Jul 2009

The Boys get Braced!!, 1st Jul

George Hill(15) from Norfolk hit the jackpot on Thursday the 9th of July by landing himself a superb specimen brace of La Gléhias muscle.

After a quiet night on Lake Lauren, George managed to get the first fish in the net after a fifteen minute battle at around 6am when immediately his second rod tore off. The two fat mirrors were taken on Quests Rahja Spice and Fruity Trifle, both coming from the shallow reeds, weighing in at 31lb 14oz and 27lb 12oz.

The bigger of the two brace of carp was a distinctly scaled mirror named 'Kinky', which having been stocked in two years ago at 23lbs is a fine testament to the weight some of our fish are gaining. George is fishing here with school friend Max Moore (also 15) and between the two of them have had several terrific fish from 21lb up to 31lb 9oz.

George's dad Peter and uncle Chris also here for the week, aren't really carp fishermen but have still had the float rods out to enjoy some great Roach and Tench to around 3lbs on sweetcorn.

Well done George Keep em coming!

Jun 2009

More Stock and Big Plans for La Gléhias, 1st Jun

We were so impressed with the quality, condition and growth rates of the fish stocks we bought from Laurent Bigot two years ago, there was never any question of going anywhere else this time around.

The last batch of Carp were all between 22 and 26lb and many of these have grown on to become low 30's with one coming out regularly at around 34lb. This time, we were looking for slightly smaller fish to compliment our heavy specimen stock to make the fishing a little easier for some of our younger anglers and keep them busy in between landing the big lumps.

On Wednesday the 17th of June we took delivery of another 24 Carp of mainly Mirrors and Leathers ranging from around 14lb up to 29lb 12oz. These also included 3 beautifully iridescent scaled Ghost Koi/Common crosses of between 17-18lb. This does bring the lake average down a bit, but we are hoping to see an increase in catch numbers as a result.

We had forgotten how chaotic and comical a summer stocking can be; in summer temperatures the fish are already lively to say the least, and then the fish are delivered in highly oxygenated water which turns them into absolute lunatics! Stocking photos became a bit of a joke, after at least 3 tail slaps in the face and half the lake ending up inside my waders whilst being laughed at by Laurent, his friend, and my own wife, I gave up trying to pose and look cool and just settled for a handful of pics of the few calmer ones!!

Discussions are now under way with Laurent to supply us with a large batch of Catfish to stock our second lake. Lake William is already stocked with many Carp which are growing on rapidly along with the huge population of Rudd and Crucians.

Early plans are to create a predator free specimen Carp Lake with a massive head of other unusual and interesting coarse species, and a separate Cat lake also with a large head of smaller Carp. We are aiming to do this for 2011, but more dates and details will follow as estimates and info comes back to us. Watch this space!

Cheers Lee (Please click on photos to enlarge)

Apr 2009

30's All The Way!!!, 1st Apr

We would never describe ourselves as a "runs water"; nor should we want to, we are a specimen fishery after all, and aim to give you the angler a good average catch weight.

Last year, the average fish weight was around 26lb 8oz. Over the winter a different feeding strategy was introduced to help the fish pile on the pounds, and this seems to have paid off as the average fish weight caught so far this year is up around the 30lb mark, with only one fish coming out at just under 20lb!

This season's fishing started out quite difficult with anglers competing against an abundance of natural food (tadpoles), and icy rain cooling the lake and slowing down the fish feeding, so fishing conditions were not ideal! And to top it off, an early spawning seemed imminent with many of the captures oozing spawn on the mats.

However, after a week of hot sun, the fish finally decided to come on the feed again and catch rates have begun to pick up nicely. Anglers have been seeing a 30lb+ Carp on the bank with every other fish landed, and we've still yet to see how much weight the lake biggies have put on…