Well, here goes……….my first ever blog !!
This is a tale of 2 trips to Wintons in West Sussex – the first in mid May and It rained for the 3 days I was there and the second in mid July when it rained a lot and blew a gale for 3 days………
After a 3 hour journey from the Midlands, me and my fishing buddy Chris arrived and picked a double swim on Mallard Lake – catfish and carp were the target.
We were using 16mm Gulp Squid & Liver boilies for the carp and 24mm Tuna & Spice boilies for the catfish. It didn’t take the catfish long to sniff out the bait – Chris had his first ever catfish (a baby at 16lb) but soon followed it up with another of 31lb.
Chris with a Tuna and Spice cat........
Not to be outdone....32lb and it loved that Tuna and Spice...
to be outdone, I managed one of 32lb and later that night lost what felt like an express train. Conclusion……..catfish like the Tuna & Spice boilies !
Nothing much else happened until the last morning when Chris managed to land another PB, this time a common of exactly 30lb on the Squid & Liver bait.
Cracking fish of 30lbs.......scale perfect
Our next trip was early July and we set off hoping for better weather…….
This time we were on Kingfisher Lake – a relatively small lake with, I believe, 6 known 40’s
Lots had been written about the new Gulp Red Crustacean bait so we thought we’d give that a go…….
We were lucky enough to have one end of the lake to ourselves and baited up areas tight to the island and likely looking spots under over hanging tress. I fished one rod about 15yards out and early the next morning had a big ‘drop back’. The fish was under my feet by the time I caught up with it and after a 15 minute battle I slid the net under a beautiful common of 30lb
Kingfisher 30lb common between the rainstorms
The following morning Chris whistled me over – he was obviously into a good fish and as he drew it over the net, we both realised that he’d beaten his PB again……this time with perfect looking common of 37lb.
Before we packed up Chris managed one more common of 24lb
One more trip to Wintons has been pencilled in for August and then off to Crystal Lakes in France first week in September.
It’s a nice feeling when you go fishing and you have total confidence in the bait you are using…
Cheers for now
Kevin Pearce
