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June turned out to be a great month. The weather was on the whole really good with some long settled periods and the fish responded with anglers taking some good catches and some lovely individual fish from most lakes around the park. Also with the start of the traditional fishing season on the rivers and with them being in such good trim anglers had good fishing on both the Ouse and Tove!
The Park Grapevine
All the Park's lakes continued in pretty much the same form in June as they had in May. The Residents Lake continued to produce lots of fish of all species including some lovely individual specimens especially the carp. Top match angler Michael Buchwalder continued his success with the carp taking many fish up to 27lb 12oz.
Ian Hickson also had a lovely mirror carp of 25lb 8oz that caused a bit of a domestic dispute with his dad Paul. Paul was fishing for the carp with his gear but on receiving a run Ian got to the rod first, struck and played the fish in, then claimed the fish for himself as it was so big! Ian also had another mirror carp of 25lb 6oz twice!
Early in the month Ian hooked the fish on bottom gear close in on sweetcorn. On landing the fish it was easily identifiable as it had a funny shaped top lip and a large red mark on its flank. 10 days later Ian had the same fish again at the same weight only this time on floating bread! Kingfisher Lake continued its great form particularly for its mixed catches. Anglers were having great sport with not only its carp into double figures but also with bream, roach, rudd and tench.
Fountain View 1 was in great form with anglers catching loads of carp to just under 20lb.
Fountain View 2 started the month in strange form. Some anglers did very well but others struggled! One thing that did become apparent was that the fish did not want to be out in open water. Most successful anglers were catching close in to the margin or close to the tree line. Plenty of carp to mid-double figures were taken along with tench, bream and it was also nice to see some good catches of quality roach showing.
Willow View / Banks was in great form. Richard Mason continued to catch some cracking carp to mid double figures on 'proper' carp gear and his Grandson Mathew took some good mixed catches of bream, tench and silver fish close in on pole tactics.
I had a very pleasant morning session on Willow Banks taking 7 carp to 5lb, 3 x tench, 1 x 6lb bream and about 50 roach, rudd and perch some of these going 8oz. What made it particularly enjoyable was that I had to work really quite hard for the fish, alternating pole lines between the margin, 5 metres and 13 metre lines, continually baiting and changing things around to maintain contact with the fish.
The Ski Lake was in great form with the regular carp anglers taking some really nice fish into low 20's. Both regulars Phil Moate and Darren Stones took some lovely fish. Interestingly most of Phil's fish were taken within 30 yards of the bank whereas Darren were mostly caught at 80 plus yards out!
Steve Knight also took a tench that was estimated to be just over 'double figures'.
Heronsfield was again 'on fire' this month for its tench fishing. Particularly Fred Jackson who caught so many tench this month he was - quite frankly 'getting bored' and was hoping to catch something else LOL! He did start to take one or two nice carp though.
Canada Lake continued to produce loads of nice fish with anglers taking good catches of carp (to double figures) tench and some nice silver fish particularly the rudd. I am still a little disappointed at the 'so called' anglers litter that keeps appearing despite the 'warnings'.
One disturbing story I heard from Canada Lake was that one angler caught a small carp to find still hooked in its mouth a rig made up of a treble hook attached to a wire trace and attached to a method feeder! If you see any 'so called' anglers using a rig like this or any rig in fact you are not happy with please - please report it straight away to the reception or any member of staff as this is totally unacceptable. Grebe, Mallard, Lilly and Teal lakes were in good form. Although the match results were not outstanding - for pleasure anglers especially those able to fish during the week when it is quiet the fishing has been really good, with good catches of not only the carp but some nice bream as well.
Top match anglers Tim Jolley and Gary Harris have been 'sneaking' over to Grebe and Mallard and have been quietly taking some good catches of carp on pole tactics!
The Rivers Ouse & Tove
Both rivers fished really well this month, mostly for its smaller fish. Several anglers caught well using trotting tactics with both a 'stick' and a 'waggler' taking numerous bream, roach, small chub, dace and perch. Geoff Ball had the best fish from the River Ouse this month with a monster chub taken on ledgered worm. Unfortunately Geoff couldn't weigh the fish as he had forgotten his scales but it was measured at 21" long! A very good chub as you can see.
Gary's Month
My month has on the whole been really enjoyable.
I have not taken any particularly outstanding catches but I have caught lots of nice fish and had some very pleasant sessions. I have really been mixing it and matching it this month with tactics using my 'big rods and buzzers' on one session then my long pole the next. I do tend to get a little bored of doing the same thing all the time and consider myself to be a 'jack of all trades and a master of none'!
As such I have had a couple of good overnight sessions on the Ski Lake taking carp to nearly 20lb, but I've also had some great short sessions with the pole taking some lovely mixed bags of carp, tench and bream from Canada Lake, Grebe and Willow Banks.
I've always been an advocate of 'following the wind' particularly when I am carp fishing and one of my session proved my point. During the middle of the month the wind had been blowing due South West for over a week and I had been looking for some fish at the top of the Ski Lake, but on the morning of the day I intended to do a Thursday night after work into Friday session the wind suddenly turned completely around and by the time I finished work it was 'haking' in due East. I took the gamble and fished into the teeth of the strong Easterly wind. As I was setting up my suspicions were proved correct and several fish crashed out in my swim. I spodded out with a midi spomb several loads of hemp, corn and chopped boilies and fished a 2" pop up over the mix where I had seen the fish crash and within an hour I had a 'single tone' run that resulted in a stunning 19lb 8oz common!
A short time later I took a low double common that came to a solid PVA bag presentation just cast at the showing fish so I turned in for the night quite happy. I had a very quiet night that was a little surprising considering the fish activity but I was awoken at 4.45am by a screaming run that resulted in a lovely 7lb 2oz tench from the main baited area. By 7am the wind had all but died away and I thought that was going to be that as all the fish activity had stopped and I didn't even receive any liners. It was a beautiful morning with bright sunshine and very warm so I couldn't really complain and was starting to get my things together to pack up when at 11.45pm out of the blue I had another single toner and after a good solid fight netted another common this time at 14lb 8oz. This fish is quite identifiable with a tiny top lobe of its tail but apart from that an absolute stunner as they all seem to be in the Ski Lake.
July's Fishing
Lets hope July continues in the same theme. Hopefully if the warm weather continues we might be able to target the carp on the surface as this in my opinion is the best way to catch them. I have no doubt that the fishing will start to get harder especially with some of the lakes starting to become heavily weeded but don't give up. Keep raking the stuff out and be mindful thats where the fish live. You can still fish in it with a bit of thought and the results will come.