Displaying items by tag: fishery report

This issue of the news letter is coming to you slightly later than expected as there was a lot of work going on at the lake. Publishing was held off until the lake was dug and the island was built so that this news letter could give you all the up to date information. This issue focuses solely on the work completed in July / August 2010. August here has been quite hot, on a few days it reached 37 degrees and at times it was quite difficult to work outside.
Kiran & Angelo

Etang de Planchon is a friendly carp fishing destination within the Haute Vienne region of France, near the lovely market town of Chateauponsac which has bars, restaurants and shops and is 30 minutes away from Limoges Airport. This beautiful four acre lake is set in a ten acre estate and is a secluded and secure venue which caters for a maximum of five anglers per week, licensed for day and night fishing where no permits are required.

Etang De Planchon is Opening for its first season in March 2011, but is available to take bookings NOW.

To see how this stunning carp fishing destination is preparing for its opening in 2011, please check out their latest newsetter:

Etang De Planchon Newsletter Issue 5

July 2010 :: Here is the latest fishing report for Nineoaks Fishery near Aberaeron, Ceredigion in West-Wales.

Recent Trout catches have included :

As we go from June in to July the catch rate of Trout ,as expected, has slowed down. Early mornings and late evenings are definitely the best times to fish, as the ambient temperature is cooler and shadows longer. While the Trout lakes are covered with Damsels and lots of other fly life the sunny summer days are not helping the Trout angler one bit. Since the middle of June many Trout have been caught on tiny black dry flies.

The best wet flies have been the black and green Viva's or Montana's fished on a slow retrieve close to the bottom with Goldhead Damsels, Fritzes in various colours, the Cats Whisker or Hares Ear all producing fish. Black & Yellow and other colours rubber legged Daddies are another deadly fly to be fished here. Either fished on a floating line with long leader or on an intermediate line. Our average fish is around the 2lb to 2.5lb mark with many bigger. One angler caught and lost at the net a fish estimated around the 9lb mark.

The lakes are almost algae free, and the aerators built in to the bottom of each lake are on all through the night. The surface of the lakes have been smothered with small flies, gnats and so on and plenty of different coloured Damsels including the fairly rare "Beautiful Damsel".

Recent Coarse catches have included :

Sweetcorn, luncheon meat, small Boilies, paste and cat food plus various floating baits such as dog biscuits, waffle and bread are all catching fish regularly. Early mornings and late afternoons, especially on floating baits, can produce some spectacular results. Fairly frequently 10lb+ fish are being caught with the best this month at 17lb, several 14's, 12's and plenty of 10's and many near 10's. Our average Carp being around the 5-6lb mark.

The Roach fishing is becoming superb with plenty of "large" Roach being caught. We are almost at the point where we can nearly guarantee at least a 1/2lb fish per session with many much bigger coming out regularly. Plenty of Tench, skimmers and good Bream are being caught too. Local Grass Carp specialist, Mark Roberts of Ffosy Ffin, fishing floating dog biscuits has stalked and landed 2 fish - an 11lb and one at 15lb with bigger fish eluding him so far.

Three regulars Peter, Martin and James, from the Penrhiwgaled Arms, New Quay, who fish floating Purina dog biscuits have tremendous sport, just inches out from the bank, while standing behind the many bushes and reed beds that abound the lakes. They regularly catch over 20 fish per session.

Bury Hill see’s huge catches of tench, bream and crucian as weather improves! The general fishing on all the lakes saw a marked improvement this week as the weather picked up with anglers fishing the Old Lake catching big bags of bream to 100lb, which included good numbers of tench.

In turn Milton Lake also saw some incredible sport with quality tench and crucian making up the bulk of the catches with good numbers of specimen roach and rudd to 2lb and perch to 3lb also showing in nets to 100lb plus. Not to be left out, Bonds Lake has also seen some cracking ton up sport with anglers bagging up to 25 carp.

Bradley Gibbons aged 12 is always pleased when his Dad John books him in for a coaching lesson with our tackle shop manager Russ Evans as it always guarantees a successful day's action. Fishing the pole on Milton lake and demonstrating how to catch finicky feeders like crucians and tench using light tackle and correct feeding, Bradley had his best day ever catching a net full of tench, crucian and silvers on maggot and pellet. With crucians up to 2lbs, tench from 3-4lbs and some quality roach and rudd plus the odd bream and carp young Bradley's total was impressive to say the least finishing his day with 39 crucians, 18 tench, 1 skimmer, 3 roach, 3 rudd and 1 carp which overall totaled around 100lb. Well done Bradley.

Another angler to do well was Keith Hampson who also enjoyed his best days fishing to date when he also had a days coaching lesson on Milton Lake with Russ Evans. Adopting a sensitive waggler and maggot approach, Russ got Keith catching a good mix of species including two new pb's, a cracking 2lbs 4oz crucian carp and a 1lbs 5oz roach. Keith also caught some nice tench to 4lb and rudd for a 45lb catch. Keith's breakdown for the four-hour lesson was 13 crucian, 12 tench, 8 roach, 3 rudd and a perch plus a few that got away.

Russ is available most days in the shop and is always happy to give advice to help improve your catches, just ask. Alternatively, if you fancy a one to one with Russ which is guaranteed to improve your catches, please call him on 01306 883621.

Turning to the Old Lake, Bury Hill regular Mike Head had another brilliant days sport on the long bank this week catching 31 bream to 4lb and a bonus tench of 3lb for close to 100lb. Fishing peg 41, Mike fished a small open end feeder packed full of ground bait and 3mm pellet catching on 8mm soft pellet. This was Mikes second visit this week catching 19 bream and 2 tench during his earlier session when he alternated between feeder and pole catching on pellet, mini boilies and maggot.

Whilst pleasure anglers have been enjoying some great fishing on the Old Lake, local clubs have also seen their fair share of action as Hackbridge AC found this weekend with bream and skimmers domination the catches. With 30 plus anglers drawn on the front bank and early pegs along the long bank, match organizer Dave Johnson won the day with 75lb of bream, which he caught from peg 1 fishing the tip with corn and maggot. 2nd place went to Neil Jaks who weighed in 48lb 12oz of bream and skimmers, which he caught on the pole and pellet whilst Andy Ryan who bagged 39lb 10oz from peg 19 also catching on the tip and pellet took 3rd place.

Nineoaks is a purpose built angling complex, currently, with 3 well stocked Trout lakes, 2 Coarse Lakes and 1 small Novices pool. Set in idyllic, landscaped grounds and surrounded by an abundance of wildlife, birdlife and flora; just 1 ½ miles inland from the Aberystwyth to Cardigan (A487) coast road in West Wales.

Recent Trout catches have included:-

During early March when we had "cold weather" and heavy frosts, and semi-frozen lakes some good bags of Trout were being landed.

In the latter half of the Month when the weather was generally "bad" the few anglers that braved the cold and dampness have had some good Trout and bags of fish. Fish are still taking "gently" or "softly" and a slow retrieve with a fly around 3ft deep has done the trick. Most anglers catching Trout in the 2-2 1/2lb range. 

Two Holiday Anglers fishing "catch & release"; a Roy Hubbard of Market Harborough and Ian Caulfield of  Barrow-in-Furness both had over 12 fish each, all in the 2-3lb range across all 3 Trout Pools fishing floating and intermediate lines and trying out a variety of flies - Shrimp, Cats Whisker, Hares Ear , Damsels and Buzzers all working well. Tomos Boyle of New Quay had a 3 1/4lb Rainbow on a White Blob.

Recent Coarse catches have included:-

Although the weather has been poor some good catches of Roach and Carp with the occasional Bream and Tench have been caught.

Mr. Ian Pilson from Wrexham fishing sweetcorn, pellet and the smaller sizes of the new Myokyku Boilies certainly found the Carp in the Main Lake on peg #1 landing over 70lb of fish to 9lb, with many in the 3-5lb bracket. He also had some excellent Roach approaching the 1lb mark. He said that the new Boilies helped to sort out the better Carp and using them in the House Pool caught Roach to 1lb on the smaller Boilies, Carp to 10lb and Bream up to 2lb.

During a day of bad weather, another holiday maker from Oldham had a 2lb Tench from the Main Lake on sweetcorn and lots of Roach on maggots. The few warm days in the middle of March saw Carp being caught on floating Bread and dog biscuits in the afternoons.

The best Carp in March was an 11lb 12oz common from the Main Lake caught by Ted Cole of Cardigan on double sweetcorn. Several other doubles have also been landed. A beautiful "linear Mirror" was caught by local angler Nick Stephens of Cardigan who also had plenty of Bream.

Following the coldest winter for over 30 years, water temperatures are still a month behind which has clearly affected the fishing which has made it almost impossible to prize a fish out of Temple.

However the good news is that with temperatures now increasing, the past few days has seen a lot more fish activity and most importantly, the first fish has been caught from Temple, a stunning fighting fit mint Italian weighing 27lb 6oz, which is a new record weight for the fish being caught previously at 26lb 4oz.

The lucky angler to bag the first fish of the year was Craig Hess who also lost a good fish during his midweek session.

Craig was fishing swim 14 on the back bank and caught his well deserved fish on a 12mm Active 8 boilie, which he tipped with corn in conjunction with a small pva bag filled with pellet and chopped boilies.

With temperatures now set to continue to increase, expect to see more fish banked over the coming days and weeks.

2009 Has Been An Action Packed Year!

This year has been packed full of festivals, with lots of new names taking the top titles which is always great to see. Massive congratulations are extended to all the match & festival winners from throughout the year, especially to the new title holders of the Parkdean Masters, Grant Albutt and the Master of Masters, Steve Ringer.

The 2010 White Acres fishing festival calendar is out now and White Acres are looking forward to welcoming back all you anglers for another bumper season. They are very pleased that the two new festivals added this year - Garbolino Spring Classic & the Preston Innovations Parkdean Pairs - generated a lot of interest. It won’t be long before they’re as popular as the others!

Grant Albutt was crowned the 10th Parkdean Master!

Grant Albutt clinched the 2009 Parkdean Master title, securing the £25,000 winner-take-all prize. Grant, who qualified in 23rd place in the Preston Innovations festival the week before was ecstatic about his triumph. “I'm chuffed to bits,” he said. “It really hasn't sunk in yet. I knew my time would come one day. It was just when!”

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Parkdean Masters at White Acres, Grant Albutt joined the nine previous Masters winners to battle it out for the Master of Masters championship title. Steve Ringer, the Masters 2003 winner claimed first place, walking away with the prestigious giant Parkdean Masters trophy and also a fantastic prize of a luxury holiday for two to Las Vegas with an additional £250 to gamble on the slots!

Even more ladies & juniors fishing matches at White Acres

The weekly resident matches at White Acres are a great chance for anglers of all abilities to shine, giving everyone an opportunity to go head to head with other anglers and win! 2009 has not only seen even more ladies and juniors fishing the Rover matches but also entering the Gold and Silver matches, finishing with fantastic results.

What’s also very encouraging is the increased interest in the ladies & junior festivals this year plus the number of juniors and ladies entering the main festivals.

Here is the latest fishing report for Nineoaks Fishery near Aberaeron, Ceredigion in West-Wales.

Trout Fishing:-
Although July and August, as everywhere has been, were slow and difficult months good fish were still being occasionally caught (see Trout above). Since then as we moved in to September, buzzers, nymphs and Damsels have been the best flies to use. Sinking lines with Orange Buzzers fished really slowly have produced some excellent bags. Fishing still continues to be slow and is expected to improve greatly as we move into cooler times with breezes producing some surface ripples.

Coarse Fishing:-
Local angler, Jason from New Quay caught the above superb 12lb Common on the last cast of the evening. Meanwhile James Chisholm, Penrhiwgaled Arms, New Quay caught another lovely 10lb 'ish Grass Carp after stalking the fish for a while on floating bread. Good fish have been coming out regularly nearly every day as shown by the lovely Mirror of about 10lb from the Main Lake.

Plenty of quality 1lb+ Roach have been caught from the House Pool and the Main Lake and both lakes have produced some superb Roach sport on a variety of baits, including luncheon meat (and not always small cubes), small black slug, pellet, paste and Bread.

The cool, damp mornings have produced plenty of black slug on the banks of the lakes and what a superb natural bait it makes fished on a #10 Barbless Hook. Plenty of good Carp have been caught using this free bait along with floating baits such as pre-soaked dog biscuits and bread. Using a dog biscuit on a short ledger as a "pop-up" has also produced some excellent sport. Biggest fish has been a 19lb Mirror with several 12-15lb'es being caught too.

Some skimmers are showing in the Mail Lake and plenty of slabs in the House Pool with the biggest being around 4lb. Most Tench have been caught from the House Pool and the odd one from Main. The Novices Pool has consistently produced some great fishing, not huge fish, but plenty of fish all day mainly on sweetcorn and luncheon meat from the margins.

Night Anglers have had consistent sport with most landing 2-3 dozen of good carp and taking their rods out of the water about 1am 'ish in order to get some sleep!

	BRASENOSE 1
01 Oct	Russell Bygrave had mirrors of 10lb 05oz, 13lb 02oz, 14lb, 12lb 14oz and 22lb 07oz using Nash boilies tipped with plastic corn at 40 yards range. Ed Kennington from Gosport had a 24lb 02oz mirror using Mainline Fusion barrels. Joy Norrington from Billericay set a new Personal best when she landed a 19lb 08oz mirror.
	GENERAL
30 Sep	*****PIKE MATCH***** Just a reminder that we are getting close to the first Linear Pike Match of the year which will be held on Manor Farm Lake on Sunday 4th October – The lake will be closed all day. Below is a list of when the other pike matches will be held this year - Please contact Basil Hopkins for further details on 01993 704880 or 07773210590. ST. JOHNS POOL Pike Match Sunday 13th December 2009 - LAKE CLOSED Pike Match Sunday 7th February 2010 - LAKE CLOSED HARDWICK LAKE Pike Match Sunday 22nd November 2009 - LAKE CLOSED Pike Match Sunday 17th January 2010 - LAKE CLOSED MANOR FARM LAKE Linear Junior Pike Match 14th November 2009 - LAKE CLOSED Pike Match Sunday 28th February 2010 - LAKE CLOSED
30 Sep	****Important Info**** This is just a reminder that from Thursday the 1st of October we will revert to our Winter Locking Times. As of this date and until spring next year all fishery gates will be locked at 6PM and will be opened by 8AM.
01 Oct	****Important Info**** This is just a reminder that from Thursday the 1st of October we will revert to our Winter Locking Times. As of this date and until spring next year all fishery gates will be locked at 6PM and will be opened by 8AM.
	GUY LAKES
30 Sep	There are currently vacancies on the three Guy Lakes which all can be fished on the same permit. Membership is yearly and runs from the date of joining. Anyone interested can apply for an application form through this web site or request one by ringing 01908 647320 or mobile 07885 327708.
01 Oct	Fishing Yeoman's Lake George Cooke had mirrors of 16lb and 26lb 12oz. Witney angler Carl Stratford fished an overnighter and landed a 26lb 10oz common using SBS Lobworm boilies. Over on Gaunts Lake Justin Taylor a 29lb 08oz mirror using Dynamite spicy tune and sweet chilli boilies along with the mirror known as "Black Spot" at 31lb 03oz on Dynamite frenzied maize. Guys regular Ricky Holohan had a 20lb 02oz mirror along with a cracking 34lb 09oz mirror. And a couple of weeks ago Garry Wilkinson landed a 31lb 04oz common. Finally on Unity Lake the mirror record was broken over the weekend when Guys Bailiff Jason Rudge landed "Moonscale" at 38lb 01oz.
	HARDWICK LAKE
30 Sep	*****Winter Ticket***** This year the "Hardwick Winter Ticket" will once again be available priced at £170. The ticket which will be limited to 30 anglers will run from Nov 1st until the end of Feb 2010 and will allow fishing on Hardwick Lake and Smiths Pool only. Anyone interested in joining needs to send their name & address along with a passport sized photo and cheque for £170 to (Linear Fisheries Oxford, Accounts Dept, Enslow, Kidlington, Oxon, OX5 3AY). A laminated ticket will then be posted back to you which you will need before you can start fishing. Alternatively tickets can be purchased on the bank (Mon - Fri only). They will not be available from our weekend staff. Please Note: Hardwick Lake and Smiths Pool will be closed to all anglers (including winter ticket holders) on Sunday 22nd Nov and Sun 17th Jan for two of the Linear Open Pike Matches. **Look at the "2009 Hardwick Gallery Page" to see a selection of the fish caught this year**
01 Oct	Stephen Gee from Preston had a PB 33lb 09oz linear mirror using boilies fished at 30 yards range.
	HUNTS CORNER LAKE
01 Oct	Scott Phillips from Aylesbury had a 22lb mirror during a 24 hour session using Cell boilies and maize. And linear regular Josh Bennett had seven fish up to 24lb during a 48 hour session using Tails Up new Pro fish boilies and pellets.
	MANOR FARM LAKE
01 Oct	Terry Collins had a number of fish using Tails Up pro fish boilies fished over a bed of hemp, his catch included mirrors of 25lb, 30lb 04oz and 33lb. John Bishop had a 30lb 01oz mirror using 12mm Mainline Active-8 boilies at 70 yards range over a bed of mixed particles. Neil Buckle from Swindon had a 23lb 04oz mirror using homemade boilies fished at 85 yards range over about 2 kilos of freebies.
	OXLEASE LAKE
01 Oct	Linear Bailiff Jon Mudd had three doubles and a 28lb 08oz mirror. Jonny Walker had a low twenty mirror whilst fishing with Dave Hodgson who had four fish up to a mirror of 23lb 10oz. Also fishing together were Kevin Wyatt and Paul Pointer from Norfolk, Kevin landed a 20lb 03oz mirror and Paul landed mirrors of 16lb, 19lb and 23lb 04oz. Lee Hughes from Hollywood in Birmingham visited the lake to celebrate his 40th birthday landing a 21lb 08oz mirror using plastic corn over a spodded area.
	ST JOHNS LAKE
01 Oct	David Stephens from Manchester set a new PB when he landed "The Starburst" at 40lb 04oz using Richworth KG-1 boilies fished in the margins. Dean Boutwood from Dunstable had commons of 15lb and 33lb 08oz along with mirrors weighing 23lb 08oz, 29lb, 14lb and another at 23lb 08oz. Craig Burton fished a week long session landing 18 fish, this included mirrors of 24lb 04oz, 23lb 01oz, 25lb 08oz, 26lb and 26lb 08oz along with a number of commons up to 21lb 01oz. Craig had all the fish on boilies fished over spod mix in the margins. Matthew Brown had a 32lb heavily plated mirror using Mainoine Pulse boilies.

Catch Reports

18 September 2009 Jon Taylor fished Deep Lake at Goose Green on the 18th September, fishing the pole with pellet on the hook, Jon tempted four Chub to 3-0-0, plus Crucians, Tench, Roach & Bream and also lost a good Carp.

12 September 2009

Martin Sutton fished Moor Farm bottom lake on the 12th September and sends the following report; Arriving at Moor Farm I was pleasantly surprised to see another angler had already arrived, as the past few weeks have been very quiet.  During the morning several more cars came and around 10 anglers were fishing during the time I was there.  The morning was fine but a little breezy and so there was no sign of movement on the surface.  I decided to fish the Bottom Lake on peg 6 and set one rod up with a controller float and floating dog biscuit.  This wasn’t touched and, as it kept drifting back to the bank, I changed it over to a small feeder and fished close in.  The other rod was set up with a Method feeder and a variety of soft paste pellets including bacon grill, halibut and meat flavours.  The bites came quickly and then there were periods of complete inactivity.  At the end of a 4 hour session I had landed 6 Common carp, largest being 3lb 8ozs, all of which fought hard, as Moor Farm carp do, and a equally hard fighting Tench of 1lb 12ozs.  Another very pleasant way to spend a morning and infinitely preferable to the gardening tasks which I reluctantly had to return home to complete.

6 September 2009

Mark Dibble fished the River Rother at Hardham on 6th September. Despite recent rain leaving a tinge of colour in the water, Mark tried a couple of swims but was unable to catch. He did however get the odd bite in both swims.

4 September 2009

Martin Sutton fished Moor Farm bottom lake on the 4th September and sends the following report; The day started with a very autumnal feel.  The sky was clear and the wind was quite light, but the temperature was down several degrees on previous morning.  Setting up on the bank I could see several fish moving close to the surface.  I set one rod up with a controller float and the other with a Method feeder.  It was slow to begin with and then the north westerly wind became blustery and as the cloud bubbled up so the temperature was rising and falling. The top rod arched around and I connected with a lovely Common carp, taken off the surface and weighing in at 4lbs 15ozs.  It went quiet again and then bites came on both rods, so clearly the fish were feeding on the surface and the bottom.  From around 1130 onwards it was a fish every 10 minutes or so.  Unfortunately, I had to stop at 1230 but the end result was 6 Commons and a Tench.  Once again, Moor Farm has shown what it can deliver.

1 September 2009

Mark Dibble fished the River Rother upstream of Hardham on the 1st September. His third outing to the river in a little over a week finally produced a decent fish on his third cast. The 6lb 1oz Bream fell to a legered pellet using a PVA bag of pellets for feed. Despite trying two more swims Mark never had another bite, although again he did spot some good sized Chub & a bigger fish he was unable to identify in the low clear water.

30 August 2009

Vice Chairman, Terry Goodwin, fished Canada Lake at Goose Green on the 30th August, Terry who ledgered bread crust caught six Carp as follows Common Carp of 2lb.12ozs, 3lb 12ozs, 7lb 8ozs, 3lb 10ozs, 3lb 4ozs and a Mirror Carp of 4lb 4ozs, in Terry's own words "not huge but good fun".

29 August 2009

Mark Dibble returned to the River Rother at Hardham on 29th August to see if he could improve on his last outing there. After trying several swims improve he did with a very colourful Chub of about a pound. Mark also spotted a couple of better Chub plus a good sized Carp & Sea Trout in the clear water.

25 August 2009

Ray Clark was out and about again on the 25th of August, this time electing to fish peg 75 on Deep Lake at Goose Green, once again Ray was fishing with just the top three of his pole with pellet/corn on the hook, his catch comprised Gudgeon, Tench, Crucians, Bream, Roach, Rudd, Skimmers Carp to 1-8-0 and three Chub, the best of which topped the scales at 4-0-0.

Match Results

Arun Angling Trophy - 20 September 2009

Fished by 13 anglers at Moor Farm, the result was;  1st Nigel Aldridge, 31.6 kg (69-11-0) 28 carp to method feeder and maggot/corn. 2nd Brian Miller 26.5 kg (58-7-0), 18 carp to pellet waggler. 3rd Robbie Easton 18.3 kg (40-6-0) 16 carp to pellet feeder and maggot. 4th Chris Coole 17.7 kg (39-0-0) 9 carp to pole and cat meat/paste.

Barfoot Cup - 6 September 2009

1st Adam Tester (peg 34) 9.05 kg (19-14-0) 1 carp plus bream to pole and corn over pellet. 2nd Fergus Penfold (peg 27) 7.55 kg (16-10-0) 3 carp to pole and pellet up in water. 3rd Shaun Groves (peg 26) 6.9 kg (15-3-0) 2 carp and skimmers to corn on tip. 4th Alan Chandler (peg 42) 6.65 kg (14-11-0) 2 carp (lost 2) to pole and corn.

Tom Barber Memorial - 30 August 2009

1st Paul Holden, 5.68 kg (12-8-0) roach and dace to waggler. 2nd Dudley Chandler, 5.62 kg (12-6-0) roach and dace to long rod and maggot. 3rd Graham Stubbs, 4.6 kg (10-2-0) roach and dace to waggler and maggot. 4th Robbie Easton 4.0 kg (8-13-0).

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