Woodpecker Pool Newsletter May 2014

Hello everyone and welcome to our first newsletter of 2014, our ninth season, where have all those years gone?? We hope you are all keeping well and we are looking forward to seeing you all once again. Winter is long gone thank goodness with all the rain but the mildest winter we have had since living here and according to the records the mildest one for over 40 years. Although we have had some nice weather it has still been very cool at times with still some heavy rain, cold winds and thunderstorms so we are looking forward now to the long, sunny summer days, hopefully.

Quite a lot of you always ask me when you come here if I have managed to wet a line, well this year I have managed a few hours with a few friends and have been lucky enough to winkle one or two out, see below some of the fish we managed to catch.

As always at the start of our new season we wonder what this year will hold, will any of you break your PBs, will the lake produce any new records and every year we always say it cannot get any better than the previous one but up to now every year it has got better, will it this season? Well lets move onto the catch reports so far and you can see for yourselves.

First here this year in mid April were good friends Scott and Jon, they have been many times in the past so what would their week hold for them. They had a fantastic week banking 49 fish including one Catfish of 92lb 8oz to Jon, 4 doubles, 15 x 20s, 20 x 30s, 7 x 40s and the Sturgeon a couple of times. The best Common to Scott and New Lake Record of 47lb, big congratulations on your achievement, the first week of the new season and the lake has done it again and produced a new record, staggering. The best Mirror was 43lb.

What a start to the new season with some absolutely stunning fish caught during the week with a total weight of 1606lbs 12oz for an average of 32lb 12oz. Great to see you again and thank you for your company during the week. Look forward to seeing you again next year.

Our next people here were our good friend and regular Terry and first timer to fishing for carp in France Ray, Jen came in for part of the first and second week. How would their week work out after such a great start and how would Ray cope with the fish as he had not caught anything bigger than I think about 10lbs before he came here, well the answer is Ray had no problem at all as he played the fish like a seasoned campaigner. On the Saturday when they arrived Ray was a keen as mustard to start fishing, Terry did his normal in soaking up the atmosphere and sorting things out. Ray had three fish on the Saturday evening starting with the Sturgeon, which gave him a battle royal then a lovely common of 10lbs and then he hooked his first ever Catfish, well off it went around the island and Ray worked his way around to near the boat house to stop the fish cutting him off on the island, I asked him to take the pressure off so not to snap the line and got the boat, I got to him and asked him to get in, now I am no lightweight but when Ray got in I thought I was on one of them swing boats you get on the fairs and was convinced we both were going to end up in the lake but fortunately everything went well and we went after the fish. When we cleared the island the fish had not only gone around the island but was lying sulking half way down the dam so I dropped Ray off at the pump house. After an epic battle we managed to bank the leviathan and when we weighed her she was the second New Lake Record of the season in only our second week as she weighed 115lbs 12ozs, shattering our existing record by 9lbs 4ozs. Congratulations Ray on a great achievement and for your patience in playing such a big fish. A lot of people say these fish cannot be landed on carp gear, "WRONG", take it easy, take your time and don't try to bully them and you will bank them. Several angler's bank these fish here every year because they don't pile on too much pressure and make the fish angry and are patient with them.

Now I have told you about the Catfish I will tell you about the rest of their week and what a mind blowing week it turned out to be!! They had a total of 83 fish made up of 2 Catfish, the 115lbs 12oz and a 96lb fish, 10 doubles, 33 x 20s, 23 x 30s and 3 x 40s, 2 Grass Carp to 34lb 4oz, 1 small Pike and the Sturgeon 3 times. The best Mirror was 49lb 4oz and the best Common 45lb 8oz. Not only did Ray break the Catfish record he and Terry broke the total weight record for a week here since we opened, the total weight for the week was 2312lb!!! Over a ton of fish, absolutely staggering. The average was 27lb 14oz. The record weight for a week here prior to this week was 2067lbs 3oz again to just two angler's. Congratulations to you both on a fantastic week with no nights fished and not getting up at the crack of dawn, fishing until 10pm, a real holiday but not what you would call relaxing!!!

The following week Terry was on his own as Ray had gone home on the Saturday and Terry said how can I follow up on a week like we have just had in paradise, well read on as his second week was again another excellent week here, again no nights fished and no early starts. Terry had a total of 39 fish including two Catfish of 106lb and 95lb 14oz, one Grass Carp of 32lb 12oz, 5 x doubles, 11 x 20s, 12 x 30s and the Sturgeon 5 times!! Yes he really woke up this week.

The best Mirror was 39lb 8oz and the best Common was 32lb 4oz. The total weight weight was 1235lbs 4ozs for an average of 31lbs 11ozs. A brilliant fortnight, it was a pleasure to meet you Ray, we look forward to seeing you all again later in the year and thank you all for your company once again.

On next we welcomed our good friends Marg, Phil, Karen and Mark. You may remember Mark caught the first 40lb and 50lb carp from here so what would there week hold in store this year. Yet again only fishing days they had some lovely fish, 39 in total. The catch was made up of 3 Catfish, one of 111lb, a PB for Phil and the other one "One Whisker" caught twice at 86lb and 87lb respectively. There were 3 Grass Carp caught with the best and New Lake Record to Mark at 35lb 9oz which is 4 ounces bigger then our previous best. The Sturgeon just once to Phil at 46lb 8oz which he really was hoping to catch. The rest of the catch included 6 doubles, 10 x 20s, 9 x 30s and 4 x 40s.

The best Mirror was 42lb 7oz and the best Common 45lb 6oz. The total weight for the week was 1177lbs 6ozs for an average of 30lb 3oz. Yet another fabulous week with some stunning fish caught, congratulations to Mark on his New Lake Record Grass Carp and a big thank you to you all for your company once again this year and we look forward to seeing you all again in 2015.

For our final catch report for this newsletter we welcomed back the two John's, John Turner and John Morris who have become good friends over the years. To say that their week weather wise was up and down is an understatement, bright sunshine, rain and almost monsoon type storms with a lot of thunder and lightning, however it did not stop the fish from feeding, a little more sporadic at times but still some very nice fish caught. The total number for the week was 29 fish. The catch was made up of 1 Catfish, a new PB for JM at 107lb, 2 Grass Carp to 35lb 8oz, 2 doubles, 10 x 20s, 13 x 30s and 2 x 40s. The Sturgeon had the week off for a change!!!

The best Mirror was 41lb 8oz and the best Common at 40lb 8oz. The total weight for the week was 924lb for an average of 32lb. Another good week again with some lovely fish caught, sorry about the weather guys but you did not let that worry you or put you off your fishing. Thank you once again for your company and chats through the week and we look forward to seeing you both again next year.

Well that is the end of the catch reports for this newsletter and we hope you have enjoyed reading about them, what a fabulous start to our 2014 season, already we have had 3 new lake records which is mind blowing from our little peace of paradise. We now look forward to seeing all of you that have still to come this year and hope we can make some of your dreams come true, until then stay healthy and happy.

All the very best to you all for now.

Sue & Doug 

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