MORE FISH FOR THE DAY TICKET LAKE

After the extremely arduous task of netting the heck out of the stock pond last week we decided to drain the rest of the water out.  Netting produced only 34 fish but we knew we were missing loads.  We had put about 175-180 fish in the stock pond and couldn’t accept 34 being good enough.

So we started pumping on Saturday morning and kept the pump going most of the night.  On Sunday morning we moved the pump about a bit to suck up as much water as possible, leaving us with just two small 20ft x 10ft puddles.

As the lake was draining we hardly saw a fish and we were getting worried but then, all of a sudden, when the first small puddle was down to about a foot of water it started to erupt.  We took about 50 fish out of that first puddle, almost not believing our eyes just how many fish there were.  Even then they did their best to hide in the mud, right up to the last one we were never sure if we had them all, in fact after we had moved on, thinking we had them all, we spotted one more and we had to send someone in to get it.

The mud was horrendous, I got so stuck it took two other people to rescue me; it was just impossible to pull myself out.  We were all absolutely plastered by now (with mud) and we still had one more puddle to do.

After moving the pipe over into this puddle to pump as much excess water out as possible, the last puddle became a writhing mass of carp.  In we all went and started catching them all.  This puddle gave up about 70 fish.

Working in the thick clinging mud drained us all.  Catching the fish, stood in 3ft of mud is not easy.  Carrying the fish across the mud, up a very slippery slope and to the day ticket lake was not easy at all.  I couldn’t have done it on my own; in fact it took a dozen of us.  Thanks lads, without all the helpers it wouldn’t have been possible.  In particular I want to thank Mark and Daniel Twin who spent most of Saturday night re-tanking the pump with petrol.

The total catch was 128 good carp, some perch and some small carp.  Add the 128 to the 34 we caught previously by netting and we have a very impressive 162 extra fish in the day ticket lake.

Size wise the average was into double figures, probably about a third over 14lb with plenty of 17-18lbs. And 3 fish between 23 and 25lbs.  All of these fish (except one character fish, another ugly one, I love the characters) were in mint condition.  Most of them were fish I bought from Paul Middleton and have grown on from about 1lb. to 15lb. In just 3 years. Their potential to keep on growing is awesome.

During the weekend, in spite of the heavy frosts we had, there were quite a few fish caught up to 19lb 8oz.  Since the weekend Monday to Wednesday there has been a further 20 or more fish caught.
Hopefully the winters nearly over now, certainly the carp have woken up, so get down there and enjoy some sport.

Thanks again to everyone who’s helped me at Bayeswater, CHEERS!!!

I’ve attached a picture or two of the new day ticket lake fish; I’m going to change the photo album on the web site, starting with 4 sections,  1. Day ticket incoming fish 2. Day ticket captures. 3. Syndicate incoming fish. 4. Syndicate captures.
If any one’s got any pictures (big or small fish), Send us some please

GARY