First and foremost we would like to announce the winner of Aprils Fish of the Month Competition…
Congratulations to David Westwood who won 24hrs free fishing for his pristine 35lb Mirror carp caught on a white mainline pop up with some korda goo from our Specimen Lake.
Despite the unsettled weather conditions, May, known as the best month for catching here at Hawkhurst Fish Farm has certainly not let us down this year. Both Main Lake and Dove have come alive and some lovely carp have been tamed into the nets. All swims have been fishing well and with the warmer temperatures setting in the Catfish have also woken up; we have seen several up to the 40lb mark netted over the past few weeks.
Main Lake – Several big cats have been caught from the far end of the lake nearest Dove Lake. This area is known as ‘Catfish Corner’ for those of you that are unfamiliar with Main Lake this area has deeper water around 9ft in depth. The cats seem to respond well to luncheon meat and halibut pellet. Lee Davis netted a 46lb Cat on halibut pellet from swim 5, Craig Hampton netted two Cats weighing in at 30lb and 18lb. Many anglers will often fish to known areas from their swims, but it can often pay to try and locate different spots to present a bait. This can very often catch the fish off guard, as it would normally be a safe haven. Bait wise, pretty much anything is working at the moment. Mike Miller produced a 11 fish haul in a 24hr session netting a 20lb 6oz Grass Carp, 26lb 2oz Common, 20lb 9oz Common , 16lb 9oz Mirror, 17lb 2oz Common, 28lb 1oz Common, 17lb 7oz Common , 21lb 4oz Common , 15lb 3oz Common and a 19lb 5oz Common. Ben Craven fished a 36hr session and caught a 20lb 3oz Mirror, 27lb Common and a 20lb Common on pop-up sweetcorn. Matthew Evenden fished a 12hr session and bagged a pristine 27lb 9oz Mirror fishing double cell boilies over a spread of chopped and whole cell boilies.
Many other fish have been caught over the past few weeks including a lovely 40lb common, but catch reports are not being handed in. Please help us to keep you up to date with what is being caught by sending your catch reports to the email address above. Alternatively you can post your photos on our facebook page.
Dove Lake – has continued its long awaited run of form and has produced some stunning carp. Grounds work has been carried out around the lake due to overgrown swims. So the jungle infested areas should no longer be an issue. Again, all swims are fishing well particularly swims 1 and 8. Maggot clips do well as does maize and halibut pellet. Tim Jefferies fished his first session on Dove Lake and netted 3 Mirrors weighing in at 23lb, 25lb 4oz and 28lb also a 30lb Catfish from swim 8.Anthony Blakely caught a 28lb Mirror from swim 4 and Michael Ashdown also netted a 28lb Mirror along with a 21lb Common. We have seen some great runs on Dove Lake and plenty of carp in the upper 20’s caught but once again catch reports are not being sent in.
Specimen Lake – Has been considerably productive so far with Steve Wheatley bagging the illusive 37.5lb Blue Carp, a 41lb Catfish, 25.5lb Mirror, 25lb Common and a 21lb Mirror all in a cracking 12hr session from swim 4! Oliver Sanders also had an impressive 12hrs netting a 25.5lb Common and 37.5lb Catfish. Both fish were caught using quick bite tactics and casted to showing fish in the open water from swim 3. Keith Burns fished his second session (12hrs) after only recently becoming a member a caught his new UK PB a lovely 35lb Mirror. Keith fished peg 1 casting to his left under the trees (left of the gap). He used a size 8 barbless Mugga on a long hair with a short rig, with a Cell bottom bait and a trimmed pineapple pop up to have a critically balanced snowman, with a scattering of freebies of Cell from a throwing stick. Ashley Reeves also fished a 12hrs session catching a 29lb Mirror. Dave Lee managed to net a 26lb 5oz Mirror, 23lb 14oz Common, 12lb Catfish and a 15lb 2oz Grass carp in less than 24hrs from swim 8. Patrick Thompson netted a 25lb 8oz Mirror, 26lb 4oz Mirror and a 27lb 9oz Common on balanced hookbaits, 360’ rigs over beds of maize and finally Simon Evans had a 28lb Mirror also only fishing a day session.