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September has been a pretty good month for most anglers particularly for those carp anglers after a big fish and were prepared to sit and wait for one. The weather has been like most of the summer with lovely weather one day and cool and windy weather the next.
The Park Grapevine
Big carp dominated the catches on The Residents Lake with several of the regular carpers catching some lovely fish into the high 20's. Paul Hickson took the best I heard of at just under 30lb.
A typical Residents Lake mirror carp. Kingfisher Lake was in great form for most of the month with plenty of nice carp into double figures and lots of roach, bream and the odd tench being taken. I had a very pleasant day session on Kingfisher in the middle of the month taking a good 'bag' of bream to 4lb and roach on long pole tactics then to top the session off just at dusk I had a beautiful 7lb common carp from my near margin on the short pole that ran me all over the lake much to the amusement of several spectators!
Fountain View 1 was in great form with lots of carp into high double figures. Jacob Harris was one angler that had some really nice fish to just over 17lb.
Fountain View 2 was in good form especially in the middle of the month with not only carp well into double figures but also some mixed catches of roach and bream. Graham Jake and Martin Vowles both took some very nice fish to nearly 20lb.
Willow View/Banks was in mixed form. Some good carp were taken but most of the better fish were taken after dark.
Swan Lake fished very hard even for the dedicated big carp guys. Some nice carp were taken but weed remained a problem. I have discussed this problem with the management team and they have agreed to really try to get a grip on this problem for next season, probably by using the blue 'Dyofix' dye that we have used with good success over in the back lakes! One angler that did catch was John Barnes who had several nice fish well into double figures.
Heronsfield was in very hard form form. One or two good carp were taken to just over 18lb. As is usual at this time of year the tench fishing has quietened down considerably but there were still one or two taken.
Canada Lake fished very well. Lots of nice carp were taken into double figures. Mark and Christine Jones had more than their fair share with Mark taking good fish on 'proper' carp tactics and Chrissy taking her's using more simple float tactics.
Grebe, Mallard, Lilly and Teal Lakes continued with there 'on off' form. Anglers that fished a session during mid week continued to enjoy some pretty good fishing. Fred Jackson was one angler to make the most of Mallard Lakes good mid-week form with several catches of some nice carp to nearly double figures.
The rivers have been in pretty good form especially with lots of roach, dace and bream from the slower sections. I even heard that a Milton Keynes angler fishing the bank opposite the park had an immaculate 15lb common carp!
Gary's month
I had a pretty good September, I didn't have any monsters but I had lots of carp up to mid double figures from three of the park lakes, plus I had some nice pleasure sessions especially during a week's holiday I had in the middle of the month. Most notable was two short day sessions I had on Fountain View where despite losing a couple of good fish I had 11 nice carp in double figures and a 5lb tench all on solid PVA bag tactics.
A couple of interesting points came from these sessions. One is my long held belief in casting to showing fish particularly when carp fishing. On this session I had caught a few fish from one particular swim but it was obvious on my 2nd day that after taking 8 fish and losing a couple from this one spot that my own angling pressure had moved the fish away. I'm sure they were the same group of fish that started to show adjacent my margin spot but about 20 yards out. Having seen these 'shows' I was in no doubt about casting straight into the ripples left by one of those crashing fish and during the next hour I had another three lovely double figure carp.
Another point was that I couldn't get a touch when the weather was fine and sunny. Now I have never followed the theory about rain being good for fishing. In all my years fishing I have only once before had an exceptional catch of fish during a real heavy rain storm and that was a catch of brown trout I took from Ringstead Grange fishery years ago, but for whatever reason the Fountain View carp despite my swim being only 3 feet deep fed more confidently the worse the rain became during the late afternoon and evening! To say I was a little damp around the edges after that session is an understatement, but the fishing made it worth it.
I also had a very pleasant 'social' day session with Paul Hickson on the Residents lake - taking carp to mid double figures again on my favourite solid PVA bag presentation. This particular trip highlighted a problem some anglers have with this solid PVA bag presentation. One angler whose name I wont mention was also fishing with solid bags, but he obviously was not loading them properly with bait and they were full of air so when casting out they floated for several minutes before melting spreading the bait all over the swim and completely spoiling the reason for using solid bags in the first place. Because of this I've decided to show you how I use solid bags as it can be devastating at times on all kinds of lakes and fishing situations.