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Big Grassies & Magical Floats

Posted: 27th Jul 2017

The fishery has been closed for two weeks, a little down time with the family is just as important as the fishery and it' been nice to relax for a change!!

Last week we had 3 newcomers to the fishery, and after the two week break both I and the chaps hoped the fish would have started to look for a free easy meal! You may not be aware of this chap if you don't float fish anymore, but in his "Field" excuse the pun he is the best in the business regarding handmade floats of the highest order. I have known Andrew Field for a few years now & I combined some of my own artwork alongside his stunning floats a couple of seasons ago. This unique series of works covered a range of uk fresh water fish and I felt very privileged that Andrew was happy to work with me on this one & to have sold all of the collection very quickly made me feel very humble indeed.If you have not seen his work, be sure to have a look on his site "The Lure Of The Float" you will be taken back by the craftsmanship of this mans work.

Now before the chaps arrived Andrew had a firm plan to catch a big Grass Carp, that was his target species for the week which he was hoping might happen on the float rod. For one thing and another the opportunity never arised on the float but he sure caught what he set out to do.

Paul & Nathan joined the team and I can honestly say it was such an enjoyable week all round and you could not have met a nicer group of people.Belly laughs all week and some outlandish fishing skills! The chaps all broke a pb and lost fish even bigger at the net but thats just a fishermans tail I guess.

The first half of the week saw temps touching 36oc in the shade which has been the norm this season......each week we are having heatwave temps, only for a storm to move in, cool things down then the process repeated again the following week. One thing worth mentioning is the weed is present again this year despite the use of the dye, its nothing like previous years but thick beds are randomly dotted about which is causing one or two fish lost so its important that line, knots & hooks are checked after each fish to prevent any lost fish and minimise mouth damage.

Andrews first fish was a grassie of 38lb+ which I mentioned could be one of the smallest in the lake...either way he was over the moon and Paul landed a clonking Tench of 8/9lb from Peg 2 and Nathan had a mid 20 under his belt so the pressure was off.With a steady baiting plan and building their swims the guys did start to catch despite the opressive heat. The weather did start to change and we had a cooler front moving in by Thursday and Nathan landed the first 40lb+ of the week, followed by losing a much bigger fish at the net in the weed while I was present. Paul had a common of 32lb which was a new pb....followed by Andy taking mirrors to 38lb then Nathan landing the largest of the week at 47lb+ and breaking his own pb. Andrew decided to move into Peg 5 with 1 being quite and so many fishing crashing and bubbling because that end of the lake was so quite all week. It turned out to be a very good move because he took 7 fish that day including a new pb Grassie of 40lb 7oz....mission accomplished!

The week ended on 20 fish along with quite a few lost due to the weed. Best went 47lb+ along with a another brace of 40lb+ fish......8 fish over 30lb+ to 38lb and 20s making the rest of the total along with a few smaller stockies. All the fish are spawned out from what I can see so its only up from this point onwards with the fish now starting to find bait again and hopefully putting the weight back on!

Once again it was a pleasure Chaps....see you on the sunnyside next year!

We have a group of 4 anglers on this week, one of the guys came when we first opened many moons ago and the other 3 chaps are "first timers" to France. The cool weather has passed into this week and the lads have really come out of the blocks fast this week with 3 smashing pbs very quickly!

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