The first match of the new season was the Feeder Only match which is part of the All Rounder Cup. This was held at Haysden Lake and 23 competitors turned out in very challenging conditions. Although pleasure anglers had been catching well on here in recent weeks, this turned out to be really tough for all involved. With a North Easterly wind, bright sunshine and very clear water, bites were very hard to come by. Pete Groombridge took the day’s honours with a single Bream of 4lb 8oz. Second spot went to Roger Trask with 2lb 11oz and third went to Roger Marsh with 2lb 2oz.

This winter the Society has stocked 50 new Carp into Barden Lake with individual fish weighing up to 24lb 8oz. All fish were weighed, chipped and photographed and then put into the stocking records. We also hand selected some of the stand out smaller fish which were real stunners. Here are a handful of some of the fish that were introduced.

This year, we can congratulate Steve Parker on winning a very close fought Match Championship. It all went down to the last match of the season but conditions didn’t allow for any upsets. Steve ended the season with 80lb 15oz, followed closely by Mick Smith with 78lb 12oz and in third spot was Tony Hyland with 77lb 6oz.

Match Champion Steve Parker

This season’s Pike match was the best attended one for many year’s. We had 16 competitors with several fish getting caught, including a couple of upper doubles.

Larry Howard took top honours with two fish for 24lb 8oz with his best fish of 16lb 6oz coming in the last few minutes of the match. Second spot went to Austin Battell with the one fish which was the biggest of the day and weighed 17lb 4oz and third spot went to Duncan Battell with two fish for 9lb 4oz.

Match winner Larry Howard with his 16lb 6oz fish

Larry Howard ended the season with some fine bags of Chub using his faithful feeder fishing tactics with liquidised bread. No real monsters but all good healthy looking fish to over 3lb.

The railway side track on the Old Ballast Pit has now been completed and we are now working on installing the new platforms and marginal vegetation. After last year’s planting of Iris, we have followed up this year with some Coir rolls with mixed plants pre-planted.
Hopefully within a couple of months, these will have grown well and be in full flower.

Our regular work party attendees continue to do a cracking job on replacing the old platforms on Haysden Lake. We have gone out further with the new ones so the Norfolk Reeds do not have to be cut back so much. We will continue with these until the waterfowl start nesting.

We have recently stocked some more quality Tench, Roach and Rudd into the New Lagoon and Old Ballast PIt. The Tench were all 3lb+ with a few individual fish going well in excess of 5lb. Roach and Rudd were mostly 10″ and above.

The club recently had some oxygen issues on the Old Ballast Pit. The already low water level and dying back lilies and algae blooms meant we were at a high risk of having major problems. As we were carrying out regular water checks, we noticed the ammonia levels had crept up a bit and the oxygen levels had dropped. With the help of the Environment Agency, we were able to put in place the equipment required to minimise fish loss. The pumps and aerators were run for around a week until the problem had passed.
Barden Lake had a similar issue and equipment was installed to minimise potential problems. Both lakes faired reasonably well in regards to fish loss, as the Ballast Pit lost a dozen fish which included Tench, Bream and Carp while Barden lost 3 of its known big fish which was more than likely due to their age.
The club will continue with it’s stocking plan for Barden Lake with around 20 fish to the 20lb mark expected to be stocked this coming winter.

This was the last match of the season and a good turnout there was. 22 anglers attended this rover and the river looked nice with a little colour and some intermittant flow. There were some extra prizes on offer for this one. The most Gudgeon caught which was won with a very impressive haul of 71 fish by Mick Orum. Guess the combined weight of the winning pair was won by Tom Sawyer who was only an ounce out. Fish of the day went to Austin Battell  who caught a Chub of 1lb 14oz.
The fishing was again tough for most but nearly all anglers caught fish. Austin Battell drew number 6 out the hat and was surprised to find his favourite swim vacant. Austin caught fish from the off, although alot of them were very small. There were a few bonus fish amongst his catch, including a couple of decent Roach and six small Chub for an individual weight of 9lb 8oz. This with Peter Hole’s 1lb 15oz made up the match winning weight of 11lb 7oz. In second spot was John Cooper and Roger Trask with 7lb 11oz. Third spot went to Ray Berry and Tony Hyland with 6lb 9oz and fourth spot went to Mick Smith and Mick Orum with 6lb 2oz.