Carp Lake Catch Report
No less than 8 members reported 40lb+ carp last year. It looks as though there are now 5 different fish over 40lbs in the lake, although I still need photos from some of the captors to be certain.
The best of these was a new lake record, a common of 43-04. This fell to Glyn Llewellyn, who had a great season (see the Coarse Lake report).
The heaviest mirror was caught by Steve Baker at 42-12. This is a fish with only one eye that I almost rejected when offered it. Ken Crow pointed out that it was already one of the biggest of its year class so I bought it after all. I'm glad I did!
Others reporting 40lbers were Richard Gatehouse, Pete Badley, Garry Hopkins, Pete Boulton, Stuart McKie and Phil Woodcock. Pete Boulton almost made it a 40lber double, with a 40-03 common and a 39-12 mirror.
The original carp are amazingly still putting on weight, although we now have at least one 40lber that was born at Wingham. Such carp, having spent all their life in the lake, are likely to overtake their parents as they'll have several more years of growth left in them. Your guess is as good as mine as to what these will end up weighing.
Couple this with the large numbers of upper 30s caught last year, and the future looks very bright indeed!
Coarse Lake Catch Report
The highlights of the season were two 10lb+ tench. I had the first in early June, a new lake record of 10-06. Interestingly this fish was only 22ins long, but exceptionally broad across the back! I'd like to meet it when it's grown to 25ins, the length of a 9-04 I had the previous week.
A few days later Glyn Llewellyn had a specimen just an ounce lighter. A double figure tench was a lifetime's ambition for Glyn and I've never seen him smile so much, even when he broke the Wingham carp record!
What was especially exciting was that both of these tench were light green ones, the colour of those born in the lake. This means that they've got a lot of growing still to do! They were also both caught in NE winds, that we had for even longer than usual last year, and both came out of the blue rather than in big bags.
Additionally a lot of 9lb tench turned up last year, including early in the season. For instance John Knowles had a catch in April of 21 tench, best 9-10 & 9-14. These are likely to be in excess of 11lbs early July when the Wingham tench usually spawn (later than other nearby shallower waters, further inland).
Other big hauls of tench were made, notably one of 37 to Richard Capper, which is the biggest bag from the water to date.
Bream catches were disappointing with just one coming out, and that "only" an 11lber, to Andrew Walker.
It wasn't the best year for big perch, although I had a fair few good 'uns myself. However I was only one of a minority still fishing worms, the most popular bait being corn that perch of course rarely eat. The best perch recorded was a 3-05 to Ian Peacock.
However some nice bags of both roach and rudd turned up. It'll be interesting to see what happens with these species in the future.
Carp
What a start to the season! Firstly, we’ve had a new lake record with Glyn Llewellyn catching a super common of 43-04. Pictures show that this is the same fish as the previous lake record of 40-10, so the fish has continued to grow.
Two other 40lb+ commons have been caught, the first at 40-06 by Pete Badley, the second by Garry Hopkins at 40-10. Garry was on his first trip to the lake, so continues the pattern of new members catching 40lbers on their first trip! I'll have to wait for the photos to see if these are new 40s.
However there’s no doubting that the 40-04 mirror that Richard Gatehouse caught last month is the first time it’s come out at over 40lbs. This was at least the 4th different 40lber from the water, not counting the above commons.
Amongst the other notable early season captures are a 39-10 mirror to new member Pete Boulton, a 39-08 mirror to young Tom Groombridge, and a 38-00 common to Allan Burchell.
Coarse
The main news is that we’ve already had quite a number of 9lb+ tench, including fish of 9-10 & 9-14 soon after they woke up in April. These should be well over 11lbs by spawning time in late June/early July, even if they don't grow in length! They were part of a bag of 21 caught by John Knowles, who made the long trip down from
We’ve also had a lot of big bags of tench already this year, partly due to a new young year class coming through. The biggest bag of all fell to Richard Capper who recorded 37 over 3 nights. I say nights as many of the tench have been coming out at night. This often happens early season at Wingham but has been particularly marked this year, probably because nature has been well behind.
The male tench have also put on weight. I’ve had one of 7-11 myself (it fought like a carp!), whilst Steve Campbell has done even better with a new lake record of 7-15.
What’s probably best of all is that many of these big tench are the light green/yellow ones, the colour of those born at Wingham. At the oldest they can’t be more than 12 years of age, 13 this summer. This should mean that they have a long way to go before they reach their maximum weights!
No bream have yet been caught but they seldom put in an appearance before mid-May. However I've had some good perch up to 3-02.
Steve Burke
Carp Lake
This has been another excellent summer despite, or perhaps because of, the unsummery weather. Roughly 3 out of 8 carp recorded have been over 30lbs, with many upper 30s. Just as encouraging has been the number of upper 20s, many of which were born at Wingham and thus have plenty of growth potential.
If my suspicions about the larger carp being bigger because of a tendency to wake up earlier in the spring prove correct, we may also have a higher average weight in the autumn for a similar reason. It's much too early to say yet, but in the recent Indian summer we had less carp caught as you'd expect in bright high pressure conditions. However of the 12 carp recorded in 7 days, half were over 30lbs. The best of these was a 38-15 common to Steve Wise, who also had another common of 32-15 plus a mirror of 23-03 in the same session.
Coarse Lake
No sooner did I write that no bream had been recorded this season and they started being caught. In fact we've had our second best year with 7, all doubles, being landed. The heaviest was 16-06 to Steve Campbell, whilst another member managed 3 in one session - an excellent feat on a water such as Wingham.
However the highlight of the season has been the growth of the tench. We had several nines caught after they spawned, and of course these could well be 10lbs+ if caught in June. What's most exciting though is that many of those landed are ones that were born at Wingham and thus have several years of growth left.
Perhaps due to the coloured water we've also had a lot of small to medium perch caught, together with encouraging numbers of roach and rudd. Indeed those floatfishing maggots have often recorded a fish a chuck.
Carp Lake
Wingham has now recorded it's 3rd different 40lber. This was a heavily-plated mirror of 40-04. Again it was caught by a new member on his first trip to the lake! So congratulations to police officer Alan Sergeant!
Over half the carp caught this season have been 30lbs+, with many over 35lbs. However, the biggest fish often come out in the spring - maybe they get their heads down earlier and that's one reason why they're bigger.
The best common so far went 39-00 (Wayne Taylor), the best fully-scaled 30-04 (Kevin Whalley).
Hadyn Bishop had 3 thirties to 36-08 on an overnight session, whilst Wayne Taylor's 39lber was the biggest of a 4 fish haul.
Coarse Lake
The Coarse Lake has at last produced a double figure tench after getting so close the last 2 years! It weighed in at 10-04 and was caught by guest Ian Woods who'd never even seen the water before! This came in mid-May, and is therefore likely to be considerably bigger near spawning time. As I've mentioned before, tench spawning is usually early July at Wingham, but is likely to be late again this year due to the cold spring.
Additionally, many 9lbers have been recorded this year, plus some big bags. Notable amongst these were mid-May catches of 28 tench to 9-10 to Glyn Llewelyn, and 18 to 9-06 to guest Den Darkin. Den also lost a very much bigger fish at the net, as did a member fishing the same area a week later. As I always say "They don't count until they're on the bank". However I'd like to meet this monster in July!
The perch spawned very late this year (the 2nd week in May), and the biggest so far went 3-07 a week later. However it was over 19ins long and so should be well over 4lbs when it recovers from spawning.
No bream have been recorded yet, but we get only a few a year, just like former record water Queenford. However they average 15lbs+, so let's hope this year we break the national record that currently stands at 19-10.
The bumper start to the season has continued with some more huge catches of tench. These have including bags of 28 & 32 tench in a sitting. What's more they've averaged 7lbs! Best of all, many of these are young fast-growing fish that have been born at Wingham and thus are a maximum of just 10 years old. As tench grow for up to 15 years you can see how exciting this is!
We also have a new lake record tench of 9-13, caught by new member Alan Campbell.
Turning to bream, 3 separate shoals of big bream were rolling in different parts of the lake at the same time one evening. Two of these produced bream (15-13 & 16-06) within minutes of each other. There's therefore more big bream in the water than we thought. So far this season 6 specimens over14lbs to 18-06 have been reported, despite few anglers fishing for them
Perch didn't show until May this year, but there have been numbers of 2 & 3 pounders, with the season's best so far being a 3-12 to bailiff Glyn Llewellyn.
Carp Lake
Another excellent summer with 30s being caught at very nearly 1 per week, except during the heatwave. However in the 10 days after the temperature dropped 9 members recorded 5 thirties. Additionally several anglers have caught a brace of 30s in a session, often both a common and a mirror. One such capture fell to Julian Grattidge who's pictured here with a long 33-04 that should weight a lot more when it's filled out. The heaviest mirror so far this season went 38-12 and was caught by new member, Steve Deverson, whose first fish from Wingham was of course a 40-10 common! Last year's 38-08 heavily-scaled mirror hasn't yet been caught this year but hopefully will come out at over 40lbs.
The Carp Lake has broken the 40lb barrier with this super-looking common of 40-10 falling to new member, Steve Deverson. Amazingly, it was his first fish from the water!
 Steve Deverson with a 40-10 common |
After the cold winter, the carp woke up from their slumbers in the second week in April, and many of the fish have been so inactive that they've been covered in leeches. Despite this, weights are well up on last autumn. In the last three weeks, apart from the 40lber, we've had another three 30s - all different fish. The smallest fish was a 16lber whilst the average weight was 27¼lbs. The Coarse Lake has just produced a massive bream of 18-06 to a member who was fishing deliberately for them. Hopefully Wingham will break the record later this year. Terry Baker has taken our best-ever catch of tench, 22 in a day averaging 7lbs, with the best male being a new lake record of 7-12, and the best female 8-15. The latter is bound to be over 10lbs in late June/early July. |
Carp Lake
Last year was easily the best so far, with known fish putting on a lot of weight. The carp woke up in mid-March and fed up to at least mid-November. I say at least, as no-one has carp fished since then! During this 8 month period nearly one 30lber per week was caught - despite the low number of anglers fishing. Several members caught a brace of 30s in a session, the best fish being a common of 39-06 to John Weir.
Coarse Lake
A lot of 3lb+ perch were caught up to July when small perch became a nuisance as they did last summer. The growth rate of these perch has been fantastic, with one easily recognised fish growing from 2-07 to 3-06 in just 11 months!
No bream turned up, but one member saw a shoal of about 40 - averaging mid-doubles! However, it was a productive season for tench, with fish putting on weight since last year. A good number of 8lbers were landed, whilst Wingham creator Steve Burke managed a best of 9-06, a new lake record.
April 30th - Latest News!
The Carp Lake has produced another 30 pounder, the 6th in 6 weeks, and they're still all different fish, with 4 of them being 35lb+!
This one was the biggest of the season at 38-04 and fell to Tony Thompson, who also had a common ounces under 30lbs plus a 26-08 mirror in the same session. As can be seen from the photo the 38 is a superb-looking fish and very nearly fully-scaled.
The complex is as uncrowded as ever, with a maximum over the Bank Holiday weekend of 3 anglers at once on the 15 acre Carp Lake, and 1 day time angler on the 40 acre Coarse Lake. In fact the anglers were outnumbered by the bailiffs on duty!
April Update - Not surprisingly with the late snowfall the Carp Lake didn't wake up until mid-March. However in the 5 weeks since then it's fished its head off! We've already had 5 thirty pounders - what's more they're all different fish! This compares with just 4 different 30's the whole of last season!
Two of these 30's were commons, the others being mirrors. Best catch was a brace of thirties in a session to Terry Groombridge, a mirror of 35-12 and a common of 32-00. The best common was a beautifully conditioned 35-06 to John Skelton.
The smallest carp caught was 16-00, whilst the average was just under 26lbs! So it seems as though the pike are doing their job.
Better still are the fabulous growth rates over the last few months. A 35-08 mirror was caught at 31-14 just eight months earlier, whilst a 32-08 common came out at 29-08 nine months before. Hardly any fishing was done in the autumn/winter so this growth was nearly all on natural food! As we had quite a few upper 20's last season, hopefully these will all be over 30lbs now. We could also see last year's 37-12 common produce our first 40!
The Coarse Lake, being colder, has only just woken up. No bream have yet been caught but the tench have begun to show.
What's most remarkable though has been the perch fishing this winter that a friend and I have enjoyed. Peter Rogers in particular has had numbers of 3lb+ perch, with the vast majority to worm. What's got me most excited though is a fish that turned away at my feet. This fish was knocking 5 pounds! It was almost certainly the same year class as the 3-13 I had 2 summers ago, and still won't be fully grown yet!
Steve Burke
The 17-14 bream in April was no freak fish as from 3 different swims I've had 5 double figure bream myself to 15-07 with only one under 14lbs, whilst Glyn Llewelyn has had a super specimen of 15-09 on the float.
We've had more or less no weed this year in either lake and as a result the water has gone coloured. Prior to that there were some good tench catches with fish to over 9lbs. However, since then the tench have been more elusive, although I've just had some nice ones now that the colour is disappearing.
On the other hand it's been literally bite a chuck with perch, mainly small ones, although I've had several over 2lbs. Because of the coloured water many of these have been coming in sunshine, and almost every swim seems to be producing them. In fact I've had so many that I've had to give up using maggots or worm when after the bream! Perhaps we ought to invite Bob Nudd back for another match!
Rudd have been turning up again this year, but more excitingly a shoal of about 2 dozen huge rudd has been spotted. It just remains a question of being in the right place at the right time...
Turning to the Carp Lake, we've again had our best ever year. So far 8 thirties have been caught, made up of 4 different fish. Two are mirrors and two are commons, topped by this fabulous common of 37-12 to Steve Wise. This was no "gut bucket" and hopefully will provide Wingham's first forty-pounder very shortly.
Additionally there have been a lot up upper twenties caught that should have grown to over 30lbs by next year.
I've long hoped that Wingham would one day break the bream record. However I certainly didn't expect the water to produce such a monster so soon! The super specimen was caught by Jon Weir and is just 10ozs below the record. What's more the bream were stocked in 1995, mainly as fingerlings, but there were some 3 year old fish up to about a pound and a quarter.This means that the 17-14 won't even be 12 years old until next month! As bream grow for up to 15 years, Wingham could easily break the record later this season, and then go on to well and truly smash the 20lb barrier!
The Coarse Lake has already produced tench to 9lbs this season, which at this time of the year won't be carrying any spawn. Normally the tench spawn late June/early July at Wingham, later than most waters, as being big and deep the lake takes longer to warm up and cool down than normal. By then this fish should be over 10lbs, and so I've high hopes of a double this year.
Carp Lake
The carp have well and truly got their heads down, with very few fish under 20lbs being caught. There have been a lot of upper twenties landed, with the best specimen so far this season weighing 32-08. This was a common, and from the description (crucian shape and big tail) is one that was born at Wingham. This means that it's less than 10 years old and different to last year's 30lb+ common.
This has been by far our best year to date despite even fewer members fishing than last year.
The average size of the carp caught this summer (including small pasties) has been a whopping 23lbs! The oldest fish are only 12 years of age so there's a lot of growth still to come.
Best recent report for the Carp Lake is from Mark Cunnington who, on a 48 hour session, caught a brace of 20s and a brace of 30s! One of these thirties hadn't been caught for a while and so our tally for the season is at least 4 different 30s. It might be 5 as one of Mark's fish was a common and I'll need to check the photos when I get them.
In the past, to avoid overbreeding and maintain the very high growth rates, small fish under 17lbs were removed. However, I'm now happy with the balance of small and large fish in the Carp Lake and so all fish will now be returned. This will ensure a future generation of big carp - indeed grown-on fish have already been caught up to 28lbs., and that was two years ago.
Following a site visit, the EA's herbicide department have approved a further weedkilling operation on both lakes, subject to their other departments having no objections. This has never been a problem in the past, and so I expect that theweedkilling will be carried out in the Spring.
Coarse Lake
Big perch have been showing in numbers, my best being 3lbs 13ozs in the summer. This fish would have just reached 9 years of age at the oldest, which means that we could have record perch when they're fully grown!
We also remain on track to break the bream record as well. I had a specimen of 13lbs 14ozs, and Bruno Broughton read the scale at 10 years of age plus or minus a year. Geoff Dykes then beat this by an ounce, and from the photos this appears to be a different fish.
Turning to tench, the lake record for a male was raised to 7lbs 8ozs, whilst a record-equalling female of 9lbs 4ozs was reported. This was part of a daytime catch on the float of 15 tench averaging 7½lbs and included two "nines"! Young tench are beginning to show in numbers for the first time and most of these are around 3½ to 4lbs, which bodes very well for the future.
As many of you will know our big fully-scaled mirror was found dead in the Carp Lake. The fishery biologists reckon that this was almost certainly due to the stress of repeated capture - indeed it was being caught every couple of weeks in the summer. I witnessed it at 36-08 for Singy, who caught it after a hard fight. It certainly wasn't spawnbound nor dropsical - just plain fat from pigging out!
More recently Tim Barnes has had our first 30lb common, which of course is a maximum of only 11 years old. This is our 4th different 30lber, and in addition several upper twenties have been landed. Some of these, including the lovely 28lb mirror pictured here, are fish that have bred in the lake - not bad at all for carp that can't be more than 7 years of age!
In fact few fish of under 17lbs are now being caught, and there's been a lot of reports of multiple catches of twenty pounders. I know a lot of members are pleased about not getting woken up at 2am to land a pastie!
The highlight of the season on the Coarse Lake has been an 11-08 bream, again to Singy. This came in the margins, in the middle of the day, in the middle of a heatwave! We thus remain on course to break the bream record when the fish are fully-grown. In addition there was a catch of 6 big bream to 10lbs plus a tench. These came on the feeder during a short evening session.
Several members have reported seeing monster tench again but the lake record remains at 9-04. As long as we don't have another cool summer, which always adversely affects tench fishing, I'm confident that this will be broken this year. Best tench catch last year was 10 fish - with only 1 being under 6lbs! Another noteworthy bag was 9 tench in an afternoon on the float.
Finally, this winter I've had quite a number of perch, none of which have been under a pound, including several of 2lb+. These have come both lure fishing for pike and deliberately fishing for the perch with worms. Jerry Clark has broken our perch record with a specimen of 3-08.
The Carp Lake record has been broken by Jerry Clark with a 39-07 fully-scaled specimen. This was caught last summer, and at first Jerry couldn't believe it, so to be on the safe side recorded a weight of 29-07! That's honesty for you! Jerry didn't of course know at the time how big this fish had grown, but he's shown the photos to Nick Buss, who's confirmed it was the same fish that had earlier in the summer been caught at 38-08.
I can now tell that it's also the same fully-scaled that was caught at 33-06 and 34-00 last autumn. I believe it had been carrying a lot of spawn and managed to successfully shed 6lbs of this excess weight. Whilst it didn't put up much of a fight at the higher weights it certainly did in the autumn! It therefore now seems to be in good health, if rather fat.
As you can from the photo this fish is totally fully-scaled including on its belly, one of 7 such carp that were stocked. We also have quite a number of very heavily-scaled fish that are often incorrectly called fully-scaled, such as this beautiful 23lber that was caught in the summer of 2000.
Another thirty plus mirror has also been caught and fell in April to Phil Edwards at 30-04. Phil assumed it was the same as the old lake record fish, but a quick look at the photos I've just recently received has very clearly shown otherwise. This means that Wingham has now produced 3 different 30s at only 9 years old!
Steve Burke
Carp Lake Record
The Carp Lake record was broken in June with a 38-08 fully-scaled, which is believed to be the heaviest fully-scaled ever caught in the UK. What's more, the fish was only 9 years old!
I was asked by the captor, Mick Nolan, to keep this quiet and so told no-one. However, word eventually leaked out, and I now have Mick's permission to publicly announce the capture. I should have a picture in the next few days and will post it here when it arrives.
The fish was caught shortly before it spawned and so could be the same as Brian Smith's 33-06 mentioned in the last update. Unfortunately, Brian has no photo as he finished a roll of film snapping a fox that came to his swim to say hello!
However, Paul King has just caught a 34lbs fully-scaled which Brian witnessed and identified as the one he'd had. Paul was at the end of a 4 day session and Brian was the only person he saw, arriving just at the right time! Once the photos are returned we should be able to determine how many 30lb+ fully-scaleds we have. We do have a high proportion of such fish as out of the 75 carp that were stocked, no less than 7 were fully-scaled.
Weed Pledge
Members pay a post-dated cheque each year to cover the cost of any weedkilling that needs to be done. The charge is £25 for Coarse Lake members and £45 for Carp Lake members. However, to keep costs down for members the cheques are encashed only in years that the weedkilling is carried out. It will be required next year, and the work is planned to take place as soon as the first shoots appear, probably late Feb/early March.
Barbless (yes, barbless) Hooks Banned
Contrary to popular belief, barbless hooks are not always safer than barbed ones. This seems to be because they penetrate more deeply, and they're also likely to move sideways and thus tear tissue. Perch are particularly vulnerable as they have vital organs near the surface of the throat. As a result barbless hooks, especially in the larger sizes, can actually kill perch. Therefore to protect the perch, barbless hooks bigger than size 10 are now banned on the Coarse Lake.
Excellent Summer
This has been an excellent summer for the fishery with 3 new venue records. The Carp Lake has produced a 33lb 6oz fully-scaled specimen, which was caught by a member fishing the water for the first time. Unlike just about all the regulars, rather than using boilies Brian tried a carp pellet in conjunction with a method feeder. Food for thought!
Known fish have had another growth spurt this year with many over 25lbs plus another 30lb mirror. Additionally, we've had our first 20lb home grown carp. Most of the fish this summer have fallen overnight or early in the morning - quite different to previous years.
The Coarse Lake has fished equally well with the biggest tench weighing in at 9lbs 4ozs. I caught this myself on lobworm, and as it was being returned, Steve Knight who kindly witnessed and photographed it remarked, "Well, we've both seen much bigger tench here than that!"
The problem is that neither water gets much pressure, particularly the Coarse Lake which is hardly ever fished. In fact on the day in question Steve and I had 40 acres to ourselves. Even that's crowded as often it's totally deserted, and the most we've ever had on the water this year is 4 anglers!
Apart from one male, all the tench I caught were females. The latter would have averaged over 7lbs but for the last fish being only a five pounder! Talking of male tench, we've had two 7 pounders this summer which many of you will know is an exceptional size for males. Let's hope the tench continue their growth next year, when with a bit of luck we'll have our first ten pounder!
The other new venue record is a perch of exactly 3lbs on caster, and several others of just a few ounces less have also been caught. What's remarkable is that these perch are a maximum of only 7 years old! This means that we 're on course to break two records in the years to come - remember the 10lb bream at only 8 years of age!
After being almost clear to early June, weed started growing strongly in both waters, especially the Coarse Lake. The weed is a mixture of Canadian pondweed and "eel grass", and has probably grown as a result of the extra nutrients washed into the lakes by the unprecedented rainfall last winter. This means that we'll need to treat the weed again about March next year.
Vacancies exist for daytime tickets (up to 11pm) on the Coarse Lake, although there's a long waiting list for a night ticket. On the Carp Lake there's a much shorter waiting list, so it's well worth putting your name down. The sooner you do, the sooner you'll get a ticket!
Re-Opening - 28th April 2001
I'm pleased to say that the fishery re-opened yesterday. Despite the long closure the complex is as quiet as ever. There's no one on the 40 acre Coarse Lake and just 3 anglers on the Carp Lake! Tim Sims has just called me to say that he's got off to a flying start with a brace of 20s, including a 23lber just minutes after casting out! At the time of publishing this update, I can confirm that he had 3 20's out in the same session!
Even though the temperature is still low, both carp and tench have been rolling in the Coarse Lake. However, there's as yet no sign of the rudd, despite absolutely huge hatches of midges. In fact, there's so many we've often already been spitting them out! I don't know of any other water where you can cast out a lure and it comes back with midge larvae (bloodworm) on it!
Coarse Lake Night Syndicate
There have always been a few members, mainly those who joined many years ago for the tench and bream, who've been able to night fish on the Coarse Lake. Carp Lake members can, of course, fish either lake overnight. The only reason I brought in a rule that ordinary Coarse Lake members leave the water at 11pm is that I don't want this lake turned into a carp fishery. Once word leaked out on the grapevine about the big carp recently seen in the Coarse Lake my phone started to ring and ring!
I've now decided to formalise the arrangement, and the number of night tickets will stay at the current level of 10. However, I've set up a waiting list for those who are interested in a place, although it's likely to be a long wait! These tickets currently cost £130 for the full season, although I'm now changing to a new renewal system as detailed below.
Ticket Prices and Renewal Dates
Last year I experimented with tickets running for 12 months from the date of issue. However, this has resulted in more paperwork and has been abused by some members, with the result that one member has already lost his place. Most of all though, it hasn't helped those on the waiting list as they need to know about March whether they have a place at Wingham or whether they should join elsewhere.
In future therefore, tickets will run to March 1st each year. Anyone not paying by March 15th will automatically lose his place to someone on the waiting list if applicable. On the Coarse Lake, where there are still a few vacancies for daytime tickets, anyone paying late will have to pay a re-joining fee.
Anyone joining or whose subs are due before March will thus pay approximately pro rata. Please contact me for further details.
Very few members have fished either lake since October - what's new! However, Tim Sims has had 10 daytime trips to the Carp Lake and recorded 11 fish with several 20s and nothing under 15lbs.
Bruno Broughton brought a team of fishery management students and their tutor to Wingham in early November for a 3 day field trip. Unfortunately, they arrived on the day of the worst flooding and so a lot less was achieved than we'd all hoped. Having said that, we did manage to transfer some pike to the Carp Lake, the idea being that these will keep the small carp in check and thus allow the big carp to grow to their full potential. The good news is that the College will be coming back to Wingham every autumn and surveying the Carp and Coarse Lakes in alternate years. This should give us a wealth of information on which to make future management decisions, and hopefully will build up to one of the most comprehensive long term databases ever of a gravel pit fishery.
Bruno and his team were very impressed with the facilities in the clubhouse, which was completely renovated just in time for the visit. Amongst other things, this included complete re-roofing and new flooring throughout, replacing one of the two toilets and installing hot water in the kitchen as well as the second loo. Many thanks to those members who helped with the work and donated furniture etc. With settees and chairs, heating and a kitchen, not to mention the shower, you could now almost live in the clubhouse!
Compared with other local fisheries, we've escaped very lightly indeed from the floods. Our water levels have gone up only about a foot in a total of 18 months, resulting in a few swims being uncomfortable to fish in. However, the river has remained within its banks, which has meant we've had no fish losses. In case the higher water levels become the norm, we've started rebuilding all the swims affected. Unfortunately, no sooner had we begun than the country was hit by foot and mouth disease!
As the only access for members is through my neighbour's farmyard, I voluntarily closed the fishery on Monday, 27th February. However, bailiffing will continue, and will in fact be stepped up.
Fish against Bob Nudd at Wingham
4 times World Champion, Bob Nudd, will again be coming to fish a match on the Coarse Lake at Wingham. The date for your diary is Saturday, October 28th, which is the day the clocks go back. The match is a rover, with the draw at 9.30am and fishing from 11am to 5pm. There's no charge for fishing and the £10 pool has a 100% payout.
Members have priority, but non-members who want to try the water before joining are welcome. Tickets for non-members are likely to sell out very quickly, so don't delay. To enter or for further details please e-mail me.
10lb 1oz bream at only 8 years of age!
Steve Randle's bream has officially been aged by Bruno Broughton at just 8 years old. Bruno said that the scale was one of the easiest he's ever had to read with a sudden massive surge in growth at age 3. This was when it was transferred to Wingham from Honeycroft (now renamed Highfield), itself a rich water and the home of the former British record grass carp.
I'd assumed the bream was transferred in 1994, but Bruno's reading clearly showed it was in 1995 and, on checking the stocking records, this showed I was wrong and the scale was right!
Catch Reports
The Carp Lake is throwing up a lot of 20lbers and the fish have been putting on a growth spurt this year, with many old friends putting on several pounds over the summer.
Hardly anyone has fished the Coarse Lake. Those who have done so have reported excellent catches of perch and rudd, the best being 30 rudd to 1lb, 30 perch to 1lb plus tench of 6-10 & 6-12. All caught in an evening session of just 3 hours!
Syndicate Places
The Carp Lake is now full up and already there's a waiting list of 6 as I write. However, there's a few places left on the Coarse Lake, but hurry - it's strictly first come, first served!
The Weed has gone!
It's incredible. Last year both lakes were thick with Canadian pondweed and even in March on the Carp Lake there were some beds reaching up almost to the surface. Now 99% of the Canadian pondweed has gone!
Whether this is due to the weedkiller I don't know, as we treated only 5 acres of each lake. It's only canadian pondweed that's been hit, and thankfully we have beds of a grassy type of weed that's a good oxygenator and easy to fish through. I suspect that the canadian pondweed had just grown so think that it choked itself to death. Whatever the reason it's excellent news!
When lakes have such a weedkill the nutrients that were in the weed are recycled. The water colours up (visibility is only half what it was last year and is now typically 6ft. in the Coarse Lake, 4ft. in the Carp Lake), and all the goodness in the weed goes into the food chain. The result is usually a short term surge in fish growth rates, and we have high hopes for some spectacular results this year.
Coarse Lake
No sooner had I written the May update at the beginning of that month saying that the tench hadn't yet woken up, they did! In fact the tench fishing has been super so far this year with fish averaging over 6lbs, and with up to half a dozen being caught at a sitting. The lake record has twice been smashed by tench of 8lb 6oz and 8lb 8oz respectively. The captor of the 8-6 had a very much bigger specimen swim past him in the margins and he put the weight at over 10lbs!
Our perch record has also been broken by a very long fish that went 2lb 9oz. Almost certainly this will weigh 3lb+ in the spring when perch are at their heaviest. Best of all it'll be only a maximum of 6 years old then!
Because of the size of the Coarse Lake it's slow to get going, but it makes up for this with some superb autumn and early winter fishing as it takes a whole series of frosts to slow it down. In other words there's lots to look forward to!
A surprising number of carp have been turning up in the Coarse Lake and a group of very big fish have several times been spotted. The best carp catch was to a tench angler and consisted of 3 carp including a beautiful 17lb. fully-scaled specimen. So it seems we have far more carp present than we first thought.
Uncrowded
In some ways it's unfortunate that Wingham is so uncrowded as we don't know just what fish we've got! In fact, apart from the odd match, the most we've even had on either lake is 6 anglers. And that's on waters of 15 and 40 acres respectively!
Carp Lake
Once again the last 2 months have brought some excellent fishing, apart from when the fish were spawning. There have been several more big bags with yet another catch of 3 twenties in an overnight session. The fish are putting on weight quickly this year and the biggest recorded has been just 2oz. short of 30lb. As this fish was caught after spawning, we look forward to more 30lbers coming out this season.
Vacancies
As I write we have just a couple of places left on the Carp Syndicate and a dozen on the Coarse lake. Because we're now open all year tickets run from 12 months from the date of joining so it's never a bad time of year to join. If you're interested in becoming a syndicate member do contact me ASAP as it looks as though there'll be a long waiting list very shortly!
Weedkilling
The early indications are that this has been a success. The weed in the treated areas has died back nicely, whilst there's dead weed in the extreme margins of the Coarse Lake. However, the unseasonably cold and very wet Spring means that the growing season is well behind and so there's very little weed in the Coarse Lake anyway. This is because it's big and deep and takes longer to warm up.
Coarse Lake Results
Because of the very low water temperature the tench and rudd have yet to start feeding. It looks therefore that spawning will be delayed. On the other hand we've now had our first deliberately caught carp from the Coarse Lake by the one member currently carping there. This was a 12lber and the captor lost a bigger fish as he packed up. This was his fourth trip and he's seen carp on three of them. More importantly he had a fish of some 30lbs swim under the tree he'd climbed, and was so excited he almost fell out of it!
Carp Lake
Results
The fishing in the Carp Lake recently has been superb. Only 5 members have fished the lake in the past 2 weeks - yes it's as crowded as ever! Angler's Net editor, Elton Murphy, had his first deliberate carp at 17lbs, shown here. Another member had 2 half-day trips and had a 20lber on one of them. Jerry Clark, in only his second season of carping, had three 20s to 25¾ lbs plus a 19lber - on just an overnight session! Another member has had 2 weekends trips and took three 20s plus back-up fish each time! The biggest carp went 27lbs. and of course is only 8 years old.
Membership
I've decided to limit membership this year to 30 carp anglers who can fish both lakes, plus 50 members who can fish just the Coarse Lake. This makes a total of just 80 anglers on 55 acres!
Thanks largely to this web site all but a handful of places are now taken. They should all be gone within a few weeks and thereafter a waiting list will be set up. Soon after that, all publicity on Wingham will cease and this web site will be closed down. So if you're interested in joining please contact me ASAP.
Steve Burke
Coarse Lake Carp
We now know that a 38lb common was caught from the Coarse Lake and reported in the press in the early 80s. Two anglers who've recently joined Wingham followed up these reports and caught a few carp shortly afterwards. Because the lake at that time just contained pike, trout and eels there was little or no chance of carp fry surviving. However the trout have now died out and we've much reduced the numbers of pike and eels. Couple this with the stocking of rudd and perch etc and it seems that a small number of carp have made it through, with the first one being caught last year. Indeed tench anglers have several times been smashed by big fish whilst a number of carp have been spotted up to mid twenties. Carp live to a great age and so I've no idea what the lake holds but am keen to find out. I'm not going to make any rash predictions but I'd be interested to discover what the 38lber now weighs!
£500 Trophy
The Main Lake hasn't been seriously fished for carp since the early 80's. It seems that with the fishing on the Carp Lake being so good you've no incentive to pioneer an unknown water. So I'm going to give you one! I'm putting up as a prize a beautiful double carving of a mirror and common carp by renowned craftsman Brian Mills. This fabulous trophy, which is worth £500, will go to the biggest carp over 20lbs caught from the Coarse Lake this year. Photographic evidence will be required and my decision is final.
Removal of Small Carp from the Carp Lake
Because Wingham is such a rich water there is plenty of food even in winter and so more baby carp survive their first year than is normal. I'm determined that the growth rate of the big carp is maintained and so all fish under 14lbs are removed. This limit will gradually be increased and will probably eventually reach 25lbs.
In fact the removal programme is going to be much stepped up this year when we electrofish the water in the early spring. I've been reluctant to use this method in the past due to horror stories about damaging the big fish. However it seems that the danger is negligible if carried out by experienced professionals.
Weed Clearance
Last year we started to tackle the weed in both lakes but were restricted as to what we could use. Treatment with ¼ strength Reglone, a bio-degradeable liquid, was pretty successful in the Coarse Lake but less so in the Carp Lake.
This year we've been given permission on the nature conservation side to use Casoron GSR pellets at the manufacturer's full-recommended strength on part of each lake. I've just applied to the Environment Agency for formal approval and it's planned that the work will be carried out late winter/early spring.
I understand that Casoron typically lasts about 3 years although some weed is expected to grow back from the 2nd year onwards but less thickly. We'll be treating all the fished margins of the Coarse Lake and one third of the Carp Lake including the margins. One option that will be examined is to treat one third of the lake each season in a 3-year cycle, which hopefully will leave us with sparse weedbeds in two thirds of the lake. Obviously the situation will have to be closely monitored and so no decisions can be taken until we see the effect later this year.
Stocking
The only further stocking planned is a few more big tench if we can get them. The last stocking was two years ago with specimens up to 8lbs 6ozs. Last year they were still growing as we caught up them to 9lbs 8ozs but weren't allowed to buy them. However we understand that the owners now want some carp, and of course we have quality carp for sale.......
Last Season's Fishing on the Carp Lake
The highlight of the season was our first thirty at 30lbs 10ozs caught last spring. This fish was only 7 years old and is believed to be the youngest ever British thirty pounder. In fact the spring fishing was outstanding with several new members doing especially well, with one catching 3 twenties in his first 3 trips and another 3 twenties in the first 4 visits! Relatively few blanks were recorded although weed became a problem from late summer through to the first hard frosts in October. This is being tackled as mentioned above. Most of the fish came out on boilies or Chum Mixer, but Brian Mills and I caught fish to over 25lbs on breadpaste and maggots respectively.
Last Season's Fishing on the Coarse Lake
Once the water coloured up about late July the rudd fishing was superb with many members reporting a bite a chuck, especially of an evening. Before then, when the water was clear, the rudd tended to feed after dark and the perch were close to, or even in, the reeds. Last year, most of the rudd and perch I stocked would have been 5 years old, and already the perch have been caught to well over 2lbs and the rudd to nearly this weight.
Those of you who got through the rudd by ledgering or float ledgering recorded many fine tench, which averaged around 6lbs early season. Some more tench may be going in this year, as mentioned above.
Our first carp (of 7lbs) was caught from the Coarse Lake last year and again there's more about these carp in the newsletter.
Bream started to show for the first time last year, probably because of the weed removal programme, and what bream they were! I stocked these in 1995, and whilst the vast majority were only a few inches long, there were some 3 year old fish of around 1¼lbs. 4 years later they were caught to 9lbs 6ozs!! Fishery scientist, Dr Bruno Broughton, reckons that this is the fastest growth rate for bream ever recorded in the U.K. In fact Ken Crow always predicted that Wingham would one day break the bream record. We'll just have to wait and see.
Matches
We've had only the odd match on the Coarse Lake so far but I'm keen to have a few more as the water is so little fished that we don't know much about it. Bob Nudd no less reckons that a 100lb bag is on the cards, and in fact 3 years ago when the rudd were much smaller a match was won with almost 60lbs! The rudd are no harder to catch now as they've hardly seen a bait, and it would be interesting to see just what could be achieved now we have numbers of pound plus fish.
I'm therefore looking for a volunteer to arrange a series of matches. If you're willing to do so please contact me as soon as possible.
Steve Burke