Blog

Timmy Mallet Strikes Gold

Posted: 24th May 2015

Its been an enjoyable week once again with another group of regulars, every week so far this season have been regulars with a good 75% of our business booking again and again which is always a pleasure. It's great to see friendly faces and also confirms we are running the business professionally for them to return each year. But this week we had a new face join the group who I quickly named Timmy Mallet after I caught him moving swims and adopting a stealth mode with his mallet in hand knocking the pegs in for the bivvy!! Timmy did have a result this week in the shape of a 47lb 8oz mirror being his only fish from Peg 4 until he moved, but this fish came from a small hard patch in the centre of the lake and the last time I saw it on the bank was a good 13 months ago. This is not a one-off because 3 fish that came out this week have been on the missing list, 2 others falling to Shaun the "Gold Danglers" in peg 5 landing one of the fully scaled at 28lb and another long slim male fish of a similar weight which I have not seen for 2 years which is hard to believe. Both not the largest fish in the lake by any means, but stunning in their own right. This brings me to making every fish count because you don't know what you're losing, and trying to minimise losses to prevent damage. I'm reapeating myself again but humour me, mainline breakages should be virtually nil, purchasing a good quality 12-15lb line before your trip goes a long way and I could tow a car with a good 12lb line. Stripping a couple of rod lengths off after a few fish also helps and I'm supprised how few anglers will do this. The last couple of rod lengths take most of the flack, rubbing the lake bed, underwater snags, catching the fish and your other rods when playing fish close in, it can put the smallest of marks on the line but it can be that one mark that causes a break and you lose the largest fish of your life. Another couple of points which I'm sure most of you know so once again humour me, is good quality wide gape hooks which seem to reduce hookpulls, in sizes 4,5 & 6 which all look small when inside a carps mouth that is larger than Katy Prices!! And last but not least is not trying to "skull drag" the fish in. These fish have soft mouths and any hook hold in the side flesh of the mouth will tear-out if you bully the fish, the harder you play them the harder they pull back, and I will argue to the cows come home about Rod TC being heavier than ever for even short range fishing, don't get me wrong blanks have improved somewhat over the years with 3.5tc having more give in the top section, but the top and bottom line is when you're playing a fish hard on a short line, the rod is compressed so you're using the low section of a 3.5tc blank, no give in the short length of mainline and coupled with a clutch wound right down which I see far too often means only one thing, a so called hook-pull. Being honest it's not a hook pull, its a tear and because the fish is lost, you don't see the damage so it's given no more thought until the next angler arrives, catches the same fish but has to deal with what can be real bad tear that leads to the side flesh being lost and then a parrot mouth developes that we have all seen at many fisheries. It cannot always be eliminated and mouth damage will occur with the "best will in the world", but it sure can be reduced massively with a bit of care and common sense.

Rant over but I want to keep the fish in the best condition possible which we have always prided ourselves on, we don't produce the largest fish in France ,and we don't produce massive numbers each, but we have always aimed for quality over quantity so please give it a little thought.

Back to the fishing, all the lads caught fish over 40lb+ with two grassies coming out, 42lb & 44lb For Roly in Peg 1 & Richard in Peg 3. Timmy took the largest of the week at 47lb 8oz and Shaun had a few 40lb fish to 45lb+, but fish of the week was the stunning Fully scaled in perfect condition. 7 fish over 40lb+ this week, 8 x 30lb+ with 7 between 35-38lb, the rest being 20s with a few stockies thrown in. Multiple fish coming out each day but the massive change in temps of 27oc earlier on in the week down to 4oc Wednesday morning had the fish guessing again if spawning would take place. The fish are now ready with males milting and the females are looking full and ready to go soon, a nice steady week of warm temps and it will all happen.

A good 12 fish lost this week which would have made it a very good week indeed if they had been landed.

Plenty of Sanctuary pellet, combined with mix sized boilies and crushed baits doing the business. the lads were putting a good kilo of bait over the rods which did produce the pick-ups, as and when the bait was fed.

Big thanks to the the boys this week, well done Shaun on the captures even though you did fluke a few of the rare-ones, Ha, Ha!!

2 Regulars have booked the lake this week, & Warren has landed a 33lb mirror the first night from peg 1 so let's hope for a few more.

Over & Out

 

Team Sanctuary