Rob, Harry, Lisa and Bob were with us during a gloriously sunny week in April 2025 and the anglers, Rob and Harry went home with new PBs in the 30s. With 14 carp last year they bought Rob’s brother, Jon with them too to try and get even more fish out of the lake. As last year Bob and Lisa came to enjoy the peace and quiet, take a few walks and generally relax. And we mustn’t forget Opal (Aka Rolo, as Nigel is terrible with names) who returned with them to catch up with Maisie.
Rob and Harry set up their shared bivvy on the main bank and decided Harry was going to fish to the left bank and Rob to the right. Jon decided not to fish the first night, after a long car journey but the plan was for him to fish up the far end, sitting on the side swim during the day but in a bivvy on the main bank at night time. Lisa had treated Rob to a bait boat since their last session and it would be interesting to see how they fared with that, considering they had caught 14 carp last year between them without one.
Jon has done a little bit of carp fishing in the UK but knew that whatever he caught this week he would have a new PB and landed his first fish at 11.30am on Sunday morning, a lovely 28lb 10oz mirror from under the tree at the far end, just where Nigel had said they were. Harry was second off the mark at teatime on Sunday with a gorgeous scaled 22lb common and Jon had his second overnight, another new PB at 31lb 1oz mirror, that has a great scale pattern.
Monday saw Rob off the mark with a 25lb 6oz mirror, followed by Jon with a long lean common weighing 19lb 13oz and then Rob again with a 30lb 2oz common, all before tea. The numbers were creeping up and we sensed that the competition had begun, with Harry and Rob in particular desperate to get over the 40lb mark and get a new PB.
Bob and Lisa had a lovely walk around the lanes, admiring the bluebells that are adorning the banks and having a chat with the Limousin cows in the fields.
After tea on Monday Rob thought he had hit the 40lb mark but making sure the weights were accurate each time was important and unfortunately Rob was a few oz off with this 39lb 6oz common
Tuesday saw another four fish on the bank, but still no 40s. Harry caught the prettiest fish of the week, with a 22lb mirror, and he also landed a 31lb mirror with Jon having another new PB with a 38lb 8oz mirror and Rob a 30lb 13oz mirror.
Harry and Rob were disturbed overnight with a further 2 carp in the nets at 20lb+ and then Wednesday arrived,
It is a good job they were well rested from their long drive by this point as it was non stop all day on Wednesday with 10 carp on the bank between the three of them. Harry had 5 weighing up to 37lb 15oz and Jon managed another 3 and another new PB of 39lb 13oz with Rob catching 2 but not until after teatime. Harry had this gorgeous mirror with a golden tail weighing 32lb 2oz and Jon’s nicest fish was this completely gold 23lb 7oz common.
But it was Rob who was celebrating with a new PB of 41lb 7oz – his first fish over 40lbs and he was a happy man. And he followed that up at ten minutes to midnight with a common weighing 40lb 4oz.
Thursdays are commonly known as ‘big fish Thursdays’ and it did not disappoint. With temperatures reaching over 30°C in the afternoon the fish were not quite sure what they were meant to be doing and again the numbers on the bank were prolific. At 9am Harry landed a fish we were not aware of, he has called it Nemo as it appears to be missing a pectoral fin on one side. Currently weighing 27lb 6oz it will certainly be an obvious one to look out for in the future. Harry also had two further 30lb+ out by the end of the day.
Jon had a further 3 carp as well, a 30lb 3oz mirror, a 26lb 3oz common and a 18lb 4oz common. All from up under the willow tree,
Rob did only have one fish in the net on Thursday but he had had to take Lisa and Opal to the vets in the morning to sort out Opal’s worming treatment so they could return to the UK. It was, however, to be the biggest fish of the week, a 44lb 7oz mirror – what a chunk and he is well on his way to a 50lber now.
And it did not stop there. Friday is always a tough day as our anglers have to think about packing their gear up and squeezing it all back in the cars. After last year Rob and Lisa had invested in a soft roof bag which really helped, especially with Opal being in the back of the car! But the three of them kept on fishing and by the time they had packed up to enjoy the evening with Bob and Lisa, Rob started the day off with another 40lber, a 40lb 15oz mirror at 2.15am, Jon once again beat his PB with a 41lb 5oz common at 11.30am and Harry pulled in a 34lb 9oz mirror at 5pm. The last fish of the session was another pretty mirror for Jon weighing 28lb.
The weather got warmer as the week went on with temperatures peaking at just over 30°C on the Thursday. It was certainly a good weather week for Bob and Lisa and with the air temperatures rising, so did the water temperature and we even had some spawning roach around the margins one morning, and carp spawning on Kingfisher lake. We hope we will see a bit of rain before the full summer arrives but it is lovely to see our guests enjoying the lakes and the sunshine.
The final tally for the week was 34 carp in total with zero babies, 2 at 10lb+, 14 at 20lb+, 13 at 30lb+ and 5 at 40lb+. Rob worked out that they had caught over 73 stone of carp between them during the week with Harry catching over 370lbs with his 13 fish, Jon at 345lb with his 12 and despite catching the biggest fish and the most 40s, Rob ended up on 315lb from his 9fish. That is a lot of weight lifting. We have loved having you all back again and watching Maisie and Opal be together, until the next time bonne journée et à bientôt…..