7 Records smashed as carp go on the feed

Despite the heat – or perhaps because of it – commercial stillwater fisheries have never been in finer form, with record-breaking match weights reported from all around the country.

England international Des Shipp was at it again, bagging 38lb to set a new five-hour match record at Todber Manor Fisheries in Dorset. 

Drawing peg 89 on Homeground Lake, Des set up to fish short, shallow and in the margins. After catching a few carp using 6mm pellets on the short pole, Des turned to his right-hand margin swim, which was where the bagging really began. 

Feeding groundbait and corn 5m out, Des caught mainly carp between 1lb and 3lb. Taking to Angling Times after the match, Des explained: “When it slowed I just fed another pot of groundbait and they were straight on it.

“The settled weather has played a part in these big weights but the main reason is anglers are just so much better and more efficient at catching fish. Fisheries themselves are also very much switched on as to how best to look after their waters and stocks.”

Guru-backed ace Pemb Wrighting fancied Lake Two on Kent’s Monk Lakes complex but never expected to catch a massive 525lb of carp and claim the new venue record. 

Drawing peg 66, Pemb started by fishing down his right-hand margin, where he filled a keepnet within the first hour.

After this initial flurry, he spent the rest of the match fishing across to the end bank, feeding pellets and fishing a big Mainline Neutral expander pellet or a bit of paste on the hook. In the last hour Pemb returned to his right-hand margin, where he fed heavily with groundbait and finished off his phenomenal catch. 

He told Angling Times: “I think it’s been hot for so long now that fish are happy with the water temperature as it is. Everything has been consistent for months – pressure, temperature and sunlight. I think the fish are simply happy and this means they move around a lot, so they have to eat to recoup lost energy.”

Tactically, Pemb had this to say about his success: “I think it’s mega-important to use the best quality bait you can, and now is the time to use a lot of it! The fish are hungry, so feed them. It’s also important to gear up accordingly. That doesn’t mean using the heaviest gear, but rigs need to be durable to last all day.” 

Doncaster’s Lindholme Lakes is another venue in prolific form, with huge match weights coming out across the complex. Andy Bennett, however, took these weights to another level when he broke the fishery record with 427lb from peg 28 on Benny’s.

In this unfancied area of the lake Andy fished with 4mm fishery feed pellets shallow on the pole at 8m to catch mainly F1s. 

A hard pellet approach has also been producing record-breaking weights on the Meadowlands complex near Coventry, where both the five and six-hour match records have been broken on its Lambsdown Lake. 

Stu Brown took 463lb 15oz on 8mm pellets fished on the pellet waggler, the bomb and down the margins to claim the six-hour record from peg 10. 

Barry Byrd used the same tactics to bag 348lb from peg 36 for the five-hour record. The greater part of both anglers’ catches was taken in the margins, where feeding heavily was key to success. 

To finish a week of immense match weights, John Light broke the record on Hampshire’s Gold Valley’s Gold Lake with a massive 343lb, and Jamie Hughes smashed the Mescar Fisheries complex record on Merseyside with 362lb 8oz from Mistral Lake. 

Jamie told Angling Times: “It was a ridiculous match, in which I fished down the margins the entire time. This weather is great for big match weights.”

The common factor to all these record-breaking bags has been a simple and clear approach, where fishing shallow or in the margins has reaped rewards. 

The use of hard pellets seems key at present – but you need to feed them regularly to keep the fish in your peg.