Blog

The Return To One Lake

Posted: 1st Aug 2016

It's been a busy few weeks and the title of the blog will be explained. The 15 acre lake is still in full swing.....all the paths and pegs are now roughly marked out with thousand of tonnes of earth being used to raise the path way along the full length of the lake which is half a mile long!!! Early in the season and when the lake is full it can be very damp so the plan was to raise the main access paths to keep access clean, dry and functional for the anglers and for myself dropping equipment at the swims. We have managed to raise the main draining culvit 8" along with the far bank dam being completely overhauled, gaining an extra foot of water in the lake which equates to an extra 4 million gallons of water, which can make a huge difference over the course of a warm summer. The lake this week will be returned to one after 3 years being split into two.....this is the only way I have managed to carry out the work with the stock still onsite and also to make it managable because of the scale. This will involve digging 40% of the spit back out while the lake is 3/4 full!! the remaining 60% is mature with reeds and trees lining the sides of the causeway.......so it will remain as a feature allowing anglers to walk out half way into the lake for stalking or baiting-up. The fish can then make full use of the lake as one again! Drain downs will take place this winter to remove unwanted stock and I fear the 15 acre lake has a very high number of small carp that have bred over the last 3 years while the work has taken place, these will be removed to allow the 450 original fish stock to pile the weight on before the doors open!

The children managed to drop my expensive camera last week which is in transit to a specialist repair shop, when I get my hands back on it I will put a short movie together showing the progress so far. We now have 7 islands breaking the huge body of water so there are plenty of features in every swim giving the anglers and fish so much more scope to play with. We are now approaching 2 months of no rain so the ground is looking a little parched, but once the damp/cooler weather arrives over the next 2 months I predict the reedbeds around the areas I have been working on will have reclaimed the lake margins returning the 15 acre lake back into an anglers paradise!

The fish have been spawning again, once on the 15 acre lake 2 weeks ago and again on the 7 acre lake, I think the main feeding issues over the last 6 weeks is due to this, and the lads have had to work hard for results. Lots of silver fish and small tench are present on the smaller lake but this winter will be the 3rd year without draining down so I will remove all the small stuff to allow room for the bigger fish again. You need to think about your baiting approach otherwise soft baits are being eaten very quickly leaving you with just a single hookbait, so baiting little and often is needed to get the carp feeding.

We had 4 regulars arrive a couple of weeks ago with the chaps spreading out over the lake trying to keep the fish on the move. I did feel for the boys because they had so much against them, full moon during the week, combined with the hottest temps of the year at 38oc air temp....in the full sun I dread to think how warm it was, water temps of 26oc feeling like a warm bath, then the fish started spawning again when they arrived, tried on and off in the week and then stated again Saturday morning when they left....regardless of your angling ability it's not ideal fishing conditions! The boys did manage 20 fish with Shaun in Peg 5 catching steadly through the week, it was patchy for Steve in Peg 4 and Rich in Peg 3 but Steve did break his pb on the first night with a 42lb mirror! Roly had short spells of action when he arrived, going quite midweek, but towards the end of the week with an increase in his baiting plan and changing spots he started to catch fishing the week with a few mirrors to 35lb+. Richard had a tough time with little fish in front of him in Peg 3, grassies and big Roach made his catch......with Shaun in 5 breaking his pb Grassie with a fish of 32lb soon followed by another of 43lb 5oz! Some very nice Tench caught this week with mulitpul 7lb fish coming out and the lads ended the week with 20 carp, best being the Grassie of 43lb+ and the mirror of 42lb, along with the bulk of the fish being low 30lb males and upper 20s, with very few females this week.

Last week we had two Dutch Chaps taking the cancellation week, we don't have many Dutch because they always seem to enquire very late in the season unlike the UK anglers booking well in advance to get a more choice week. They decided to fish Pegs 1&3 but remaining mobile and moving into Peg 5 each day for a few hours, baiting quite heavy at night to allow the fish a free meal and giving the fish confidence, which did pay off. Frans settled into 1 while Tim used 3 as base camp but fished a rod into 2 and one well into 4's water trying to cover a lot of area, along with daily trips into 5 while resting his main baited patches. They fished hard and lost a few due to hookpulls and maybe playing the fish a little too hard!! But they did fish well with both landing fish over 40lb+ with the best going 44lb to Fran's and fish to 43lb for Tim along with Grassies to 41lb. I notice around mid-summer when temps are high that the grassies continue to feed over the main carp, with the high temps actually increasing their appetite.

The week total was 15 fish with once again apart from the 3 x40lb the bulk being upper 20lb-33lb male fish, all looking flat sided and lean from the spawning attemps.

This week we have a mixed booking of regulars pitting their wits, temps are still warm but cooling each morning so I'm hoping the fish will start to settle down and get feeding again. A serious amount of crashing at night has been taking place telling me the fish are on the move, & Steve had a mirror of 47lb+ on the Sunday evening so lets hope we start to see the better fish like we did a few months back!

Over & Out

Team Sanctuary