14-05-12

Some memorable catches have been taken this week by both matchmen and pleasure anglers.

The Oak Tree Pond is in sensational form for both Carp and Silverfish. Up to 80 Carp have been landed in a sitting and lots of 50lbs plus catches of Skimmers, Rudd and Chub have been taken.

The Carp have ranged in size from 1lb up to 15lbs with most around the 4lb to 6lb mark.

Merry,s pool is also in top form with Carp to 18lbs caught on a variety of baits and methods.

Scunthorpe angler Gary Lewis fished 8mm hard pellet up in the water on a waggler on peg 26 to take 65 Carp from a couple of pounds up to 17lbs in weight.

Consistent match weights of Skimmers and Ide to 50lbs have been recorded on the pole with chopped worm or soft pellet over groundbait good options.

The Swan Pond has fished exceptionally well this week and 100lbs plus winning weights have become the norm as Carp begin to feed more consistently.

One fish which won’t be forgotten in a hurry was landed in the Sunday open by Carl Sweatnam from Kiveton Park. Carl hit into a fish on legered meat on peg 8 and after a lengthy fight, he slipped the net under a Ghost carp weighing in at 26lbs 14 ozs for a new Lake record.

Tony Noon found some considerably smaller specimens on peg 3 to win the match with 128-15.

The Friday open on the Swan also produced some good catches and John Rockett put an excellent 113lbs on the scales from peg 12 to beat his close friend Simon Drayton into second by just 2lbs.

Pete Maddison from Winterton tried a different approach on peg 4, targeting Silverfish at 3m with casters fished up in the water, Pete put together a stunning 86lbs net of Perch, Skimmers and Ide, a catch which probably deserved better than the fourth place it achieved, but judging from the smile on Pete’s face, he wasn’t too disappointed.

The Catfish in the Syndicate Lake are becoming more active and one angler landed 5 in a sitting up to 27lbs, as well as a good number of Carp to 21lbs.

As temperatures are now rising it is noticeable that some of the better catches have been made from areas where the wind is blowing in.

The Bank Holiday Pairs competition proved to be a really good match, the outcome of which was decided in the last hour.

 Repeated overnight frosts have seen Carp weights lower than normal for this time of the year but Silverfish catches remain very good which meant that whatever approach anglers decided on gave everyone a good chance to compete.

Steve Ellis won overall with 12 Carp on the waggler from peg 6 on the Swan Pond for 89lbs, but with an hour to go, his partner Don Hudson who was drawn on the Islands Lake had only around 10lbs in the net. Don,s peg suddenly came alive as the Carp went into a late feeding frenzy and he included a double figure Ghost carp in his final total of 57lbs which was good enough for 5^th on the lake and a combined total of 6 points for the winning pair.

An all out silverfish approach saw Alan Gregory weigh 57lbs on the Swan Pond and Kevin Johnson weigh 69lbs from the Islands Lake. Their 8 point total just one point clear of Gary Hansford with 79lbs of Carp from the Swan Pond and Andy Bryant with 55lbs from the Islands Lake.

Bank Holiday Pairs Swan Pond and Islands Lake 58 fished

1Steve Ellis Scunthorpe 89-4

2 Gary Hansford Grimsby 79-11

3 Steve Bingham Upton 79-00

4 Ken Pacey Gainsborough 74-12

5 Dean Boot Sheffield 73-12

6 Shane Blades Grimsby 69-8

Pairs

1 Steve Ellis + Don Hudson 6pts

2 Alan Gregory + Kevin Johnson 8pts

3 Gary Hansford + Andy Bryant 9pts

4 Paul Wright + Ken Pacey 14pts

5Neil Vessey + Mark deans 17pts

6 Carl Urry + Jack Turner 19pts

7-5-12

Syndicate members Mick Thrubn and Steve Henson, both from Stainforth enjoyed a stunning 36 hour session on the main members Lake this week. Between them they landed 54 Carp ranging from 11lbs to 21-10 and 4 Catfish between 18 and 22lbs. Mick had a Carp of 18-14 on his first cast and both men never looked back, although sport was so hectic that much needed sleep forced a break in proceedings at one point,

The fish were caught on both boilies fished on a straight lead and pellets presented on a method feeder.

Surprisingly low water temperatures more akin to those expected in February and March have seen Carp shoaling up in their winter quarters this week.

This has led to some good weights for those lucky enough to find a concentration of fish.

One angler who made the most of a good draw was Don Hudson in the Friday Open on the Islands Lake. Don drew peg 62, an area with a large reedbed, which was absolutely full of Carp on the day and by employing some fairly stout tackle on the pole, Don managed to land 123lbs for an easy win.

A similar result was seen in the Goldthorpe Match on the Swan on Saturday when Jamie Hall also found the reedbeds on the Small Swan  full of Carp. Fishing with a 16m pole he also landed over 100lbs of fish to win the event.

Alan Gregory continued his recent good run to win on Wednesday on the Islands Lake with 68lbs of Silverfish.

Merrys Pool fished spectacularly well for Silverfish on Saturday as Carp weights failed to dominate and a close race for first and second took place with Kevin Johnson just edging it with 90lbs of Skimmers and Ide caught on worm and Caster fished shallow, Doncasters Craig Williams finished just short on 87lbs, employing the same baits, but fishing them on the bottom to tempt some really good quality fish.

The average weight per man was around 70lbs.

The Day ticket lakes are producing some good catches of all species although surface baits for the Carp have been less effective this week.

Pellets and Corn fished on the pole or waggler have been successful and plenty of fish to mid double figures have been landed.

30-4-12

It really was a case of picking the right day to go fishing this week and Sunday was probably the worst day to choose.

With the club match season now beginning in earnest, many travelling anglers finished their events feeling as though they had endured a really bad winters day rather than a late spring outing and many decided to call it a day well before the final whistle.

Tony Noon from Hull probably wondered what all the fuss was about as he ignored the conditions to put together a fine winning weight of 101lbs on the Swan Pond. Elsewhere the weights were generally poor.

Anglers faired much better over the rest of the week when conditions were much less severe.

Scunthorpe’s Jim Urry began the Friday Open on the Swan Pond with Silverfish in mind, but after losing two Carp early in the match on the pole he decided to strengthen his tackle up and was rewarded with 14 Carp up to 18lbs in weight for a total of 126lbs. Jim fished hard 8mm pellet at 4m on peg 48.

Alan Gregory came second at the next peg with over 74lbs of Skimmers and Roach on soft pellet over groundbait.

Ian Coatham had two excellent Roach in separate matches on the Islands Lake this week, the largest weighing 2lbs 1ozs, the other was a similar size but was returned unweighed.

The Oak Tree pond remains in really good form, weather permitting and Wakefield anglers Jordan Wheatley and Wayne Munn made the best of a day when conditions were pleasant to land over 50 Carp each weighing between 2lbs and 8lbs, surface baits accounted for the majority of the fish.

The North and South day ticket Lakes are fishing really well for Silverfish, with Skimmers and some larger Bream to 5lbs feeding well. Carp up to 18lbs have also been landed this week.

The Syndicate Lakes are off to a good start with several 20lbs plus Carp and Catfish landed, although some good sized Bream have managed to take the offerings meant for the larger species.

23-4-12

The heavy rain this week has resulted in a welcome increase in water levels across the Lakes and

luckily for those anglers willing to risk a soaking, failed to put a damper on sport.

The Oak Tree Pond continues to fish really well for Carp and Skimmers. Catches of up to 25 Carp have been taken regularly, with fish ranging from a couple of pounds up to low double figures.

Noticeably the number of bites increases as the day goes on and surface baits become more effective towards evening.

Merry,s Pool has produced some good sized fish up to 18lbs in weight and in the Open match on Saturday Goole’s John Palmer topped up his  30lbs net of silverfish with 3 Carp on pole and pellet with a combined weight of over 40lbs to lead a tight field. Grimsby’s Dave Mountford also included a fish of 15lbs in his mixed net of quality Skimmers and Ide to weigh over 60lbs for third place.

Alan Gregory had a memorable day on the Islands Lake when he won the Friday Open with over 80lbs of fish. Alan fished 6mm soft pellet on the pole towards an overhanging tree to take a terrific mixed bag of Skimmers, Tench, Roach, Chub and a single 4lbs Carp.

Rich Yates from Hull adopted different tactics in the shape of a small method feeder on peg 24 to land a similar mixed bag on his first visit to the fishery and his 77lbs second place pushed Alan all the way.

The Swan Pond has fished fairly well this week and Carp have dominated the results with 80lbs to 90lbs needed to win most matches, up in the water tactics are beginning to dominate already, although the shallows are producing fish to baits presented on the bottom.

16-4-12

Despite a return to winter like conditions last week, catches continue to be reasonably good.

Pleasure anglers have found the Oak Tree Pond to be in a fairly generous mood for Carp and Silver fish, although heavy overnight frosts have led to a fairly slow start on most days.

Match weights have remained at a similar level to the past couple of weeks with only one 100lbs plus catch which was taken on the pole from the Swan Pond by Andy Chipchase.

Silverfish weights are down as anglers in the main target Carp for a winning catch.

Goldthorpe,s Sean Sanders had a late run of fish in the Friday Open on the Swan Pond to lead the way with 69lbs from peg 54, Alan Gregory won the Wednesday Open on the Islands lake with 14 Carp on the pole for 73lbs from peg 53, Tommy Grice made it two wins on the trot on Tripp Lake with a 77lbs mixed bag in the Saturday open, Tony Noon finished well clear on the Swan Pond on Sunday with an 87lbs catch of Carp from peg 48, as did Kevin Johnson on Hollywood on the same day with a 59lbs mixed bag of Skimmers , Ide, Tench and Crucians from peg 16.

With overnight temperatures predicted to improve water temperatures will hopefully begin to rise and some really good catches should be on the cards.

Not surprisingly after the rapid drop in water temperature this week, the recent bumper catches of both Carp and Silverfish have ground to a halt and anglers are having to work much harder to put together a decent net of fish.

Match weights are probably running at around half of those taken lately and pleasure fishermen have also had to earn their fish by changing baits and tactics.

The teams of five event which was fished over the Swan Pond, Islands Lake and Tripp was won by Grimsby Anglers who adapted to the cold conditions by going all out for silver fish and ignoring the Carp.

As team they amassed a total of 243lbs of silverfish for an average of nearly 50lbs per man which was good enough for 13 points across the 5 sections and a creditable win.

Carp weights dominated the second placed Scunthorpe team who scored 17 points.

Simon Fields led the way individually with an overall winning weight of Crucians totalling 77lbs from Tripp Lake, Simon fished close in with maggot over groundbait to land a procession of fish from 4ozs to 1lb.

Saturdays Open match on Tripp Lake was also won with a 77lbs catch, this time of Carp taken from peg 14 by Gary Hansford who finished just 5ozs ahead of Doncasters Tommy Grice.

The North and South Day ticket lakes remain in good form for Carp to mid double figures as well as some really good quality Silver Fish, the deeper water proving less susceptible to the temperature changes.

2-45-12

The final match in the Silverfish winter series ended on a high, despite a cold north east wind making things difficult, anglers fishing on the Islands Lake averaged over 50lbs per man, Roach and Skimmers providing the bulk of the weights.

Notably, three out of the top four places fell to anglers employing waggler tactics and Grimsby,s Keith Easton enjoyed a stunning day on peg 31 where he amassed an excellent 81lbs catch of skimmers averaging just under two to the pound.

The overall winner of the series weighed over 550lbs of sliver fish for the best 12 matches through the winter.

Both the Swan Pond and the Islands Lake have produced 100lbs winning weights in the open matches this week and fishing the waggler up in the water with 11mm hard pellet has dominated as the increase in water temperature has brought fish up towards the surface.

The Oak Tree Pond is also fishing exceptionally well for Carp and fish are feeding really well up in the water.

Those anglers who prefer to catch silver fish are also having something of a field day as Roach and Skimmers seem to have a real appetite at the moment.

Hopefully the excellent level of sport will continue over the Easter period, with the annual 5 man teams event on Good Friday and the Pairs event to be held on Easter Monday.

26-3-12

The recent warm weather has really increased catches with all species of fish active

Carp are feeding well on all of the lakes, as can be seen from recent match results.

The best weight of the week came in the Friday Open on the Swan Pond, Scunthorpe angler John Alderson fished 8mm pellet shallow on the waggler for an excellent 139lbs, beating Simon Drayton’s 113lbs into second place.

The Islands Lake also fished really well for the Sunday Open and the ever consistent Gary Steed from Hull put together a mixed bag of Carp and Chub for 102lbs. Some really good silverfish nets also featured in this match, with catches of Roach and Skimmers to 70lbs taken on casters fished up in the water.

Tripp Lake is producing some good nets of Carp to over 100lbs and Silverfish weights to 60lbs.

 The penultimate match in the Silverfish series was fished on the Swan Pond on Saturday and

Scunthorpe angler Neil Vessey found plenty of Skimmers lining up for 6mm soft pellet to finish top with 66lbs in a match which saw an average of 35lbs per man

On the Day Ticket Lakes, the Oak Tree pond is fishing exceptionally well for Carp and some really good catches of Roach, Bream and Perch have come from the North and South lakes.

18-3-12

Saturday,s Silverfish only event on the Islands Lake proved to be a sensational match with a lowest weight of 31 lbs and an average of 47 lbs per man.

All species of Silverfish fed well and anglers were able to employ a variety of methods and baits.

Some good quality Roach were feeding up in the water and there were a number of 40-50lbs nets of all Roach.

Those anglers fishing on the bottom found plenty of Skimmers and odd Tench willing to take pellets, casters or paste.

The eventual winner found himself falling rapidly behind those anglers in adjacent pegs in the first hour of the match and a switch from pole fished maggots to 6mm soft pellet fished on the waggler opened the way to a winning 80lbs catch from peg 45 on the arm.

Five Tench, five Chub and around 60lbs of Skimmers and Roach made up the weight and an exciting last hour in which 5 Carp up to 8lbs in weight were landed and returned unweighed and another 3 were lost blew the chances of a possible 100lbs net of Silvers.

Sundays Open on the Swan Pond did provide a 100lbs plus weight for Hull angler Danny Elm who caught 15 Carp and a few Skimmers on bomb and pellet for an excellent 113lbs.

Gary Hansford won the first open of the season on Hollywood Lake with 62lbs of Carp on feeder fished hard pellet, second was Tommy Grice with a mainly Skimmer net of 57lbs  taken on pole fished soft pellet.

The Oak Tree Carp have really woken up and are feeding well on all methods, including surface baits,

Lots of fish from a few pounds up to 15lbs weight have been taken daily this week.

A 21lbs mirror carp was caught on floating baits from the North day ticket pond by Winterton angler Mat Deacon.

11-3-12

Rising water temperatures have led to excellent sport on all of the Lakes as fish of all species begin to feed up after the winter.

Carp in particular have begun to feed well and pleasure anglers have enjoyed a number of 100lbs plus catches from the Oak Tree Pond and Merrys Pool. Fish from 1lb up to 15lbs have been taken on a variety of baits and methods although sweetcorn and pellets have been effective on most days.

Silverfish sport has been exceptional and matches on the Swan Pond have been dominated by the pole anglers this week. Oddly enough the Perch catches which have been to the fore all winter have taken a back seat to some really good nets of Roach lately, with fish from a few ounces up to 1lbs 4 ozs taking casters and maggots up in the water. Sport has been fast and furious with a bite a cast and it has been a race to see who can catch the most.

The Silver fish Open on the Swan Pond on Saturday produced a close finish with the top 10 all weighing between 30lbs and 39lbs.

Alan Gergory won the Sunday Open on the Swan Pond with 41lbs which included one Carp of around 8lb, the remainder being a mixed bag of Silver fish. Alan included a monster Perch of 4lbs 2ozs in his catch which is a new record from this Lake.

Tommy Grice won the Sunday Open on Merry,s Pool with 88lbs of Carp, Tommy fished pellets up in the water on a waggler, taking Carp to 5lbs.

4-3-12

Silverfish catches on all of the lakes continue to be really good.

The Swan Pond Silverfish Only Open on Saturday produced an average weight of 27lbs per man, Nobby Winters winning the match with a 40lbs mixed bag of Roach and Perch.

John Palmer won the Friday Open on the Swan Pond with 47lbs of Roach after taking third place on Wednesday with 44lbs .

John made the best of the rising water temperatures by fishing casters up in the water, taking fish from 4ozs to 1lb.

Grimsby,s Ian Thompson braved a head wind coupled with driving rain on Sunday to win the Open Match on Merry,s Pool with 84 lbs of Carp.

Merry,s Pool has been in excellent form for pleasure anglers all week with at least 3 catches over 150lbs taken.

On the Islands Lake the Carp seem to be packed into the reed beds and around the features and are proving hard to tempt out. Fortunately the mixed species of silverfish in the lake are more than willing to feed, with 40lbs plus catches on the cards.

The syndicate Lakes are fishing well for Carp, the Small Pond is in good form for fish in the 3lbs to 14lbs range and the main Lake has produced quite a number of twenty’s lately, including a fish of 23-9 for Scunthorpe angler Kev Wells this week.

27-02-12

Rising temperatures have led to some really good sport.

Carp are feeding well on all of the day ticket lakes and summer tactics such as fishing up in the water and close in are beginning to work.

Smaller Carp in the 1lb to 4lb range can be caught on a variety of methods on the Oak Tree Pond and on Merry,s Pool.

 Larger fish to 18lbs have been landed on more traditional Carp Methods from the North and South Ponds, which are also in really good form for Silver Fish.

The Swan Pond Carp are proving more elusive in matches, which is not unusual at this time of the year as temperatures rise and they begin to spread out and come off the bottom.

Fortunately the Silver Fish have switched on really well and Steve Ellis won on Wednesday and Friday with 32lbs and 39lbs respectively on pole fished Caster, taking some excellent mixed bags of Perch, Skimmers and Roach.

Saturdays Silverfish Open also produced some really good fishing for all of the competitors and Grimsby,s Rod Sparks led the way on his first visit to the complex, landing 44lbs of Skimmers, Rob fished Maggot over groundbait at 11m, taking fish to 2.5lbs.

Neil Vessey targeted Carp up in the water on the long pole with 8mm hard pellet to win the Sunday Open on Tripp Lake with 65lbs on a day when Carp dominated the results.

Wed Open Swan Pond 11 fished

1 Steve Ellis Scunthorpe 32-7

2 Tony Noon Hull 30-1

3 Mark Deans Scunthorpe 26-1

Fri Open Swan Pond 13 fished

1 Steve Ellis Scunthorpe 39-08

2 Martin Young Grimsby 23-12

3 Steve Burgess Grimsby 23-11

4 Dennis Pattinson Grimsby 21-12

Sat Silverfish Open Islands Lake 18 fished

1 Rob Sparks Grimsby 44-13

2 Kevin Johnson Messingham 34-10

3 Mick Wills Crowle 33-4

4 Les Rogers Goole 30-5

5  Steve Ellis Scunthorpe 28-11

6 Andy Bowers Scunthorpe 26-7

Sun Open Tripp 16 fished

1 Neil Vessey Scunthorpe 65-10

2 Carl Sweatman Kiveton Park 46-11

3 Tommy Grice Doncaster 43-2

4 Alan Gregory Scunthorpe 42-12

5 Luke Harrison Crowle 32-10

6 Steve Ellis Scunthorpe 30-7

12-2-12

It took a concerted effort from the few anglers who ventured out last weekend to break through the ice in order to fish the matches on the Oak Tree Pond and Tripp Lake.

The results were reasonably good however on both occasions with plenty of bites from small Skimmers on the Oak Tree Pond and some good quality Crucians, F1,s and Skimmers on Tripp Lake.

Grimsby,s Dennis Pattinson led the way on the Oak Tree Pond with 11lbs -6ozs.

 With over 100 fish, Dennis was kept fairly busy on a day which began with temperatures of -13c and which never climbed above freezing, most anglers found that their bait was actually freezing solid during the day.

Sunday saw slightly better conditions with the air temperature holding above freezing all day. Tommy Grice scored a narrow victory with 23lbs ahead of John Palmer on 21-8.

With the ice at least 2 inches thick and snow on the ground the catches were considerably above expectations.

6/2/12

The expected freeze has resulted in very few anglers venturing out recently.

Only the dedicated (mad?) match anglers equipped with ice breakers could be found on the banks at the weekend.

Steve Ellis enjoyed some good sport, winning the Saturday Silverfish Open on the Oak Tree Pond with 15lbs of Skimmers on pole fished casters and managed a double by winning the Sunday Open on Tripp Lake with a 20lbs mixed bag of Crucians , Skimmers and F1,s, fishing pellet at 11metres.

Those who took part in matches over the weekend earned their day out as it took the best part of an hour to clear enough free space in the ice to fish.

Prior to the bad weather, Septuagenarian Gary Bingham made it two wins in a row in the Wednesday Opens, Gary from Gainsborough landed 6 Carp on meat fished on the straight lead for 47lbs, second placed Gary Stead from Hull had 3 Carp and some quality Perch for 31lbs and Alan Gregory had an all Perch net of 26lbs for third.

20-1-12

This weeks’ predicted freeze up should put a damper on sport, which was at a reasonable level for this time of the year.

Gary Bingham won the Wednesday open on the Swan Pond with 80lbs of Carp. This net of fish came from peg 10 and indicated that the fish were beginning to move away from the normal winter quarters.

Some really good Perch were caught in the same match with at least two 3lbs plus fish landed on legered lobworms, not the normal winter match tactic for the lakes, but one which is proving to be a really viable method for boosting weights and also giving anglers the opportunity of landing a really memorable fish.

Tripp Lake continues to be something of an enigma, where up in the water tactics, normally an out and out summer approach, are proving very successful.

Neil Simpson recorded his second 100lbs plus weight in the queen Bess Saturday series on the lake, fishing pellet 5 feet deep in 14 feet of water and Alan Gregory followed suit the following day by weighing in 67lbs of Carp on the pole again 5 feet deep in the Sunday Open.

Sundays Open on the Swan Pond was a difficult affair as most of the lake was frozen over and pegs had to be found where the ice was less of a problem, a mixed bag of Carp and Perch gave consistent performer Dave Burnett his first win at the complex.

It is expected that ice breakers will be the main item of equipment needed by anglers wishing to wet a line this week.

22-1-12

The Oak Tree Pond is in exceptional form for skimmers and carp as the weekends silverfish open proved.

A switch from the Islands Lake due to the adverse weather conditions was seen as a good move as the average weight per man was over 30lbs.

Although the weather put a few regulars off the fish were keen to feed and Grimsby’s Paul Seed turned in an excellent performance to win with 53lbs. Paul attacked his peg with Casters at 4 metres and caught one fish a minute, totalling 365, all Skimmers bar a last cast Chub.

Most anglers found a few Carp during the day, stretching their light tackle to the limits, all of these fish were returned unweighed and would have taken the average per man even higher.

Tripp Lake proved a harder nut to crack in the pole only match on Sunday, the fierce wind made presentation extremely difficult and weights were lower than of late, Goole’s John Palmer made the best of a back wind draw, taking a 27lbs mixed bag on pinkies at 12 metres.

The Swan Pond has produced Carp weights to over 50lbs and silverfish weights to 27lbs this week although attendances have been hit by the weather.

15-1-12

This winter’s unusually mild weather meant that water temperatures were high enough at the weekend to prevent the lakes from freezing over and sport remained fairly good despite sub zero conditions.

Danny Taylor from Crowle concentrated on catching small skimmers in the Saturday Silverfish Open on the Swan Pond, drawn on peg 50 on the point he led the way with 23lbs, Danny fished small pellet over groundbait; everyone managed double figures on the day despite the icy conditions.

Tripp Lake continued its excellent winter form and Grimsby’s Gary Hansford put together a creditable 46lbs of Carp, Skimmers, Crucians and f1’s to take the win from peg 33 in the Sunday Open.

Scunthorpe’s Mark Deans found 25 Carp from peg 26 on the Swan Pond to win the Wednesday Open with 79lbs on a day when Carp and Silverfish fed well, Steve Ellis continued his specimen hunting approach and included a Perch of 3lbs 1ozs on a full Lobworm in his 3^rd placed 35lbs.

All of the day ticket lakes have fished well with some really good silverfish catches and also plenty of Carp have been landed.

The Syndicate Lake Carp have fed well leading up to the icy weather with one angler landing 18 fish in a short session, the largest weighing in at 18-6.

8-1-12

Catches are more or less par for the course for the time of the year with some days better than others, depending on overnight temperatures.

Carp are still dominating the match weights; the Swan Pond Open matches are being won with 25 to 50 lbs, odd nets of silverfish to 20lbs plus have also been taken. The most successful method for the Carp is meat fished on the straight lead.

Carl Urry had another tremendous net of Carp from Tripp Lake at the weekend in the Queen Bess club match, although he didn’t quite have it all his own way as Neil Simpson also joined in the fun.

Both of the Scunthorpe anglers fished pellet up in the water on the waggler to tempt Carp to 6llbs, Carl finishing 30lbs ahead on 149lbs, pegs 29 and 31 being the hot spots.

Nev Fisher from Grimsby decided to have a break from match fishing and had a few hours on the Oak Tree Pond this week, after a fruitless couple of hours fishing out in the middle he decided to try close in and was rewarded with 9 carp in consecutive casts with fish to 6lbs falling to legered meat.

The Silverfish Open on the Islands Lake on saturday provided some reasonable sport; despite the Lake being partially frozen the previous day, most anglers had plenty of bites. Bawtry angler Nobby Winters scored a well deserved win with a 20lbs plus mixed bag on Maggots and Casters from peg 8.

2-1-12

The unseasonably mild weather has had a positive effect on the fishing, with Carp in particular keen to feed.

This increase in activity has had the effect of colouring up the water resulting in methods normally associated with warmer weather becoming more successful.

This was most apparent in last Saturdays open match which was split between Merry,s and Tripp,

Alan Gregory, who was drawn on Tripp Lake, felt that he was not catching enough Skimmers and Crucians to be in with a chance of winning and so made a change in the last couple of hours of the match, switching to fishing for Carp up in the water, this proved to be an excellent move as fish to 5lbs queued up for his pellet and corn hook baits and Alan Finished up winning with 85lbs on a day when most of the field weighed over 30lbs.

Alan also proved to be a Carp magnet on the last Silverfish Open of the year, this match was fished on the Oak Tree Pond and unfortunately for Alan, the 19 Carp which he landed had to be returned un-weighed.

 Despite the number of Carp caught and released in this match, the average weight per angler of over 30lbs of mainly Skimmer Bream and a winning weight of 37lbs for Steve Ellis made this an excellent event for all of the competitors.  

Yorkshire anglers Dave Appleyard and Darren Thompson shared a hectic session on the main Syndicate Lake, taking over 30 Carp to 20lbs in weight plus several Pike up to 17lbs. Sport was so hectic that both anglers ended up fishing just one rod each instead of their normal two.

The Swan Pond switched on in style for the Wednesday Open and fish were caught all around the Lake, Jamie Hall from Goldthorpe led the way with 97lbs of Carp on bomb and meat, followed by Gainsborough angler Simon Drayton with 84lbs.

Scotter angler Gerald Knapp set up two carp rods for a session on the North Day Ticket Lake last week, one rod presenting a bait on the bottom and one with a bait popped up at approximately 5 feet up off the bottom.

Interestingly, 6 Carp between 6 lbs and 12lbs were landed on the popped up baits while no interest was shown in the baits presented on the bottom.

19-12-11

Once again the really cold weather returned for the weekend and the ice breakers came out.

The Silverfish match was fished on the New Bit of the Swan Pond and the Oak Tree Pond in the hope of getting a few bites and this proved to be a good decision as plenty of small fish fed.

The Oak Tree Pond produced a bite a cast as usual but only from very small fish as the better stamp of Skimmers succumbed to the low temperatures and were noticeable by their absence.

Most anglers managed to put 100 plus fish in the net however and at around 10 fish to the pound some reasonable weights were taken.

 Dennis Pattinson led the way on the New Bit with a few Crucians and odd decent Skimmer to top up his 80 small fish and a creditable 21lbs.

Tripp Lake, which is a float only venue, is able to offer top quality fishing whatever the weather, as most of the fish in the lake have moved into the deepest water, which is where all of the winter matches are fished.

Some serious ice breaking equipment was require for the Sunday Open though and many found that the cleared space was icing up during the day as temperatures failed to rise much above freezing. Despite this, some reasonable weights were taken as Crucians, Skimmers and F1, s fed, albeit only on small baits such as pinky and small pellet and all of the competitors managed double figures.

Danny Elm is rarely out of the frame on the Swan Pond at the moment, winning on Sunday with 25lbs, on a day when no one else managed to tempt a Carp, and second on Wednesday with 29-03, just 6ozs behind Gary Stead.

12-12-11

After some good match weights during the week from the Swan Pond, the weather dealt a bit of a blow in the shape of a severe overnight frost on Friday night and anglers were reaching for the ice breakers on Saturday morning as most of the lakes were frozen over.

As expected the New Bit of the Swan Pond dominated the Silver Fish Open and a very close finish saw Danny Taylor edge out Paul Brunyee by less than a pound, both anglers catching a real mixture of Roach, Perch, Skimmers and Crucians. Hulls Tony Noon made up the frame with 17lbs of quality Perch from peg 38 on the main Lake.

The freezing conditions did not deter the anglers of Queen Bess fishing club and Carl Urry in particular.

Carl arrived at the Tripp Lake on Saturday, broke an area of ice on peg 6 sufficient to fish with the pole and made the unusual decision of going all out for Carp.

Such is Carl,s confidence on this Lake, he did not let the conditions deter him and landed an amazing 80lbs of Carp through the ice, a weight which would not have raised eyebrows in the summer but which was exceptional under the conditions.

The Oak Tree Pond continues to offer good winter sport. Smaller baits such as maggots or 4mm soft pellet are providing a bite a cast from Skimmer Bream with up to 200 fish in a sitting, odd Carp can be caught on the same tactics but Sweetcorn or Meat are better baits to sort out these fish.

Don Hudson fished meat on the straight lead to win the Friday Open with 71lbs of Carp from peg 38 on the Swan pond, including fish to 15lbs in his catch.

4-12-11

A surprising number of Carp were caught from all of the Lakes last week as water temperatures plummeted.

Two members of the syndicate lakes caught 34 fish over a two day session, with the majority being double figure fish.

Gainsborough’s Steve Bingham found luncheon meat fished on  the straight lead to be the winning tactic as he led the way on the Wednesday Open and the Sunday Open, both fished on the Swan pond, with weights of 57lbs and 35lbs respectively.

Grimsby angler terry Holmes hooked two good Carp in the Friday match; unfortunately he lost one of these but was well pleased with the 19lbs 8oz Mirror which did find its way to the net.

Silverfish sport remains very good on the deeper pegs on all of the lakes although syndicate member Les Fowler from Scunthorpe found some really good Perch willing to feed in two feet of water on the small pond, taking 6 fish between 2lbs and 3lbs on treble maggots.

28-11-11

Although match weights are beginning to fall to winter levels, pleasure anglers are enjoying some unseasonably good sport on the day ticket lakes.

Scunthorpe angler Robin White landed over 30 Carp from the Oak Tree pond as well as a large number of skimmers.

Robin fed 4mm pellet at 3 metres and caught on a mixture of sweetcorn and soft pellets on a light pole rig.

The Carp were mainly 2-4lbs in weight with the occasional 6lb specimen and Robin landed 15 fish in the last hour of the session.

Using more traditional Carp tactics, Thorne angler Steve Clarke fished the South Day Ticket Lake with tutti frutti flavoured boilies and landed a total of 16 fish weighing from 3lbs to 12lbs.

Carl Urry had a comprehensive win in the Queen Bess match on Tripp at the weekend, Carl Fished 6mm pellet in mid water on a waggler for a creditable 104lbs, 70lbs clear of second place.

The Silver Fish only Open on the Swan Pond saw another run away win as Goole angler Les Rogers put together a terrific net of Perch, Skimmers, Roach and Goldfish totalling 45lbs, Les fished red maggots over Casters to push fellow Goole man John Palmer into second place, John fished a maggot feeder for another mixed bag totalling 29lbs.

Steve Ellis found a good specimen fish in this match in the shape of a 3lbs 2oz Perch,

Anglers have plenty of choice at the moment, a lot of Carp are feeding and a silver fish approach will result in plenty of bites and some excellent sport.

21-11-11

Temperatures have finally taken a downward turn and the effects could be seen in the results from the shallower waters such as the Islands Lake this week where Carp in particular were few and far between.

Scunthorpe angler Phil Codlin decided to target Chub in the Friday Open and found 27lbs of these all weather fish to win a low weight match.

 All species are still feeding reasonably well in the deeper Lakes which are much slower to be affected by the colder weather.

Hull angler Danny Elm continues his good form with two back to back wins on the Swan Pond this week, his weights of 76lbs and 67lbs of Carp on bomb and meat were good enough for both the Wednesday and Sunday Open matches.

Danny Taylor followed up his second place in last weeks Silver Fish Open with a win this week. Danny drew the same peg again, peg 50 on the Swan Pond and put his experience to good use with a 34lbs net of Skimmers on pole fished pellet.

Some good Perch are showing in the Swan Pond with recent weights to 50lbs, including plenty of fish from 12ozs to 2.5lbs taken mainly on casters.

The Oak Tree Pond remains in good form but once again the deeper pegs away from the southeast corner are best for Carp, Skimmers however, can be caught in good numbers from any peg.

The North and South day ticket lakes are still providing excellent fishing for the Silver Fish enthusiasts as well as enough Carp up to 19lbs to keep the big fish men happy.

14-11-11

The unseasonably mild weather has provided some really good fishing, anglers targeting Carp can still expect to get plenty of bites and Silver fish anglers are having a real bonanza as fish feed at all depths.

The syndicate Lakes have fished very well this week and a number of Catfish over the 30lbs mark and Carp to 22lbs have been landed, runs have been plentiful, night and day.

The Oak Tree Pond is good for Carp and Skimmers, small baits such as maggots, corn and pellets are producing lots of bites, especially on light tackle.

Some good Carp have been caught from the North and South Day Ticket Lakes, but it is the Silverfish sport which has been exceptional.

Scunthorpe anglers Jim Urry and Paul Thompson both fished for Roach on the same day, Paul fished Hemp and Tares and began catching Roach after a steady start, ending up with a bite  a cast on tares which produced a lot of fish well over the 1lb mark.

Jim decided to fish up in the water on casters and had a similar catch although he also included quite a few hard fighting Roach/ Bream hybrids around the 2lb mark amongst some really good quality red fins..

The Match catch of the week came from Tripp Lake in the Sunday Open. Rotherham match man Malc Thompson made the best of his peg 34 draw by fishing maggot and caster at 4 to 5 metres.

A single mirror carp managed to beat a procession of Crucian Carp, Skimmers and f1, s to the bait during the day and Malc finished just 3lbs short of a 100lbs catch.

Dale Murten pushed him all the way, landing another excellent mixed bag of Carp and Silverfish, totalling 89lbs on a day when weights were consistently good around the Lake.

The Swan Pond is in good form with Match winning Carp weights to 80lbs and all Silverfish nets to over 50lbs, giving anglers a choice of tactics in each match .

The Silverfish only match on Saturday fished well with over 26lbs needed to win each section on a day when Skimmers and Perch dominated the weights.

The Islands Lake is producing winning weights of around 40-50lbs at the moment and those anglers targeting both Carp and Silverfish seem to be getting the best results although inevitably quite a few Carp are making of with the light tackle aimed at catching Roach and Skimmers.

Plenty of quality Silverfish have made the scales in the Islands Lake matches in the form of Chub, Ide, Crucian Carp, Tench and some really big Roach.

 7-11-11

All of the lakes are providing really good autumn sport, with all species willing to feed.

 Grimsby angler Keith Easton enjoyed a 100lbs plus catch of Carp from the Oak Tree pond, fishing sweet corn just inches from the Rushes over 4mm pellet. Keith had fish from a few ounces up to 6lbs in weight.

Most of the match weights are mixed bags of Carp, Roach, Skimmers, Perch and Tench as anglers look to fill in the quiet spells between catching Carp.

Darren Hunt won the Friday Open on the Islands Lake with just such a catch, taking five Carp and around 30lbs of Skimmers on pole and soft pellet for his 55lbs.

Grimsby,s Dave Rawcliffe won the Silverfish Only open on the same lake with an excellent 46lbs of Roach and Skimmers the following day.

Hull angler Danny Elm almost made it two wins on the trot after leading the way on the Swan Pond in the Wednesday Open with a level 78lbs of carp on bomb and pellet, he was just pushed into second place in the Sunday open, again on the Swan Pond by Gary Stead, Gary finished 3lbs in front on 86lbs.

Carl Urry won the Queen Bess Club match on Tripp at the weekend with 94lbs of Carp beating Neil Simpson and Sean Johnson into second and third respectively with 68lbs and 66lbs of Crucian Carp.

Some really good Perch are showing on many of the Lakes, including a fish of 3lbs 2ozs caught in a match on the Swan Pond.

30/10/11

The Oak Tree pond is in excellent form with Carp from 1lb to 12lbs feeding well on most baits, Skimmers are providing plenty of sport on smaller baits such as maggots, caters and soft pellet.

The North and South day ticket lakes are still producing some good sized Carp, plenty of double figure fish to 18lbs in weight have been landed this week.

As usual, these ponds are providing excellent silver fish catches with some really good Roach showing.

Match weights are about on par with the time of the year although silver fish nets are featuring more consistently than Carp at the moment.

Fridays Open on the Swan Pond was won with a 73lbs net of Perch, consisting of 245 fish taken on

red maggot over Caster.

The following day the expected bumper weights did not materialise as the same lake fished much harder and 36lbs of Skimmers was enough to win the day.

Sunday saw a similar pattern on the Islands Lake, with colour steadily dropping out of the water the fish are becoming harder to tempt, Grimsby,s Ian Thompson led the way with 51lbs of Carp on pellet fished on a small method feeder, second place went to Carl Sweatman with 46lbs of quality Roach on pole fished caster.

Pat Taylor won the Hull Mid Week club match on Hollywood Lake with 116lbs of Carp on pole fished pellet  to provide the top weight of the week.

24-10-11

The first frosts of the year have put a brake on match weights as Carp in particular change their food preferences.

Smaller baits such as maggots and soft pellets are more likely to tempt a big fish than the normal summer offerings.

This was noticeable in the first silverfish only open of the year on the Islands Lake where plenty of Carp were hooked and landed on tactics aimed at Roach and Skimmers. Goole’s Les Rogers found himself at one point hooking Carp on his Roach Tackle quicker than he could catch a Silverfish.

Despite this, Silverfish sport was very good, the winner landing just short of 40lbs of Roach and Skimmers.

Some superb Roach were caught, including two fish over the 2lbs mark, the best at 2lbs-14ozs, taken by Steve Ellis on single caster.

These fish have obviously thrived on a diet of pellets fed through the summer by anglers with the intention of catching Carp, now that tactics and tackle are being refined some more surprise specimens may show up.

Sundays Open was won by Neil Vessey with 55lbs of Carp but all of the back up weights consisted of Silverfish, with Perch featuring heavily, in fact Steve Ellis caught most of his second placed weight on lobworms, taking fish to 2lbs.

9-10-11

The effect of a sudden drop in water temperatures after last weeks heat wave, albeit back to what is the norm for this time of the year, has been reflected in catches this week.

Match weights have been slightly lower than of late, but should soon return to normal as the fish stocks adjust.

Tripp Lake saw a close finish in Sundays Open as Neil Vessey found his 80lbs catch of mainly Carp just 8ozs clear of that taken by Dianne Smith. A less than ladylike reaction came from Di at the weigh in when she realised that Neil had just pipped her for top spot, hopefully the bruise on Neil’s arm will have faded by next week!

Hull Tackle shop owner Danny Elm had another good win from the Swan Pond this week. Danny had around 40lbs of Perch before switching his attentions to the Carp and found these fish to be just as keen to feed as the Perch had been, his total of 152lbs from peg 4 was good enough to beat Grimsby’s Paul Silvers into second with 112lbs from peg 52.

The syndicate lakes have been in great form and Scunthorpe angler Kev Wells included Catfish to over 30lbs and Carp to 22lbs in a 21 fish catch taken over a 2 day session.

1-10-11

The autumn festival which was fished over 4 days on the Swan Pond and the Islands lake, proved to be a resounding success, 47 anglers competed in exceptionally warm weather and the final result saw 3 anglers tied on points with weight deciding the outcome.

The worthy winner was Dynamite Baits sponsored angler Jamie Wild, Jamie is widely  recognised as one of the best young talents in the country and proved too good for the rest, including two 100lbs plus catches of Carp over the four days to claim the £1000 first prize as well as his weekly winnings.

His 9 points total equalled that of Andy Pounder and Kevin Johnson but he had a comfortable weight advantage of 33lbs over second place.

Some really good catches were taken from both the Swan Pond and the Islands Lake with 193lbs of Carp and 158lbs of Carp respectively.

Silverfish weights were also very good, Kevin Johnson had 93lbs from the Swan Pond which included over 80lbs of Skimmers on pole and pellet and Tony Dukes took an excellent 60lbs plus catch of Perch on maggot and caster. The Islands Lake silverfish were a littlle less enthusiastic, probably due to the heat but even so, 40-50lbs of Roach and Perch was possible from most pegs.

Day 1

1 Jamie Wild Dynamite Baits 158-02

2 Pete Taylor Goldthorpe136-1

3 Tommy Grice Doncaster 123-13

4 Ian Annerson Goldthorpe 118-4

Day 2

1 Andy Pounder Goldthorpe 193-01

2 Sean Holbroke Goldthorpe 129-04

3 Tommy Grice Doncaster 71-2

3 Gary Hansford Grimsby 71-2

Day 3

1 Steve Ellis Scunthorpe 85-11

2 Dave Rawcliffe Grimsby 79-13

3 Mark Deans Scunthorpe 75-14

4 Jamie Hall Goldthorpe 69-02

Day 4

1 Paul Silvers Grimsby 138-09

2 Jamie Wild Dynamite Baits 133-06

3 Dave Rawcliffe Grimsby 97-5

4 Alan Gregory Scunthorpe 76-12

Overall

1 9pts 381-11 Jamie Wild Dynamite Baits

2 9pts 348-11 Andy Pounder Goldthorpe

3 9pts 234 10 Kevin Johnson Messingham

4 12pts Mark Deans Scunthorpe

5 13pts 300-09 Tommy Grice Doncaster

6 13pts 291-06 Ian Annerson Goldthorpe

7-8-11

Sport remains really good on all of the Lakes.

The best match weight of the week came from the Swan Pond in the Wednesday open, Hull angler Graham Greendale fished hard pellet on the waggler to record 183-12.

Alan Gregory won the Friday open on the islands Lake from peg 24, Alan fished paste on the pole to take 6 Carp, 12 tench plus some good Skimmers for 83lbs.

The Saturday Open on Merry,s Pool saw another good match with every angler weighing over 40lbs.

The match was won with 89lbs of silverfish, mainly Skimmers and Ide.

The Syndicate Lakes are producing some good catches, one angler landed 4 Catfish in a single session , taking fish to over 30lbs.

Kevin Wells landed 16 double figure Carp, including 3 over 20lbs, also in a single night session.

 31-7-11

Catches remain at a good level for both the match angler and pleasure angler.

The Day Ticket lakes are all in great form with the North and South Lakes in particular producing some really good fish.

Two huge Catfish have been reported, one from the North at 42lbs and one from the South at just over 40lbs in the past week as well as Carp to 25lbs, although the general size of Carp caught has been between 3lbs and 15lbs.

Match catches have been good with plenty of Carp weights over the 100lbs mark dominating results.

The most productive method at the moment on the Swan Pond, Islands Lake ,Hollywood and Merry,s Pool,  is to fish 11mm hard pellet up in the water on the waggler and those anglers who are the most proficient at this very busy type of fishing are dominating the result sheets.

Probably the best match of the week was the charity event in aid of the Lincolnshire House Hospice.

Although no one cracked the ton in this popular fixture, the result was close with only 3lbs separating the top 3.

Dianne Smith found herself at the top with 93lbs, Dianne fished paste close in to take mainly Carp, edging out Steve Ellis who also fished paste for 92lbs and in third place on pellet was John Palmer with 91lbs.

Many thanks to the anglers who participated and those people who donated raffle prizes, Mandy Hickling and husband Andy put in the hard work to organise the event which will be held again next year.

18/7/11

The quality of the fishing on all of the lakes has been outstanding this week.

Simon Drayton is the man of the moment on the match scene, after some good results of late, Simon from Kexby went up a gear this week. He won the Wednesday open on the islands lake from peg 45 with 81lbs of Carp and topped a sensational match on the Swan Pond on Friday with a huge weight of 284lbs.

Fridays match saw a warm breeze blowing onto the shallows, which encouraged a lot of Carp to decide that this  was the best place to spend the day.

Simon fished 11mm hard pellet on waggler and bomb to take what is the second highest ever match weight recorded from the Swan Pond ( Andy Oldham holds the record with 396lbs).

Simons catch came from peg 2 and Hull angler Graham Greendale came in second from peg 57 with 186lbs on a day when the top 5 all cracked the ton.

The Islands Lake is also in top form with some huge nets of silverfish competing with the Carp weights for the prizes.

Saturdays open was won by the ever consistent John Gunn from Sheffield with a level 100lbs; John included half a dozen Carp in with his silverfish to beat Kevin Johnsons 94 lbs of all Skimmers into second place, closely followed by John Palmer with 90lbs of Carp.

The Carp on the Islands Lake are responding well to 11mm pellet as would be expected at this time of the year. Open water pegs are best approached by fishing up in the water on the waggler and feature pegs best fished on straight lead close to Islands or sand bars, although with some really hefty fish on the cards this is not for the faint hearted.

The Silverfish, which are of a really good stamp can be caught on a variety of methods, including paste, soft pellet over groundbait, worm and caster, meat fished close in or further out up in the water and maggots again fished tight in or up in the water.

Sundays Open was fished on Merry,s Pool and was regarded by the anglers competing as probably the best match of the year so far for consistency.

Some quite big fish to 15lbs were taken down the margins but by and large the stamp of Carp were around the 12ozs to 3lbs mark which meant plenty of bites for all as the top 10 averaged almost 90lbs per man.

Garry Hansford won with 115lbs on his favourite method of fishing 8mm pellet up in the water on the waggler, followed by Neil Vessey with 110lbs on pole and meat, Sean Harrison used the same tactics for third with 88lbs.

John Palmer had an all silverfish catch including a tremendous mixture of quality Skimmers, Crucians, Tench, F1’s and Ide for his 5^th placed 86lbs.

The Day Ticket Lakes are also in great form with the North Lake providing particularly good sport.

A Catfish was landed this week weighing over 35lbs, together with a few smaller specimens. Carp to 18lbs have been taken with plenty of other double figure fish and the Silver fish sport is top class.

Catfish to over 30lbs and Carp to 23lbs with quite a few other 20lbs plus fish have kept the syndicate anglers busy on the specimen lakes.

10-7-11

All of the lakes remain in top form, providing excellent sport for match and pleasure angler alike.

Steve Ellis followed up his win last week on Hollywood Lake with another 100lbs plus catch, this time from the opposite end of the lake to prove that his paste attack works on any peg.Steve landed mainly carp in the 1lb to 4lb bracket, together with Skimmers and Crucians.

Ian Thompson won the Sunday open with 112lbs of Carp on bomb and 11mm pellet from peg 37 on the Islands Lake, which also produced a 181lbs winning weight in a recent club match.

The Syndicate lakes are in good form with Carp to 25lbs and Catfish to over 30lbs this week.

Surface baits are proving to be especially effective on all of the day ticket Lakes as the warm weather continues.

3-7-11 

Some really notable catches have been taken this week with all of the lakes providing excellent sport.

As should be expected, the rising temperatures have brought the fish up towards the surface and up in the water tactics and margin fishing are the dominant methods at the moment.

The day ticket lakes have all produced 100lbs plus catches this week for pleasure anglers and some good individual fish have been landed, including two 20lbs plus fish from Merry,s Pool to different anglers.

Simon Drayton from Scotter has had a really good week, winning the Wednesday open on the Islands Lake with 123lbs of Carp and also included a new lake record Carp of 25-13 when he won the Friday open on the Swan Pond with 139-14.

Simon fished bomb and 11mm hard pellet on both occasions.

The catch of the week however was taken by top local matchman Andy Whitehouse who finished second on the Islands Lake on Wednesday with a magnificent 111lbs of silverf fish, Andy caught mainly Skimmers up in the water on meat although a few Tench and plenty of Perch down the edge gave some variety to the day.

Martin Day won the Highgate club match on Saturday with the biggest match catch of the week, taking 185lbs of Carp, Martin fished 11mm pellet up in the water on a waggler from peg 13 on the Swan Pond.

The same tactics proved successful for Grimsby angler Garry Hansford in Sunday,s Open on merry,s,

Garry had around 30 Carp for 99-09.

28-6-11

All of the lakes are in really good form with pleasure anglers and matchmen enjoying some great sport.

 Merry,s  Pool  is producing  some really good weights of Crucians, Skimmers, Tench, F.1’s, Ide and small Carp to pole fished Pellet, meat, or worm and Casters.

Larger fish to 15lbs have been caught from the margins on paste and meat.

Match weights to 96lbs have been recorded this week and pleasure anglers have taken catches in excess of this.

Tripp Lake is also fishing really well and the Friday open produced 3 weights over the ton.

Alan Gregory landed 15 Carp to 4lbs and 95 Crucians for an excellent 146lbs.

Don Hudson took the honours on the Swan pond on Wednesday with 163lbs from peg 57.

Steve Ellis had a good weekend, Saturday saw his favorite paste approach produce a winning 120lbs of Carp and Skimmers from Hollywood Lake and he followed this up with a winning 100lbs plus bag of Carp from the Islands lake on Sunday.

The Oak Tree Pond is in its usual prolific form for Carp and Skimmers with plenty of very big catches taken this week on a variety fo baits and methods.

The Syndicate Lakes are also in fine form with Carp to 25lbs and Catfish to 31 lbs landed.

31 5-11

Sport remains very unpredictable as Carp on all of the lakes seem to feed really well one day and sporadically on others.

The Oak Tree Pond is the most consistent at the moment with plenty of fish from 2lbs to 10lbs and odd larger fish to 19lbs.

A 21lbs Carp was landed from the North Day Ticket pond this week.

The Syndicate Lakes are fishing well and John Oliver enjoyed a 15 fish catch over two days, including Carp to 21lbs and Catfish to 28lbs.

The lack of consistency was highlighted on Tripp Lake this week, where match winning weights have been between 30lbs and 80lbs and average catches have been on the low side, suddenly the Carp switched on and one match was won with 150lbs and good Carp weights were taken all around the pond.

One angler making the most of a lull in proceedings as far as Carp are concerned is Gainsborough angler Ken Pacey.

Ken finished third on the Islands Lake on Wednesday with 78lbs of Skimmers from peg 6 and followed this up by winning the Lake on Monday in the pairs match from peg 38 with a superb 80lbs of Skimmers.

Ken has perfected a Silverfish paste and pellet approach which sees a procession of quality Skimmers finding there way into his keepnet each match

. Ken is extremely good at this type of fishing and his consistency has seen him in and around the main frame on most matches on the Islands Lake, which with its massive head of Silverfish really suits his style of fishing.

The Islands Lake has also produced some excellent weights of all Roach to 70lbs by fishing maggots or casters close in and up in the water.

Carp weights to 100lbs have been taken this week, mainly from the noted pegs, with large pellet and meat the two best baits.

The pairs match on Monday was well attended with 60 anglers over the Swan Pond and Islands Lake and provided a really close result.

A tie on points saw Barnsley duo Steve Conry and Chris Wharton take the win on weight over local rods Alan Gregory and Kevin Johnson.

The variety in the winning methods for the top 3 pairs was notable, leading the way on the Swan Pond on method feeder was Steve Conry with 98lbs of Carp, his partner Chris Wharton fished bomb and pellet on the Islands Lake backing up well with 56lbs of Carp.  

Second place saw Alan Gregory take 77lbs of Carp on the pole from the Swan Pond, including a last gasp 16 pounder,  Kevin Johnson weighed in with 67lbs of Roach caught shallow on caster from Islands Lake.

Third place was taken by Ken Pacey on the IslandsLake with 80lbs of Skimmers on paste and pellet and his partner Jason Skipper found 44lbs of Perch on casters from the Swan Pond.

Certainly the lack of dominance by Carp brought out some mixed tactics for the successful pairs.

23-05-11

Plenty of Carp and Silverfish gave been caught from the Day Ticket Lakes although the strong winds of the past week have made fishing surface baits difficult.

The Syndicate Lakes are fishing well with plenty of Catfish to 31lbs and Carp to 28lbs caught this week.

Match results remain below par as far as Carp catches are concerned although Don Hudson managed to take 138lbs of fish from peg 10 on the Islands Lake to win the Friday Open.

Mark Deans scored a second win in the Rolies league series on Wednesday to put himself in a strong position overall.

Mark caught 81lbs from peg 35 to beat an excellent 70lbs of mainly Roach from peg 47 taken by Ken Pacey.

John Palmer had a superb mixed bag of Carp and Silverfish on pole fished meat

and pellet to win the Saturday Open on Merry,s Pool.

Johns’ 104 lbs beat Neil Vesey into second place. Neil included Carp to 15lbs from the margins to total 84lbs.

15-5-11

Despite steadily falling temperatures, some reasonable match weights have been recorded this week.

The largest of these was taken in the Sunday Open on the Swan Pond from peg 12 by Gary Hansford.

Despite a cold and fairly strong head wind, Gary found 22 Carp on bomb and pellet plus 2 on waggler for an excellent total of 173lbs.

Dale Merton made it two wins on the trot on Tripp Lake with 83lbs of Carp on pole fished paste.

Alan Gregory won both midweek opens this week, the Wednesday open on the Islands Lake saw Alan punching the air when he drew peg 21, knowing that his pole and  paste approach would work really well.

At the end of the match he had landed 10 Carp and a good number of Tench and Crucians for a winning 99lbs.

Friday found him on peg 52 on the Swan Pond where he swapped between bomb and waggler to present 11mm pellet for Carp and pole and soft pellet for silverfish.

Alans’ first Carp weighed a hefty 16lbs and gave him a good platform to build on, finishing with 79lbs, this was 10lbs clear of a 320 fish catch taken on maggot weighing 69lbs from peg 7.

The North and South Ponds are both fishing well for Carp to 18lbs with floating baits or pellets fished shallow proving to be very effective.

The Oak Tree Pond is as prolific as ever with some good sized Carp falling to a variety of baits and methods.

8-5-11

Match winning weights are still lower than a few weeks ago when high temperatures were recorded, although some excellent silverfish weights to over 70lbs have featured in the frame on Islands, Swan, Tripp and Merry’s as the usual big catches of Carp are not being taken at the moment.

The syndicate lakes are in good form with plenty of good sized Catfish to 30lbs landed and Carp to 24lbs.

Dunscroft angler, John Oliver banked a 26lb Cat and Carp to 22lbs on his first visit to the main syndicate Lake on boilie.

The Day Ticket lakes are all in good form, the Oak Tree Pond is fishing really well for Carp on floating baits or in the margins.

1-5-11

Catches have tailed off slightly this week as lower water temperatures have blunted the appetites of species like Carp and Tench.

Only a few hundred pound plus weights have been recorded in matches, the most notable being that by Dianne Smith.

Watching the Royal Wedding held little appeal for Dianne on Bank Holiday Friday and the Open Match on the Swan Pond was her choice for the big day.

Despite a strong head wind she managed to attract 17 carp to her paste mix which was fished at 4 metres from the bank on peg 41.

 Some really hefty specimens found their way into the net for a total of 136lbs, more than doubling the weight of the nearest competitor.

With most people struggling with the conditions and the reluctance of Carp to feed, Bridesmaid on the day was Kevin Johnson with 320 silverfish on pole fished maggot for 64lbs, just a few ounces in front of Scotters’ John Crompton who caught Carp on bomb and pellet.

Mark Deans also found some good sized fish to win the Wednesday open on the Swan Pond, Mark had just 12 fish for his 136lbs.

Tripp Lake remains in sensational form, especially for Crucian Carp, Railway Inn had a club match on this venue on Saturday and the 15 anglers carded a lowest weight of over 50lbs and a winning weight of 167lbs which consisted of Carp to 8lbs and Crucian carp to over 1lbs in weight.

The day ticket lakes are all producing good catches and up in the water tactics or surface fishing appear to be the most successful methods.

The Syndicate Lakes are both fishing really well with silverfish catches to over 60lbs from the Small Pond and Carp and catfish to 22lbs from the main lake.

23-4-11

Good Friday Teams of Five

Some exceptional weights were taken across the 3 lakes with the top 8 individuals all recording 100lbs plus weights.

The top 3 all had Carp on various methods, with Tim Chapman from Grimsby leading the way with 156lbs on bomb and pellet from Islands 35 peg, second was Andy Sutton from Barnsley who found Carp down the margins on Tripp lake to the tune of 141lbs. Tripp produced 4 of the 100lbs plus weights, including 116lbs of all Crucians for Brigg’s Nigel Lowrey.

The winning team consisted of Rob Seward, Jamie Wilde, Jeff Wilde, Andy Sutton and Shane Blades, totalling 16 points to win by a comfortable 3 point margin.

All of the Lakes are in tremendous form for all species, Catfish to 25lbs have been landed from the Syndicate Lakes and the south Day Ticket Lake, Carp to over 20lbs have been caught from a number of the waters and Jamie Hall from Goldthorpe recorded the seasons best match weight so far with 226 lbs from peg 3 on the Swan pond at the weekend.

17-4-11

The current spell of warm weather has brought most species up in the water
and even bottom feeders such as Bream can now be found feeding in the upper
water layers.
Plenty of Carp showing on all of the Lakes and most methods are proving to
be effective.

The Oak Tree Pond is in exceptional form for Carp and Silver Fish at the moment.

Sheffield angler Bob Burkinshaw landed a 19lbs Mirror Carp from this lake last week on pole fished sweetcorn together with a good number of smaller specimens.
Most matches are now being dominated by Carp weights and pellet fished
shallow on the waggler is coming to the fore as a winning tactic.

11-4-11

As would be expected the sudden rise in water temperatures have resulted in a feeding spree for the fish with most species being caught in abundance.

The dominance of silverfish weights in match results over recent weeks ended with a venge

Steve Bingham landed a 20-8 mirror carp pole and paste during the Wednesday open, breaking his landing net in the process.ance as Carp have begun to feed with some enthusiasm and 100lbs plus weights have been recorded on all of the match lakes this week.

Grimsby angler Gary Hansford scored well with a win on the Saturday open on Merry,s Pool with 116lbs of Carp and Ide, followed by second place in the Sunday open on Islands Lake with 126lbs. Steve Ellis won the  Sunday open with 131lbs, both anglers finding the summer tactic of fishing large pellet shallow on the waggler to be successful.

This also worked for Shaun Sanders in the Goldthorpe match on the Swan Pond on Saturday for a winning 116lbs.

Don Hudson won a midweek open with 126lbs on method feeder on the Swan pond to edge out John Alderson with  106lbs.

Gainsboroughs John Glover made a successful return to match fishing with another 126lbs from the Swan Pond to win the Wednesday open.

Nigel Lowrey probably had the catch of the week with over 100lbs of Crucian Carp from Tripp Lake, although this was only good enough for second place in the Railway Inn club match.

3-4-11

The final match of the Silverfish series was fished on the Islands Lake at the weekend and was nothing short of phenomenal.

The 15 anglers who weighed in averaged 58lbs per man, the main species were Roach, Skimmers and Tench.

Alan Gregory won with 88lbs from peg 20. Alan fished paste at 4 metres, catching 20 Tench, lots of Skimmers and a few good sized Crucians. Alan also landed 9 Carp which had to be returned unweighed.

Second place was Nobby Winters with an excellent all Roach Net of 79lbs on Caster fished shallow, third place was a waggler caught net of Tench and Skimmers totalling 70lbs-14ozs for Danny Taylor, another 70lbs of Roach on caster gave 4^th place to Kevin Johnson and in 5^th pace with 66lbs of Skimmers on pole and pellet was Neil Vessey.

The following day the Sunday Open was fished on the same lake and Gary Hansford led the way with a level 79lbs of Carp from peg 10, in second place, just 12ozs behind with an all Roach net on caster fished shallow was Kevin Johnson and in third place on his trademark paste approach was Steve Ellis with 74lbs of Skimmers.

Michael Chadwick was heading for a really good weight of Silverfish on the Friday Open on Islands Lake when he ran out of casters with a couple of hours to go, but a change to Pellet and Bomb soon put him back on track as 10 Carp pushed  his weight up to a winning 110lbs

Carp are showing well on all of the ponds, with summer tactics now beginning to prove successful as the fish begin looking for bigger baits.

28-3-11

Water temperatures have finally reached double figures and Carp are moving and feeding in all of the Lakes.

Match results have taken a turn upwards as both the Swan Pond and the Islands Lake record 100lbs plus winning weights.

Gainsborough angler Jason Skipper won the Wednesday Open on the Islands Lake from peg 21; Jason fished sweetcorn on the pole and included 21 Carp, Tench and Crucians in his winning 110lbs net.

Grimsby’s Garry Hansford found Carp rolling in numbers in peg 49 on the Swan Pond in Sundays Open and started on waggler and pellet to take 5 good fish shallow early on, he then switched to the bomb and found another 9 fish to total 104 lbs.

 21-3-11

Scunthorpe angler Neil Vessey had a feeling of deja vu when he drew peg 15 on Saturday in the silverfish match on the Islands Lake.

The same peg provided Neil with an emphatic win a few weeks ago when he weighed 58lbs, this time he managed 66lbs for a similar outcome.

Fishing soft pellet over groundbait, Neil landed a procession of Skimmers, plus a few Tench and Chub.

This match produced an amazing average weight of 36lbs per angler for the 15 competitors, with Skimmers, Roach, Perch, Tench and odd Chub showing in every peg.

Sundays Open match on the same pond found Gary Hansford from Grimsby on peg 54 where he bucked the trend of silverfish weights dominating the results by including half a dozen Carp in his winning weight, Chub making up the rest.

Neil Vessey drew a couple of pegs away from where he was the previous day and found an all Skimmer catch of 37lbs for second place.  

Wednesday’s open match on the Swan Pond was won with 39lbs of Silverfish on pole fished Casters and soft pellet, Carp could be seen rolling all over the pond, but showed no interest in feeding.

Chris Lawrence from Scunthorpe decided to dust his fishing tackle down after a long winter and found Merry’s Pool in good form.

His first trip produced an excellent catch of quality Skimmer Bream to 3lbs on soft pellet, the second visit found the Carp interested in sweetcorn and Chris landed 25 fish to 8lbs.

13-3-11

Some quite impressive silver fish catches are still dominating the match results on the Swan Pond and the Islands Lake.

The Wednesday open on the Islands Lake was a very tight affair, Michael Chadwick from Hull taking 42lbs of Chub from peg 54 to push Sheffield angler John Gunn into second place, John had an all Roach catch totalling 41lbs.

Sundays Open on the Islands was won with 35lbs of Skimmer Bream.

Plenty of signs of Carp moving in the reed beds on the Islands Lake and more are being caught now as the temperatures creep up.

Scunthorpe angler Darryl Pidd won the Friday Open on the Swan Pond with 25lbs of Perch to 2lbs on pole and caster.

The silverfish open on Saturday was won with 31lbs of Skimmers on pole and pellet.

Kev Allen found a 14lbs Carp in the big bash open on Merry,s Pool on Saturday but it didn,t boost his weight enough to win as 33lbs of small Carp took the honours.

Plenty of Carp and Skimmer Bream from the Oak Tree Pond and some really good mixed bags from the North and South Day Ticket Ponds.

7-3-11

Pleasure anglers are enjoying some good sport as most species seem willing to feed at the moment.

The Oak Tree Pond is a good bet for Carp on small baits such as pellet, corn , meat and maggots although a bite a cast from Skimmer Bream can be expected on maggots, casters and soft pellets.

Rob Seward from Grimsby decided to put his new Pole through its paces on the North Day Ticket Pond last week and found that caster and hemp potted in down the margins produced Roach to over a pound, Perch to over 3lbs and Chub to 3lbs. As a back up swim he also fished at 12 metres with soft pellet over groundbait, this approach produced a bite every cast from skimmer bream from 4ozs to 2lbs until the Carp moved in and Rob enjoyed a few prolonged battles on the light tackle he was employing. All in all he had a fantastic day and was able to give his new purchase the thumbs up.

The main syndicate lake produced a few Carp at the weekend with at least two over the 20lbs mark landed.

Match anglers are enjoying some tremendous silverfish sport on both the Swan Pond and the Islands Lake.

Paul Seed decided to fish for Chub in the Saturday Silver fish open on the Islands Lake and was able to land 28lbs from peg 27 to beat Keith Harrison with 25lbs into second place.

Steve Ellis has put together a sequence of four consecutive wins on the Tripp Lake Sunday League, taking some impressive weights of Carp, Crucians, Skimmers and F1,s.

Whilst most people fish a softly, softly approach in winter, Steve has a more positive attitude and has confidence to fish baits such as paste and corn to great effect, Steve has weighed 55lbs and 57lbs respectively in the last two matches with the bulk of his weights made up of Crucians and F1,s taken at 8 metres.

28-2-10

Sport is good at the moment for all species.

 Some really good Perch have been caught from a number of the lakes on the fishery with individual fish over the 3lb mark not uncommon.

Scunthorpe angler Alan Gregory found a 3 pounder in the Wednesday Open on the Swan Pond to top off a really good catch, which included Roach, Skimmers and plenty of other smaller Perch to win with 33lbs on a day when Carp were few and far between.

Reigning UK Kamasan champion, Lee Harrison showed why he is widely regarded as a real class act when he put together 40lbs of silver fish in the Saturday Open on the Swan Pond, Maver sponsored Lee fished maggots and casters at 13 metres and also found a lot of good Perch which made up around half of his weight.

Scunthorpe angler Paul Preston found the Carp to be in an obliging mood on Merry’s Pool landing 16 fish to 7lbs as well as a lot of good Skimmers last week on 6mm pellet.

Messingham angler Kev Wells landed a 22lbs mirror from the big syndicate lake this week on boilie.

21-2-11

After a really good week for both the pleasure fisherman and the match angler the weekend arrived with rain, sleet and a dramatic temperature drop. As expected, catches suffered accordingly.

The North Day Ticket Lake has produced some fine fish, including a 3lb 8oz Perch, odd Barbel and Chub, plenty of Carp from 3lbs to 10lbs as well as quality Roach to over a pound in weight.

The Oak Tree Pond saw some really good catches of Carp with small baits such as maggots, corn and pellets being successful.

Merry,s Pool has excelled for Silverfish catches as well as plenty of small Carp to 6lbs in weight managing to test the pole tackle of the silverfish anglers.

Surprisingly, Carp have begun to be caught on floating baits on a number of the lakes by those anglers adventurous enough to try.

Steve Bingham found some decent Carp willing to take legered meat in the Wednesday Open on the Swan Pond to win with 76lbs.

Fridays open on the Swan Pond was fished in less favourable conditions and the Carp proved harder to tempt leaving the way open for Doncaster’s Tommy Grice, who fished pole and pellet to take over 100 Skimmer Bream for an excellent 40lbs.

Saturdays Silver Fish Open saw the worst of the weather and was poorly attended, weights were much lower than of late with Doncaster’s Shaun Wright taking the honours with 21lbs of Skimmers and Roach.

14-2-11

The single biggest factor determining fishes feeding activity at this time of the year is water temperature.

If the water temperature rises by even a small amount, fish are encouraged to feed and even warm weather species such as Carp can give surprisingly good sport.

It is however silverfish species which are the most consistent feeders, especially those which spawn earlier in the year as they need to build up the required energy reserves.

As this winter has been spectacularly cold and its effects something of an unknown quantity in terms of its effects on various fish species, it is refreshing to see good catches coming from all of the Lakes on the Fishery.

Plenty of Carp have been caught from The North and South Day Ticket Ponds, The Oak Tree Pond, Merry,s Pool and even the Match Lakes are now beginning to show signs of Carp featuring in winning weights after a period where silverfish catches have dominated.

Well known Sheffield angler Dave Boswell had a terrific day on the South Day Ticket Lake at the weekend .Fishing maggot and Caster he included 3 Perch between 2lbs and 3lbs, Roach to 1lbs plus, Skimmers to 2lbs and a 3lb Chub for a real mixture

Lee Harrison similarly had a good mixed bag totalling 28lbs in the silverfish match on the Swan Pond and a run of good Perch towards the end of the match boosted his net of Skimmers and Roach to push last weeks winner, Neil Vessey into second place. Whilst this match was nothing like as impressive as last weeks bonanza on the Islands lake the average weight per angler was 17lbs, which is still good silverfish sport for February.

7-2-11

What a difference a week makes.

 Last weekend saw anglers breaking the ice to fish the first match on the Islands Lake since November and predictably struggling for bites.

This Saturday, the Silverfish Open on the same Lake, which, although fished in constant rainfall, produced a stunning average of 25lbs per man.

Scunthorpe’s Neil Vessey had a flying start with 3 Chub in the first ten minutes on a maggot feeder; he then switched to the pole to take a mixed bag of Roach, Tench, Skimmers and Perch to finish with a superb 59lbs.

What causes fish to turn on like this? simple, a rise in water temperature from 2 degrees on Monday to 5 degrees on Saturday.

The Carp on Islands Lake don’t seem quite as keen to begin feeding as the Silverfish though and Sundays Open was again won with a mixed bag of Roach and Skimmers totalling 36lbs.

Tripp Lake produced a terrific 150lbs winning weight of Carp in a club match, and Weights on the Swan Pond have improved with 70lbs needed at the weekend.

One angler found a real bonus in Goldthorpe’s winter league fished on the Swan on Saturday in the shape of a 22lbs Carp.

Sport on the day ticket lakes has also been really good; The Oak Tree Pond in particular has fished well with a number of 100lbs plus catches this week and a few really good sized fish to 18lbs caught.

The only exception seems to be Merry,s Pool, which although fishing best in the afternoons, is not really tearing any trees up at the moment.

31/01/11

With water temperatures currently around 1-2 degrees any overnight frost has resulted in the lakes being iced over and anglers have either had to find gaps between the ice or break an area to fish through.

Despite this, catches have been on the good side and well above expectations.

Gainsborough angler Harry Atkinson proved that last weeks 100lbs catch from the Oak Tree Day Ticket Pool was no fluke by taking an even bigger catch this week.

Harry found that Caster and Corn to be the best baits and had landed 23 Carp on the Pole by mid afternoon, presumably he added to this total before he left, for a quite extraordinary catch under conditions where half of the Pool was iced over.

Other anglers have also enjoyed some really good sport with Carp from 1lb to 16 lbs.

Saturdays Silverfish match had to be hastily rearranged as the Swan Pond had all but frozen over during the night and sections were spread between the Swan Pond and the Oak Tree Pond.

Catches exceeded all expectations and Danny Taylor from Crowle had a terrific day to weigh in 31lbs of small Skimmers on pole and maggot.

The Swan pond produced two weights over 28lbs in this match, from both the main Lake and the New Bit and the Oak Tree Pond saw 6 weights over the 20lbs mark.

Dale Murten won the Friday Open on the Swan Pond with 20lbs of Perch, Roach and Skimmers on Pole and Feeder.

Michael Chadwick won the Sunday Open on the Islands Lake with 12lbs of Silverfish after breaking the ice to fish, this proved to be a hard match for the Carp men with only the odd fish caught but Michael reported a bite a cast on maggots on the pole and even included 3 small Tench in his catch.

Wednesdays Open Match on the Swan Pond saw a few Carp caught and a dead heat for first place, with 5 fish apiece, Garry Bingham and Nev Fisher both recorded 47-2 for a tie.

24-01-11 

There was very little to report last week with overnight frosts keeping an ice cover on most of the lakes.

The exception being the Oak Tree Pond which remained partially clear thanks to the aerators.

Anglers fishing for Skimmers on this lake managed to get a bite a cast and even found the odd Carp prepared to take small baits such as maggots, casters and soft pellet.

A switch to the Oak Tree Pond for the Saturday Silverfish match from the still frozen up Swan Pond proved to be a good move as the top ten averaged 19lbs per man and the winner landed over 200 fish on caster for 26 lbs despite a bite less first hour.

One pleasure angler, Harry Atkinson from Gainsborough, had a terrific day on the south bank of the Oak Tree pond last Wednesday. He bucked the trend of fishing for Silverfish and potted Corn and Pellets in at 4 metres to take 17 good Sized Carp for a 100lbs plus catch.

16-1-2011

Virtually all of the lakes are now completely ice free thanks to the sudden increase in air temperatures and fairly strong winds.

Thankfully fish losses have been virtually nil as oxygen levels have remained at reasonable levels beneath the ice (constant water monitoring through holes cut through the ice on all of the ponds has been undertaken during the prolonged freeze up) and hopefully sport should gradually improve as the fish adjust to these changes in conditions.

With over 800 tonnes of ice per acre suddenly melting, the plunging water temperature will have a short term effect on fish and any significant feeding activity from Carp in particular will be unlikely in the immediate future.

Silver fish catches have been reasonable under the circumstances and Nobby Winters from Bawtry put together an impressive mixed bag of Roach, Skimmers and Perch, including a couple of 2lbs plus fish to win the first Saturday Silverfish match of the year on the Swan Pond with 18lbs.

The following day the Open on the same lake also saw silverfish dominate and John Higgins from Hull won a tight match with just short of 12lbs fishing maggot through a groundbait feeder.

Sundays open on the Tripp Lake saw one Carp of around 5lbs caught and this boosted an excellent net of Roach to give Dale Murten from Doncaster the win with 19lbs.

Report Dated 29  November 2010

All of the Lakes are now well and truly frozen up after what has been an interesting week in respect of some of the catches made.

The cold weather leading up to the freeze up should have put paid to any significant catches of Carp and the few hardy souls who turned up for the Friday Open on the Swan Pond were all talking about one or two fish being a winning target.

Scotter’s Simon Drayton drew peg 6 and stated his intention to “give it a couple of hours” and then go home.

A good start with a double figure Carp in the first half an hour gave a hint of what was to come and Simon included another seven hefty specimens on the next 5 hours on legered luncheon meat for an excellent 94lbs.

Saturday arrived and most of the lakes were either wholly or partially frozen and many anglers probably wisely stayed at home.

 Carl Urry from Scunthorpe however turned out to run the Queen Bess club match on the Tripp Lake and recorded an amazing 125lbs of Carp all caught 6 feet deep in 14 feet of water on waggler fished maggot.

The Silverfish match on the same day was moved to the prolific Oak Tree Pond and provided a bite a cast for all, with 148 Skimmer Bream caught on maggot and Caster for 23lbs winning and all anglers having to return Carp taken on very light tackle.

Overnight temperatures fell to an amazing minus 13 degrees C at the complex and resulted in all Lakes freezing over completely.

Despite this Steve Ellis decided to go ahead with his Winter League Match on the Tripp Lake and armed with ice breakers, 8 anglers cleared enough space to fish.

With a maximum temperature of minus 4 degrees C and a heavy snowfall during the match, all of the anglers expressed the opinion that it was the worst conditions that they had ever fished in.

Fortunately the fish were still prepared to feed and despite many fish being lost or bumped as a result of pole elastics freezing up, some respectable catches of Crucian Carp and Skimmer Bream were taken.

Steve Ellis came out ahead with 16lbs on a combination of Caster and Pinkie.

Report Dated 22  November 2010

Match results on the Swan Pond and Islands Lake have changed dramatically as fewer Carp are showing and Silverfish weights are now featuring in the prizes.

Noticeably those anglers targeting silverfish appear to be hooking more Carp on small baits and light tackle than those  fishing on larger baits and heavy tackle.

Whilst any Carp landed on silverfish tactics in the normal open matches are certainly welcome as weight boosters, they prove to be very frustrating in the Silverfish only matches as Sheffield’s Brian Chatterton found out in Saturday’s Silverfish Only Open on the Islands Lake.

Brian landed two Carp for 15lbs in the first ten minutes of the match, and two more during the next couple of hours, all of which were returned unweighed much to the amusement of other competitors, although other anglers also had the frustration of successfully netting Carp which didn,t count.

Brian’s travelling partner John Gunn made the most of a good draw at the end of the arm by fishing maggots at 8 metres to land mainly Roach and Skimmers for an excellent 41lbs, he had a good battle with Neil Vessey at the next peg as Neil came back from a slow start to take third place with a 34lbs net of Skimmers on pole and soft pellet.

The two were separated by 35lbs of waggler and Caster caught Chub and Roach from peg 24 in a match which saw plenty of good weights taken.

Dale Murten won the Wednesday Open on the Islands Lake also by fishing maggot on the pole in a much harder affair. Dale added a couple of late Carp to his net of Roach and Perch to total 24lbs ahead of a string of Roach catches.

On the Day ticket Lakes, Grimsby,s Roland Sparks has once again disproved the theory that Carp stop taking surface baits in cold weather.

Roland fished floating Mixer and Pellet on the Oak Tree Pond to land 29 Carp for over 100lbs this week as other anglers also enjoyed good sport with Carp and Skimmers on more seasonally traditional methods, i.e. fishing on pole and bomb with small baits like Maggot Corn and Meat.

The North and South Ponds are providing some good mixed bags with Perch and Chub to 2lbs featuring among the quality Roach and Skimmers.

Fewer Carp are being caught but they tend to be of a decent size.

Report Dated 14 November 2010

Falling water temperatures have put a brake on Carp match weights this week, particularly on the Swan and Islands Lake.

Those anglers who have gone for smaller baits have had the most success by taking whatever comes along and Danny Elm from Hull made an inspired switch to a maggot feeder late on during the Wednesday Open on the Swan Pond.

With only an hour and a half left and only one Carp in the net, Danny found some hungry Perch weighing between 1lb and 2.5lbs to win with 26lbs.

Not one to ignore this result Scunthorpe angler Mark Deans set his stall out in the Sunday Open on the Swan Pond to fish the same tactics and put together an excellent net of big Perch to 3lbs in weight to total 44lbs for a runaway win on a day when the Carp had completely shut up shop.

Nigel Lowery from Barnetby also ignored the Carp on the Tripp Lake in Sunday’s winter league match to top a string of good weights with 57lbs of Crucian Carp, all of the fish fell to soft pellet fished at 3 metres.

The Oak Tree Pond continues to fish well for Carp and Skimmer Bream and some bumper silverfish catches have been taken from the North and South day ticket Ponds.

The main syndicate lake has produced one or two notable fish recently with Carp to over 25lbs and a 28lb Pike.

Report Dated 31 October 2010

Some good sized Carp have been caught recently topped by a 25lbs + fish from the main Syndicate Lake. This fish was landed during a weekend session by Upton angler David Fickling.

Carl Urry continued his good form to win the Queen Bess Club Match on Merry,s Pool with over 70lbs, including an excellent Common Carp of 17.5lbs.

The Swan Pond Carp have slowed up a bit and mixed nets of Silverfish to 50lbs are beginning to make the frame in matches.

Danny Taylor from Crowle scored a good win in the last round of the Silverfish Fish league with 46lbs from peg 39 on the Islands Lake. Danny fished soft pellet on waggler taking mainly Skimmer Bream but also included a few good Chub, some Tench and a Barbel.

The match produced 4 other weights over 30lbs and a number of 20lb catches on a variety of baits and methods.

Report Dated 24 October 2010

Despite some fairly cold weather and a steady fall in water temperatures results have been good, particularly on the deeper lakes where the changes occur slowly.

Some particularly good catches were taken towards the weekend as slightly milder weather returned and Jim and Carl Urry from Scunthorpe had an excellent days pleasure fishing on the North Day Ticket Lake.

Carl set his stall out to catch Carp by fishing 5 feet deep with 8mm pellet on a waggler. The fish didn’t disappoint and he netted over 200lbs of fish comprising of 30 Carp from 5lbs to 14lbs and two Roach over the 1lb mark.

Carl’s father Jim fished on the pole and included some excellent Roach, a 5lb Barbel, Chub to3.5lbs, Perch to over 3lbs and plenty of Skimmers in a memorable days autumn fishing.

The first Silverfish match of the winter league provided plenty of fish for all competitors and over 40lbs was needed to win on the day and most anglers had over 20lbs.

Tripp Lake produced an exceptionally good result in the Sunday Open Match with no less than 6 weights over the 100lbs mark.

Neil Vessey led the way with 162lbs of Carp on pole and paste from peg 14 to push Gary Hansford into second, Gary,s 145lbs of Carp, Skimmers and Chub on Pole fished corn and meat from peg 19 just 2lbs too good for Steve Ellis in third place.

17October 2010

Catches have been fairly good this week with plenty of Carp caught on most methods. Silverfish anglers are even landing some fairly hefty specimens on light tackle as lower temperatures  take some of the energy  out of the fish when hooked. Scunthorpe angler Neil Vessey found himself attached to an 18lbs Carp in the  first round of the Silverfish league on the Swan pond this weekend and managed to land it on tackle designed to catch Skimmer Bream. Unfortunately for Neil this fish didn't count and much to everyone else's amusement had to be returned unweighed.

Rowland Road A.C. secretary Steve Curtis finished the clubs league series off in style with a thumping 157lbs catch of Carp on pole fished meat and pellet from Tripp Lake this sunday to top a number of very good catches this week.

Report Dated 10 October 2010

Warmer conditions have seen an improvement in catches across the lakes although as usual at this time of year Carp tend to have bursts of feeding activity.

Noticeably sport is more hectic later in the day, this is particularly evident in matches as anglers now regularly come from nowhere to win or frame in the last hour.

Some excellent silverfish catches have been taken recently. The North and South ponds are particularly good at the moment for quality Roach, Rudd and Skimmer Bream, with up in the water tactics very effective.

The North Pond has also fished well for Carp to high double figures and odd Barbel to 5lbs.

Gary Chadwick from Hull decided that the Carp fishing was a bit too slow for his liking in the Wednesday Open on the Swan Pond this week and armed with just the top 2 kit of his pole and half a pint of casters he extracted 49lbs of Perch, with fish averaging around 4ozs to narrowly miss framing from peg 36

Report Dated 1 October 2010

Fishing remains good on the deeper lakes but hard going for Carp on the shallower lakes where the fish seem to switch on for short feeding bursts as Tommy Grice found out on the Islands Open on Wednesday.

Tommy caught the bulk of his fish in the last 1 ½ hours of the match. Some good silverfish weights have been taken including John Gunn’s 3rd place in the same match, John fished maggots shallow for 42lbs of Roach and Skimmers.

Similar silverfish nets have been taken on the Swan Pond, but with the Carp still feeding well, mainly on 11mm pellet or punched meat, 100lbs catches are still the target for matchmen, Roy Sparks found fish from 2lbs to 13lbs for a115lbs winning weight on Friday.

Fish of the week was definitely the 4lbs 2ozs Perch taken by Grimsby angler Matt Rowe during a match on the Swan Pond on the unlikely bait, 11mm hard pellet fished on the bomb.

Merry’s produced a good win for John Palmer on Sunday where a short pole attack for Silverfish gave him an excellent mixed bag of Skimmers, Crucians, Tench, Ide and small Carp totalling 68lbs.

Report Dated 26 September 2010

Rapidly falling water temperatures have seen a dramatic decline in catches as the fish adjust to the changes.

The shallower lakes such as Islands Lake and the Syndicate ponds have been particularly hard and match winning weights have been around half what they were a week ago on Islands.

The deeper lakes have been better and the Swan Pond has still been producing 100lbs winning weights of Carp, although noticeably the shallower pegs are hard going.

The Oak Tree Pond is still a bite a cast although more Skimmers than Carp are getting to the bait first.

Silverfish sport remains good on all of the Lakes and hopefully the Carp will quickly get used to the seasonal changes.

Fishing remains good on the deeper lakes but hard going for Carp on the shallower lakes where the fish seem to switch on for short feeding bursts as Tommy Grice found out on the Islands Open on Wednesday. Tommy caught the bulk of his fish in the last 1 ½ hours of the match. Some good silverfish weights have been taken including John Gunn’s 3rd place in the same match, John fished maggots shallow for 42lbs of Roach and Skimmers.

Similar silverfish nets have been taken on the Swan Pond, but with the Carp still feeding well, mainly on 11mm pellet or punched meat, 100lbs catches are still the target for match men, Roy Sparks found fish from 2lbs to 13lbs for a115lbs winning weight on Friday.

Fish of the week was definitely the 4lbs 2ozs Perch taken by Grimsby angler Matt Rowe during a match on the Swan Pond on the unlikely bait, 11mm hard pellet fished on the bomb.

Merry’s produced a good win for John Palmer on Sunday where a short pole attack for Silverfish gave him an excellent mixed bag of Skimmers, Crucians, Tench, Ide and small Carp totalling 68lbs.