This is going to be a weekly report about the lake but will be built around the session of a lifetime for one angler.
I’m pleased to be able to record that everyone of the five anglers caught so nobody blanked but 
the results of one angler were astounding.
His final tally was:-
1 double, 2 twenties, 3 thirties, 4 forties, 3 fifties (50lbs 8oz, 56lbs and 56lbs – all commons). 5 sixties (61lbs 10oz c, 61lbs 10oz c, 61lbs 2oz m, 64lbs m, 64lbs m).
The week that saw the water temperature start to drop and the carp begin to feed heavily.
It was rewarding to see some of the anglers take note of exactly where the fish were feeding and use that information to their advantage. It was also interesting to see Oaks go from producing just one fish the previous week to 15 last week, including the biggest of the week at 63lbs. This could easily be related to the bait being used as we see, very regularly that some of the most popular baits done work well out here. I’m pleased to report that every one of the 8 anglers caught at least one carp over 40lbs and the total catch was 59 carp, which included 19 forties, 2 fifties and 2 sixties. Well angled fellas.
I must admit that I wasn’t expecting to be adding to the blog this quickly but last night’s captures prove just how quickly the situation can swing. I mentioned in my last post that the area in front of Oaks and Royal Box hadn’t produced anything of note during last week but had banked Pipesmoker at 60lbs on Saturday night.
It continues to produce the goods and while Royal Box banked Pipesmoker, last night it was Oaks turn to shine with a double pick up made up of a 47lbs mirror and “Peach” at 63lbs. Both fish look in stunning condition and the recent history of the Peach is worth recounting.
She achieved her biggest ever weight of 67lbs 3oz on 25th April 2019 when she was full of swollen eggs and ready to spawn. She was then caught again on 24th June, after spawning, at an empty weight of 54lbs 3oz, so 13lbs of spawn had been shed during the extended, and very hot, spawning period. 10 weeks later and still during the ridiculously hot summer, she has managed to regain 9 of those lost pounds. As I said before, these big girls can easily gain 2lbs+ per week as the water cools during autumn and, potentially, we have 10 “growing” weeks remaining before the season ends. In theory that could equate to a 20lbs increase in weight but, being realistic, that is very unlikely to happen but I’m expecting her, at about 16 years old, to be approaching 70lbs at the end of this year or next spring. Fantastic to see another fish that has been born in the lake since we bought it, heading for these massive milestones.
This is going to be a late catch up on last week plus an early report of the weekend.
Last week was tough with the continuation of the hot weather but there were plenty of fish feeding every day and this made it even more frustrating. We are now seeing signs that some of the fish are starting to put back some of the weight lost during the extended spawning period. It also appears that the extreme heat of the summer resulted in some of the known fish just laying up and only feeding enough to sustain them whereas others have fed with gusto.
This weekend we saw the temperatures drop and the fish seem to have responded well. “Oaks” struggled last week whereas the lads in there and “Royal Box” have already banked 6 carp (including 2 forties and a sixty) since Saturday lunch time.
Now for some detail. On Friday we saw “Horseshoe Scale” banked at 57lbs. Her best ever was 65lbs 15oz on 5th May 2019 while she was full of spawn and her last capture was on 18th July when she weighed 55lbs 8oz so she’s already getting back to a good condition.
A more promising sign was when “Pipesmoker” was banked last night at 60lbs. That’s only 4oz below her best ever and 5lbs heavier than her last capture in July.
Each year, at this time, we see these bigger fish start to pile on their lost weight and it’s very common that they do it at a rate of 2lbs or more per week. If they repeat that this year we are going to see a lot of very big fish by the end of October..
This report covers our first week back after the summer break for 4 weeks and has revealed some interesting points despite the angling conditions being far from ideal.
The First is that the heat of the summer with water temperatures reaching 30 degrees seems to have resulted in the carp feeding but not as heavily as we would hope in “normal” summer conditions. The result being that the fish are fit and fighting hard but still well down in weight.
The next point is that, with the water temperature now dropping, the fish are feeding very heavily again and it seems to be essential that the anglers get a bed of bait in very early and keep feeding it every day. Tom did exactly this and reaped the rewards, ending with 22 fish including 5 forties (3 of which were 47lbs or bigger) and a fifty at 55lbs 8oz in the shape of Galileo. Well angled mate.
That also leads on to the choice of bait. I know Tom arrived with the plan to use Dynamite ComplexT on one rod with his own choice on the others. The ComplexT took off so quickly that he abandoned his other bait after 2 days and hammered the swim with 55kg of Boilies
I must also mention my good friend Pete Gower who always enjoys his holidays with us but often doesn’t get the rub of the green, well this year was different and he arrived with a mid forty as his PB and ended with three carp of 47lbs plus and then put the icing on the cake with Half Lin at 60lbs 11oz. Well angled mate.
In total, the group banked 51 carp which included 11 forties, six of which were over 47lbs, 2 fifties plus the sixty. Good start to the autumn period and it’s still August.
I’m going to skate over the last three weeks as the weather has been ridiculously hot and with air temperatures reaching 42 degrees and water temps at 30 it isn’t surprising that the fishing was poor. Even in the poor conditions the lads still managed two 50lbs plus carp but both were well spawned out at 54lbs and 56lbs. On the positive side we’ve still seen plenty of feeding fish but, and this is a guess, the warm water has probably generated the bloodworm to pupate and in so doing have produced a lot of amino acids which are likely to be the feeding trigger for the carp. Yesterday we saw two very violent storms, one of which fried our internet and phone, and the carp have been kicked into life with the first night of the new week producing two 38lbs fully scaled, plus mirrors of 41lbs, 42lbs and 44lbs.
I’m not going to waffle on about last week but I will let the photos do the talking. What more can I say than well angled fellas. It was a pleasure to be a small part of it.
Totals for the week were:-
68 carp banked made up of 27 forties, and more than half upper forties, and 5 fifties.
I will start this review of last week by saying that it continues to amaze me that carp anglers try to avoid June, because of the risk of spawning fish, and prefer May. I understand that you could catch them at their biggest in May but you’re also much more likely to find them spawning. Generally by June they are back on the feed, as this review shows.
With just 5 anglers on the lake I was invited to fish and, after their swim choices, I was also able to fish First Pontoon. This made the job of setting up etc. much less hassle and also kept me close to the house and lodge for meals plus exercising Porscha.
It became obvious, within 24 hours, that the fish were looking for food and the Dynamite ComplexT was far more attractive than particles. I chose to bait up 4 spots and fish 3 while keeping an eye on the fourth as a sort of reserve. I purposely ignored the aerator and Lillie bin and fished at 8 wraps maximum with my first fish coming to the rod at 5 wraps.
Everybody caught and everybody caught at least one forty. Unfortunately some of those upper forties were well spawned out and would have been mid fifties, or bigger, before spawning. However, we ended the week with 48 carp between us and that included 15 forties and 3 fifties. Most enjoyable for everyone so a big “well angled”.
I will end this with the list of carp that I managed to fluke out, just to show that we all need luck to be with us when it comes to which fish we hook.
in order of appearance;-
42lbs 8oz common, 37lbs 6oz common, 49lbs 8oz common, 37lbs 10oz common, 34lbs 5oz fully scaled, 46lbs 6oz common, 49lbs 9oz mirror, 43lbs 11oz common, 56lbs 12oz mirror, 36lbs 5oz mirror, 46lbs 1oz common.
11 carp including 6 forties and 1 fifty. I’ll settle for that.
Last week was simply an exhibition of angling prowess. 5 lads turned, having never been to Moorlands before and showed just how angling without using bait boats can be a massive advantage. I’ve been saying for a while now that bait boats on shallow lakes work against you rather than for you. The noise of the motor running definitely spooks the fish and the bait dropped lands in a totally unnatural pile and carp don’t do “unnatural” without avoiding it.
Anyway, last weeks lads decided that all baiting patterns would be by throwing stick, catapult or wading and, my word did it pay off.
By the end of the week they had banked 79 carp including 17 forties, 7 fifties and 2 sixties. There were personal bests all over the place and we made five new friends very easily. Great week and well angled fellas.
