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The Beast From Bodmin!

Posted: 19th Jul 2015

Well the clue is in the title, scroll down to the picture and all is revealed!! This has to be one of my all time favourite pictures from running the fishery over the years and it was purely down to Julian losing his footing (zero Alcohol involved), while photographing a 46lb fish that was obviously too big for him to handle!! Just to clarify the fish remained in the cradle so was safe, but somehow he fell backwards onto his head, pulling his back out in the process and his wife "Sally" having the skills to pull the camera from its bag and snap away while Julian coughed up fish, slime, silt, snot & water. I could just imagine Sally saying "are you ok love?, do you need a hand, while laughing" I will post the other shots on FB, well worth a look!!

Onto the fishing front it has been another quality week but strange how the fish have been grouped into distinct areas of the lake seperating the better Carp, Stockies & Grassies. With the weed being under control the Grass Carp are very active on the bait at this time of the year with the very warm water temps. Mick in Peg 3 could not shake them off and everytime he rebaited with the throwing stick and another 100 boilies he would have another pick-up, with the grassies following the baits down to the bottom and picking the rig up. Julian on the other hand seemed to be picking up the Carp in Pegs 4 & 5 and definitely getting through to the better fish.

Paul in Peg 2 was filling his boots on the small 10 & 12mm baits and the float rod but mostly small stuff. He also had Grrassies to 32lb but most of his fish were either a mixed bag of stockies to low 20lb or small carp that have spawned last year along with a few nice Tench. It seems for the first time we have small carp surviving from the year before, which we have never had in the past, the very thick weed last year has given them a place to hide and escape predation so I will have to keep this in mind over the year and maybe a drain down to remove them if I think its going to be an issue. Baiting is the key but more on that later.

Richard in Peg 1 was off to a good start with a mixed bag of fish with mirrors to 37lb+ and a pb grassie of 35lb and some nice stockies by the Wednesday morning, but it then went quiet for the next 48 hours with the fish moving down the lake and spending time in Peg 5 where it was tranquil. All in all the lads had good fish with the largest 2 being a 46lb & 48lb mirrors falling to Julian. Largest Grassie fell to "Green Grass" in Peg 3 at 42lb, Best looking fish for me was one of Pauls fully scaled stockies & a 24lb big scaled Linear, just perfect in everyway.

Now down to bait, everything is consuming the bait at the moment, be it big roach, small carp, stockies, grassies & big carp so its important you bring enough bait to keep them happy and allow enough food to give the big fish chance to move in and build confidence up. Richard in Peg 1 had gone through a quiet spell on Wednesday & Thursday, by Friday the fish could still be seen bubbling in front of his swim 3/4's of the way out, we talked about it and Richard still thought it was small stuff. After a brief chat he decided to go for boom or bust, with his bait left in the buckets, so 1.5 kilo went out over each rod, made up of a mixed pellet and different sized boilies. In the heat of the midday sun with temps touching 40 degrees, only 30 minutes after baiting up his rod rips off with a 40lb+ mirror, what a result!!, then his other rod is away with a 36lb+ mirror that took just over an hour to land. It just goes to show that if you get your baiting technique right it can produce instant results, well done Rich it was good angling and proved a point. All the lads had 30 minute battles with the fish and they are in top condition for the time of the year which is very reassuring indeed.

47 fish was the total count and I may have missed a few, a good 10 fish lost due to hook pulls at the net. Best fish was 48, 46, 44, 40.8 x 30lb+ Carp with 6 being upper 30s to 39lb. Stacks of grassies to 42lb with most being 30lb+ 3 x20lb mirrors. A good 10-20 stockies not included in the catch total just shows how busy the lads have been this week!!

We have 3 regulars booking the lake again this week and with a drop in temp and a nice fresh westerly making it feel much more bearable, the fish once again could be seen ripping the bottom up all over the lake on the Saturday change over. The lads dropped into Pegs 1,3 & 5 and gave the fish some bait, resulting in another cracking start. Ollie took a new pb Grassie of 38lb, Paul had a 20lb, John had 4 fish including a 39lb common & 39lb Grassie so no blanks from the start and a few new pbs, can it get any better!?

Some of the fish have spawned now but still a few more to go but it maybe a little to late in the year now and certainly far too hot. On the wildlife front, Julian & Sally were keen with the binoculars and scope, tallying 30+ species this week which is not bad considering it's getting a little late in the year with most birds at the end of breeding now and starting to move onto pastures new. Hobby could be seen hunting the swallows over the lake, Hoopoe and Turtle Dove perched on the treetops & Redbacked Shrike visiting the lake margins in the morning, along with a whole host of other birds, bliss!!.

Thats all for now folks, back on the digger next week and the large lake is coming along nicely, if the weather stays dry over the next 2 weeks we will have made a significant dent in the project, wish me luck!!

 

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