Spring at Last !!

All this week the sun has shone and temperatures have been back to more usual springtime levels with the early part of the week seeing temperatures in the mid to upper 20’s falling later in the week to the high teens. The wind has moved round in the last 24hrs and rather than blowing warmly from the south, as we have enjoyed for most of this week, it has now moved round to the north so is a little cooler. The carp on the main lake have had spawning on their mind and with a water temperature of 18c we have had groups of males gathering in the shallows and females holding up in readiness for conditions to be perfect. Fortunately for the lads arriving tomorrow the drop in temperature has seen the carp starting to move around and show more and I now reckon that spawning will be on hold for a week or so. The fishing has been far from easy this week and although we have seen 27 carp banked each one was hard worked for and a well earned reward for the efforts put in. Cumbrian Dave is having a great time and fishing the shallows from ‘Car Park’ managed to bank 16 carp including 4 x 40’s. It is no surprise that he also caught quite a few of the smaller males and had 7 carp of under 30lb ! A move today to ‘Deliverance’ proved a wise choice as soon after settling in he banked a really stunning bronze mirror of exactly 40lb. Andy (Pandy) started his week fishing the deep water from ‘Zippy’s and was rewarded with a stunning mirror of 59.8lb but since then things have proven to be very slow for him and he has just had a brace of upper 30’s from the deeps but also managed another upper 30 from ‘Steps’ when he spent the day there. Jim (The Smirk) has worked hard all week without a fish but this afternoon caught a chunky mirror of 47lb’s. He has also had plenty of fish showing over his baited area today so we are hoping for another fish or two before morning. Dave and Lee fished ‘Deliverance’ and ‘Island’ until they had to leave this afternoon. Dave banked a 41 plus a 39.8 lb fish, both mirrors whilst Lee struggled all week until a move to the dam last night brought him a trio of mirrors with a best of 44lb 8oz. Tony (short, shorts) had to leave us to visit friends in Bordeaux yesterday and unfortunately had no more than a tan to show for his time with us. Just bad luck to find the carp with things other than feeding on their minds.

A selection of pictures from this week starting with Cumbrian Dave.

The one that got away !!

Andy and one of his fine mirrors

Jim and his 46lb mirror.

Smirker Jim landing his 46lb mirror with a little help from Jimmy.

Poppy’s Lake – busy again !

This week with have had Adrian, Paul and Josh fishing Poppy’s lake and as luck would have it they arrived just in time to be treated to a lake full of spawning carp ! Not to be phased they have been enjoying chilling out, watching the wildlife and catching a few fish. Nothing massive but amongst the 94 carp banked so far there are a spattering of 20’s as well plenty of upper doubles. As is to be expected many of the fish were spawned out and looking a tad sorry for themselves whilst it would seem that the smaller male fish made up a large proportion of the catch. The solitary sturgeon also provided Adrian with some interesting moments as he managed to land it twice. Once fairly hooked in the mouth whilst the other time he actually caught with a loop of his line !! True, I can assure you.

Josh and a couple of his fish.