Big Zander catches as mild conditions continue! - 22 11 2009

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The next few months will see major stocking taking place on all the lakes at Bury Hill. The Old Lake will receive some large tench from Temple as well as good number of skimmers, whilst Milton Lake will see most of the carp removed which will be replaced with small tench as well as quality roach, rudd, perch and skimmers, all of which will come from Temple Lake. Bonds Lake will also see a further stocking of small carp from Milton as well as a few roach and skimmers.

Despite another wet week, water temperatures surprisingly increased this week 11.3 degrees due to the ongoing mild weather whilst oxygen levels also shot up to 70% plus today. Outlook for the week ahead is continuing mild with periodic showers.

With the mild wet weather continuing, the weeks fishing has bounced back with some excellent catches reported from all lakes.

Not surprisingly with wet and mild conditions, the zander fishing is now at its peak with another good run of fish reported this week, which included yet more doubles. Whilst conditions do not favour the pike, there have been a few fish reported, the best an 18lb female.

Picture shows Duncan Charman with a good sized Bury Hill zed!

Whilst the carp fishing has generally slowed, there has been a few fish reported from the Old Lake this week, which has included the odd twenty and a couple of fish from Temple, both around mid twenty. The bream fishing on the Old Lake has also been pretty good with bags to 40lb reported which again this week include the odd bonus tench. Not surprisingly, feeder tactics seem to be best method.

The two smaller lakes also fished OK with Milton Lake in particular producing a some reasonable sport with mixed silver fish nets to 30lb being reported whilst Bonds has fished a little harder with nets of carp to 40lb. 

With near perfect conditions, the week has again seen plenty of zander action with another run of big doubles reported which included fish to 14lb 14oz, which for anyone targeting the zeds knows, is a HUGE fish, particularly as this fish will almost certainly carry 2-3lb spawn in the spring. Whilst the pike fishing will respond to the colder weather when it arrives, there has been a few fish caught which included a nice 18lb female.

With all areas producing a few fish, it has been the shallow water areas that have produced the best of the zander action with the top end of the long bank in particular producing a lot of fish.

Whilst smaller baits such as head and tail sections working best, it is also interesting to see that sea baits are also working well with sections of sprat and smelt taking a lot of fish.

Regarding methods, ledger tactics still seems to be the way to go although a lot of fish have also been taken on float fished baits, particularly by boat anglers who continue to enjoy some great sport from the jungle area.

Mike Dicks had a great week for the zander catching doubles weighing 14lb 14oz, 11lb 8oz, 10lb 12oz and 10lb 3oz along with fifteen or so other fish, the majority of which weighed between 6lb and 9lb. Fishing the top end of the long bank around peg 42, Mike ledgered sections of sprat on a single size 8 hook catching his fish from the mid water sections.

Pictures show Mike's 14lb 14oz, 11lb 8oz and 10lb 3oz zeds.

Following his impressive 30 fish haul last week with fishing partner Alan Stagg (see pictures of Alan’s 10lb 8oz and Duncan’s 10lb 14oz zeds below), Duncan Charman returned this week with his father in the hope of bagging him his first zander as a birthday surprise! Not surprisingly, Duncan chose to fish the same area at the top of the long bank that Duncan and Alan fished the week before and with near perfect conditions the pair were soon into some great action with Duncans father taking the best fish of the day, a cracking 10lb 10oz zed (see picture below) which was the best of a four fish bag whilst Duncan ended his session with seven fish. The pair fished single size 8 hooks and sprat tails catching all fish on a light ledger set up.

Below are pictures of Alan Staggs 10lb 8oz zander and Duncan Charmers 10lb 14oz fish.

Another angler looking to make the most of the zander action was Anglers Mail columnist Gary Newman. Fishing the oak tree swim up the long bank, Gary caught four fish topped by a cracking 11lb fish.

Bury Hill regular John Merrit had a good day catching 4 zander to 8lb 8oz. Fishing peg 44, John caught on sardine tails.

10 anglers took part in last Sundays SPA Predator match which was fished on the front bank. A bright sunny day, the deep water seemed to be the best area, particularly for the bigger fish with light ledger tactics working best.

James Emblin aged just 14 won the day with two pike weighing 14lb 8oz and 6lb 10oz whilst Steve Mable was second with two lovely zander weighing 10lb and 9lb.

With the mild weather continuing, the bream fishing on the Old Lake has again been pretty good with bags to 50lb reported which include the odd bonus tench.

With both the front and long banks fishing pretty well, the fish remain spread out with the mid water areas probably fishing the best with small groundbait feeder and cage feeder tactics accounting for the best fishing with maggot on the hook.

Whilst most of the sport has been to bank anglers, a few hardened boat anglers have been catching a few bream from the jungle and open water areas with the odd late season tench also showing.

Tackle shop manager Russ Evans had a good midweek session for the bream in front of the Sky Sports cameras for Keith Arthur's Tight Lines program, which we believe will be screened in the next few weeks. Fishing halfway along the long bank Russ demonstrated a few winter methods and tips to keep the fishing coming throughout the windy short session. Without giving too much information away before the film is screened, Russ had a few good-sized bream and a bonus tinca fishing the groundbait feeder with maggots on balanced light tackle.

The recent mild weather has seen a few more carp caught this week with the Old Lake fishing the best, although Temple did produce a couple of fish.

Whilst corn in its various forms is still accounting for most of the fish on Temple, recent weeks has seen a definite move back to boilies and with winter fast approaching, expect to see more fish caught on these baits.

Whilst angling numbers have generally been quite on the Old Lake this week, a few hardened anglers have reported some reasonable catches. With tactics and baits pretty much unchanged, Icelandic Red boilies are the favorite bait whilst KG1, Activ 8, Maple 8 and Cell are also taking the odd fish.

On Temple it was regular Rob Savage who bagged the only fish of the weekend, a pretty looking 25lb mirror which Rob caught from peg 9 on popped up corn from the deep water channel.

On the Old Lake, Jamie Cerswill had a good session catching three fish topped by a 20lb mirror. Fishing peg 75, Jamie fished Icelandic Red boilies with crushed milky pellet in pva bags tight to the island.

Another angler to catch on the Old Lake was John Merrit who caught 6 carp to 17lb 12oz. Fishing peg 44, John caught on Cell boilies, which he fished to the open water.

Warmer water temperatures have certainly helped the fishing on Bonds with anglers reporting bags to 40lb. Whilst most methods will catch a fish or two, a small feeder with hair-rigged pellet still seems to be the best method with mini boilies and maggot also catching.

Still to produce its best winter form, Milton has again produced some reasonable winter sport this past week with bags of roach and other silver fish starting to show in reasonable numbers. With the odd tench and very odd crucian still showing, float and pole tactics continue to be the best method with both the pole line and margins producing bags to 30lb. Bait wise, things are now a lot finer with single red maggot and caster generally being the best baits, although pellet and even corn are still catching.

Richard Frampton of Fetcham shows off his new pb crucian weighing 2lbs caught during a midweek 1 to 1 lesson with tackle shop manager and tutor Russ Evans. It was a windy day on Milton but under the guidance of Russ, Richard had a successful day on the pole catching a mixture of species with perch up to 1lb, go'er sized roach, small tench and a first ever zander of 8 ounces plus the cracking crucian carp. All of Richards fish came on very light pole tactics with maggot hook bait over a bed of chopped worm and additives.

Warlingham Open

21 members attended last weeks Warlingham open, which was a good turn out for such a dodgy weather forecast.

1st    Bob Stone          14lb.04oz.0dm  (punched meat)

2nd  Steve Longhurst 11lb.04oz.8dm (chopped worm  caster)

3rd  Ken Barnard       4lb.13oz.8dm    (pellet)

4th  Paul Oliver          4lb.12oz.8dm   (caster)