BLAGDON WATER

 

By Adrian V W Freer

 

The legacy of Dr Bell is very much bound up with his association with Blagdon Water which he fished regularly on Fridays and Sundays for around fifty years from 1920 until a few years before his death in 1974. A few facts and figures about the reservoir would therefore be appropriate.

 

Blagdon Water is located in the north Mendip Hills approximately ten miles south of Bristol. The purpose for its creation was to provide drinking water for the nearby city of Bristol. Construction began in 1898 and it took eight years to build with completion finally taking place in 1905. It was originally named Yeo Reservoir.

 

The reservoir was formed by damming the River Yeo at its western end and it is fed by the River Yeo which enters at its eastern extremity and exits via a compensation channel. There is a weir and spillway which takes away any floodwater downstream below the dam.

 

Blagdon covers an area of 440 acres and it is relatively shallow with a maximum depth of 38 feet and a mean depth of around 14 feet.

 

It has been used as a trout fishery since its very earliest days and it was one of the very first reservoirs in England to be opened as a trout fishery in 1904. In its early years both fly fishing and spinning were allowed but spinning was eventually proscribed in the mid-1940s and it has been a ‘fly only’ water ever since.

 

Bristol Water describe the charm of Blagdon with these words:

 

Are there many fly fishermen in the world who haven’t heard of Blagdon? The name stirs emotions for thousands of anglers as the home of still water trout fly fishing with catch records going back as far as the early 1900's.

 

Sitting at the foot of the Mendip Hills in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), Blagdon Lake covers 440 acres and is classified as a SSSI by Natural England for its wildflower meadows and bird populations.

 

The long, narrow shape makes it ideal for both boat and bank fishing. There are deep basins and long banks to drift over, plenty of points and promontories for access to deeper areas as well as shallow, sheltered bays of quieter water. Most of the seven-mile perimeter has easy bank access but to explore the more remote areas a boat is the answer.

 

Blagdon has many distinct features around its perimeter which make it it a fascinating venue for bank anglers: points, sheltered bays, drop offs and some deeper holes. The lake bed has variable contours making it rewarding to fish from a boat, either at anchor or ‘on the drift’. There is a fleet of twenty motor-powered or rowing boats available for hire.

 

The lake is stocked with both rainbows and browns and nymph fishing techniques are likely to be the most productive. The lake provides superb top of the water sport and there are good evening rises. Natural food includes buzzers, bloodworm, corixae, caddis larvae and sedges. Popular flies nowadays will include Superglue Buzzers, Diawl Bachs, Stick Flies, Hoppers, Bob’s Bits and a variety of CDC dries and emergers. Nevertheless Dr Bell’s patterns such as the Grenadier, Amber Nymph and Buzzer will still take their share of fish.

 

In 1974 Blagdon was designated as a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) with its wide collection of warblers, flycatchers, reed buntings, geese, water fowl, waders, birds of prey (including goshawks, ospreys and Eurasian hobbies), deer, foxes, badgers and an abundant array of plants and wild flowers (including blue devil's-bit scabious, purple hardheads and marsh orchids).

 

With such beauty, variety and a profusion of wildlife it is no wonder that Dr Bell fell in love with the lake, and its trout, and spent so many precious hours here.