SPAWNING TIME IS HERE

I have been meaning to do a few more updates on the site than I have been, just haven't had the time I'm afraid.
 
However this weekend I was talking to one or two anglers who came for a look round who were quiet surprised how mud free and easy accessible the day ticket lake was.  It transpires that I had been much too enthusiastic and honest about just how bad the access was in the winter/spring.  Looking at the pictures I posted on the site in the spring I must admit it was very graphic.  The thing is though, I would rather be honest and both me and Steve do feel bad if you end up with the family car covered in sludge.
 
Anyway, the gravel company has tidied the place up a bit.  The dry weather has also helped.  Access is good now, the banks have dried out nice and the lake is looking really good.  There is still jobs to do but it is really easy going down there now.
 
The netting has made a difference to the fish weights, just as we predicted.  One of the 20's that weighed 22 before the netting came out again at 24.12 and several of the fish I have seen caught look a lot more "chunky".  There will definitely be a lot more 20's than there was last year and you wont be kept up at night with so many single figure fish, although there is still a lot in there.
 
It hasn't been very busy this year so far, probably because of the worry about the state of the access but everyone who's fished it has seen an improvement in the quality of the fish, size wise and condition wise.
 
This weekend, May 23rd the carp spawned and me and Anne just couldn't stop watching them.  We saw hundreds and hundreds of them, it really was a spectacle.  To start with there was mostly the average fish in sight but later on in the day the bigger ones were "at it" and I was able to identify several of the bigger fish.  I saw a big common, definitely bigger than the 24 pound know linear and several unknown 20's proper going for it.  I even tried to photograph them, taking hundreds of shots just to end up with one or two.  I've posted some on this report.  There is one shot of two mirrors that were both estimated over 20, neither of which I recognised.  To be honest it was absolute chaos with fish spawning all round the lake from 3am on the Saturday morning, all day Saturday and Sunday.  It calmed down Sunday evening and it was easy to see loads of resting carp.  Some were lazily eating the spawn even.  I was over the moon to see it in full motion, wicked!!
 
As I said the fishing has been good so you're missing out not being there.
 
Gary