Apr 2010

Carpers United on Tour - Gléhias 2010!!!, 1st Apr

The Des Chapman Party arrived here on Saturday afternoon with a surprise in store for us. The whole party of 6 anglers were wearing specially embroidered ‘Gléhias’ hoodies and sweatshirts! As well as bringing some excellent clothing, they seem to have brought some fantastic weather and fishing with them too!

Despite having to compete with an enormous amount of tadpoles in the lake this week, the lads have seen some superb catches on the bank including many high 20’s and 30’s and one of the real lake biggies ‘Golddigger’ in the mid 40’s. Last year was slightly frustrating for us as we knew this fish would be well into the 40’s, but nobody managed to bank it before spawning.

It has been fantastic for us to see so many records broken in the first two weeks of the season, and there are still many more up for grabs!! We have seen anglers in the party break four records this week, and nearly take a fifth as a Catfish has been hooked and lost twice (so far) as we think any Cat banked now will certainly break the current 53lb record.

Most catches are coming from the Reeds end of the lake at the moment where fish are feeding up on the tadpoles, with the odd run coming from the deep end. Team leader Des had a brainwave and tipped a Rahja Spice boilie with black foam to look like a tadpole body and landed a 33lb mirror from the deep which just shows that a little bit of thought into presentation really can give you that edge.

Keep those fish coming lads!!

Apr 2010

Roger Hemming Sets New Lake Record Grass Carp!!!, 1st Apr

For the third time this week, Roger ‘Fireman Sam’ Hemming of the Des Chapman party has broken a la Glehias lake record.

This time around, the Tactical Response Officer from Kidlington has swiped the ‘Men’s Lake Record Grass Carp’ title, earning him his third bottle of celebratory wine and his picture (yet again) in our ever increasing ‘Hall of Fame’.

The beautiful silver Carp Amur came in from the Gorse end of the Reeds on Monday 19th April at around 6:00pm at 15lb 10oz.

Well done Roger!!!

Nov 2009

Bait and Tackle Advice, 1st Nov

Bait
The most frequent question we are asked here at La Gléhias is “how much bait do we need?”

Of course the fish feed differently at different times of the year and different fishermen fish different techniques, but as a rough guide we advise approximately 4-5kg of boilie and 6-8kg of pellet (or 8-15kg of particle) per angler, per week.

Our Carp pellet is developed specifically as a nutritionally balanced Carp feed and does not contain high levels of oil. Our Halibut pellet which is higher in protein and oil levels will still not cause 'oil slicks'; an oil slick on the surface does not make it a good bait, in fact quite the opposite is true as the attraction smell is on the surface and not on the bottom where you need it. Also, sealing the surface of the lake may cause adverse effects on the underwater environment of the lake as toxic gasses may fail to escape.

In the Summer temperatures, larger pellet of 7-9mm is a good idea due to the faster meltdown time in the warmer water, this will also ensure your background bait will not get eaten away by small fry and stick around long enough to attract your quarry. Having said that, we would advise the use of small pellet in conjunction with the larger, as the smaller pellet's faster meltdown will help to give a more ‘instant attraction’ effect.

Most big wise fish will not pick up, for example a red boilie fished over a brown bed of pellet, and confusion will play a big part in catching these fish. This is where it pays to mix a lot of whole and broken boilie into your mixed size pellet; not only is it visibly confusing, it also makes it a little more difficult for the Carp to be size selective in what it picks up. However, all this said and done, if presentation is not good, or the Carp senses something is wrong, the whole baited patch will probably be left alone!

Bait quality and flavour are of key importance in your fishing and in my opinion Quest Baits in quality content are second to none. Shaun Harrison has developed his baits to be a Carp food in their own right; not just a nutritionless flavour carrier. This means the fish will instinctively see it as a source of nourishment.

We do not believe in a 'lake bait' as we believe the fish wise up to one flavour, and we will not stock bait that we do not believe in. The four flavours we have here on site have been rigorously tested and used by our anglers over the last three years, some flavours will be slightly better than others at different times of year, but the Carps love them all is evident if you read our feedback.

If you are planning on using Quest Baits boilies, you will need to order the main bulk of your bait with us at least one month before your holiday to ensure that it will be here ready and waiting for you. If you do run short whilst here, we should always have enough pellet and boilies in stock to top you up.

Trying baits which are untested on any water can have mixed results. You will either find great success, complete failure, or a slow start to the runs as the fish may be wary or unsure of something different. Recently a young angler brought some 'Dynamite Baits Garlic Hemp' with him, he assumed the fish liked the spicy flavours because they love Quest Baits Rahja Spice boilies - a reasonable assumption, but he had little success getting runs until he substituted it for plain hemp on the third day.

By all means, do try different flavours as you might bag up, but do be prepared to change something if it's not working well.

Tackle
Since opening in 2006 we have seen several anglers lose many fish before they manage to land them, this is usually down to hooks being too small. Having a light set-up may look more inconspicuous, but it’s doing you no favours if you don’t land many of those hard earned runs.

While rods and reels don’t need to be the best quality in the world, they should be man enough to reliably handle Carp to 40lb plus, or Catfish to 70lb. What is of more importance is the quality of your line and end tackle, i.e. rig tubing, leadcore, leadclips, leads and hooks, etc; always buy the best you can afford, after all, these are the parts that are in the water under scrutiny!

Mainlines ideally should have a 12-15lbs breaking strain and hooklinks a couple of lbs lighter, size 6 barbless hooks in wide gape form or standard size 4 barbless hooks are good for the Carp fishing, and barbless size 1-2 for Catfishing. 2-4oz leads and 2.5lb to 3.5lb test curve rods should cover any type of fishing on our lakes.

Many anglers will argue against this and it is entirely your choice, but we would advise you use backleads to ease the angling pressure on the lake. This becomes more important if there are many lines in the water; it can help to turn what might be a moderately difficult week into a very successful trip.

Tactics
Big pit reels are not necessary on Lake Lauren as you will never need to cast more than 90 yards. Accurate casting will give you a massive advantage as the fish tend to be concentrated close to features on the far bank or amongst the reeds. Most anglers have no problems with this at all, but practice makes perfect and several anglers have gone home better casters than when they arrived, though if you are not too confident, we advise you bring a bait boat. If you are a few meters off target with each cast, you may slow up the potential for runs. 

Spodding out mountains of bait to the middle of the lake is not necessary or advisable as all you will do is fill the Carp up quickly and slow them feeding. The approach of "little and often" is best and will keep the Carp coming back for more. Method mix seems to draw more Roach and Tench than Carp, and bigger pellet and particle is the way around this with a good few freebie boilies (whole and broken) thrown in to ensure the silver fish aren't getting most of your bait away.

I am very happy to spend the time with you on the bank, and help you with tips and advice on casting as we have had several novice and younger anglers learn to bait accurately whilst here and they have managed to bank many a big fish.

Time of Year
People have different reasons for fishing at different times of year, the biggest of which is governed by when you are able to get away for a week or two for a fishing holiday! In terms of angling, every season has its advantages and disadvantages.

Spring can be very productive as there will have been little or no angling pressure on the lake over the winter, and though the fish may not feed heavily at times, they will feed fairly confidently. Up until the end of May the fish are at their heaviest, but may not be feeding as prolifically as they will in the summer. Smaller baits of 12-18mm are advisable at this time of year due to the lighter feeding habits of the Carp in colder water; so if you want really huge fish, and the possibility of landing a 'Lake Record', this is the time for you to come!

Summer is the time when lake temperatures start to soar along with the fish's metabolism. Weights will have dropped a little due to spawning, but there should always be more hungry Carp looking for bait, and though the Carp may sit around and do not much during the hot summer days, catch rates should be higher, particularly at night when bright sunlight has faded away but the water stays warm. 

Autumn can be an excellent time of year as the Carp will have started to pile on the pounds and will be feeding eagerly while the water remains warm. The air temperature may be slowly dropping now, but the lake has been known to stay above 10 degrees right up until December, and this keeps the Carp feeding fairly strongly, so don’t be too worried about coming as late as October!

Weather
A temperamental thing which reeks havoc on the fishing, but for which we unfortunately have no control!

In early spring 2007 we saw anglers going home burned and saturated each week as many parts of Europe had their worst summer in years. Summers here can get blistering hot, as they did in 2005 and 2006; the nights however, are reliably cold here in spring and autumn so good quality sleeping bags are a must.

If you are unsure of anything please feel free to contact me here at La Gléhias.

Lee Johnston