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‘June'
Both the weather and the fishing during June were pretty much up and down. We did have some lovely days followed by high winds and at the end of the month some rain. The results for May were pretty good for most anglers all over the park and it was hoped that this would continue into June. This didn’t seem to be the case for a lot of anglers. A lot of anglers around the park were having a bit of a hard time of it, most were catching a few, but it appears nothing outstanding in terms of quantity or quality.
‘The Park Grapevine’
The Residents Lake was in mixed form. My contacts were reporting lots of nice bream, tench and silver fish, but not many carp. Certainly when the weather was nice the carp were ‘up’ and cruising about, but they were not interested in floater or ‘Zig’ rigs. Kingfisher was in its reliable form. There is such a good mixed stock of fish in this lake that there are always plenty of bites to be had. Plenty of nice fish were taken on a variety of tactics.
Fountain View 1 continued its good form to the few anglers fishing it. Plenty of carp showed mostly in the 5 to 6lb class, but with one or two doubles.
Fountain View 2 was a little up and down. Some nice carp were taken, but they seemed to spending a lot of time holed up under the tress. The best at 21lb was the best I heard about from the park all month. The ‘silvers’ fishing was still fairly reliable, not as good as May but some nice roach and bream were taken.Not much news from Willow Banks this month.
The Ski Lake was in quite mixed form, overall it was quite quiet, but a few reasonable fish were taken especially by those anglers on the south western bank with carp to 17lb and tench to 8lb. This supports the theory of fish following the wind as for several weeks we still had fairly cool north easterly winds. Phil Moate had a good weekend in the middle of the month with a nice catch of tench and a couple of carp to mid double figures. Both Phil and Darren Stones who also had a couple of doubles reported losing a ‘big fish’ that same weekend. Visiting angler Gordon Jones from Sutton Coldfield had a few days holiday that coincided with a period of big westerly winds. Again following the theory of fishing into the wind, although he didn’t catch any of his hoped for carp, he was rewarded for some effort with the marker rod to find a clear area and the spod rod to bait the spot with 3 very big bream during the lunch time period, the best being an enormous 13lb 10oz specimen all taken on plastic corn used to combat the crayfish (ill speak more about this below!). Steve Beer took advantage of a warm few days leading the carp into a shallow bay; by stalking a 14lb fully scaled mirror carp on float fished bread. It goes to show you carp fishing isn’t all about ‘boilies and buzzers’.
Heronsfield was still on good form as far as the tench fishing was concerned. Although the ‘tenching’ did quieten down compared to May several anglers still had some nice catches and Jack Roberts reported taking one of 8lb. One or two good bream were taken as well, but it was the carp that were playing hard ball and very few were reported for the month, certainly try as I might I didn’t have a single carp from Heronsfield Lake during June.
Canada Lake was still in good form this month, with several regular anglers taking some good catches of both carp and tench again on a variety of methods and baits. Steve Knight had a nice catch of carp one very sunny afternoon on float fished meat in the margin taken several fish around the 10lb mark. (See picture below of a stunning Canada Lake ‘linear mirror’)Grebe, Mallard, Teal and Lilly Lakes were in OK form during June. With vehicles now allowed on ‘the back lakes’ a lot more anglers started to fish.
Match angler Tim Jolley had a little practice on Grebe Lake before one of the matches and took 4 lovely carp with the best going 11lb 8oz on method feeder tactics. John Blair who likes to fish away from the mainstream lakes had a good morning’s fishing on ‘Teal’ taking 5 lovely tench to over 5lb on pole fished pellet.Not much news from the rivers at this time. There have not been many anglers fishing on either bank. ‘Ferdie’ Kounovski had a real result in the form of a new PB chub of 6lb 7oz from the Ouse. Rightly so Ferdie was well chuffed taking the fish on his favourite ledgered bread.
‘The Forth Match’
The forth match in the 2013 series was fished on the 1st June by 17 anglers, fishing both Mallard and Grebe Lake’s. Conditions were good. It was warm and dry, but again fishing was hard. The first two places were made up of the new stock of small carp that was nice to see, but not much else showed.
In 1st place was Tim Jolley who was drawn on peg 27 on Mallard Lake. Tim fished the long pole to the far bank rush line taking two ‘stockies’ for a match winning 3lb 14oz.
2nd place went to Matt Dixey who was drawn on peg 5 on Grebe Lake. Matt also took two ‘stockies’ on method feeder tactics, that unfortunately didn’t quite weigh what Tim’s had done and had to be content with 3lb 12oz to take the runners up spot.
In 3rd place was Mick Wilson, drawn on peg 9 on Grebe Lake. Mick had nothing to the island so scaled down to take 1lb 4oz of pole caught ‘silvers’.
My own match was hard. I was chuffed to draw peg 18 as it has proved a good carp peg in the past. However I fished a method feeder right across under the island tree line for 2 hours without so much as a line bite. I had fed a close in swim for this time and realising I needed something in the net I scaled right down to a 22 and single pinkie on the pole. I started to get bites straight away, but soon realised they were ‘razor blade’ roach. I took about 20 tiny roach that finally weighed 8oz. I had the last hour on the method again but the only action was a strong liner 10 minutes before the end. I couldn’t believe that my tiny catch was good enough to take 4th and the 9 points in the points table!
’The Fifth Match’
The fifth match was fished on the 22nd June by 16 anglers, fishing both Mallard and Grebe Lake’s. Conditions were to say the least ‘challenging’.
We had had a couple of lovely weeks leading up to the match, and then on the day the weather changed to high winds and heavy rain. Initially it looked like this would stir the fish into action as several decent fish were taken from the off.
In 1st place (again) was Tim Jolley who was drawn on peg 5 on Grebe Lake. Tim is on a run of good form at the moment and although he tried the pole, he couldn’t buy a bite. It was the feeder line that produced his two match winning fish. Fishing tight to the island Tim took a lovely carp early in the match then a very good bream later for a match winning 14lb 9oz.
This second win moves Tim up 2nd in the points table.
2nd place went to ‘yours truly’. I drew peg 2 on Grebe Lake. I was well chuffed with my draw as it is usually a good area to fish to the island. However fishing the feeder to the island I had a blank two hours. Feeling the pressure from Graham Johnson a couple of pegs to my right taking a carp even before I’d cast out and Tim a few pegs to my left having taken his carp early on and his bream as I sat blanking, I needed something in the net. I had been feeding a pole line close in and first put in as my float settled it buried and a small roach was the culprit. Thinking I could put a few ounces in the bag, I continued with the pole for the next hour, but try as I might I couldn’t buy another bite! As it’s proving to be in the matches this year it’s a big fish or nothing, so went back on the feeder to the island and was rewarded with a big bream that gave a massive slack liner. I finally weighed in 7lb 2oz to take the runners up position. In 3rd place was Graham Johnson who was drawn on peg 18 on Grebe Lake. Graham thought he was on for a few as he took a nice carp first cast on the feeder. Unfortunately he only had the one bite and finished the match with 6lb 5oz. Graham is the only anglers to have weighed in all the matches so far and as such is in the lead in the points table.
’Gary’s Month’
My own fishing during June was OK. Although I didn’t take anything special I consistently caught tench and a couple of good bream from Heronsfield Lake, but the carp fishing proved hard. As I said above I didn’t have a single carp from Heronsfield all month!I continued to fish my usual Thursday night after work into my day off on Friday and it’s just as well because a lot of my tench and all of my good bream were taken in darkness.I had a week off at the end of the month. The week started and ended pretty well with the middle a bit iffy. I fished a day session Fountain View 1 on the Monday.
The weather conditions were really good and I had a 9lb mirror within 10 minutes of casting out. Unbelievably I then lost six carp in a row. They seemed to find every snag in the lake. I pulled out of a couple that found what turned out to be a sunken bird table in my own margin! I managed to recover that snag out of my swim, but the bad luck continued. The problem was fishing tight to the trees meant I had to steer the hooked fish past all the snags.
I was using strong tackle and wasn’t getting bust up, but was pulling out of them trying to keep them out of the snags. Eventually I got the hang of it and with the fish still feeding well I packed up at teatime taking four lovely carp with the best a 13lb 8oz common (see picture below).I then had an overnighter on Heronsfield on the Monday night taking 3 nice tench and an 8lb bream during darkness.This and several other session’s highlighted a real issue on the park and that is the crayfish or as I call them Ronnie & Reggie the Kray(fish) Twins.
These little devils are in all the lakes on the park and can cause a real problems homing in on any baits within minutes. I’ve spent quite a few sessions over the years trying to either deter the crayfish or to secure my baits in such a way that at least it gives the fish a chance to find them. (See below picture) For a lot of my fishing I use boilies and unbelievably unless they are secured onto the hair the crays will take the hair stop off and have the bait away. They particularly love pop-ups! In Heronsfield Lake where they seem a real problem this year I have even had them eating my pop-up counter balance putty and the silicone sleeving I use on my swivels and quick-links! I have tried tiger nuts and rubber baits and this does slow them down a little although they still have a go at them as the little bleeps and indicator movements prove. The only way of fishing through the pain barrier especially when you are putting baits out for the night is to tie the hair stop onto the hair. I prefer to use Korda Extenda Stops so as to pull the hair deep inside the bait. This slows them down - so I am now confident that my baits will stay intact long enough to fish effectively. If the problem gets any worse then I will have to consider ‘meshing’ the baits using either a section of stockings or tights or Fox Armour mesh or even shrink wrap to encapsulate the baits.
A 48 hour mid-week session on the Ski Lake was a complete blank. Conditions looked perfect, but apart from a single liner on the final morning I didn’t have a touch. I was kept busy though as those damn Tufted Ducks found my bait in 11 feet of water and it became a full time job trying to keep them at bay. I’m not sure what effect they had on the fishing, but having spodded a bed of bait out I wasn’t going to let them feed unchallenged. Obviously because I was blanking it made matters worse and I was looking to avoid anything that may spook any fish. The only way I could scare them from my swim and I had 10 of them over my spot one evening was to cast an empty ‘spomb’ at them. Not very PC but it worked to a certain extent.My last session for the week was another Heronsfield overnighter on the Thursday into Friday, again no carp but I had a 6lb 10oz tench on a pop-up during the night and 4 slightly smaller tench in an hour spell the following lunchtime.
‘July’
Hopefully July will bring some more nice weather. The carp are starting to cruise the surface layers and hopefully I can get them looking up.Towards the end of June the fishing on most of the lakes was getting harder and harder. You’ve just got to except this as part of summer fishing, keep at it and enjoy your fishing.Anyway have a good one. If you have any good individual fish, good catches or any interesting stories please keep in touch on gary@cosgrovepark.co.uk