Mar 2019

Winter work and fishing news, 29th Mar

Well, some news about Old Oaks. 

Despite tough winter conditions, we managed to look after the lake nicely.We trimmed the whole lake perimeter, all pegs, picnic area and along the track.

Then, we mulched all those branches and spread the wood chips on every swim, they are confortable and free of mud. Track holes has been refilled with gravel  and some pegs has been repaired too. Far bank underwater new snags has been removed and some over hanging trees 's been cut to avoid any problems.

Regarding the poisson chat situation, we have to say we are very glad with the traps that we started to use in November 2018. We carefully note all weights caught up to today. At the beginning, we were trapping about 20 to 30kg of poissons chat per week. But now, the amount is well under that. Since a few weeks now, it turns around 2/3kg per week in the main lake. Last week, we tested the stock pond and what a surprise! We couldn't believe it! We caught exactly 63kg of poisson in one! 3kg in the mainlake and 60kg in the stock pond, between 2 traps there were 58kg! 

The final total from November to last week is 363kg. So, the consequences will be: much less poisson chat bites, less baits nibbled, more carp bites, more food available for the carp so a better growth!

The first weeks fishing are very promising so far. Not one single poisson chat caught by angler, no baits nibbled. 

Stephen Holmes was the first angler mid february to test the lake : despite cold temperatures, he landed a 38lb and the Fox common at 57lb! Then Danny Lovley party went and a great time catching 19 carp up to 55lb and including 8 forties! Many Pb's smashed already.

Last week, Justin Marshall party had 10 fish topped with 2 fifties and the Fox Common again at 57lb14oz!

We really expect to see some record weights of fish and the cherry on the cake would be the Mighty Long Common reaching the 70lb barrier... time will tell. We will keep trapping the poisson chat all year, non stop.

Tight Lines!

Feb 2019

An Update, 11th Feb

After a winter of trapping poisson chat, at the beginning of this month I changed the bait in the traps and despite waiting 2 weeks, I caught only 8kg of poissons chats (first time there were 4 traps empty) That indicates that there's not much left now.

The consequences should be: more food for the carp, better growth, less hassle for anglers and less carp stress. 

All swims has been repaired, track repaired with gravel, freezer defrozen and clean. Gonna cut the branches all around now.

Dec 2018

An Update, 17th Dec

The new poissons chat traps are very effective. Since 1.5 month, I caught exactly 134kg which is almost 300lb! This weight was caught with only 5 traps.

The second good news is most of the poissons chat caught are the big ones so this means far less breeders. Since that success, we bought another 10 traps last week, so now there are 15 traps in Old Oaks, for hopefully 3 times more poisson chat caught.

This should really make a difference for the 2019 season onwards.