Some of our junior members have been out enjoying the fishing on our waters. Regular visitor, Alex Stokes recently had a great day on the New Lagoon with his Dad Gareth. Alex recorded a stunning 7lb 4oz Tench for the annual specimen awards, he also had Bream to 3lb 6oz and another 5 Tench.
Eva Martin and Dad Jez had some great sport with the large Roach in Barden Lake. Eva caught several specimens to a very impressive 2lb 2oz and all caught float fishing using maggots as bait.
  

There have already been some nice captures from our stillwaters recently. Barden Lake continues to fish well for the Carp, Bream and Tench. Society Bailiff Andy Bungay had two nice Carp on his latest 48 hour session, 30lb and 39lb 8oz.
The Ballast Pit has also fished well for the Carp, Tench and Bream with Carp to 20lb+, Tench to 7lb+ and Bream into double figures. The New Lagoon has been a little hit and miss while the fish were spawning but the Tench still offer great sport when nothing else is showing. Specimens to 7lb 5oz have been recorded. Weirwood has fished well for Bream, Roach and Hybrids plus a few predators being caught to dropshotting.

There have been some nice Perch showing on the river when its been fishable. The best time being as the colour drops out of the water. This nice near 3lb fish was caught by Matthew Wakeford.

The Pike fishing on our waters has been pretty good of late, especially on Barden Lake with several upper doubles being caught. Our recent Pike match was won from Barden Lake with Neal Rogers taking the honours with two fish for 22lb 8oz. Club Vice-Chairman Larry Howard and his friend had a good day with a double each to 14lb 8oz.  Jason Craven also caught several fish to 14lb+. Gareth Stokes, his son Alex and friend Mole had seven fish between them to 17lb+. Best fish of late was caught by Malcolm Holden on the river which weighed 23lb 8oz.

Carl Mitchell and his family have donated a stunning new trophy in memory of Bill Mitchell (Carl’s dad) who was a long standing Committee member and regular Society match angler. This trophy is the ‘Bill Mitchell Match Specimen Cup’ awarded to the match angler catching the best specimen fish from any club match throughout the season. We have invited Carl and his family to present this wonderful trophy in memory of Bill at the AGM next May.

Regular predator anglers Jason Craven and Neal Rogers had a couple of good fish recently from the river while the water conditions were good. Using sea baits under a float, Neal was first to connect with what felt like a good fish. After a good hard fight, the fish threw the hooks close in. Within seconds of losing that fish, Jason’s float slid away not to be seen again until he struck into what was definitely a big fish. Again, a good fight followed and the fish was safely netted, weighed and photographed. In top condition but a little empty following the poor recent river conditions, the fish hit the 20lb barrier. As we are currently running a little guess the weight competition via our Facebook page, the exact weight will not be revealed until next week. Neal and Jason had another run each, Jason not connecting with his but Neal played and landed a very plump 14lb 8oz fish.

Larry Howard done well in the recent club match fished at the bungalows. With the river still up and coloured, a dozen regulars braved the conditions to contest for the A.C.A cup. Larry managed to hook two Carp during the match, one which he could do nothing with and the other was this lovely 10lb 4oz Common. With a small Bream and some bits added to this, Larry took first spot winning by a margin of 5lb 2oz.

1st    Larry Howard                12lb  4oz
2nd   Peter Hole                        7lb   2oz
3rd    Stuart Cottingham       5lb   1oz

The NEW LAGOON continues to fish well, even with the drop in water and air temperature. Venue bailiff Bill, had a busy day last week, catching several Tench between 4lb and 6lb.

Other members have also enjoyed the brilliant Tench fishing on offer. Roach to over 1lb continue to show and plenty of small Carp to around 6lb have been caught. We recently netted the New Lagoon so that we could remove some Pike and monitor the young Carp that were growing on in there. We removed several Pike into double figures which were moved to the Ballast Pit and chipped, weighed, recorded and moved 40 Carp between 4lb 8oz and 12lb which were also moved to the Pit. We are looking into surveying both of these waters in the near future, to give us a long term plan of action for the well being of both, habitat and stocks.

The current venue record Tench caught by Jason Craven weighed 8lb 8oz.

Our junior members have also caught some lovely big Tench.

Some of the netted fish samples

A cracking Roach caught by one of our members

Austin Battell endured a tough day on Weirwood Resevoir recently with boat companions Jason Craven and Neal Rogers. Using the dropshot method and testing some new lures, fish were hard to come by but from the seven fish caught, this lovely Perch of 3lb 5oz was the pick of the bunch.

Barden Lake regulars Warren and club bailiff Phil Hollens spent plenty of hours over a couple of days, raking dead weed from their swims to make it easier for landing fish. It well and truly paid off for both of them with Phil bagging the first fish which was a stocked fish less than two years ago which weighed 19lb 8oz and now weighs 29lb 12oz. A fantastic growth rate. To top the session off, Warren then caught the fish known as ‘The Brown’ at its heaviest weight to date at 50lb 9oz. Well done fellas.

Phil Hollens 29lb 12oz                                                 Warren 50lb 9oz