Wingham Fish-In Catch Report

[Steve Burke]

Tigger, when I first saw the pics of your 10lber on the small screen of a camera and in the bright sun I thought it might be spawnbound. My apologies, I was wrong! It's an awesome-looking fish.

 

I just wonder what it will weigh in a couple of months when it does contain spawn!

 

Many congratulations on a superb catch, and as the first Wingham double figure tench a history-making one as well!

Edited May 19, 2008 by Steve Burke

[Rusty]

O.K I blanked!.................That said this is the first time since a teenager I have " bivvied" up and fished over two nights and I loved every minute, even though I blanked, the anticipation , company and surroundings were awesome.

Thanks to all involved. ( maybe next year )?

Well done to Tigger and all of those who caught something, from the photos I've seen it's a massive venue and I wouldn't know where to start fishing. I haven't fished overnight since the early eighties when I constructed a very homemade bivvy at the Darenth Leisure Sport water in Dartford Kent, KAYC's post sums it up for me.

 

I'll be there next time.

[Steve Burke]

On weighing him he tips the scales at 3lbs 7ozs and is just a fraction over 19 inches long, he is in great condition and so long and sleek.

 

 

A perch of this length would normally be well over 4lbs.

 

However everything is late again this year, and the perch have only just spawned as this picture clearly shows. Indeed, Glyn and I were out in the boat on Tuesday and there were no perch fry to be seen anywhere, and so the perch eggs wouldn't even have hatched then.

 

I'd like to make this one's aquaintance again myself in a few weeks!

[Steve Burke]

I had 2 fish, a perch of around 8oz, that I returned unphotographed, and a 5lb 2oz tench that I'm sure will be a lot heavier in a few weeks, as it was a very long and slim fish!

 

Mat, that tench looks like a male to me (I'll amend the original report), and so I'd guess that it put up quite a scrap!

 

Hope you're now fully recovered.

Edited May 19, 2008 by Steve Burke

[Comus]

Mitch and I would like to thank Steve, Peggy and the boys for a great weekend.

 

Never managed a carp but did catch this PB Pike at 11lb 1oz. Chuffed to bits, and the fact that my son was there to witness it made it even more special.

 

Thanks again.

 

Comus

 

Edited May 19, 2008 by Comus

[poledark]

Where do I start? First off, many, many thanks to Steve for letting me fish. I was on a promise for next year, but due to a couple of cancellations I got a place this time

 

Before I ramble on, I have to give a big big thanks to Steve, Peggy and Glyn and Terry and all the others who have put in such a lot of time and effort on our behalf. I do realy appreciate the amount of thought that you all put on our behalf .

 

I didn't get a chance to speak to everyone, so for those that I missed, I will say Hello on here Most of us were to busy eating to say much, and I was in a hurry to get back to my swim.........................

 

This was the 4th time I have ben, first time I just looked in for a chat, second time was when Newt and Jan came over, and I was ill prepared..................

 

Third time,best forgotten I think, I mucked up big time.

 

So when I got the message that I could do the two nights this year, I was determined not to waste it. Lots of deep thought and preperation was needed, but I finally decided to fish with a setup that works for me on most waters. Method feeder laced with maggots,and corn or pellet or maggot on the hook.

 

By the time I was set up and bivvie sorted I was soaked in sweat, and very uncomfortable, so I just cast all 3 rods about 15/20 yards out with a variety of hook baits on.

 

3 hours later I had dried out a bit and got the marker rod out and had a plumb about..found a large hump out to the right, and three humps out to the left, and a nice 6/7 foot area in between which felt firm and clean. Right, now I had to make some other decisions, the main one being hook bait. Red maggot will catch any fish that swims, so that was the hook bait. 9 or 10 on a No 4 Super specialist, 4" hooklength, and my home made feeders, packed with a fairly stiff mix and laced with quite a few red maggots. The plan was for the maggots to struggle out over a period of time, I would recast about every hour.

 

Three fresh casts out to the clean area to the right of the 3 humps, baits about 10 yards apart.

 

At 4.10, the left hand rod shot off, and after a really good scrap I landed this fella..

 

 

Definitely looked a double, or very close. Ran to next swim and got "3 doors down" to take pics, and fish duly weighed...12lb on the dot with the sling. Put the fish back, submerging the sling in the process, then weighed the sling...3lb 5oz....so take off that amount, and I have an 8lb 11oz fish.

I had a further 7 fish, all weighed and then 3lb 5oz deducted. Steve commented that the average weight seemed to be low.............

 

Next morning, a further 2 fish, and then a long gap during which time the weigh sling had time to partly dry out, and just out of curiosity I decided to check the weight....2lb 10oz.....hmmm!

 

Go and get Nick, and we both check out the weight, and then the penny dropped, I had checked it soaking wet from returning that first fish. I phoned Steve and we agreed to add 11 oz to all the fish, and this brought them up to the expected average.

So I had a PB, the first one was now 9.06 :)

 

Life became a bit of a blur from there on, tiredness, excitement...staggering around like a drunk at 3am...deciding to reel in before I fell in.......I could list the times of the ones I took pics of, but not now........

 

I passed the double figure mark, so was then on a mission to get as many as possible...cast every 40 mins or so, move them around a bit, try a bit further out, bring one in close. I was confident in the method, and figured if it didn't fly off in 40 mins, then there wasn't a feeding fish close to the bait. Most came from the nice clean area, but a couple were from a really long chuck up in to the wind which was almost straight in to my swim.

 

Total gradually crept up, and now I am on a mission to get 20 :)

 

I was fishing on a platform, and never knew which side the fish would end up being netted, so the net was laid down behind the rods.This had worked well up to about mid morning today.

And then disaster struck.about mid morning I hooked a "lump", long dogged fight like a carp, it picked up the LH line but I swapped the rods over OK. The rod I moved was now propped up on the back rest with the butt on the net..........mistake No1..............I got the fish close in on the right of the platform and then reached back for the net.......blasted rod was in the way....trying not to stand on the net I managed to get the rod off it and reached down for the net. By now the fish had got dangerously close to the platform, but was up on the surface, and it was b####y huge.

 

I lifted the net over the rod pod and dropped it down on the corner of the platform while I coaxed the fish away from the platform..........and now I tried to put the net out, and it had caught on the chicken wire on the front of the platform..horror of horrors..... a cert double on the surface and the sodding net is caught up.....I managed to free enough to get half of it in the water and decided to back up dragging the fish the couple of feet to the net. 13 ft rods and platforms don't mix well, I could only go back a short distance and so I lifted the rod until it was almost straight up...mistake No 2......line went tight...heavy fish......no bend in rod.............."ping" went the hook link. Fish slowly submerged................I cant move the sodding net..............can't make a desperate lunge...............helpless.........................(the next few words have been censored by me)

 

No question, at least 25% bigger than any of the others...I cursed, I swore, I raged.........I punched my self in the head, but most of all, I shook................tears welled up...( christ Den, you are 70 years old mate, get a grip)

 

Hours later I have calmed down a bit, but I know that when I tell Ted tomorrow, the tears will come back.

 

So thats Wingham for me..wonderful highs of a PB, a string of fish, all big weights, desperate low of a lost lump ( oh god I did want that fish)

 

And thats why I still go fishing,

 

I think Meatballs was looking down on me this weekend, I hope I did your swim justice mate............didn't I say how many I ended up with? 19 lovely fat fish.

 

Den

Edited May 19, 2008 by poledark

[Mat Hillman]

Mat, that tench looks like a male to me (I'll amend the original report), and so I'd guess that it put up quite a scrap!

 

Hope you're now fully recovered.

 

Feeling a lot better now thanks Steve, just a really bad headache coupled with a lack of sleep I think ( I was up and fishing just after 3am Saturday morning.)

 

As to the fish, as I said it was very long and slim, and the pelvics were not as pronounced as they are on my local tench water, but I'll take your word for it, as that makes it a PB male it came in fairly easily till it saw the net, and then it went off like a train!

 

Mat

[Cranfield]

A great result Den and I almost had a tear in my eye reading your account of the lost fish.

 

I can just imagine the frustration.

[poledark]

A great result Den and I almost had a tear in my eye reading your account of the lost fish.

 

I can just imagine the frustration.

 

It wasn't frustration Brian, it was a dreadful feeling of emptyness, I think my heart sunk with the fish...............

 

Den

[Vagabond]

and now I tried to put the net out, and it had caught on the chicken wire on the front of the platform..horror of horrors..... a cert double on the surface and the sodding net is caught up

 

That wire worries me too. I know its essential when the wood is wet, but I am a genius at getting things caught up in it. So far, it has not cost me a fish, just pushed my blood pressure up a bit. Coupled with my tendency to drop small items through the slats, the chicken wire means I usually opt to fish in a platform-less swim - where one can sit low and well back from the water.

 

That is a splendid bag of tench by any standards though - you obviously got a lot of things right!