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The Fabulous Four

Posted: 25th Aug 2013

Well another week comes to a close and it was a good weeks fishing with the Fabulous four again. Barry ,Billy ,Pete & Arthur come each season and have a good session each year, but no boats allowed did put Barry on edge a little, but he soon realised they are not needed to catch here and he can put a rig in the water without landing in the trees if he tries!!!! Joking aside the lads were catching every 24hrs and the fish once again had the same pattern of feeding, down in Pegs 1 & 2 through the night time, moving from Peg 2 late morning and into Pegs 3 & 4 late afternoon. The fish then proceeded to move down into Peg 5 for the evening and then back up the lake to Peg 1 through the night. It's great to see the fish behaving in a natural manner, and working the lake for natural food and anglers baits, it reiterates the difference that baitboats can make to a lake with a detrimental effect on the fishes natural behaviour. They no longer seem to be just hiding under the far bank bushes and are catchable in most areas of the lake if you look for the signs!!!

You could have set your watch by the times the fish fed this week, they were looking for bait and gracing the banks day and night. Peg 2 was my prediction and even though it did not produce the most fish it did produce the largest of the week at 45lb 8oz to young Billy & Barry. This is one of the known 50lb+ fish along with the 45lb+ last week which from the picture can be seen total spawned out from the last bout of spawning in late July. I have never seen all the fish so empty and even though this has kept the weights down throughout the year things are looking good for the end of the season now. Billy & Barry did seem to produce the better average sized fish over the week from their end of the lake but it was Pete in Peg 4 who had the fish feeding well on his baited patches. He landed a good dozen fish but lost the same amount if not more, which is a common occurance for him each year here which is strange. Now Pete is a quality angler and more than capable, so a few rig tweaks over the week did improve the stats but the problem still continued. The only cause I feel could have been his heavy rods because everything else was spot-on, and with a band of weed in front of Peg 4 he kept pulling the hooks. It's only a thought once again and sometimes not an easy one to amend but I cannot think of any other reason. Arthur in Peg 5 had a cracking weeks fishing and only lost one fish with soft rods, which I do think gives you that bit more cushioning because these fish are soft clay feeders and do have very soft mouths unlike some of the sand & gravel pit fish.

On the Friday Arthur took 6 fish from Peg 5 with the fish piling down his end on the strong westly wind. He fished match-man style tactics by baiting every hour or so with 10 or 20 baits over each rod which seem to pull the fish in like a dinner bell. The fish could be seen rolling and bubbling in all of the swims over the course of the week, which makes it even more exciting when you know it's only a matter of time before they move onto your baited spots.

The lads landed 31 fish over the week and a good 15 fish lost due to hook pulls, but either way it was another good week with great company.

Best was the 45lb 8oz pictured below being held by Barry with no head!!!! 2 other fish over 40lb+ and 19 fish over 30lb+. No less than 14 of them being 36lb-39lb+ which by the end of the season would have all been 40lb+!!! the last 9 fish of 20lb+ where made up of 6 of them being 28-29lb+ so same again will be back over 30lb+ in the next month. It's all moving back in the right direction and looking like 1 in 3 fish will be back over 40lb+ for the start of next season.

Sticky Baits Bloodworm boilies along with the Krill range doing the business this week, and it tied in nicely with the fish feeding hard on Bloodworm over the last few weeks, which has continued this week with the fish bubbling hard down the centre of the lake again. Another group of our regulars have arrived this weekend and lets hope the fish are feeding hard, and the boys have a great week!!

 

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