Old Lake Latest Catches week ending 9/4/17

HEADLINES

Huge hauls of bream topped by 63-fish catch
Two more Temple Lake ‘thirties’ landed, including Friar Tuck at 36 lb
Old Lake anglers share 18-carp catch
5 lb eel reported by 20 Milton Lake crucians captor

THIS WEEKS FISHING (IN BRIEF!)

Anglers visiting the Old Lake for some bream action have found the fish queuing up to be caught, providing some huge hauls of fish.
One angler landed 63 of them, and two others reported ‘ton-up’ hauls as the fish made the most of the warm weather to pack on weight with spawning not far away.
There was plenty of fish activity observed on Temple Lake, and two more ‘thirties’ were landed, including Friar Tuck at 36 lb 2 oz to Mark Savage.
The Old Lake carp are also being caught in numbers, two anglers sharing 18 fish in 48 hours from round the back of the island.
And there was a surprise 5 lb eel reported from Milton Lake, scooped up by crucian and roach expert Alan Derbyshire when he saw it in the margins, to check that it was all right.
Last week we reported how Stuart Smith had landed famous fish The Ghost at 38 lb 6 oz, and he has sent us photos of the fish.

The drop in temperature from the unseasonably high 23 degrees C enjoyed on Sunday to half that for Monday and the rest of this week will take a bit of getting used to, but the extra cloud cover should encourage fish to feed more eagerly, and it should be a dry week, though with the prospect of some sharp spring frosts before they are finally banished until October. Every day looks similar to the one before in terms of temperature and light levels, though Tuesday is likely to be more sunny, it being the day of the Full Moon, and next weekend is looking to be brighter again as a high pressure front flirts with the UK. This Sunday’s warm south-westerlies look set to give way to moderate north-westerlies this week, strengthening towards the weekend.

• The predator fishing season begins on October 1 and continues until March 14.

• 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

Anyone who likes bream fishing should give the Old Lake a go at the moment because the fish are hungry for anglers’ bait.
Keith Williams landed 63 of them from peg 36 in an action-packed session, fishing a Method feeder with Bait-Tech Method Mix groundbait and 2 mm pellets, with 8 mm Robin Red hook pellets, close to the island.

Scott Caverhill read about how good the bream fishing was and came down for a day, landing close to 100 lb of fish.
Scott fished peg 37 with a Method feeder with pellets cast close to the island, finishing with 25 bream, a tench and a bonus 18 lb common carp, while an extra rod that he put out for carp didn’t produce a fish.
Steve Murray also had 36 bream to 5 lb for close to 100 lb, fishing peg 14 on the Front Bank with long pole and maggots or soft pellets, also landing three bonus tench.
The Hackbridge AS Sunday Open, on pegs 1-37, was won with 46 lb 8 oz of bream on pole or quivertip by Marcus Page, at end peg 37, using orange dumbbell boilies.
Dave Boyd was second with 37 lb 10 oz from peg 32, ahead of Geoff Driscoll with 29 lb from peg 38, and Dave Johnson and Mark Hathway both on 27 lb 8 oz.
And the Wednesday Warlingham sweepstake on the Front Bank was won by Rick Baxter with 44 lb 1 oz of bream, from peg 4 on pellet feeder, and there were four other weights of over 30 lb.
On the carp front, Kieran and Richard Salvidge shared a 48-hour session and a catch of 18 carp to 18 lb, along with six tench to 7 lb and bream to 6 lb.
Despite bright days and cool nights, they caught a lot of their fish in the daytime, on Essential Baits B5 fishmeal boilies cast tight to the island from pegs 74 and 75, over a scattering of free offerings, getting through 5 kilos of bait over the two days.
Richard Urquhart had six carp to 18 lb 5 oz in 48 hours from peg 75 (see photo below) casting 18 mm Steamies Pino Colada boilies tight to the island with blow-back rigs.

Nick Ridge and fishing pal Pete Binfield had seven carp to 19 lb at the start of their lengthy session, on 18 mm Solar TunaMino boilies, using PVA stringers.
Chris King, from Westcott, landed four carp, all of them mid-doubles, on an overnighter, on 18 mm Mainline Cell boilies with yellow pop-ups in snowman presentations.
And Stuart Anderson had his first Old Lake carp (see photo below) from the corner of the island on a Nash The Key boilie.

TEMPLE LAKE – CARP

Two more ‘thirties’ were banked this week, making it eight reported in the past three weeks.
Famous fish Friar Tuck put in an appearance for the second time in three weeks, up in weight 1 lb 1 oz at 36 lb 2 oz, to Temple regular Mark Savage.
Mark also landed a 26 lb 4 oz common and a 23 lb 8 oz mirror (see photos below), starting at peg 11 and then moving to peg 13 after seeing a large number of fish moving.
He fished Baitworks Scent from Hell pop-ups critically balance and with small PVA bags of free offerings, cast tight to the reed beds.

James Noble also landed three fished in 24 hours, topped by a ‘thirty’, his 30 lb mirror carp, 22 lb 8 oz common and 19 lb 8 oz fully scaled (see photos below) coming from peg 13 on Mainline Cell boilies cast close to the island.

Mark Constable followed up his trio of fish topped by a 34 lb mirror last week with fully scaled mirror carp of 20 lb 15 oz and 18 lb 2 oz (see photos below) on a 36-hour session, on Monster Baits boilies, commenting that a lot of fish were now showing, with the temperature rising.

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.

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.

Milton regular Alan Derbyshire, from Epsom, was back in action again, landing 20 crucians, seven roach of over 1 lb and four tench, from peg 20, on pole and 4 mm expander pellets over groundbait with maggots and 2 mm pellets.
Alan noticed a big eel in the margins, and scooped it out to see that it was all right, putting the weight at 5 lb, said to be the first eel reported from Milton Lake in 20 years!