Shaun Thorne fished at Lower Tamar lake to tempt several double figure bream to 11lb 14oz and a tench of 6lb 11oz.
Spring time tench
Many thanks to Mark Lamude at Quay Sports for this delightful contribution on the joys of spring tench fishing at one of North Devon’s hidden gems.
“So after neglecting a springtime Tench for many years, I dusted off my favourite waggler rod and headed out to Rake myself a swim amongst the spring Lillie growth. After applying some classic simple tactics I managed to build a lovely little swim full of roach and skimmers throughout the session. Fortunately after several hours of plugging away the rod hopped over and I had my first Spring Tench on the end of my rod for a long time and it fought hard, much harder than I thought it would anyway. I had Three nice fish in the end, they were all around the 3.5 to 4.5lb bracket but the size mattered not it was just incredible fun. It’s amazing how good a packet of quality groundbait and a pint of maggots can be when prepared and applied in the right way.”
Personal best bream and tench double!
Steve Dawe was due to go boat fishing on the same trip as myself last Monday but when the trip was cancelled due to strong winds Steve diverted his efforts to Lower Tamar Lake in search of specimen bream. Steve has invested many hours attempting to catch an illusive double figure bream. Below is Steve account of the trip.
“Last night a spur of the moment trip in blustery conditions resulted in 2 personal bests. I finally tracked down the Bream and landed fish of 8lb 6oz and 10lb 8oz losing another fish before the shoal moved. The next take was a PB Tench of 8lb 2oz, i am going be on cloud 9 for rest of May now! Soon forget all those blanks when you get payback. Shame the bloody camera lens kept fogging up”.
Anglers Paradise Latest Catches
(Above) The newest 5C’s Member Dean Garland caught a 23lb 6oz Common from Nirvana’s day ticket Xanadu Lake.
Dean shared – “After being rained off from work on wednesday, I turned up at anglers paradise knowing I’d be fishing 1 of the day ticket lakes but not sure which 1. After speaking to Richard in the shop, I decided to go down to xanadu. I had un-finished buisness with this lake…I have caught some stunning carp from there previously but the 20 pluses had always evaded me!
After a quiet first day and night and the possibilty of going home blanking i decided to change a few things up. Within 30 minuites my rod went off.
It fought very hard and i knew i was in to a decent fish. And when i pulled it out i saw why, it was like the fish hadn’t grew into its own fins.
It weighed in at 23.6 lbs and seriously was in prestine condition. Gorgeous fish. Safe to say it made my session!!”
(Above) Pheobe Deacon has been coming to Anglers Paradise with her Mum and Dad for years but normally doesn’t fish until this year…And now she’s hooked! She managed to catch this amazing personal best 5lb 1oz Golden Tench too!
(Above) Nick Dudaniec not only won fish of the week with Silverback at 52lbs but he also caught a 26lb 8oz Common and 30lb Mirror during his epic session on Nirvana’s Kracking Carp Lake. Nick caught all fish using Essential Baits Shellfish B5 boilies fished over hemp and sweetcorn.
(Above) Rob Steele caught this 24lb Mirror Carp from the Specimen Carp Lake using a hinge stiff rig with Cell as the hookbait. He said it’s one of the prettiest fish he’s ever caught.
(Above)Paul Richmond from Plymouth fished the Kracking Carp Lake and had this stunning personal best 31lb 4oz Leather Carp from peg 1.
Paul was using a bloodworm pop up trimmed down topped off with pop up corn. Using minimal bait, a few handfuls of corn crushed boilie and 4mm pellet.
(Above) Dean Wyatt caught this absolutely stunning 6lb 6oz Koi from our famous Koi Lake, it may not be the biggest fish, but size is irrelevant when they look like this especially!! And you know the saying…Size doesn’t matter!!! He caught the beauty on a 12mm Nash strawberry crush boilie. Dean also won our Fish of the week competition with this beautiful catch!
SON OF SILVERBACK AND 1ST EVER CATFISH!
Well done to Aaron Trethewey who caught what looks like Silverback’s son – a 10lb 14oz Mirror and his first ever Catfish at 21lbs 6oz both from the Easy Access Lake.
All the latest catches from Anglers Paradise
Anglers Paradise has a wealth of fishing for both the specimen hunter and the family. Below are a few pictures and stories from Zenia that sum up the fun and fishing available at Anglers Paradise.
(Below)Father and son Charlie and Archie Snell enjoyed a great fishing trip to Anglers Paradise.
GUIDED SESSION SUCCESS
Wayne hasn’t fished for 20 years because of general life getting in the way! But he decided it was finally time to get back out there, so he got in touch with Julian Chidgey to go on a guided session and he caught a personal best 20lb 12oz Mirror from the Specimen Carp Lake amongst a few others! Of course Julian got in on the action too and caught a stunning 19lb Linear and Grass Carp from the Main Lake and two 15lb Mirrors from the Octopussy.
Julian shared with us –
“Wayne used to fish on a regular basis but with a busy job he recently realised he hasn’t picked a rod up for twenty years! With a van full of new tackle Wayne headed down to Anglers Paradise for a holiday, and a guided session.
We started yesterday evening by getting a couple rods out on Octopussy lake so we could sit down and look at rigs and baits. After 3 anglers had struggled on the lake during the day I wasn’t expecting miracles so was happy to see Wayne land a double figure carp within 10 minutes! An hour later and we were interrupted whilst tying some rigs up by another slightly bigger fish. My favourite helicopter set up with short pop up rigs and Tor baits Squido producing the bites.
Not wanting to night fish Wayne headed to his accommodation to get some sleep ahead of a stalking day today. Based on the conditions I planned a route starting with a bit of a gamble, the Specimen Carp Lake. The fish in here are big but ultra-wary. After an hour of feeding floaters we had two of larger fish feeding and after setting the hook, Wayne did a great job playing the fish through the weedy bay.
I hadn’t asked Wayne what his biggest fish was but the look on his face told me everything as the scales settled on 20lb 12oz. What a return to angling!
The rest of the day saw us catch from several other lakes whilst I showed Wayne some great spots to try during the rest of his holiday. Only a few slots left now for summer sessions and the September carp and cat camp, so get in touch if you want to improve your angling.”
WELL DONE WAYNE – GREAT TO SEE YOU’VE GOT THE FISHING BUG BACK!
Zenia Gregorek with a stunning golden tench.
CARP AND CATFISH BRACE FROM THE MAIN LAKE
Congratulations to Martin Judges who stayed with us with his wife and son and caught a 29lb 12oz Mirror AND a 63lb 2oz Wels Catfish from the Main Carp Lake, which I believe are both personal bests!
Martin shared with Anglers Paradise –
“Mega Main Lake Carp and Cat brace!
I have been coming to anglers paradise for a number of years now, and on occasion have managed a nice carp or a nice Cat but I have not managed both in the same week let alone the same session.
This changed this week when about 16.00 on Wednesday, I had a take from a margin spot on the Main Lake landing a stunning 29.12 Mirror and followed this up 02.30 on Thursday morning landing a massive 63.02 Catfish!!
Both fish were caught on Active bait solutions Hydra K barrell waters presented on korda kamo hooklinks with size 8 Korda Frank X hooks.
Regards
Martin Judges.”
Just had this email from a Father who just finished a 72 hour session with his 2 Sons at our Day Ticket Complex ‘Anglers Eldorado’ , and they caught plenty!!
“Hi Zenia
My two sons and myself, recently had a 72hr session on the Eldorado Lakes choosing the Bottom Carp and Cat Lake and also had a fish in between on the others on our ticket.
We had a brilliant trip, although the carp were playing hard to get, we had over 30 Carp and 11 Cats, plus some lovely Koi from the Koi Lake, unfortunately the bigger Catfish managed to snag us up resulting in hook pulls!!
We had a great session and are looking forward to getting back, largest cat 25lb, largest carp 16lb
All the best
Paul, Harry, Jack Painter.”
I’m struggling to keep up with all these big Catfish catches coming out of Nirvana’s Specimen Cat Lake and all giving Anglers new personal bests!
Here’s Paul Baker who beat his personal best TWICE at the weekend with a 48lb 8oz Catfish and then another one at the magic 50lbs!!
Paul caught the Wels Catfish using 2 22mm halibut pellets.
WELL DONE AND CONGRATULATIONS PAUL!
Big North Devon tench!!
Wilder Van Koutrik aged ten caught this stunning tench of 6lb 7oz from a Private Lake near Barnstaple. Its great to receive a picture of a fine tench from a local water as these fish are no were near as abundant as there were in North Devon waters. This is partially due to an obsession with carp fishing and also I guess due to environmental factors? Its also great to be able to report of a successful junior anglers.
Fine mixed bag at Lower Tamar
Scott Bowden had a fine mixed 48 hour session on Lower Tamar lake near Bude. Scott managed a 6.04 Tench, 9.04 Bream (largest of three bream), a 22.08 mirror and a 12lb common carp.
CLAWFORD FISHERY – BREAM, TENCH & GOLDEN RUDD plus much more!
John Forster enjoyed a session on Gregorys Lake at the Clawford Fisheries, the session was by kind permission of the Lakes owner John Ray. The lake is normally residents only and is well stocked with bream, tench and rudd. John landed a fine brace of bream totaling 11lb 11oz and several quality tench along with numerous golden rudd.
Johns tactics were to fish 2 lines. With Andy Seerys micros dampened down with Corn over the top of Groundbait with corn over the top Depth 4ft, fished slightly over-depth with 0.5 float 0.15 main0.13 bottom 16 B911 hook
There are plenty of opportunities for day ticket anglers at Clawford that boasts over a dozen lakes totalling 40 acres nestled in a tranquil valley estate covering 78 acres. www.clawford.co.uk
See link to my visit to the fishery last year.
HORWOOD LAKES
Nielsen Jeffery sent me this report on his latest short evening session at Horwood lakes(2.5 hours) he fished the top lake,and enjoyed some great sport. Landing three nice fish around 5 lb and around twenty pasties of up to 2 lb, plus three lovely tench.
Children under 16 fish for free as long as they are with a paying adult ; day tickets are only available from Summerlands at £5 a head. Both lakes have had an extensive overhaul with twenty nice platforms now in place. Both lakes are well stocked with carp to 12lb and tench.
