Churchwood Fisheries Diary

Diary...

February 2010

The cold weather has kept the lakes relatively quiet in terms of the number of anglers fishing throughout February. There were also a few days during the month that both Jenkins and Churchwood were completely frozen. It's hard to ignore empty lakes in your garden, regardless of weather conditions, so there was little encouragement needed for a couple of mates and I to get the rods out. This turned out to be a good decision, a total of 16 carp were caught from CW Lake during the last 3 weeks of February. Now considering that we only fished a couple of sessions, we were more than happy with the action received, especially since a couple of them were proper lumps.

February continued with snow and ice, followed by rain, rain and more rain !! Good turn over of water for the lakes though....

Neil 'The Lodger' Preston managed to finish the month as top rod, being responsible for over 50% of the fish banked. He also bagged the biggest, that being in the shape of an absolute corker of a Mirror, just shy of 27lbs. The fish was a known one, but one that had yet to be christened. A die hard Hammers fan, the best Neil could come up with was Carlos, named after the ex West Ham striker. A strange choice of names but something I like anglers to suggest if they have a fish worthy of it's own name. Somehow I don't think it was named Carlos after the footballers good looks ! I've seen this fish go from 17lbs in 2006 to its current weight. It is a superb looking creature and is probably one of my favorites now in CW. It has all the potential to hit the 30lbs barrier sometime in the very near future, I hope !

Neil with the Mirror he named 'Carlos' - can you spot the resemblance ? Clearly it's not the fish !

I also managed to bank one of the old pretty originals, that being 'The Linear' at a nice weight of 25lbs. This capture was around an hour before Neil landed 'Carlos', the day also included several stockies. The conditions were 'cock on' (courtesy of Simon Crow), a massive low pressure system with a stiff Westerly wind meant that we were always in with a chance of receiving some action. The fish were certainly having the 'CW Special Bollies' that we were fishing and pre-baiting with. Bearing in mind that the water temperature was only 3-4 degrees, it was just amasing to see the quantity of bait that was being crapped all over the weigh slings. 'The Linear' was full of bait and it was great to see the highly digestible, natural food bollie working so well in such low temperature conditions. Confidence in your bait goes a long way, but ensuring the fish get access to a high quality food source is so important for the fishery owner. One of the many reason ALL SHELF LIFE BOLLIES ARE BANNED at this fishery.

Steve thew owner with 'The Linear'. Just look at the CW Specials work their way from the carps digestive system.

The CW stocking program seems to be working as intended. The new arrivals have created additional demand on the food supply and therefore the competition for food has increased. There were no captures during February last year, the first fish was sometime in March. We will see a very different Churchwood this year, as the stockies continue to munch away on anything in their path and subsequently forcing the older, wiser carp to feed. This will hopefully force the bigger residents into making a few more mistakes, resulting in an increase in happy anglers ! If you want to give either Jenkins or Churchwood a go this year, I suggest you get in the diary now with some dates. Availability is quickly disappearing and it may prove difficult to secure your preferred dates. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention, Neil 'The Lodger' Preston has offered to give free fishing lessons to any of us who are interested?personally I think I'll pass, even a broken clock gets it right twice a day !!! .

A selection of some of the stockies that made an appearance during February.

January 2010

Here we go again, Happy New Year and all that stuff. The weather has certainly not lent itself well to any outdoor activities for most of the month. The lakes remained frozen for much of January and therefore little fishing was possible. The only news so far this year was that the 1st group of anglers on Churchwood this year, managed to bank 3 of the new stockies. Great to see that they have settled in well and willing to feed in the coldest of conditions. More importantly they were as fat as butter and in superb condition, which I was more than happy to witness.
We are hoping that the introduction of the new stockies will help create some additional competition for food and therefore an increase in the number of carp making mistakes and end up being banked by anglers.
There's still a couple of fairly major projects that I have planned for the lakes early on in the year but its always a little difficult to find the time to fit such jobs in. Ideally we would like to create a decent swim down the far end of Churchwood. This area does not have the best drainage and can soon get muddy after a few days of rain, so it would be nice to create a swim to match the other all weather swims we have on Churchwood.
There are a few signs of life around the lakes as the trees start to bud and the Snowdrops start to force their way to the surface. I'm sure we are still in for some pretty miserable weather but hopefully Spring is just around the corner. Bookings are starting to pick up with April and May already looking pretty full in the diary. So if you fancy getting down on either Jenkins or Churchwood this year I suggest you get in with a few dates as soon as possible, which reminds me, I must get myself a few dates booked !!!

December 2009

As I sit here and write the last diary update for 2009, it seems like the freezing cold weather and the frozen lakes have been here for months. In reality the lakes have been frozen for a few weeks, which pretty much put the brakes onto our little Winter campaign that me and a couple of mates had planned. Lee Walford managed to sneak in a few sessions before the weather turned and banked a couple of nice fish. Lee approached his campaign with an open mind and was not scared of trying a few new things. Doing something a little different can sometimes be very rewarding and Lee proved this when he netted a cracking mirror from CW Lake weighing in at 28-08lbs, a cracking Winter fish from any venue around the country. If there was a prize, Lee would undoubtedly win it for top rod at CW for the 2009 season. With 8 fish under his belt for the Winter campaign so far, along with some good fish during the rest of the year, Lee has certainly applied his skills to very good effect. Good angling mate and well done. Rig wise, Lee would kill me if I gave away his secrets but I can say that by introducing a good quality boilie on a regular basis certainly kept the carp interested and on the feed. As mentioned last month we decided on using the tried and tested and very successful CW Supreme Bollie that we all had 100% faith in. A big thank you to Phil at CW Baits for all the help and advice throughout 2009, not to mention the quality products that have helped us bank some of the elusive residents here at CW fisheries.


Lee Walford with his 28lb 8oz Churchwood mirror, good angling brings great results.

Not much more to mention really, apart from Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us here at CW Fisheries. The 2010 diary is open and bookings are coming in already from anglers keen to ensure that they get some slots booked for the Spring and Summer months. So don't delay, get your dates sorted out and get your name in the book to avoid disappointment. I'll leave you with a few pictures of the Winter Wonderland currently here at CW Fisheries.