Pike start to show as water temperatures drop? - 13 12 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 as well as a good number of skimmers, whilst Milton Lake will see most of the carp removed which will be replaced with 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.

Although less rain this week, the colder nights have pushed water temperatures down a little further to 6.3 degrees whilst oxygen levels remain pretty level at 60%. Outlook for the week ahead is looking colder.

A few colder days has prompted the pike to start feeding with a good number of anglers reporting some reasonable catches, which included fish to 16lb. Although the zander prefer milder coloured conditions, a few decent fish have also been caught this week topped by a couple of nice doubles.

Whilst at this time of year anglers tend to target the predators, the general fishing on the Old Lake has also continued well with bags of bream to 40lb being reported.

Whilst we are generally into hard winter fishing now, the carp fishing on the Old Lake has continued to throw up a few fish which includes the odd twenty, although the fishing remains hard on Temple currently.

Following the netting on Milton last week, the fishing on Milton Lake has been pretty good with mixed silver fish nets to 30lb being reported which included some good roach and perch. Bonds has also produced a few fish with nets of carp to 30lb reported.

With colder weather arriving it was no surprise to see the pike start to show in better numbers with quite a few fish reported over the week which included a couple of nice mid-doubles weighing 16lb 11oz and 15lb 3oz. Whilst conditions are now starting to favour the pike, the week has again seen quite a few zander caught which included two cracking doubles weighing 10lb 12oz and 10lb 8oz.

Whilst the shallow areas have been producing most of the sport up to now, the fish are definitely moving towards the deeper water pegs with the swims either side of the boathouse offering a good chance of a fish or two.

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. With smaller baits continuing to work the fish are coming out on both sea and freshwater baits with small sections seemingly working best to single hook rigs.

Paul Taylor had a good session mid-week catching 3 pike and a zander. Fishing peg 22, Paul fished the ‘in method’ a small strip of sprat which he hair rigged to a single size 6 hook ledgering his bait 20mts out. Paul’s pike weighed 16lb 11oz, 12lb 2oz and 7lb whilst his zander weighed 9lb 1oz.

Alan Stagg was down again this week, catching 4 zander topped by a cracking 10lb 12oz fish and a nice 13lb 7oz pike. Fishing peg 29, Alan fished a single size 6 hook tied to a 50lb braided hook length with a small section of sprat as bait, which was cast 20 yards out.

Another Bury Hill regular to catch this week was Mike Lyddon who managed 4 fish. Topped by a fish weighing 9lb 8oz, Mikes other three fish were all 8 pounders. Mike caught on ledgered trout sections in bright flat calm conditions.

Generally the Old Lake fished well for the time of year with bream not surprisingly dominating the catches.

With both the front and long banks producing fish, the middle sections were the most productive areas with a small groundbait feeder and cage feeder tactics accounting for the majority of the catches with maggot on the hook.

Whilst most of the sport has been to bank anglers, a few hardened boat anglers have also been catching a few bream from the open water areas using running pole tactics.

BH regular Terry Hill’s had a good day catching 7 bream and a few skimmers for a 20lb net. Fishing peg 27, Terry fished a small feeder packed with Swim Stim groundbait catching bream to 4lb on a single red maggot.

Another quite week for the carpers, with only a few hardened soles venturing out. However those that did brave the elements on the Old Lake were rewarded with a few nice fish, which included the odd twenty as part of a 9 fish catch.

With winter conditions in full swing, accurate feeding and small baits are definitely the way to go with boilies now accounting for most of the fish. As is normal at this time of year, the island margins are always worth a try.

Whilst there are plenty of signs of fish moving up on Temple, no fish were reported this week.

Fishing a 48 hour session, BH regular Rob O’Neill ended up with 9 fish which included a nice 20lb 2oz common. Rob fished peg 14 on the front bank with most of his fish coming from the mid water with two coming from the point of the island. Using size 10 Korda Kurvs with 16mm Icelandic Red boilies topped off with a small 10mm plastic boilie, and just a few loose offering scattered around after each fish. The other fish were an 18lb mirror, 15lb 12oz mirror, 15lb common, 14lb mirror, and the other four between 10lb and 13lb.

Surprisingly Bonds fished pretty well this week with a number of anglers reporting 3 to 8 fish catches. Whilst most methods will catch a fish or two, a small maggot feeder seems to be the best method with mini boilies and pellet also catching.

James Gabbani from Wimbledon had a good day catching 3 carp weighing 15lb 8oz, 9lb 6oz and 9lb 3oz. James fished a maggot feeder to the open water from peg 4.

Following last weeks netting, Milton fished well for the time of year with some good catches of roach and perch reported. With some hard frosts starting to arrive, these are perfect conditions for Milton which holds a big stocking of quality roach, rudd and perch.

With the odd tench and even the 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.