Normally the fishing during September starts to get a little harder as the water starts to cool and you have to adapt your approach particularly your feeding tactics to continue catching fish, however because this month the weather has been absolutely beautiful with long periods of sunshine, warm temperatures and very little rain, most anglers continued to use full summer tactics even taking lots of carp off the top. Personally I have not done my normal amount of fishing this month particularly during the middle of the month having nearly two weeks off to tour France on my motorbike, but what fishing I have done has been good fun with plenty of different species.
The Residents Lake has been in pretty good form particularly for one or two of its bigger carp. Biggest I heard about was Aidy Webster's 27lb mirror carp. Mick Wilson topped off a great year in both the matches and also his carp fishing taking several fish to 21lb.
One little story that was of particular interest to me was when resident Paul Hickson was setting up his gear one morning and something within his vision moved on his caravan base. On checking it out he found that it was in fact a small eel. How the fish got there alive is a mystery but it swam away strongly when returned to the lake. My father used to catch some big eels from several of the park lakes over 40 years ago and for me it was really nice to hear that there are still one or two in the lakes. Kingfisher Lake continued to fish well especially for its mixed fishing. Fountain View 1 was in good form although there actually didn't appear to be many anglers fishing! Fountain View 2 fished really well for all species. The regular anglers took lots of carp to mid-double figures with plenty coming to floater tactics in the warm water. David Clarke had several really good carp on pole tactics!
Island View kept quietly producing the odd good fish. Rob Love only fished a couple of times but took several good carp to over 18lb on basic ledger tactics and corn on the hook! Willow View / Banks fished very well particularly for numbers of fish rather than any outstanding specimens. Richard Mason continued to catch plenty of lovely carp into double figures. One new resident to Willow Banks took 14 bream on method feeder tactics on one of his first sessions!
The Ski lake was in pretty quiet form with not to many anglers fishing, although I did hear of a 3lb 2oz perch being taken on feeder fished worm. Mark Jones made a short return to fishing the Ski Lake and was rewarded with a 16lb common.
Canada Lake continued in great form with anglers taking plenty of carp, tench and silver fish. I had a very pleasant session on 'Canada' with top match angler Neil Kilsby, with both of us taking loads of small carp on feeder, pole and waggler tactics, although Neil was pulling his hair out for most of the day with the resident swan eating nearly 2 kilos of bait! Its no wonder its such a big bu***r LOL.
October can be a very good month. It is in fact one of my favourite months not so much for its overall fishing but it often turns up a better than average fish. Providing we don't have any periods of cold weather and in particular nights cold enough for a frost to develop then fishing should continue to be good.
I have found that the numbers of fish take a down turn, but if you can find them the bigger fish that are sensing winter is not too far away should be feeding, after all they don't get big by not feeding! I still continue to feed a bit of bait and personally like to trickle boilies in over several days leading up to my sessions. Towards the end of the month I also like to throw out a dead bait in the hope of an early pike.
Certainly don't pack your gear away just yet as the rewards are there if you persevere.