Island Lake May 2012

Just got back from The Island lake run by Mick Bowman. We booked the lake over 2 years ago and decided then that we would only take four anglers rather than the usual ten on a mixed week . We would also invite Mick Bowman to fish as a bit of a good will gesture and of course to pick his brain .
The previous week saw 14 fish caught including a 64 pound fish to Gary Harrow an angler from Kent with a good Rainbow track record , he had only caught two fish so I came to the conclusion that  it must be fishing slow. The Filthy four were Stevie Cowell , Mark Footman , Steve Perry and I , it was all a bit tense when we met up as swim choice is crucial on these waters . For once I was fairly relaxed as I knew these fish are mobile from a previous trip in October. I agreed to go in my last choice of swim 7/8 Stevie in 5/6 , Steve P in 3/4 and Mark in 1/2 . Mick Bowman would fish from his hut and cover swim 13 an area I really fancied!!
Mark and Steve had a good start taking fish of 46,48 ,51. 52 in the first couple of nights. I stuck to Mick's advice on spots for three nights with no action , then changed them to where I had studied patterns of fish showing mainly at night. This was a hard decision as the fish are renowned for clearing up spots once the lines come in . With three new spots sorted Tuesday afternoon and the introduction of half hemp half boilie mix I put 3kg over each rod and crossed my fingers.
The sun was just setting and I had seen a few shows on my right hand spots when the open water spot on the left burst into life. A spirited fight and the smallest but prettiest fish in the lake was in the net 28lb it was a start. Two more bites in the night with a 62 and a 42 things were looking up, Mick Bowman had four that night at 41, 42, 44 and 53. Great stuff .
The next two night produced another two 60s for me at 62.8 and 61. I was over the moon , beyond my expectation and a first for the lake at 3x60 to one angler.

The last night was a bumper one as well with Mark having a 49 and a 60 , the 60 being a PB. I managed a 40 and a 52 right at last knocking with one rod in the water.

A great week of highs and lows and my tenth 60 in 18 months , destiny or luck who cares!

Total fish caught by 5 anglers 17. 4x60 4x50 8x40 and 1x28. 

Here are the photos.

Solar Tackle Trip March 2012.

Steve and I had been invited by our lifelong friend Martin Locke on his annual Solar trip to Teillates , I thought it was a bit early as the lake can by quite moody at this time of the year. The Nogent had already been caught at a great weight of 77 pound by new bailiff Martin and the previous weeks party had struggled with a dozen or so fish to 12 anglers. There would be seven anglers on the lake Martin Locke , Dave the Wave , Dave Hyham , Pete " Bomber" , Martin the new bailiff , Steve and I . All competent anglers in the own right with a list of huge fish behind them . The scene was set.
Steve had just moved to his new job as bailiff on the new Korda Road Lake so I went down on the Friday to pick him up and have a bit of a social with Dan Turtle and young Martin from Sparsholt College , a young Italian angler was there too waiting to get on Gigantica for the Freespirit week . We had a nice meal of steak and rice and a few red wines before getting some sleep ready for the 4am start and drive to Noyen Sur Siene , about 50 miles.
We arrived at the lake early and phoned Martin who was asleep in the hut, he sounded awful as they had been drinking until 4am with Jake the bailiff , always a mistake to drink with Jake as I have fallen foul to his antics in the past . We went down to Bray to get a coffee and some food to pass the time . All exciting stuff as the lake looked fantastic in the early morning spring sun.
A quick walk around and the low down on all the swims , Martin had ended up paying for two places on the trip so we let him have first choice of swim , New Biffos was a predictable option as it has early season form . I went to the bag of balls first and got 1 for the first time and Steve pulled 2 . Great news , Bailiff's point for me and the Rock on the field for Steve .
The first day was a long one , I went out with a sounder and found the features and decided to go for a short spot at 80yds to the back of a plateaux and a long spot in 18ft at 120yds in the middle.
Steve fished the back of the feature in the Rock at 100 yds a known early season hotspot where Tim Oatley had caught 16 fish on an April trip. I got my baits out by 4pm and started on the house etc , Dinner turned up and I stuffed that down . I then noticed Steve playing a fish , the bait had been in the water less than 20 mins and a 46 mirror was on the end . Great start.

I awoke at first light , got on the radio to Steve who had caught a 43 common in the night , Martin caught a 25 also . What happened to my carefully placed traps, not a bleep. Crash a fish jumps to my left in the mouth of a bay, then another and another. I get a rod on them and so does Steve from the field bank. No action all day . What's going on mate?
Steve and I have a chat about tactic , the stringers at jumping fish isn't working as the area has weed and chod so time to find some spots and set the traps . I go for a short clear area close in with half a kilo of Boilies , Steve a known hotspot where we have done well on at the foot of a feature 80 yds from the Stump swim.
All is set , first light Monday morning and only Martin has had a fish at 20lbs . Steve and I meet at Mannys and chat , another fish rolls . What's occurring here then ??? I walk back to my swim and as I get close one of the 80 yd rods is away , a short spirited fight and I have a 20 something in the net 5 mins later the other rod is off and a 30 something is in the net , then one of the long rods goes and I have another 20 in the net . Lucky I brought 3 nets.
The day is slow and warm , I have a re bait with a couple of kilo and reposition the rods . The sun dips and i'm confident of a bite again , 7pm and the short rod is away , a fast fight and a 32 linear in the net , great . I put him back and get a drop back on one of the long rods and another 30 , cast it back out and I'm off agian with another 30 . Can't be bad , I'm off to bed .
I'm awake to another slow take from the 80yd spot , the fish takes line steadily until its well out in the lake 5 mins go by and I have still haven't gained line and it's moving very slowly right , I get two pumps in and the hooks pulls , gutted , it felt like a big un . Back out with the rod I go back to bed to sulk but I'm away again on the same rod , another slow ponderous fight in the morning light and I net a big Common that looks all day 50 it goes 47.8. Steve comes round to do the photos and the short rod is away and a spirited fight results in a 44 common . A great morning angling and 8 fish in 24 hours , bring it on . Steve has also had two in the night 27 and 30.

Dave the wave who is at the other end of the lake makes the move to Mannys , who can blame him and first chuck has a lovely 48 common . Lockie comes over in the boat to see what's going on and I have a mid afternoon take in 18ft of water on the long rods , another 20 something! Things are looking good my old friend , we have a chat about all the Bream Martin is catching , dump the seed I say and you can see he's thinking about tactics.
The week pretty much went to the same routine with morning bites for Steve and I and a few in the night , by Thursday we had clocked up 21 fish but had no bites that morning , the fish had gone and I had found them down in the Crescent and Andys at 2 am , I walked up and down the bank thinking I should move and then went to bed!
I get up and talk to Martin the Balliff who has caught 3 fish in the night , I move to Nice Andys on the edge of the fish , Martin Locke moves to the Shithouse Corner . Traps set, Lockie get a lovely 44 common just like Richard Walker's record. I manage 2 by midnight at 29 and 31 but it's Martin the Bailiff's night 3 fish including a couple of 40s. Steve has a lovely 47 in the middle of the day which looked all day a 50.
The last night was productive , I had another 30 , Martin Locke a Scaley 47, Steve 3 fish to 35 and Martin the Bailiff 4 fish including a 49 and a 50 common." A great week to blow away the winter cobwebs " as Lockie nicely put it. We will be back for the big uns next year.

We pack up and leave it to the Sticky bait crew.

48 fish caught by 7 anglers . 14x40 2x50 . I managed 14 fish and Steve 13.

The Unkown Common at 77 pounds

Island Lake October 2011

We were on a real high coming off Telliates and went straight to Island lake 15km down the road for our second week of the holiday.

I had heard it was a weedy lake that was a little tricky . After borrowing the van from Jake the bailiff at Telliates to get to the draw for 11am and rushing around the super market for some food for the week I evetually was in swim 13 on Island lake . Steve I put in swim 12 on bailiffs advice . Steve was now on his way back to Dover to pick up his van !!!!
As soon as i looked over the side of the boat in swim 13 i knew this wasn't going to be easy. Crystal clear water and i could see boilies at 12 feet down . The clear areas and recommended spots were huge and i just couldn't see me getting a bite in the day here. I found a spot along a tree line that reminded me of a great spot on the Anson back in the day at Dartford lakes. Tree line clear and it was polished , that will do nicely and it was shaded most of the day . The other two went on very obvious spots , huge clear areas that had been cleaned by carp .
Steve arrived at 2am , after a cuppa and a fag , I got three bleeps on the tree line rod , went down to the rod and it was curved around nicely . It was on and turned out to be another 60 common. Lucky or what .
It turned out to be a hard week with only six fish caught by 7 anglers . We had four of them . 60.4 Common and 55 common to me and a 55 Mirror and 38 mirror to Steve.

Telliates Oct 2011

Just got back from another amazing trip and a near copy of last October for Steve and I . Steve managed to pull the number 1 ball from the hat , I got 8 . Tim Oatley and his crew had been on the previous week with Tim catching the Nogent Mirror at 78 ,again . New Biffos had done a few fish in the last 24 hrs , so as he left on the coach he gave me the , New Biffos , New Biffos message for the draw.
Steve stuck to his guns after seeing a catch graph of the double swim with all the big 6 coming from there this year . Nice one Steve , I had to wait and went for the Shithouse . I could have gone in the Crescent or the Fence but saw the colour of the water in Shithouse and a fish show. Game on.

We set up and I went for a spot at around 85 yds that Steve had done well on last year and a deeper spot to the right. Steve went on the spot I had 2X60 last year and the famous rock spot where Si Haldane has done so well . I put 2kg on one spot and 1 kg on the other and was surprised to get a take at 10.30pm . 43 pounder, another at 3.30 am 44 pounder , and Steve had a 38 a first light. Blimey we never catch first night.
I won't bore you all with the detail but we ended up with 17 fish . 1x77 Common , 2x60 Common , 1 x61 Mirror, 3x55 Plus. All caught on Mainline New Grange . We used around 50kg during the week . Another awesome week on the lake and a memorable year for me with 6x60 including 3x70 plus.

Teillates Sept 2011

Steve and I have just returned from the lake for our Autumn trip . We did pretty well with 16 fish between us from 4 different swims. Steve started in New Biffos and me in The Rock on the field . I quickly moved to crescent , then the Stump , then the Fence . Steve did his last night in Mannies.

The fish were spread out over the lake and nearly everybody caught something . Conditions changeable with some nice westerly cloudy weather and some hot clear days . Her are the stats .

Steve Cowell 2x40 4x30 3x20 Top Rod. Mick Murray . 2x 50 2x40 1x30 2x20.

We caught 5x20 with the rest of the lake not catching a single fish that size!!! Some nice fish caught , Generals Mate at 79.12 , 66 Common , 62 common and 12x 50 including two at 58 .

We are back on 13th October for another adventure , come on the Long Common and Nogent . Here are the photos.

All fish were caught on Mainline Grange at ranges from 30yds to 130yds.

More Action May 2011

The result of my boat trip!!

In the boat to land a 36 Mirror in Weed . A common occurance throughout the week.