We have had a couple of very cold days where both lakes were covered in thin ice and all was crisp and quiet. Today the rain has come and temperatures have reached the heady heights of 12c resulting in a total ice melt and signs of the carp being back on the feed. The water has clouded up considerably in the last 24hrs and along with the showers of fry and swirling pike I was also blessed with the sight of several good carp feeding contently in front of ‘The Steps’. At this time of year it is noticeable that the carp are tuned into the weather changes and will go from seemingly torpid and disinterested in anything at all to hungrily feeding for a few hours and then, as temperatures drop, back to the torpid state once again. I suppose that the same thing happens in the summer months with the main difference being the longer feeding periods that the warm water encourages. With the outlook for the next week or so being so grey and damp the summer seems a long way off but we are filling our days with the constant work around the lake and looking forward to wetting a line ourselves sometime soon. Perhaps in February, when the sun carries real warmth in its rays and the buds are starting to break out in the tree’s we will test the water and see if Jimmy can once again break the lake record with an early year lump. Work at the moment is constant, with Poppy’s being where I am spending my days and the main lake is where Jimmy is busily re-building some of the Home Bank swims. When I arrived at Poppy’s this morning I disturbed a lot of fish (judging by the bow waves) feeding over the maize that I put out yesterday evening and the carp generally seemed a lot more active than on the main lake. Not surprising really, with the lake containing such a big head of fish, and I think we will be feeding Poppy’s very heavily throughout the year to try and encourage the sort of growth rates that we have enjoyed on Etang du Mee up to now.
It will be very interesting to see how this year pans out what with the removal of the catfish and smaller carp but I am confident that all will turn out well and we will be seeing some really special fish banked. If we look back over the last few years it is noticeable that the year after we had our first 40lb fish we saw lots of fish of this size being landed. In the same vein when we had our first 50lb carp the following year saw lots more showing up in the catches. Well, last year saw our first 60lb carp !!!! Exciting times.
Cant wait until next year
Shame we will not be there next year ,going to miss it