Nice fish, shame about the rod !!
The weather is still very hot and sultry but both Jan & Monique have banked more nice fish including a first sturgeon for Jan and a new pb for Monique.
Moniques new pb is a stunning common weighing in at 35.4lb that put up such a struggle that it broke Moniques rod. It was abit of a handful when they tried to photograph it also so the only safe way was for Monique to wrap both arms round it and smile. She did very well and husband Jan showed what a true carper he is by throwing a bucket of water over Monique first to protect the carp….my sort of man that Jan !!! Well the weeks tally is up to 18 carp, 2 cats and a sturgeon with 3 x 35lb+ carp included. Now in this weather thats not bad at all !!
One thing that I am pleased to report is that our kingfishers are out and about again and last week Paul even had one sit on his rod. Strange how for many weeks we could hear them but never caught sight of them, possibly they used the overgrown stream, as a route to wherever, instead of flying over the lake. Well, they are back and a welcome sight they are to.
Monique and her new pb…35.4lb common.
Monique and her broken rod !!
Jan and his first ever sturgeon.
Hot and sunny, and some proper carp – that certainly sounds like a good week to me! Sounds like things are going nicely.. and good to hear of the Kingfishers too.
Putting the carp to one side for a moment though, it seems that the sturgeon have been making a regular appearance – I forget how many you stocked now Jim, but one or two seem to be coming out most weeks? How are they progressing weight-wise? And I guess there is a chance of one of the bigger cats now that summer has finally arrived too.
Hi Graham, you are right about the sturgeon coming out more often and with just 6 stocked it just shows how they are feeding. Thats the attraction of a few sturgeon in as much as they act like hoovers cleaning up and uneaten bait from the lakebed. Sizewise they are all growing a varying weights as they were stocked at around 12lb and one has reached 24lb in just 18 months. The aothers range fron 16lb upwards but seem to be doing well. I expect them to be approaching the 30lb mark by this time next year as they can grow very fast indeed once settled into a water.
The big cats have been hooked a couple of times but they are so powerful that the anglers have been broken before they could get any sort of control. The smaller cats are growing at an incredible rate so it will be interesting to see just how big the big girls are now.
How are the plans for the late season trip going ???
I had the arm-aching pleasure of hooking and landing a 25lb sturgeon last year – they are serious fighters as you know, so once they start to get to a decent size then there will be some fireworks! Given you only stocked 6, they certainly have settled and are really munching!
It’s a shame none of the big cats have been landed yet – were any of those that have been lost hooked in the bay immediately to the right of Deliverance? If you remember, I mentioned seeing huge swirls and vortexes in there on a couple of evenings – way too big to be a carp.
As for the trip, John and I will definitely be coming for at least 3 or 4 nights. Adam has now moved on from the Seychelles to Australia, via Thailand, (I’ll send you a photo of him posing with a Tiger on the Burmese border – and one after it clobbered him! Lesson learned: don’t play with Tigers!) – he is likely to come along too, but hasn’t confirmed yet. I’ll drop you an email seperately about likely dates.
ps – have you got us down for 2009? We definitely want the same week, exclusive booking, names to be confirmed but definitely myself, Shandy, and Adam with one or two others.
Hi Graham, I have you all booked in for 2009 as requested. I am intrigued to hear about Adam and the tiger !! You must email me the picture.
Lo Jim,
I have sent you 2 more emails to see if they work, it seems we have a very odd problem at work! Hope you and the family are well! regarding the fishing it looks like i will not be back this year but im hoping for at least 2 trips next year so i was wondering if you have the last week in september 2009 and October 2009 free.
Cheers
He Jan en Monique,
Dat is nog een vissen!!!
Prachtig man. Hoop dat jullie een mooie week hebben gehad.
Luc