The fine weather has really boosted the fishing, particularly on the Island Pond where lots of 20lb, 30lb and even 50lb catches of carp are being taken. Even when temperatures cool down (it is Spring after all) the carp are still obliging and the F1 carp are feeding strongly backed by lots of fish of all different species, especially Ide.

In the last few days a number of catches over 30lb have been taken. Brian Docherty has been doing consistently well again and had approaching that weight yesterday. He found feeding a fair amount in a pole cup very regularly got the best response. Like others, he also found that though Jelly Pellets are very successful, maggot can often fool the bigger carp when they get wary of pellets.

Stuart Black also had a great catch including 66 carp for well over 30lb including many F1s over 1lb and one beauty of 2 1/2 lb. Jelly Pellet s the top bait but maggot, sweetcorn and worms can pay off too. Lots of small tench are also showing along with lots of ide approaching the 1lb mark.

The Top Pond is ‘fishing it’s head off’ for both common and F1 carp. If you get it right you can catch one every cast. F1 carp are the bigger fish, between 12oz and over 1lb. The biggest carp recently was 2lb 14oz. Pellets now catching best with maggots and sweetcorn are as backup baits.

The Main Loch has been up and down in the last week. Some nice catches for pleasure anglers but recent matches were not so good. Good colour in the water bodes well for the predicted warm weather expected soon. As the water gradually warms up, the pole is starting to catch more fish as the fish come closer and up in the water. Feeder and slider tactics still produce consistently well though. Skimmer bream are showing up much more in catches with the odd bigger bream to over 2lb. Maggot is still the most successful bait for bream and carp.