Wingham Fish-In Catch Report

[Guest tigger]

Thank's for the comments on the chunky Tench I was lucky enough to land. Well done to everyone else who caught. To anyone who blanked at this lovely venue hopefully the fish will be in your swim next time.

And Den........... baggies your peg next time you got some corkers there m8.

Edited May 20, 2008 by tigger

[terry t shirt]

The first thing has to be a huge thankyou to Steve Peggy Glyn Tom and Terry i could never say thankyou enough.

 

I arrived with will at about 7 am to be met with a bacon sarnie and a hot coffee what better way to start. I had the point peg which i had asked for sadly i dont think i did it justice. The first thing that hits you at wingham isnt so much the size but the features to find every gravel bar and hole in my peg would have took a week. So after getting as much informatioon as i could , sorry to the guys i was leaching it out of. I decided on one main attack and a chuck it and chance it with the third rod.

The BBQs each day were excellent and you've gotta give peggy credit not many would still be cooking in the rain but it tasted so nice it was much appreciated. The first night i had no result at all i blame the angler not the peg i hadnt done enough feature finding and had hurried to get baits in to a certain extent , this is not the way to fish Wingham. Second night i had one tench of 7lbs 3oz and 2 eels (not weighed but about the 1 1/2 lb mark. I dont know if its true of the other anglers but i came away with questions and ideas of what i did wrong and how to improve it. All i can do is wait for another two years when hopefully i'll be a better angler from this experience. And once again

 

#THANKYOU # everyone at winham.

[Ian_87]

I would just like to say big thankyou to steve for allowing me to fish wingham. My dads is always going on about how its a really beautiful place and having been there myself i totally agree with him!

 

I was fortunate enough to have richard cappers swim from last year, though i was not as lucky (or skilled) as he was. Unfortunatly i blanked (not even a line bite lol). but i still enjoyed the trip emensely! i would also like to thank the baliffs glynn and terry for the lifts to and from my peg and also to will wilkinson in his landy! ( brilliant bivvy will! no need to get out of bed to land a fish) and also peggy who put on a great spread even in the rain.

 

Only 360 days till wingham 09 heres hoping i get a place

[Guest Rabbit]

Thank's for the comments on the chunky Tench I was lucky enough to land. Well done to everyone else who caught. To anyone who blanked at this lovely venue hopefully the fish will be in your swim next time.

And Den........... baggies your peg next time you got some corkers there m8.

 

Well done Ian, I suppose you travelled more than anyone to get there and well deserved, beats my PB tench as well

[Guest tigger]

Well done Ian, I suppose you travelled more than anyone to get there and well deserved, beats my PB tench as well

 

 

Thank's for that Neil.

[Will Wilkinson]

Now I've got time - here's my report:

 

Woke up on Saturday morning at 03:30 to load up the Landy and wait for Terry to arrive. Terry arrived at 04:15 and we were shortly off towards Wingham, my third visit and Terry's first.

 

We had a really easy drive down, arriving just before seven and it was very nice to be met with a cup of tea and offer of bacon butties.

 

After chatting to those who had already arrived I checked out our swim allocations and delivered our gear to the pegs before returning to the clubhouse to assist the taxi service delivering people to their pegs. After a few more trips I returned to my peg to set up and explore the swim with the marker float before coming back for the BBQ - thanks due to Peggy who did a fantastic job cooking for all of us in the rain as the Gazebo was missing a leg.

 

Simon (BoozleBear) and his son Jack were borrowing my usual bivvie (spare as I was testing a bivvie-bag that I intend to use in Greenland either this summer or next) so, after finishing eating and socialising, I ferried their tackle to their pegs and set up the bivvie for them. Whilst returning to my peg on the far side of the lake I saw my first Cetti's warbler of the weekend as it flew across the path in front of me.

 

Steve had pointed out the various features of my swim to me earlier - it's one he's fished a fair bit and had produced Bream in the past which was what I was targeting this time so I'd decided on a plan of attack and wasted no time in finishing getting the rods set up and cast out.

 

I started to get occasional knocks on the middle rod fairly quickly, but these seemed to be a mix of line bites and fish bumping the feeder with nothing strikable and when they slowed down after a while I decided to have a doze for a couple of hours to be better prepared for the night and, I hoped, the bream (a pretty slim hope as only 5 had been caught over the entire previous year).

 

As I lay dozing I was pulled back into wakefulness by the middle buzzer again, but this was a proper bite at last so I leaned up out of the bivvie-bag, picked up the rod, and struck to be met with a nice solid resistance. Great - I'd been fishing less than three hours and I had my first fish of the trip on. I soon felt the distinctive fight of a decent eel and after a brief, but spirited, fight had a nice specimen in the net that weighed in at 3 1/2 lb. I'm a big fan of large eels which we don't see much of on my local waters so this was a nice start to the weekend. (I still wonder about the possibility of a really big eel in Wingham given the growth rates of the other fish but they're a very hard fish to target in such an expanse of water).

 

As I was up and about again I brought in the rods and, after firing out some more groundbait went for a walk to see how others were doing.

 

I'd fired out some maggot in the margins before I'd left so only put out 2 of the ledger rigs when I came back, intending to fish the margins for perch on the waggler for the hours round sunset. Had a bite second cast which produced a 12oz-1lb perch (didn't weigh it) from the part of the swim Steve had told me tended to produce perch over 3lb - once again I'd found the smaller perch (had plenty around this size a couple of years ago). No more bites were forthcoming so, after a couple of hours, I put the waggler rod away, cast out the third ledger and settled down with a cup of tea to await developments.

 

As the sun set the flocks of swifts, swallows and martins were replaced by the largest number of bats I've seen for some time - must remember to take a bat detector next time so I can find out what sort they are - I suspect mostly Daubenton’s as they seemed quite large and were keeping very low to the water much of the time.

 

At around midnight the middle buzzer gave a couple of bleeps followed by a long steady rise of the bobbin and, as the baitrunner started to give line, I struck to me met by a very solid resistance. The fish felt heavy but wasn't fighting much so I started to think BREAM - could I have found one of these most elusive fish? But as I brought it closer it suddenly woke up and revealed itself as a tench that gave a very good account of itself - one of the hardest fighting tench I've ever caught. It weighed in at 7lb 8oz - I had to weigh it three times as I couldn't believe the weight at first - she was a very broad-backed, deep bodied fish just beginning to show signs of coming into spawn. Unfortunately I'd just put all the camera gear away as I was about to get into the bivvie for the night so I didn't get a photo - I'd have had to sack her for the time it took to get everything out again and as I've had plenty of tench this size in the past decided to just slip her back.

 

Re-cast, re-baited and settled down for then night which was interrupted twice by eels, once at 01:30 and again at 03:00 after which I switched all rods to vegetarian baits (corn on 2, maple boilie on the third).

 

Woke up again around 04:45 and was almost immediately greeted by the sound of a nightingale from the bushes behind me but try as I might couldn't manage to spot it.

 

After breakfast and a couple of hours unsuccessful perch hunting on the waggler I once again brought the rods in and went for a longer walk round the lake with the binoculars to see what I could spot. Saw many warblers in the undergrowth, most of which remained "LBJs" (Little Brown Jobs, also known as WBBs north of the border) - warblers can be almost impossible to identify if they're not calling, positively ID'd Cetti's warbler, Willow warbler, chiffchaff, reed warbler and blackcap.

 

Had a few more hours fishing before the BBQ without success - a couple of liners but nothing more substantial.

 

Spent much of the afternoon visiting and catching up with various people - I wasn't too bothered about fishing on such a bright windy afternoon as I was concentrating on trying for a bream which, as usual with big bream, are almost entirely nocturnal feeders.

 

I was later back to my swim than intended that evening as I'd been visiting Anderoo on the carp lake and there had been several huge fish porpoising and crashing in the middle of the lake - I stayed for a while longer than planned just to watch this and in the hope that Andy would hook up with one of them (sadly not to be the case).

 

The moon had risen as I was walking back to my peg, and with it my spirits fell slightly - it was going to be a very bright moonlit night, greatly reducing the chance of a fish. This proved to be the case - not a single bleep from any rod all night - at least I got a good sleep!

 

I was woken at dawn by a cuckoo that sounded to be directly above my head, got up, put the kettle on and once again spent a couple of hours looking for perch without success. Then wandered down to tincatinca's swim and chatted to Paul for an hour or so before collecting my keys and preparing to assist with the taxi service for those left on the far side of the lake. Once again Peggy produced another superb spread, but I'd not booked a BBQ for today so just pinched a sausage once everyone else had finished gorging themselves - I'd brought more food than I'd needed anyway.

 

Had a few more hours fishing that afternoon and a nice long chat with Steve - one of the advantages of staying 'till the end as he had more free time with less people left to see.

 

Finally packed up around half past four, picked Terry up, parked back at the clubhouse and went for a last walk round the lake to say goodbye for another year.

 

A fantastic weekend's fishing on what has to be the nicest stillwater fishery in the country with great company and plenty of interesting wildlife, what more could a man wish for (OK - a record bream would have iced the cake but I'm not complaining).

 

Over the weekend I saw 3 Cetti's warblers, a blackcap, many willow warblers and chiffchaffs, a few hobbies, a sparrowhawk, a marsh harrier and many commoner birds.

 

We finally left at 7pm and had an equally easy trip back as we had on the way down - another advantage of staying until the end.

 

Once again I must offer my thanks to Steve for allowing us the privilege of fishing Wingham, Peggy for the excellent food, Terry, Glyn and Tom for their help and advice and all the Wingham members for giving up their fishery for the weekend.

 

Will

[Sharkbyte]

Youtube Video ->

[Will Wilkinson]

Sharkbyte - great bit of video, can't wait to see the rest.

 

Might look at getting myself a camera set up - there's a couple of lakes near me that would be very interesting to explore, both nice and clear with good tench fishing in the margins.

 

Will

[longshank]

Hi, just like to thank all at Anglers Net for making it possible for me to fish your recent ‘fish-in’, I’d also like to thank Steve and Peggy Burke for hosting the event and for giving me the chance to fish such an outstanding fishery, thank you very much. I’d also like to thank the Water Bailiffs who obviously work very hard in maintaining the fishery’s high standards and for transporting our luggage to our swims, thank you. Also like to thank Budgie for putting us up on Friday night, (if you’re ever selling that camp bed Budgie lemmie have first shout) best nights sleep I’ve had in ages! Thanks mate.

 

I was also very pleased to be able to fish next to my friend Andrew Burgess and appreciate the effort the management carried out for this to happen, great stuff. After humping the gear over the fence I walked into the peg which had been allocated to me (47), lots of room and some really good underwater features to fish too. After using a marker float to help find those features I baited up using plastic sweet corn on one rod and a maggot clip on the other.

 

Shortly after tea I was sat in the biv sorting rigs out when Andrew shouted ‘I’m in Andy’- Andrew has told you about that . Was hoping to catch a perch whilst fishing at Wingham and quite often changed over to worm on both rigs but it never happened, knew I wouldn’t catch any eels because they were all in Budgies swim, LOL.

 

I saw a little action Sunday evening; lost one, had a screamer then landed a 6lb tench soon after on a maggot clip, (thanks for taking the picture Andrew)

 

 

Thanks again for giving me the opportunity to fish your fish-in, Wingham is a beautiful Fishery and one which I will always remember fishing.

 

Keep Fishin

 

Andy

[seph]

Seems like the fishing was quite good this year and congratulations to all who caught as it is not the easiest place in the world to catch. Well done to Tigger on that impressive tench. I know how hard Steve, Peggy and the bailiffs work on this event and my hat goes off to you all. Shame none of the big Bream showed their faces.

 

Hopefully I will be there next year.