Volume 25 - Issue 147

All spawned out....

After one of the most successful years of spawning, many of the country’s top venues are seeing some of the lowest weights for many years. During a chat to fishery manager Simon from Dinton Pastures, he confirmed that all three of his 50-plus specimens had dropped down to 44lb or less, but that weights were slowly coming back up due to heavy feeding.

Of course the drawback with this is that fish such as Syd (not the cleverest of residents) was coming out virtually every week. Thankfully The Twin was on the increase and had recently achieved 48lb. Sandhurst fish were at record low weights after several weeks of heavy spawning, and the subsequent death of Cracker, the fisheries oldest 40.

Nigel’s Fish, which achieved weights of almost 44lb earlier this year, was now coming out 10lbs lower, while the venue’s only 40lb common, Bubble Tail, had been caught on 18th September by George Loughlin at 33lb, and had lost an eye at some point over the last six months. These dramatic weight losses could mean that autumn and winter fishing on the venue will be explosive as the fish feed hard to put on lost weight. I think I speak for most anglers when I say that a good spawn-out should be beneficial to the fish in the long term. On the other hand Horton for instance, where the fish have not spawned for two years now due to the extreme depths, may well have a head of fish at exaggerated weights, which could be detrimental to the fish’s health, but only time will tell. While on the subject of some of Cemex’s finest, I hear that the Yateley North Lake is due to go syndicate very soon, so if you are interested give them a call on 01932 583630 for more details.

And finally, whilst talking about Dinton, don’t miss next month’s Big Carp as Ben Hamilton returns to tell us all about his season on this prolific venue, including a couple of mid-40’s not seen too often in print. In fact the theme of next month’s issue is ‘Unknown 40’s’ and when I say unknown, I actually mean 40lb’ers rarely seen in the pages of any angling magazine, and some never seen. I have over the past year been commissioning articles from guys who have not published these huge fish from around the country, and have compiled more than half a dozen captures, about half and half commons and mirrors. Most of the captors you would never have heard of, and certainly none of the fish have ever been in Big Carp! Definitely not to be missed, and these, combined with more from Pete Springate and Lee Jackson makes the next issue a real belter. Oh and I nearly forgot to mention Geezer’s Charity Event, which I, and my partner John, won by the way! If you want to see some carp anglers being very silly, i.e. Lee Jackson pole dancing, and Johnny Mac raving, then don’t miss it; it’s hilarious. Enough of next month’s mag; we’ve got a fantastic issue this month of course. As this month’s cover shot confirms ‘margin master’ Chris Felton is back with some fantastic edges for the edge.

Leon Bartropp brings us up to date on his remarkable season, where loads of 40lb’ers have been coming his way, and speaking of remarkable seasons, what about Jerry Hammond? This guy’s a catching machine, as his Diary of a Carp Addict goes to prove. George Loughlin ends his series of articles with a look back to the end of the spring on Swan Valley, the Hampshire syndicate, with numerous 30’s to his credit from this beautiful little water. Incidentally there are syndicate places available at a special lowest ever rate for Big Carp readers - see page ?? for details. The icing on the cake this issue is in the form of Craig Lyons’ third part of his series as he tackles Toll Pits, Birch and Walthamstow reservoirs with huge fish from all three, and don’t miss the final part of Paul Harris’s look at our carp fishing heritage. So, all in all, it’s a fantastic issue full of proper English beauties, and if you want to receive Big Carp free for 2009 turn to page 98 now for our unbeatable subscription offer.

See you next month.

Rob Maylin

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