"Dave was that your Delkim?"
Posted: 30th Sep 2012
Another week of regulars in the shape of the Stoke Brothers arriving for the second time this year, and it is always a week to look forward to with plenty of laughs and a few tales along the way!!!
Now John in Peg 4 I think is starting to lose his marbles, apart from putting things down and not remembering where they are, he "swears blind" he could hear a Delkim alarm going off behind his bivvy late Friday night. Now his brother Dave in peg 5 was backing the story up, telling me in the morning, "Thee swares blind youth I could hear thee delkim going off" Now there is a row of pine trees at the back of pegs 4 & 3 and fields beyond so all I can think is they have both been at the hip flask.HaaaaaHaaaaa
The lads started off like Usain Bolt out of the blocks with the weather conditions being perfect, and the heavy rain fall towards the back end of the week, before getting the fish feeding heavy with no less than 15 fish on the bank by Monday morning. Fish came from all pegs this week with it fishing well in peg 3, then peg 1 & 5 doing well and last but not least John working hard in 4 coming good at the end.
Another 50 mm of cold rain mid week turned the fish off for 24 hrs and then the full moon at the backend did slow a good week down, and it could have been a very special one indeed. The week ended on 33 fish with the best an old mirror of 46lb 4 oz gracing Daves rods in peg 5. Kev had a 45lb in peg 1 followed by a 42lb 3oz and 4 fish of 39lb+. So many fish are now in the upper 30lb bracket and with it taking so much longer this year for the fish to gain the lost weight, it will be the start of the 2013 season before we should start to see some special weights again. It has given me time to reflect this season after the mass spawning that the weights last year where really elervated from a build up of 3 years spawn and it was not true bodymass, this accounted for last season being truely unreal fishing for average big weights on such a small piece of water. But hey that's part and parcel of running a fishery and make "no bones about it" some special fish will be gracing the bank again. The remainder of the fish this week were made up of 22 fish over 30lb+ (including 11 over 36lb+ including the 4 x 39lb+) 2 grassies this week to 28lb+ and the remainder being 6 fish of 20lb+ (including 2 x29lb+ & 3 x 27-28lb+)
One star fish of the week was a mirror of 36lb+ which fell to Bod's rods, not the biggest this week but a super long angry male that rarely sees the bank, and took over 30 minutes of arm renching power to land. The fish this year have never scrapped so hard, which shows that the spawning cycle is vital for the health and vitality of the fish, and with the water temp now dropping and the water clarity becoming clearer by the week, the fish will be showing true winter colours and looking their best for the last few weeks!!
Only 5 weeks left till the end of the season so we are now counting down ready to stick my waders on and start draining lakes again for a few friends. There is no draining here this year, apart from stock ponds and harvesting some young Zander which you can see a few pictures on our facebook page. Once the business closes I will keep the blog and picture updates coming over the winter period, so you still get a feel for what's happening over on the sunnyside.
Back soon
Team Sanctuary