Where are my binoculars Mr Oddie!!
Posted: 24th Jul 2012
Week 17 is away and it's a new group of 3 making up the lake booking.They are fishing well but before I tell you more I will update the wildife info as promised.
It's been a strange year so far with our usual raptors being more elusive this season, a pair of hobbys visited one evening hunting the dragon fly's but have not returned along with our resident female sparrowhawk going missing for a while. On the contrary the Kingfishers that have been absent all spring after the heavy rain have returned in ernest and can be seen working the big lake everyday and passing by the 7 acre lake non stop most days now. The numbers of Golden Oriole this year have been more than ever, and can be heard calling their liquid melody throughout the day as if still in breeding mode. Also the Hoopoe which is a mediterranean species has been here in numbers this year and is such a cracking bird to watch hunting crickets on the ground, or flying by with it's barred plumage and long beak through the tree foliage. It's worth sticking your "Bins" in your bag because you never know what you might see and it all adds to the experience of being here.
This group of anglers are well switched on and have been visiting France for years so have a good idea of what's involved. They are priming spots for two days then dropping on them with good results, Peter who is fishing peg 2 has baited peg 1 then dropped on it yesterday, when a nice easterly wind picked up, by the afternoon he had bagged a 32lb, 34lb, 45lb 2oz all off the primed pellet/boilie spot. Good angling!! He said this morning he fancies one of the grassies after watching them lying under the far bank trees like aligators, no longer had I started typing this and he has landed a 23lb+ and 30lb+ grassie in the midday heat!! The lad has got it. They have landed 15 so far, with the 45, and a 42 being the largest.They have also had some of the stunning scaley fish just above and below the 20lb mark which have all been spawned out, and at their lowest weights with them normally all 23lb-27lb+, but I guess you cannot put a weight on fish of this quality.
All in all they are fishing the lake well, working hard and not expecting the fish to climb on the rods, a little bit of extra thought is making all the difference this season. The crayfish are taking baits off some of the rods but not touching others, I think the key is to apply a little more bait to keep them busy, hard hooks baits or larger 20mm baits which can take the wittling, or mesh at night to make sure. Either way the numbers are far less than last year with the 80 new Zander added to try and control the numbers working well, also the fish are passing the skins on the mats so I think they're feeding hard on them at the moment. Beds of bait have been "The Thing" over the last month and a little & often approach is fooling the fish after spawning.
Will update end of the week results next time.
Over & Out
Team sanctuary