Old Lake Latest Catches week ending 3/9/17

HEADLINES

Multiple carp catches on the Old Lake and Temple
Up to 31 Old Lake carp per pair of anglers
Temple catch of eight fish to Jon Botting, including a brace of 30s
27 Old Lake bream in a day
Milton Lake and Bonds keeping anglers busy with action

THIS WEEKS FISHING (IN BRIEF!)

It’s the time of year for large catches of carp, helped by the warm weather interspersed with freshening showers.
Both the Old Lake and Temple have produced some great carp catches this week, including 31 fish to a pair of anglers on the Old Lake and a total of eight fish for Jon Botting on Temple, including two ‘thirties’.
Jon fished over the Bank Holiday weekend and had the Double-Row Linear at 36 lb 1 oz and Two Tone at 34 lb 2 oz from peg 9.
And on the Old Lake, Richard Urquhart and his guest Paul Downey shared a busy 48-hour session of fish to 20 lb, along with bonus tench.
There was also 23 carp for around 330 lb for lake regulars Kevin Oldcorn and Dave ‘Jonty’ Smith, the biggest 17 lb 12 oz, while father and son Dan and Connor Lucas had 13 carp, and so did James and Steve Lentz.
Best of the bream catches reported was George Noppens’ 27 fish from peg 75, followed by Gary Cullen’s 20 bream, and a trio of friends’ 17 while they were carp fishing.
And Alan Derbyshire was in action on Milton Lake again, landing good numbers of crucians, sizeable roach and rudd on 13m pole and bunches of pinkies, while Lucy Simmonds had a successful day on Bonds after the carp.
There’s a warm and wet start to the week with an overcast Monday of 21 degrees C following a rainy Sunday, and then a showery Tuesday of 20, before a brighter Wednesday thanks to the Full Moon. This should be followed by an overcast but probably dry Thursday, and more sunshine but with showers on Friday, and heavier rain likely on Saturday as temperatures slide by a degree or so from Tuesday onwards to 17 for the weekend. Winds look likely to be mainly light to moderate but strengthening into the weekend, starting as south-easterlies but becoming south-westerlies on Monday afternoon and staying that way into the weekend. Night-time temperatures are likely to stay in double figures, with a balmy 16 degrees from Monday into Tuesday, before the slide begins, with four degrees less the night after and staying that way into the weekend.

• The predator fishing season begins this Sunday, October 1 and continues until March 14.

• Anyone who fancies being part of the night syndicate of anglers who are allowed to fish Temple and the Old Lake after dark for a £50 joining fee will be interested to hear that there are places available. To apply, get in touch with the office on 01306 883621.

• Anglers are reminded that fishing on Temple and night fishing on the Old Lake is available exclusively to members of the Bury Hill Specimen Carp Club. Membership cards must be carried at all times when on the fishery, and be available to bailiffs when they carry out checks prior to the evening lock-up.

OLD BURY HILL LAKE – GENERAL & BOAT FISHING

As soon as there is a sniff of autumn in the air, the fish begin their annual feed-up ready for winter, and that seems to have started now on the Old Lake.
Lake regular Richard Urquhart shared a successful 48-hour session with Paul Downey on pegs 2 and 3, giving them a sleepless night of constant action with 31 carp to 20 lb, which was a common, and two bonus tench (see photos).

Fellow lake regulars Kevin Oldcorn and Dave ‘Jonty’ Smith shared a 23-carp catch weighing about 330 lb from pegs 74 and 75, along with some bonus tench, Kevin’s biggest being a 17 lb 10 oz common, and Jonty’s a 17 lb 12 oz ghost mirror carp (see photos below), having landed a 22 lb ghost common on his previous visit.
All of the fish fell to 20 mm Mainline Peaches & Cream boilies with PVA bags, or 18 mm Cell wafters, cast towards the island but also in open water and in the margins.

Father and son Dan and Connor Lucas shared a 13-carp catch from pegs 31 and 32, which included a new personal best for 12-year-old Connor in the form of a 24 lb 8 oz mirror, beating his old best from two years ago at the lake of 22 lb.
Dan had fish to 20 lb 3 oz, and all were caught on 15 mm Sticky Baits Manilla pop-ups over a scattering of bottom baits.
Also landing 13 carp were James and Steve Lentz, from Crawley Down, who fished pegs 2 and 3 with single 20 mm NashBait boilies in open water over beds of bait, landing a 19-pounder, an 18, two 16s, a 14, two 13s, a 12 and two 10s.
And Steve Spear, Andy Pitts and Melvyn Southern shared a catch of nine carp to 17 lb and 17 bream at pegs 74 and 75, on Sticky Baits The Krill and Manilla boilies, or Mainline Cell with chilli hemp in PVA bags, including a new PB for Melvyn of a 15 lb 8 oz common.
Anglers targeting the bream also had successful sessions, George Noppens, from Worcester Park, landing 27 to 6 lb from peg 75 on corn, also hooking two carp on Peaches & Cream boilies, though they came adrift.
And Gary Cullen, from Roehampton, had 20 bream to 6 lb from peg 23 on float fished or feeder fished small worm tails, over groundbait laced with hemp and casters, having found that casters on the hook failed, despite a successful session the week before on the bait.

TEMPLE LAKE – CARP

Jon Botting was in the middle of his session when we reported last week, and he added to his tally to finish with eight carp, including two of the lake’s target ‘upper-twenties’.
Jon landed the Double-Row Linear at 36 lb 1 oz and Two Tone at 34 lb 2 oz (see photos below) from peg 9, adding commons of 27 lb and 26 lb 2 oz, as well as four smaller ‘stockies’, all on 14 mm A2 Baits Creamy Toffee pop-ups cast tight to the island.

And another lake regular, Conor Cook, from Westcott, had a 22 lb mirror carp on an overnighter at peg 15, on a single 20 mm Sticky Baits Manilla boilie in a snowman presentation with a yellow pop-up, over free offerings.

BONDS LAKE

Bonds regularly produces multiple catches of carp to double figures on a variety of methods, from pole to feeder and straight lead to waggler.

Lucy Simmonds was kept busy on Bonds with a seven-carp catch from peg 9, all but one of them commons (see photos below).
Three of her fish were caught on sweetcorn, and the rest on banded pellets with a Method feeder.

MILTON LAKE

Milton Lake is the place to try for a catch of prime roach, using a waggler on a running line or pole just a short distance out, close to the pads, where they can be lined up with a little-and-often loosefeeding approach. And in the mild spells there are crucians, tench and bream to be caught, along with occasional carp.

Lake regular Alan Derbyshire caught ten crucians, two good roach and two quality rudd at peg 17 on 13-metre pole and triple pinkie over cupped-in groundbait with dead pinkies mixed in.