About a month and a half ago, I posted a message ranting at the state of Chigborough Fisheries, which was at the time, suffering from a nasty bout of argulus.

Being a relative beginner to the sport, I thought this was in some way the fault of the fishery through neglect, however, after speaking to a regular and doing a little research on argulus, I decided to head back. I went two weeks ago to the rook hall lake and although the fishing was relatively slow, I had two fish and a few decent takes.

I decided to go back this weekend to try out the specimen lake, as I had been told there were some big pigs up to 20lb in there. When I arrived Rook Hall was packed but there was nobody on Bean Mere (the specimen lake), I took this as a bad omen, but decided to press on as I would rather fish in relative peace and obscurity than with people only 15 ft away from me on either side.

The bailiff came round and told me that they actually only went up to about 10lbs in there and it was a difficult lake to fish but by that time I had seen a few rise so at least I knew there was some activity going on. After a fruitless couple of hours, I saw a couple of bubbles in the margin to my left...I crept over and cast out just in front of the bubbles. a couple of casts later and I had an explosive take on my middle dropper (gold head hare's ear) The fish gave a good account of itself and it took me nearly five minutes to get in, weighing a solid 4 lb 12. About half an hour later I had another take just a few yards further out on the same fly (its quickly becoming one of my favourites). This fish was a little bigger but despite a few acrobatic leaps, it tired very quickly. When I got it in it looked like it had bruises on either side of its flanks with a scar on one side, almost as if it had been clamped in the jaws of something....I'm pretty sure there were no 30lb pike in this little lake though. Below are the pictures of these fish







sorry about the shadow on the last one, I was just wondering if anyone had seen bruising like this before and might know what the cause is.

I had to stop fishing after 2 fish as I had reached my limit and catch and release was not allowed. All in all it was a good day, to be honest though, what I really cant wait for is to get out on a river and stalk some wild brownies. I just wish there was a river a little more local for me to go to though!

Could be a cormorant has had hold of the fish, they always attack from below & from behind with any damage on the fish showing from the vent up towards the front of the dorsal fin.

Was there nobody from the fishery staff who could shed some light on the damage.

Ifor

No I didnt see anyone to ask, the bailiff came round just after I got out there and then I didnt see her for the rest of the day. I drove to the office on the way out but it was locked so no joy.

I've never fished Bean Mere, but on Sunday (17th Oct) fished Home water. Water was crystal clear with a lot of fish jumping.
Had a total of 7 fish, with the largest being just under 4lb, and then 2 at 3.5lb, the rest were all 2 lb ish.
1st was caught on a GRHE, the rest on PTNs or Red Diawl Bach.
Much better than the last 2 visits, when I blanked.
Interestingly, Rook hall was the busiest water, although after my initial 2 fish, I went C&R on there, which was a bit harder.
Have to say though, all fish were superb, full fins and tails, and not a mark on any of them, so can't say I've witnessed what you did.
A great day.

__________________
"Calling Fly Fishing a hobby is like calling Brain Surgery a job."

I've seen this fairly regularly on rainbow trout, and i can't give you a definitive answer, but i think it's the beginning of a fungal infection or RMS. it tends to be a raised, rather mucus laden area of the skin, and i think that it can develop into red or white patches on the fish. Like i say, no scientific proof of that, but i'm fairly sure its fungal.

Cheeers
Alex