Previous seasons - Summary
2005 season	2004 > 2005

All things being considered, we saw a number of differences in the 2005 season.

From the start, things were a little strange with all the fish seeming to be concentrated at the Blagdon end of the lake as opposed to the more traditional start at the Top End. This really didn't change until well into the middle of the season when the fishing from the boats turned back to being virtually all on the surface.

It's been a long time since anyone naturally took to a boat and immediately started looking for fish moving in various wind slicks in virtually any reasonable set of conditions.

Good boat fishing didn't always translate to the banks however. The weed this year was less prolific than last year but it took an extremely long time to finally break up which prevented access to a lot of the South side of the lake. That coupled with the fish being concentrated around the dam basin and Butcombe Bay meant that until the fish started moving down the North Shore the bank fishing was quite sparse on some occasions.

Regardless of the overall fishing, the most significant issue this season was he appearance of large numbers of small jack pike at the end of the year. Despite a very negative initial reaction most local anglers have come to believe that pike in Blagdon shouldn't really affect the quality of the trout fishing.

Looking forward to the 2006 season, there have been a large number of fish seen in the main feeder streams and by and large they look to be in good condition. Another good indicator is that fish have also been seen around some of the more minor streams which looks like that there is a good head of overwintered fish around that are quite comfortable around the margins.

In terms of overall condition, the lake still has to come up to top water level but this shouldn't take long if we get sufficient rain between now and March. The water quality is just about right for the time of year and unless we get a complete deluge, the water clarity should be excellent for the start of the 2006 season.