Wingham Fish-in Report

[Leon Roskilly]

BTW Elton, what does a Carp look like ?

 

 

Seph, you are so cruel!

 

 

Edited May 22, 2007 by Leon Roskilly

[Anderoo]

BTW Elton, what does a Carp look like ?

 

Si described to me the ones he caught - kind of long and green with lots of teeth

[Alan Stubbs]

I just wanted to thank Steve and Peggy for everything - a brilliant weekend - and just great to meet up with lots of members of the forum, some for the first time, and others I've known almost as long as I've been a member - partcularly Den (Poledark), Leon and Budgie. My 'Hilton as a minimum' son was sufficiently impressed to concede that even a basic bivvy can be comfortable, and he has decided he will gladly give it a go.

 

Dammit, Mr Burke, there's another convert!

[3DoorsDown]

I couldn't believe my luck when I discovered the swim I'd been given at this years Wingham Adventure, a rarely fished bay at the very far end of the lake, known as "Baliffs Bay" ! My anticipation grew even bigger when I arrived at the swim to find it was just like having my own little lake, with Steve's tales of gigantic carp and titanic tench ringing in my ears.

The only problem was, I soon discovered that all the fish were at the other end of the lake, about 39.5 acres away, in Richards swim actually !

 

I did way up my chances of making an 800m cast down the brisk north easterly wind, but decided I'd probably lose a little accuracy. Any way, another 3 great days at Wingham, entertained by the Kingfisher, Kestrel, Sparrow Hawk, Jay, snake and the Grebes, who really need to get a room, ended without a bite, not even an eel or pike ( although one did try to snaffle my backlead as it went in the water), but then you don't need to catch to enjoy Wingham.

 

Many thanks to Steve, Terry, Glyn, Peggy, Alan and Steve for making life easy and comfortable.

[nomadpaul]

but 3DD , i'm sure i can see 3 fish topping in that first photo maybe you were too busy taking pics to see them

[Anthony78]

I would like to begin by saying a huge thank you to Steve, Peggy, Terry, Glyn and young Tom for all the hard work that went in to making this weekend possible. Well done guys!!

 

After my last two visits to Wingham I felt I had learned quite a lot and felt very confident about getting a bite or two.

When Kim and I arrived Saturday morning and found out what peg I had been given I was over the moon. It was Steve's favourite bream peg (no pressure then!) and also had good form for big perch. After being shown the hotspots by Steve and Glyn I decided to go with 3 different approaches and would change if a pattern emerged. My left hand rod was placed in Steve's bream hotspot, a gap between the margin and a bar that ran accross to the island directly in front of me. This was baited with about 2 kilos of fishmeal groundbait 2 tins of corn and about 1 1/2 pints of dead maggots. Over this I fished with a semi fixed bolt rig and corn for bait.

My right hand rod was placed over Glyn's Bream hotspot, a 12" deep chanel that led in to a lovely little bay. This I fed with a kilo of groundbait and about 4 pints of dead maggots ( I had about 10 pints with me!) and a tin of corn. This I fished with a running rig baited with worm and corn.

My third rod was cast to the bottom of the gravel bar that ran out to the island in front of me. This was again fished with a bolt rig and a pva bag of dead maggots with maggots on a clip.

I went to bed that night very happy with my set up and confident of some kind of action. Unfortunately it wasn't ment to be and I slept uninterupted until dawn. I decided to recast my rigs with fresh baits and while setting the bobbin on my left hand rod I noticed that it wouldn't settle. Eventually it lifted to the top and stayed there so I struck. I prayed for a big perch to break the surface but no, it was a very angry pike. On the scales it went 14lb 12oz.

Unfortunately that was my only action for the weekend, but I came home happy that I'd fished to my best ability and more wonderful memories of the magical place we call Wingham.

Here are a few pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andrew Burgess]

Provisional dates for 2008 are Saturday May 17th to Monday May 19th.

 

Yeah I will be definitely be down for next year Steve I will kill Budgie for texting me at the weekend saying to me that a bloke has a 38lb carp out the swim I was mean't to be in and was caught on the rods that my mate Alan Stubb kindly donated to me!

[Rob Ward]

What can I say, first of all thanks to Steve, Peggy, Terry, Glynn and everyone else involved in making the Fish In happen - your hard work is very much appreciated!

 

It was great to see all of the old faces again and the new ones!

 

It's been a long time since I first came across a certain Mr Capper on the Barbel Fishing World forum, I seem to remember he was very much a traditionalist at the time so it brought a smile to my face to see him bivvied up in my swim with alarms blaring sixteen to the dozen! They must have known I was coming is all I can say....... seriously though, well done Richard you bagged up and that's not easy at Wingham - hat's off!

 

This was my first trip of the season, I was totally disorganised and didn't get settled until late. Even then I wasn't confident and wasn't really confident of catching until one of Steve's vegetarian Pike took a liking to hair rigged sweetcorn fished on a method feeder. It was the same rod cast to the 'Eggs' that trundled off at around 11:45 at night. I thought it was a Bream at first because it felt so heavy and plodded along sedately until I got it into the Margins and I saw it was a Tench and a big one, at which point it went absolutely ballistic. Once it was in the net I knew I'd at least smashed by PB so went next door to get some help with weighing and photo's from Alan (Meatballs) Campbell who duly obliged - Alan you're a gentleman and a scholar! We settled on 9lb 12 which was an ounce short of Alan's lake record of 9lb 13, I was over the moon! Alan then returned and said, 'I've done you mate it was 9lb 14 - there's 16 ounces to a pound!' I suppose it was fitting that Alan was the one to weigh and photograph the fish, Alan - I sincerely hope you're the one to better it!

 

I was kept awake by Eels and liners for the rest of the night, I landed three with the biggest going around the three pound Mark. I wouldn't be surprised if Mr Jolley makes an appearance next year!

 

Sunday was quiet and I slept through until 5:30AM on Sunday morning when the Tench in my swim switched on, the first being a female at 7lb 8 which just happened to equal my previous PB. The next came at around 10:45AM and weighed 8lb 4oz, my second biggest ever - I thought it was a female but looking at the photo's I now think it might be a male (I'll post pics when I can find the pesky USB lead for my camera). Next up was a chunky female at midday weighing in at 7lb 12, Terry did the honours with the Camera and took a couple of sterling shots, Terry it's not true what Steve say's about you!

 

Tench are my favourite species and two sevens, an eight and a nine was once the stuff dreams were made of . Wingham has been so kind to me over the last few years I can't believe it. Steve, the place is a credit to you!

Edited May 22, 2007 by Rob Ward

[Kappa]

I'd like to start off by saying I really feel for those who didn't catch, I was just unbelievably lucky that the fish were there in front of me and that fed in quite poor conditions.

 

I was fishing in the peg Rob Ward has had success from in the past, including his bream last year. I fished half heartedly under a tree to my left during the day but got nothing. In the mean time I baited up two spots at the base of a bar at about 60 yards, one with weed close by one without. I caught a pb eel 1lb 10oz just at dusk on the first night, I was quite pleased as we don't get eels in Oxford for some reason! As I was retying that rig due to line damage I had a run on one of the bar rods I lost this fish in weed but luckily I didn't have time to mope much as before I had time to recast I got a run on the other bar rod which resulted in a nice 5lb 3oz male:

 

I felt my lost fish was due to the hooks opening up due to the pressure from weed etc so I then retied all my rigs with stronger hooks and recast! A little while later the same rod was off again this time a female tench of 5lb 8oz. I then had line bites for hours on the weedless bar swim. I couldn't sleep as every time I closed my eyes I got another liner. Finally around 4am the bobbin steadily rose to the rod (that’s a 3 or 4ft drop on Steve's long drop setup I was using) with Steve's advice ringing in my ears I waited for the baitrunner to click, after it had turned a few times I struck and connected with a heavy fish. After a few minutes I realised the fish was not fighting like a tench, just as I was thinking this the fish rolled heavily close in suggesting a very large fish. At this point I started to get very nervous, could this be a bream? Sure enough as it came to the net a very large bream appeared, I rang Anderoo who came over to help with the weighing and photographs, it went 16lb 4oz:

This fish was a male and was very long and thick across the back but not very deep or fat. Also this fish had rough scales which I have seen on my previous pb bream, they feel much like a pine cone!

 

At this point I thought it couldn't get any better, I was wrong:

An 8lb 6oz tench:

then a 4lb odd male

an 8lb 9oz tench:

and a tench of 6lb 6oz. At this point the fish seemed to stop feeding so I tried to sleep a little before the BBQ. After the BBQ I heavily rebaited the bar swims and went to sleep (I didn't fish the afternoons one either day as I was letting the swims settle after the spodding).

 

I woke up around 8.30pm and after a cuppa with Anderoo, I cast back out around 9pm. As the margin swim hadn't produced I decided to fish all three rods to the bar. Around midnight I had a run on what was my margin rod on the bar. The fish was completely unstoppable it took 40 or 50 yards before I managed to stop it, unfortunately it had gone over the top of the bar into the deep water, the bars at Wingham are very sharp flint and as I stopped the fish the line cut on the bar! I'm fairly certain I'd just lost one of the few massive carp DAMN!

 

A little later around 2pm the same rod went again this time a tench of 7lb 3oz. The weedy rod followed, I lost a few fish to that weed but this one came out after a little persuasion, a tench of 7lb 1oz.

 

At 3.30am the rod on the clear patch went with a slow run, fairly early I realised this fish felt like another bream I got very very nervous again especially as it rolled a lot near the net I was terrified the hook might pull. As it was the hook hold was pretty flimsy. I called Anderoo again (poor Anderoo) this Bream went 15lb 11oz:

This fish was a female, it had a much smaller frame but was very fat, perhaps full of spawn? Unlike the male its scales were smooth very much like a smaller bream.

 

I couldn't believe it this was amazing! As dawn broke I had a very fat tench of 8lb 2oz:

 

A new pb tench of 9lb 4oz :

one of 6lb 13oz, a 9lb 1oz, a 6lb male, a 6lb 13oz male, a 6lb 8oz male a 7lb 4oz female and finally a very very fat female of 8lb 12oz:

 

By this time is was almost time for the BBQ so that was pretty much the end of the most amazing session I've ever had or ever expect to have! I had a pb for each species I caught and ended the session with 2 bream, 17 tench including 2x9s 4x8s and 3x7s and an eel.

 

Thank you so much Steve and Anderoo I couldn't have done it with out you help and advice! By the way Steve I'll see you next week when I start my camping so I'm first in line for the same swim next year .

 

Rich

Edited May 23, 2007 by Richard Capper

[John 'BLOCK']

Hi my heads still been at the lake today…alas my physical presence has been at work.

What a weekend !!!….Wingham is an amazing place…truly special.

I’d like to thank Steve, Peggy, Glyn, Terry and everyone else for all their time and hard work getting the place ready for us and making us all very welcome. We really look forward to this every year and it was great to see everyone. The vibe amongst all us fishing heads is great.

Well done to Richard for his amazing catch and to anyone else who got PBs or lake records !! Well done Rob…hopefully silverware for the Reds on Wednesday !

I fished the back bay corner (32) where the lure demonstration was last year…beautiful swim which I shared with bees which were nesting in the peat . Coming out of a tiny hole in the ground. Luckily they were friendly !!

Fishing wise I was turned into a shaking wreck from a carp I thought was a tench for about 40 seconds until it woke up and decide it prefered the snags to the bank! During the night I had two eels one about 2lb the other was tiny! Two more bites in the morning resulted in two cut offs over the bars…. Possibly pike ?? A 3lb pike on the lobs in the margin that afternoon and another run off the carp spot in the evening which hook pulled …probably a pike…lost and eel in the night.

Right at the last gasp hooked an 11lb 8oz pike on a boilie (it was regurgitating them) which was a PB! Boy do they fight!

As the witching hour was approaching I clearly spotted some of the dark tench rolling….next year maybe!!

Superb weekend!!!