Langport & District Angling Association
Fishing News
River Parrett
River levels
The Angling Trust has put a useful website on the internet for finding river levels; one I use when planning a fishing trip on the river.
The web address is www.fishinginfo.co.uk.
Click on the 'Find A River Level' tab and enter 'Langport' in the search box.
This will show a map of river level measuring stations in the Langport area.
I find the 'Monks Lease Wq' at Combe and the 'Oath' at Oath Lock locations give meaningful levels for the river.
Beware the level at 'Westover' which is the river side of the Westover Pumping Station opposite Cocklemoor in Langport. When the river is low, this measuring station shows a smooth horizontal line which suggests the level sensor is probably above the current water level and so not showing the correct level.
I hope this site is of some use to you.
Tuesday 10th September
Fran and I fished near the top end of Stuckies, below the Town Bridge.
The day was warm and overcast or sunny. A light breeze was blowing upstream.
After a day's rain the previous day, Oath Lock was running off excess water creating a nice flow but this was spoilt by a lot of duckweed, reeds and other weed in the water.
Fran fished a 6 metre whip, loosefeeding hemp and caster with maggot on the hook. He caught roach, rudd, skimmers and bleak. A very persistent pike kept taking fish all day, wrecking three whip rigs and half a dozen hooklengths. He finished with a total of 5lb 7oz.
I also fished a 6 metre whip, loosefeeding hemp and maggot with maggot on the hook. Fishing only a metre deep because of the eel grass weed, I caught roach, rudd, skimmers, bleak and a perch for a total of 5lb 15oz. I was lucky, I didn't have any pike trouble!
Thursday 19th September
Fran and I fished near the top end of Stuckies, just below the Town Bridge.
It was a lovely warm summer's day, cloudless, sunshine, and an occasional very light easterly in our faces.
The water was very clear and there was a lot of eel grass almost up to the surface. There was a slow flow until the Westover pump switched on for a while; then the flow increased slightly and a lot of weed, reed and duckweed came down the river.
Fran fished a 6 metre whip with maggot or caster on the hook over loosefed hemp and caster.
He caught roach, rudd, bleak, skimmers, chublets, and perch for a total of 6lb 8oz.
I fished a 5 metre whip with maggot or caster on the hook over loosefed maggot. Because of the eel grass, I couldn't fish any deeper than two feet, but there were plenty of small fish in the upper layers. An occasional larger rudd or roach would put in an appearance. A pike of about 3lb took one fish but he missed six with spectacular jumps out of the water!
I caught roach, rudd, skimmers, chublets and bleak for a total of 4lb 12oz.
Combe Lake
Please make sure you shut the gate securely in the otter fence when entering and leaving the lake.
If you are fishing Combe Lake, why not let me know what you caught; photos of your catch would also be appreciated. We'd love to know how it's fishing for our members. Email me.
WEED
I know some members aren't happy about the weed in our lake. However, the weed is very beneficial to our fish and the waterfowl. It contains lots of food in the form of invertebrates. It provides shelter and protection for our fish. It also helps to keep the algae levels down and improve water quality.
Most of our fishing can be done in front of the platforms so we only need to clear the weed from where we want to fish. This is easily achieved by spending a few minutes raking before we tackle up. This gives a short period for the swim to settle before fishing. Raking also stirs up the silt which attracts the fish into the swim.
A simple weed rake (as shown above) can be made by joining two garden rake heads back to back and securing with cable ties. A length of strong nylon rope can be securely attached.
Wednesday 2nd October
Club President, Brian David and I deployed another couple of bales of barley straw in the lake to try and keep the algae at bay for the remainder of the year!
After we'd finished, I settled down and fished by the large lily bed on the east side of the lake.
I fished an 18 foot rod and centrepin reel. For a change, I loosefed 4mm expander pellets, little and often, and fished a 4mm expander pellet on the hook just touching the bottom close to the lily bed. The water was a bit cold after a cold night and recent rain, so after a few hours, I had four fish in the net. I shallowed up by an inch off the bottom and then the bites improved and I caught steadily until I packed up. In total, I had 3lb 4oz of roach.
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