Old Lake Latest Catches week ending 18/11/18
Bury Hill has a new zander record in the form of a 17 lb 2 oz fish landed by Janusz Kansik.
Already this season there have been some big catches of zeds to individual anglers, but what was missing was a really big fish to whet anglers’ appetites.
That all changed this weekend when Janusz broke the seven-year record with his huge fish, which took an inch-long section of roach on a size 6 single hook.
Regular visitor Janusz, who is a full-time Angling Trust Building Bridges Project Officer, was fishing with his father, Jacek, on a Twilight Ticket, and between them they landed eight zander, including two of 8 lb, and a bonus 13 lb carp, as well as one zander on a boilie.
They were fishing just 15 yards out, on peg 2, with very light legers and very light, plastic bobbin indicators.
The fish beats his personal best of 14 lb, which he landed three years ago, and is one of over 300 zander he has landed over the past four years.
He weighed it on kg scales and it went 7.8, which converts to 17.16 lb, or 17 lb 2 oz, and measured 78 cm long.
The official Bury Hill zander record was held by a fish of 16 lb 2 oz caught in March 2011, though a netting of Temple Lake in late January 2014 turned up a 17 lb 3 oz fish, which was moved to the Old Lake.
That fish is thought to be one caught on a boilie by Temple carp angler Terry Brown the year before that, weighing 15 lb 10 oz.
It was also a good week for bream anglers, the Stevie Gardener midweek match being won by Andy Ryan with 77 lb, on feeder.
Andy was on peg 74, at the back of the island, and he was just ahead of Tony Morris, next door at peg 73, with 76 lb, also on feeder.
Third was Peter Turnbull wit 65 lb on pole, from peg 75, the other side of the winner, while Stevie was sixth with 35 lb from peg 69.
Carp angler Artur Piersa had plenty of action on an overnighter, despite heavy rain, landing five fish, the biggest 16 lb.
Fishing peg 10, Artur used snowman presentations with 20 mm bottom baits tipped with 10 mm Chocolate pop-ups.
And Chris Chapman, from Woking, had a good mixed catch from peg 16, which included four carp to 17 lb, all of them commons, two tench, which shows that they will feed when it’s mild, and his first zander, at 3 lb, on single 18 mm Mainline Cell boilies with PVA bags of free offerings.