Reception to the Caravan Park where you have to get the tickets from didn't open until 8. We went a fair way around and put four rods out between us, all at different distances and all with different baits on. I was slightly put off by the large amounts of weed so I put a Buoyant Bomb on both my rods in the hope that they would settle on the weed rather than sink straight into it. Got my first run about 10:30 on a popped up smelt but lost it in the weed. We then started to move gradually down the bank, leapfrogging in hope of finding the fish. As we came towards the tower the weed got much thicker and was practically unfishable in most places, the wind was blowing right into our faces and the water was extremely choppy, far too rough to send a bait boat out on so we had one cast out and it really was hard work trying to retrieve through the weed, the wind and chop on the water was very bad and made it difficult setting up a drop back indicator.

 

The final straw was a wave of water knocking my mate's rods off his pod and soaking his alarms and with that we decided to call it a day at around 4PM. Not the best day I've had but I quite fancy fishing it later into the season when the weed has died back a bit. A plus from the day was me chasing along the bank after a run away crisp packet and sandwich wrapper and as I walked back to our swim, a couple walked past and commented that it was very good of me to do that and they too often see people leaving litter lying around.

 

Sounds like we are off to the Gloucester Canal this weekend. Does anyone know of a good stretch or a local club I can contact?

 

Cheers

Edited October 7, 2008 by joso

[Neil G]

Ah, good old Cheddar, reminds me of many a session croutched under an umbrella trying to stop it blowing away while watching rods bouncing around on a rod pod while being covered in spray!

 

The weed does die back but I think it's been particularly bad this year, just hate faffing around with pop ups and threading trace through mackerels to attach poly balls etc. only to have baits ruined by having to give it death on the cast!

 

Heard there are some quality Zander in the Gloucester canal...hope all goes well there

[Nicholas S]

I've heard the tench fishing at Cheddar can be very good but it sounds like quite a daunting venue. Does anyone have any experience of the tench fishing there? Thinking about giving it a go during the close season. Any advice on good methods or tactics would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers

[Dick Dastardly]

Might be better re posting your query under a new title.

[Nicholas S]

Ok cheers Budgie, will do