Past news from 2006
 
Thursday 28th September 2006
The fishing from August to present has been somewhat steady and sometimes slow especially for silver fish. Having said that some really good fish have been caught. This week crucian carp are being caught regularly with one customer catching 5 in a session. The most successful of our recent customers have all used natural baits, maggots, worm and sweetcorn with a groundbait feeder. Last week saw a 21lb common, which I have every reason to believe was weighed correctly, and this does show how our 15-16lb carp, re-stocked in February, have put on some tremendous weight. Another good sign for the lake as a whole is the presence of new small carp bred this year; they are lovely and fit in the palm of your hand. Other small fish have been caught, some so small I couldn't recognise the species. Our water level did drop through the summer but remained steady and is now moving quickly upwards. Fish caught appear on the whole to be in excellent condition; we have had a few fatalities over the summer but nothing whatsoever to indicate a fish health problem. During this season we have concluded that our stock levels for silver fish could do with a boost and that the lake and water can support the extra fish. The aim is to improve catch rates and hopefully to make our lake a little easier and more pleasurable. To this end I have ordered 400lb of mixed roach, rudd and bream, I have specified the bream to be at about 2lb and won't know the exact proportions and sizes until the fish have been captured and are available for delivery. In fact my order was placed 4 weeks ago but it is still too warm to do the work of capturing, moving and stocking. I also plan to add to our stock again next year to include some more tench and crucian carp but these have not been ordered as yet. I have also updated the Customer Gallery page so thanks to all who sent in their photos.
Tuesday 18th July
The hot weather has been bringing the carp and sometimes rudd up to bask on the surface in the sun. Some people have been successful in stalking and catching on the top using bread-flake or from bread just a foot under the surface. Often however the carp just ignore the bait waiting until later on to feed. The best times to catch have been early morning or late afternoon and evening. We've seen plenty of lovely fish in June and July with many carp including crucians, roach, silver bream, rudd, perch and some tench. Silvers have on the whole been just steady with a few periods of absence but also some very good sessions indeed. The most dependable bait has been maggot and some say red is best; some have doubled and trebled up maggot to catch bigger fish; paste and cat food have also worked well recently. Our biggest carp have been caught at 19lb and an estimated 20lb and so have put on weight nicely since winter. All our carp fight hard especially the wilder commons and many have escaped capture at the cost of broken tackle. The water level has now dropped by about 5" which is normal for the time of year, our deepest areas are now about 5ft dropping down to a couple of feet in the shallow areas, the water is well oxygenated by our two aerators and all the fish seem healthy and are in excellent condition. The results of spawning can be seen in the margins where thousands of fry are feeding and growing in the warm water. We've been sent a whole lot more photo's for the Customer Gallery page. Recently completed is our second lodge 'Manor Lodge' which has a splendid double bed and en-suite shower room, the lodges are available for B&B on a nightly basis and are proving popular for last minute breaks at week ends or even midweek between shifts!
Tuesday 30th May
The lake is now fishing well and customers have been catching plenty of good fish especially early morning and late in the evening or at night. We've been sent in some more photos and these have been added to the Customers Gallery page. The last few weeks had been slow and therefore disappointing but this slow period followed immediately after the fish had started to spawn. I think that spawning is still in progress but to a lesser degree and so plenty of fish are now feeding again. We have seen 16lb, 13lb, 8lb and 7lb common carp this weekend as well as some nice roach, rudd, tench and loads of smaller carp from 2 to 5lb. We haven't seen many silver bream yet despite there being a large number in the lake.
Monday 3rd April
The lake is now fishing well with this weeks customers all catching strongly and having a great time. The sun has been shining and so it finally feels like spring has arrived. Fish caught include roach, tench and carp, all in excellent condition and we've been sent some photos of a few of them which can bee seen on the Customers Gallery page
Monday 13th March
The lake was fished on Saturday for the fist time since the de-silting and re-stocking. The fishing was described as "steady", both gents caught and one of the newly stocked tench was landed after only a few minutes. A dozen or so silver fish each including some nice roach were also caught on red maggot and size 18 hook, ground bait was also used. We were very pleased, this is an encouraging start on a very cold day with water temperatures just above freezing. The two gents also commented that "they could see the fish were there" and were looking forward to returning later in the year when conditions are warmer.
Sunday 26th February
Following the drain down and de-silting work carried out in December 2006 and January 2006 we have now completed the stocking of new roach, tench, small mirror carp and crucian carp. All were in excellent condition and very active in the transport tanks and buckets. The total weights stocked were 100lb mirror carp, 40lb crucian carp, 50lb tench and 60lb roach. These will compliment our existing stock and hopefully show up well in this seasons catches. We are open for fishing again from the 17th March.