Big fish Week
Posted: 8th Oct 2017
Well the fish keep coming at the moment and once again I'm chasing my tail. I will give you the update from 3 weeks ago for both lakes and it's a great to see the way the lakes have performed after the summer.
This week has to be one of the best regarding numbers of big fish for the 7 acre lake and Steve in peg 5 just may have had the best fishing he will ever experience in one week. The fishing was patchy at times for the others lads but 3 out of the 4 anglers caught 40lb+ fish in the end...and even bigger!! The weather was showing signs of cooling but we are still getting daytime temps of 20oc in the day. The fish seemed to have piled into Peg 5 for some reason & all I can think was the old weed beds present seem to have been the thickest at this end of the lake, and the fish could have been finishing off the last of the natural food larder now autumn is well underway. Neil in Peg 1 had come for a big grassie so to catch a 40lb for his first fish he was buzzing.....Richard his partner in crime also had a 40lb+ mirror at the start of the week so they could relax a little knowing the pressure was off. Steve in peg 4 was playing camera man for the first half of the week and sometimes there is little can be done when the fish are not in front of you. 33 fish came out this week with 20+ falling to Steves rods in 5....no less than 4 fish over 50lb this week with Steve landing 3 of them along with a brace of 49lb+ mirrors....that's some serious fishing for a small lake indeed. Not just size this week but some stunning stockies now showing up which seem to have really grown this year also. The highlight for me was a huge framed mirror falling to Neils rods on the Saturday morning....last time I saw this fish last year he was hovering around 42lb, then he came out just under 45lb in May this year, and now he has grown on to 50lb 8oz and he looks incredible, just sheer size and muscle with not an oz of fat.....a real special creature indeed. Largest of the week went 52lb+ along with 7 fish over 40lb+ including the brace of 49s.....6 x 30lb+ including a brace of 39lbs....the other 16 fish being up to 26lb....what a weeks fishing!
We also had an exclusive booking on the 15 acre lake with a group returning that have not been to the fishery for some years. It was great to see old punters back because they all had their first 40s from the fishery many moons ago and have since travelled the length and bredth of France up to 3 times per season so really good to get a little feedback from seasoned anglers! The boys spread out with Andy in "Coypu HQ" which is a long chuck to the far margin of 120+ yards...brother Colin dropped in "Reedys" swim with the spit to his right and twin islands out in front....Blenny went down the far bay into the Duckhouse but moved early on back into the first swim named the Horseshoe. That left Reg on his own towards the far end of the lake in "Bundy bay" so the guys where well spread out.I still think a huge part of the stock wanted to be in the very shallow water amongst the safe area behind the far island, and this has become more evident over the last two weeks. The fish are fully aware already of the safe areas and care needs to be taken if the fish kite behind the islands on a longline, if this happens just easing off is the best method instead of trying to apply even more side pressure....A simple drop of the rod tip to slacken off in most cases causes the fish to turn and come back out...odd fish will be lost to a hook dropping but better that scenario than tearing a hook out trying to haul them back around.
34 fish landed for the chaps this week with 27 being over 20lb+ with plenty in the 25-27lb bracket. Largest fish all fell late in the week again with Andy taking a 32lb+ common and a 30lb 8oz mirror back to back along with Reg taking a 30lb+ mirror also on the Thursday night. It now appears the better sized fish are hanging around together and seemed to be gracing the bank on the Thursday....maybe once the fish have settled down to angling noise?
In the next 12 months this lake will really come into its own and some very nice looking fish indeed have been caught already...but lots more still to come next season.
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