UKCF Anglers.

[Horsebox]

Smashing shot JT!


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[Simon Bolivar]

They say 'plant pears for yours heirs' as a pear tree takes a long time to produce decent quantities of fruit, an excellent motto for fishing lakes too. Sure his & your patience will be rewarded if you can keep out unwanted human elements & unwanted predation like the otter. Also suggest putting some roach & perch in, waters with just carp are not as clean & clear as with a mix of small fix too & they should be annoying by taking your baits (like bream). Furnance lake once held 5lb+ Perch & that was a carp syndicate I believe. Gives a nice alternative for a spot of winter fishing. Pike will take boilies, especially seafood & if your fishery is going to allow carp fishing all year around, you don't really want pikers trying to cast lures or bivvying up in competition with the carpers either.

[Johnny Thunder]

Correct Simon, the lake has only been stocked for about five years. The guy who runs the syndicate has started it
with a stock of fairly modest sized fish. They are a very nice strain of carp. Extremely pretty, slow growing and most
importantly, long living. These days, a lot of lake owners go for fast growing, short living fish. They tend to be the
not so pretty types of fish.

[Simon Bolivar]

Nice to have the lake PB Johnny, congrat's! I have held it for a few waters for the Pike. A 20lb carp is quiet a modest size though so I am assuming it's a fairly recent seeding? Carp growing so fast these days with feeding carrying on during mild winters & boilies go in every day of the year. Still looks a very nice fish though, hopefully it'll continue to grow & keep it proportions & not get the gross bucket gut some big carp get.

[Johnny Thunder]

I smoked a couple over the two days Tony. Nothing flash though.

[TonyN]

What a beauty bet that diserved a Cuban.

[Budgie Smuggler]

That's a lovely fish, absolutely perfect scales.


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[Johnny Thunder]

Just back from my latest session, which turned out to be rather eventful.

On arrival Wednesday morning, I knew time was against me with a rain front moving in, so I got the brolly up straight away.
I then got the tackle box out and placed it on my chair, ready to start getting a few bits and pieces out, when I heard a large
crack. Then felt an almighty whack on the back of my head.






I did not even have a rod in the water at this point and was thinking this is already turning into one of them sessions where
everything just goes tits up. Anyway, I managed to get the rods in with no more problems before the rain started.
It absolutely pissed down for the next fifteen hours.





This is a small, local syndicate with a head a smallish fish, and the lake does prove to be quite peggy. One peg in particular
regularly produces big hits of fish while all others produce the odd one. It was my mates turn to be in the hot peg and he
was catching steadily. He finished the session with six fish up to 19lb 14oz, and lost a couple.

On Thursday afternoon, I managed to lose a small fish to a hook pull and I thought that was it. My one chance gone.
About two hours later, just when I was knocking up a Lamb Rogan Josh, one of my rods absolutely melted off.
The fight that followed was amazing. This fish had anger management problems. After a couple of minutes of giving and
taking line, the fish just flat rodded me and powered into the bay to my right and headed for the aerator positioned next
to a reed bed. It snagged me up on the ropes of the aerator.

Gutted.

My mate went round to the boathouse and rowed across to me and collected my landing net. All the while I can feel the fish
still on and pulling hard. He rowed along to the aerator and after a little messing around with, aerator, line and reeds, he
managed to slide the fish over the drawcord and into the net. At this moment, he stated that it looked a fairly decent fish.
On the unhooking mat and into the weigh sling she went. The scales settled on 20lb 4oz. A new lake record common carp.
I guess the carp gods were looking down on me.

[Simon Bolivar]

No not Kato's jigs, cheers johnny, probably won't be able to update much from the isle, most is still off the grid! But will publish full report on this thread when I can. And cheers Oskihen but using a 8# rod, should have Mama in the boat in a few hairy minutes; have to play them hard too make rocks & snags to loose them on as it's a flooded ex-quarry.

[oskihen]

Good luck Simon , and pike on the fly , real sport especially if you find the mother that'll keep you occupied for an hour or so

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[Johnny Thunder]

Good luck Simon. Keep us updated with your reports.


I am out for a 48 hour session this week too.Hopefully I will have something to report.

[Budgie Smuggler]

Are those Kato's jig flies Simon?


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[TonyN]

I havent fished seriously for a couple years, im hoping that is starting to change. My 5 year old is showing an interest.

Perfect age to get them intrested in fishing guy nice little roach he's holding.

[Simon Bolivar]

Ok time to revive this thread as the new season (s) approach. I am all packed & raring to go for my week's Pike fishing to the isle of Bute next Monday. Have the frozen fish order in, ?126 worth will be delivered to the Isle's butchers (obviously), I have had a dozen parcels of last minutes items posted there from Amazon & fleabay. Some stuff I'll need but mostly nice to haves & certainly wouldn't be able to get on the Isle. THere is one small tackle shop, the floor space of which, isn't much more than my Boli Cave & covers course, game & sea fishing. Best use - buying bait if all other suppliers fail me.

I was hoping to arrive from the ferry at 16:15 in time to get to the Butchers before they close but already my normal 09:00 flight has been put back a couple of hrs (due to aircraft shortage after recent the Norwegian fatal crash) so will be lucky to get the last ferry @ 19:30 but at least I could make an early start with the lures in the morning & come down into town later for the bait.
So here's a pic of small selection of the lures, flies & cigars I am taking. Also, this photo was posted yesterday on our club site, a 15lb08 caught at 04:30 Saturday, think the alarm must have woken him up! Great an upper dble has been recently caught, hope to catch her mother, before the week is out!

[Johnny Thunder]

I havent fished seriously for a couple years, im hoping that is starting to change. My 5 year old is showing an interest.

That is great. I am jealous. My son has absolutely no interest in fishing. Tried once and he hated it.
I hope you have lots of fun together.

Nice carp there Johhny, nice end of season catch. Marc, that's a great time to get back into fishing. The excitement of kids catching their first few fish, is enough to re-ignite previous interest. try taking a short video clip of them reeling in & putting them back, great for the family archive. I am taking a close season now but preparing for my week on the Isle of Bute from 30th May. Hoping to spend a few days of the week up on Loch Awe, never been there before & have heard many interesting stories about large hard fighting pike & hoping it comes off. Will be sure to post any decent captures.

Looking forward to this years blog of your trip Simon. Good luck.