Following one the coldest starts to the year anyone can remember, the past few weeks have seen a steady flow of thirties reported from both the Old Lake and Temple Lake with yet another Temple thirty reported this weekend.

Indeed, it will come as no surprise that Temple regular Sean Howard had another cracking session on Temple lake this weekend catching 4 fish to 33lb 11oz. Fishing peg 13, Sean fished a single grain of glugged corn to the both the bank and island margins catching a stunning mirror weighing 33lb 11oz as well as a 27lb common, and two smaller Temple residents, the Parrot at 19lb 12oz and a small common at 18lb 8oz which must be about the smallest fish in the lake!

This great winters catch follows Sean's brace of thirties two weeks ago when Sean caught ‘The Ghost’ weighing 37lb and Italian 2 weighing 31lb 6oz. This superb brace was caught from peg 14 when Sean fished a small section (corn size) of a sweet cream pop up singularly to the open water to both his left and right rods with no additional feed around his bait. Sean’s first fish, ‘The Ghost’ weighing 37lb was caught at around mid afternoon Saturday from just in front of peg 15. This is the second time Sean has caught ‘The Ghost’ having last caught her in April last year when she weighed 35lb 9oz. Sean’s second thirty of his session came mid morning Sunday when his popped up bait was taken just in front of the island to Sean’s right resulting in Italian 2 being landed at a new record weight of 31lb 6oz. Both fish were in stunning condition and without doubt would have been a fair bit heavier if it were not for the freezing conditions over the past couple of months

Robin Ellis was another angler to bag a Temple thirty last week, this time a plump 31lb mirror. Fishing a very similar method to that of Sean Howard, Robin fished small pieces of chopped up white pop up to the open water in front of peg 10 with no loose feed catching his first Temple fish of the year around mid afternoon. Carrying tag number 141609, this stunning fish, which is also at a record weight was last caught in May 2008 weighing just over 30lb, but at the time was full of spawn. Returning two days later and fishing similar tactics and baits, Robin, also caught one of Temple’s prettiest fish, ‘Raspberry’ weighing 27lb.

Kicking off the Temple action earlier this month was Bury Hill regular Mark Savage who despite freezing conditions managed to bag not only a new PB but also Temple’s first fish of the year, a stonking 36lb 2oz mirror known as Italian 1. Mark fished peg 4, fishing a number of different methods and baits before settling on a light running rig and a balanced Questbait RahJa Spice boilie tipped with a fake corn which had been glugged for 3 months in a trick glug. Fishing a size 10 long shank blow back, Mark decided to try something different by using a 12” of Korda super natural hook length which he pinned down. With tag number 138134, the big ‘Italian’ is a new PB for Mark beating his previous fish, Temple’s Ghost which Mark caught last year.

Not to be outdone, the Old Lake has also seen some good fish reported these past few weeks with Bury Hill regular, Gavin Campbell catching 'Shoulders' at 31lb 4oz. Fishing peg 24, Gavin fished a single piece of popped up corn on a sinking snowman rig over a bed of crushed hemp and particle mix just short of the right hand margin into approximately 6' of water. With water temperatures just above 3 degree's, Gavin not surprisingly had no runs and was about to pack up at 4.20pm when his right hand rod tore off. As the big mirror kited in front of the boat house, all hell broke loose when Bury Hill's best known lady passed in front of the aerators prompting her to make a very strong run up the long bank taking 100m or so of line before Gavin could turn her, eventually landing his prize at 16.40 just as it was getting dark. Gavin's end rig was a size 8 curved shank hook tied to a super natural hook link with 2oz dung lead fished with a 6 feet lead core which he fished as a helicopter set up. Gavin used a Terry Hearn Mark 2 12' 9" 3 1/4 tc rod with a Daiwa SS3000 reel loaded with 10 lb Nash Bullet line.

Source: Bury Hill Fisheries