NEWS 1 April 2018 to 30 April 2018

2018 Bookings

With our visitors having differing requirements we are now accepting a variety of 2018 booking requests including: 

•  “Accommodation with discounted fishing” for 3, 4 or 7 days or longer.
• 2018 Night Members bookings for fishing up to the 6th month ahead.
• General Public bookings for Day Fishing (7.00 am to 7.00 pm) only, who can book up to the 3rd month ahead. To book Lake 2 (Carp/Catfish) anglers must indicate when they have fished here previously

See https://www.manor-fisheries.co.uk/night-fishing/ for the 2018 Night Membership application form and https://www.manor-fisheries.co.uk/availability/ for both Apartment and fishing Availability.

NEWS Report – 1st April 2018 to 30th April 2018

Summary – the past month

We plan to keep you informed of news and progress while we look forward to receiving your comments, ideas and photos.

• With the assistance of Hadlow College, the “Management” of Lake 3 (Mixed) was set for April but has been deferred due to warm weather conditions which would over stress the silver fish.

Fishing Report – 1st April 2018 to 30th April 2018

The weather was disappointing during early April and following many heavy showers catches were affected. The grounds also became soft and muddy.

As the month progressed and became warmer, the first Cuckoo was heard on the 18th April and it was noticeable that the fish became more active resulting in some good catches from all three lakes.

It was only seven weeks ago that the grounds were covered in snow and now the sunshine arrived and colour emerged.

With the improvement in the weather, from mid-April the Cats started appearing in good numbers after recovering from hibernation. All three Leader Boards were raised during this record April month. Specimens landed included 54 x 30lbs+ Catfish to 42lbs and 7 x 20lbs+ Carp to 22lbs 8ozs. Peter Gardiner can claim the first Tench catch of the Season at 2lbs 2ozs from Lake 3 (Mixed) though this weight was soon beaten by one weighing 4lbs.

Thank you to all those anglers who took time to record their catches in the Cabin Log Book.

Lake 1 (Carp)

• Returning on the 4th April Ian Emms landed a 10lbs 10ozs Common using Richworth pine-apple 14mm boilies and a 12lbs Mirror using 18mm Cell Mainline.
• Arriving on the 6th April for a short break, brothers Fred and Bill Whitfield had success with the Carp. Using bread and corn baits, Bill’s catch included a Mirror weighing 15lbs 6ozs and a Common weighing 17lbs 10ozs. Fred’s baits were Mainline Cell and luncheon meat and his catch included Mirrors weighing 14lbs 7ozs and 9lbs 2ozs and Commons weighing 21lbs 2ozs and 10lbs 30zs to top the Carp Leader Board.
• Regular David Hodge arrived on the 10th April and landed a 18lbs Common and a 10lbs Mirror.
• Spicy tuna and sweet chilli boilies proved successful for regular Dave Kendrick on the 11th April with a catch including Mirrors weighing 12lbs 4ozs and 7lbs 12ozs plus a 18lbs 8ozs Common while his son landed Mirrors weighing 14lbs, 12lbs and 8lbs using squid and crab boilies over krill ground bait.
• Fishing on the 12th April, Daniel Backshall plus two colleagues landed 9 x doubles to 15lbs 10ozs.
• John Carroll visited on the 14th April and together with three colleagues landed 10 x Carp weighing from 11lbs to 18lbs 2ozs.
• Arriving on the 13th April for a short break, it was lucky for some as Brett Simpson and colleagues landed several Carp up to 18lbs but were shown the way by young Archie Dundridge with a 20lbs 20zs PB Mirror and young Ellis Simpson with a 22lbs UK PB Mirror to top the Carp Leader Board. Gary Dundridge also enjoyed landing his first Catfish which weighed 25lbs PB from Lake 2 (Carp/Catfish).

      Archie Dundridge and his

              20lbs 20zzs Mirror

                         Gary Dunbridge and his

                               25lbs PB Catfish

• Visiting on the 14th April, Robert Chesters landed 10 x Carp weighing from 11lbs to 18lbs 2ozs.

           Robert Chesters with a 15lbs 4ozs

                    fully scaled Mirror

         Robert Chesters with his

                18lbs 2ozs Mirror

• Peter Austen had a good session on the 18th April landing 5 x Commons weighing 18lbs 2ozs, 17lbs 6ozs, 14lbs 4ozs, 14lbs and 12lbs 8ozs plus a 20lbs 4ozs Mirror using banoffee boilies and on the 26th April a 10lbs 6ozs Common.
• When visiting on the 19th April Aaron Lamptey landed 6 x Carp weighing 16lbs, 15lbs, 14lbs, 13lbs, 12 lbs and 10lbs.
• Arriving on the 20th April for a short break regular Kevin Oxley landed 17 x Carp of which 14 were Doubles; including 13 x Commons to 15lbs 15ozs and 4 x Mirrors to 18lbs 50zs.
• Adam Howland returned on the 21st April and landed 3 x Carp to 18lbs 12ozs.
• Graeme Gilbert and his father used boilies on the 21st April and together caught 14 x Carp weighing from 10lbs to 17lbs 6ozs.
• Mick and Alan Rogers returned on the 22nd April when Mick used Urban nut cracker boilies to catch Carp weighing 18lbs, 16lbs 12ozs, 13lbs 10ozs and 11lbs 12ozs while Alan used pineapple boilies to catch Carp weighing 20lbs, 18lbs, 15lbs 12ozs, 2 x 12lbs 12ozs and 9lbs 2ozs.
• Roger Austen returned on the 23April and using coconut boilies landed 6 x Commons weighing 15lbs 8ozs, 13lbs 4ozs, 13lbs, 12lbs8ozs, 11lbs 6ozs and 9lbs plus a 15lbs Mirror using krill boilie.·        
• Regular Terry Keard began his 48 hour session on the 24th April and enduring two cold nights landed 15 x Carp including 9 x doubles to 16lbs 7ozs. Terry was joined by colleague Steve Hyder on the 26th April and he landed Commons weighing 15lbs and 14lbs 14ozs plus Mirrors weighing 17lbs 4ozs and 6lbs 8ozs.
• Using king prawn boilies on the 24th April proved to be successful when David Hodge returned with his son Milden and Dan Miles:

• Keith Richards used sweetcorn bait on the 28th April and landed Commons weighing 16lbs 8ozs, 15lbs 6ozs and 11lbs plus a 10lbs Mirror.
• Using boilies, Eddie Stephens began his session on the 28th April by landing a 20lbs Common which was followed by Mirrors weighing 13lbs 4ozs and 11lbs 9ozs.

Lake 2 (Carp/Catfish)

• During his first 2018 over nighter on the 6th April, Cristian Mitran found the Cats stirring. Using 20mm halibut pellet bait, Cristian now tops the Catfish Leader Board at 37lbs through landing the first Cat of the season – well done.

• Visiting on the 8th April, James Howland landed 2 x Cats each weighing 20lbs.
• Braving  a 24 hour session on a wet 9th April, regular Les Roberts had a good session using crab and squid boilies to land 6 x Cats weighing 30lbs 4ozs, 28lbs 4ozs, 25lbs 3ozs, 22lbs 9ozs, 19lbs 8ozs and 16lbs 8ozs.
• Regular Jason Tuckey began his 24 hour session on the 9th April and using crab and squid boilies during another wet night caught Cats weighing 31lbs, 19lbs and .
• Visiting on the 11th April Chris Danton landed Cats weighing 31lbs and 27lbs when the successful baits were tutti frutti  boilies and halibut pellets.
• Returning on the 12th April Mike Ireland used luncheon meat bait to lure Cats weighing 34lbs 8ozs and 15lbs.
• Lucky “Friday 13th” for some, as first time fishing for Cats Patrick Johnson began his session using boilie baits and catching 2 x small Carp and ending with a PB Cat weighing 33lbs 12ozs.
• Arriving on the 15th April Bobby Clements used pink pop-ups to catch 6 x Cats to 39lbs to top the Catfish Leader Board – but for how long?

• Regular Eric Scott visited on the 17th April and using maggot baits caught 5 x Cats weighing 31lbs, 30lbs, 28lbs, 26lbs and 23lbs plus 2 x Commons weighing 12lbs and 22lbs 8ozs to top the Carp Leader Board.

• Gary Day returned on the 18th April and landed 3 x Cats weighing 31lbs 3ozs, 14lbs and 11lbs.
• Robin Moyser began his 36 hour session on the 18th April to experience not only the hottest April weather for 50+ years but finding the Cats coming out of hibernation. His catch of 27 x Catfish weighed a total of 672lbs including 2 x 37lbs 8ozs, 2 x 37lbs, 33lbs, 31lbs, 30lbs, 28lbs, 2 x 26lbs, 4 x 25lbs, 2 x 24lbs, 23lbs 8ozs, 2 x 23lbs 22lbs 8ozs and 7 weighing from 12lbs to 15lbs.
• Regular Tony Payne returned on the 20th April for a 24 hour session and using halibut pellets ended with 12 x Cats including 4 x teens, 2 x 20’s, 30lbs, 33lbs 3ozs, 37lbs 2ozs, 37lbs 4ozs and 41lbs 8ozs to top the Cat Leader Board.
• Ross Mitchell visited on the 21st April and together with his colleague landed 13 x Cats weighing from 6lbs to 30lbs.
• First time visitor Alan Smith landed his first Cat weighing a PB 34lbs on the 22nd April using 15mm fishy boilie bait.
• Regular Reg Miller returned on the 22nd April and using halibut pellet bait landed 8 x Cats weighing 37lbs 8ozs, 35lbs 8ozs, 30lbs, 28lbs 8ozs, 2 x 27lbs 8ozs, 23lbs 8ozs and 19lbs.
• The Cats were feeding well when regular Pat O’Sullivan arrived on the 22nd April for his 36 hour session and using boilies over pellet landed 27 x Cats weighing a total of 807lbs including 7 x 40’s to 42lbs to top the Cat Leader Board plus 6 x 30’s.
• Regular Jason Tuckey also found the Cats feeding when beginning his 24 hour session on the 23rd April to land 15 x Cats weighing a total of 407lbs including 7 x 30’s to 38lbs 2ozs, 4 x 20’s to 29lbs 8ozs and 4 x teens to 19lbs 8ozs.
• Although overcast and wet on the 27th April, Mark Purton, plus father Reg and brother Paul; and together with Nathan all did well landing 9 x Cats (including 4 x 30’s) with Reg showing you can always count on experience:

• Visiting on the 28th April, Daniel Luckhurst had success in landing Cats weighing 37lbs and 26lbs.
• P. Mepham visited on the 28th April and was successful in landing Cats weighing 29lbs 8ozs and 19lbs.
• Neil Histed experienced some 70mm rain on the 30th April when he landed Cats weighing 35lbs UK PB, 32lbs and 10lbs. 

Lake 3 (Mixed)

• On the 5th April Peter Gardiner landed the first Tench catch of the Season at 2lbs 2ozs to top the Tench Leader Board. Corn was the successful bait.  
• Regular Gary Rust returned on the 6th April and fishing the margin landed Carp weighing 9lbs 10ozs, 6lbs 11ozs and 6lbs 6ozs plus Perch and a 2lbs Tench using prawn bait over sweetcorn.
• Regular Andy Bush had a good session on the 10th April and using his pole landed 29 fish including Commons weighing 11lbs, 9lbs, 6lbs and 4lbs, Mirrors weighing 11lbs and 5lbs, 6 x Bream between 4 and 5lbs and 15 x Tench to 3lbs 8ozs to top the Tench Leader Board. Returning on the 13th April Andy landed 42 fish and focused on the Tench; this time landing 27 x Tench to 3lbs plus 5 x Bream from 4 to 5lbs, 8 x Commons from 3 to 9lbs and 2 x Mirrors weighing 5 lbs and 7lbs where 8mm pellet was the successful bait.
• Finding the Tench feeding on the 11th April Simon Glendinning raised the Tench Leader Board to 4lbs when his catch included 7 x Tench, a 4lbs Bream, a 8lbs Common plus several Roach and Perch. The bait was pellet and corn with a worm ground bait.
• Visiting for the first time on the 15th April, George Whelan used a method feeder and boilies and landed 11 x Carp to 11lbs including some from the surface on bread.
• Arriving on the 16th April for a short break Marilyn and Rod Daniels soon found the Carp using luncheon (bottom) and bread (surface) baits:

• Returning on the 17th April, Fred Rosier landed 10 x Tench weighing from 1lb 12ozs to 2lbs 10ozs plus Bream weighing 4lbs 6ozs and 3lbs 8ozs and Carp weighing 6lbs 6ozs and 2lbs 10ozs.
• First time visitors Brian Bennett and son Andrew had a mixed bag on the 19th April including 7 x Carp to 8lbs, 4 x Tench to 2lbs plus Roach and Rudd.
• Regular Graham Payne returned on the 21st April and landed 11 x Carp to 11lbs, 7 x Tench to 4lbs and 2 x Bream to 2lbs 8ozs.