Busman's holiday

Bruce Gille is stopping with us here at Lonsdale Park on his annual holiday this week along with his 2 sons, Bruce reported catching just less than 20 carp which have all been high doubles. Most of these were taken on our Frankfurter and snail or peach and black pepper freezer boilies, Bruce has reported that the feeding patterns so far have been 5am and 10am

After a sharp overnight frost Bruce said up until dinner time today he had 4 fish and lost 1 which suggests that the chill in the air is starting to really bring the Carp on the feed after some very mild October weather so far; this pattern is quite common to see this time of year as the fish start to feed to put on weight for the winter months

Last week produced some good pike after having quite a few pike anglers stopping; the best of which fell to Robert Davies and his 2 sons which were in the high teens

Stay tuned for pictures to follow


To return home click: www.lonsdalepark.co.uk

Late Availability

Limited availability offer 3rd October.

For details call 01228 562655 or 07770 825896 9am - 6:30pm

All Gold

Mark Fay enjoyed his stay at Lonsdale last week.

With a catch of 21 Carp all high doubles up to 19lb despite the heavy rainfall. Mostly taken in the early hours on a selection of our frozen boillies - nutty nut, peach & black pepper & tropical fruit, fished over a bed of krill & tuna method mix & mixed particle.


Neil McElhinney & his friend Neil also reported some excellent carp, Neil is also a very keen roach angler & reported plenty of good roach up to 2lb 8 oz.

Below is our very own Amy pictured this morning with a golden result.

For details of Offers available from £350 per week for 2 people 8th - 28th August call 01228 562655 or 07770 825896

9am-6:30pm

McIlwaine Catch Report & Pics.

​Hi Paul & Val, hope you are well just getting in touch to let you know how we got on during our most recent weeks stay, and have included a few catch pics as well.

In total between the 3 of us, we landed around 50 carp, most of which were in the 6-12lb bracket with Dad landing the biggest a common of 19lb.

The fishing was a little slow to start with on the carp front, but progressed steadily as the week went on, with most bites coming through the hours of darkness into early morning. 

As usual all carp came using an assortment of your Lonsdale boilies, each flavour proving to be equally effective as the other, with either a 2-3 bait stringer or mesh bag of your krill pellet attached,and a spray of  the parti- mix or hemp you recommended over the top.

When the carp weren't on the much we all enjoyed float fishing for roach, and what quality roach they were too, I don't think we had many under half a pound, if any at all, and I lost count of the number of 1lb - 2lb fish we had.

As usual we had a few surprises along the way, banking some huge gudgeon a real rarity for us, and Dad even managed to land one of the several pike that kept trying to nab his roach on the way in.

 

All in all, a fairly productive and thoroughly enjoyable week' as ever, many thanks for accommodating us at such short notice, look forward to seeing you next year, thanks again,

                                                                                     Michael, Ryan & Aaron Mcilwaine.

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More reports from anglers of the larger fish begining to show after spawning, most noteably a 24lb 8 oz carp landed by Mark on his 4th weeks visit of the year.

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Rare Opportunity- Lodge Late Availability.

Due to a last minute cancellation the 3 bedroomed Lodge is available for 7 nights commencing 1st August.

Call for details 07770 825896.

Availability Special Offers

Some availability from 7th - 21st August 

Prices from £350 per week for 2 people.

These offers can only be booked by calling 01228 562655 or 07770 825896 9am - 6:30 pm

Catch of The Week Tommy Troubles First Fish

Thanks to Allison who sent this excellent picture of Tommy getting his first ever fish this weekend at Lonsdale, as you can see he was chuffed to bits!

He still has a way to go though to catch up with his dad Dave who had a bumper night last night with 8 fish all good doubles at a rate of 1 an hour from 1am to 8am all on our Lonsdale Nutty Nut freezer boilies popped up with some of our fluorescent pop-ups.

Bill Millar along with his son David, and Paul who were on the 7th visit of the year fished on the other side of Lonsdale and took advantage of the fish having just finished spawning, landing over 30 carp between them, most of which were caught on our Lonsdale Tropical Fruit and Peach and Black Pepper freezer boilies over a bed of mixed particle and krill and tuna method mix.

Catch Report

Thanks to the Sawyer family & co. for sending over photos of some of their catches, including some lovely tench to 7lb 8ozs & roach.

Most of the larger fish have been taken on  our freezer baits,

Well done to Jules who landed a lovely 18lb carp on her first fishing venture!

Pleasure anglers are reporting plenty roach are starting to feed, with weights up to 2lb.

The Colonel’s First ‘Glorious 16th’ in a Long, Long Time

Thank you for sending over this account & photos Colonel, much appreciated & home bakes delicous!.

16^th June 2015 The Colonel’s First ‘Glorious 16th’ in a Long, Long Time

It’s been a very, very long time since I fished ‘the first day’ of the New season, and I know exactly how that aversion came to be. Back in the early 80’s, yes, really 35 years ago, I was a committed ‘Specimen Hunter’, having formed a Specimen Group of like minded anglers in my local area. We were privileged to be very near a now famed Cemex gravel pits complex. In those days I was also a father of six (and still am, of course), so did not have the time available for serious Carp fishing; I therefore concentrated on the Tench and Roach, which grew to specimen size in these lakes. I’d previously observed a good number of decent Tench in one of the lesser fished lakes and set about a baiting campaign in a hidden swim with difficult access. Long story short, when I arrived on 16^th June, late, due to family responsibilities, I found my pre-baited swim occupied by two other anglers, both members of my Group. They’d already grassed a 7 pounder and were intending to stay put for some time to reap the rewards of my not inconsiderable efforts ……….. gentlemen anglers they were not, and the taste in my mouth was of the nasty kind. Hence my aversion to wetting a line on ‘the glorious 16th’.

Paul’s kind offer to allow me to cast a line at Lonsdale, 2015 might present the ideal opportunity to confine those memories to the dustbin of history. With a slight feeling of apprehension still nestling in the pit of my stomach, I took the familiar journey to Lonsdale Park with Paul’s battling Roach in mind and, most appropriately, a newly restored Chapmans ‘Fred J Taylor Roach’ rod to christen. Of course, Merlin was with me just in case some heavier ‘magic’ was needed.

There being no-one about, I left a couple of jars of my Gaffer’s Three Fruit marmalade on the kitchen table to accompany my home-baked fruit loaf which I know full well tickle my hosts’ palettes, then stealthily approached the lake. It was oily smooth and the air was muggy, in need of a good thunderstorm ……… hopefully not today, though, as I’d not packed a brolly !!!! As always, I launched a goodly handful of squeezed bread mash a rod length out, to ‘stir ‘em up’. Three or four pieces of crust hadn’t succumbed to the liquidiser the day before and refused to sink with the rest of the white cloud, stubborn to the last. Served ‘em right, when an apparition appeared, greedily sucking them down. ‘Mmmmmm’, I thought, ‘I reckon Merlin may need to cast his spell…….along with a fresh piece of crust, impaled upon my trusty, sharp steel.’

First cast, the crust was ferociously attacked almost at my feet. They were that close in the margin. Second one, just a vicious, knocked the crust off the hook, giving the fortunate assailant a free meal. Third time, lucky !!!! Merlin didn’t need a strike. He arched over, the hook well and truly set and the game was afoot. The Carp was the smallest of the gang, but I was relieved, as the strongest line I had with me was 4lb BS on my baby Mitch 408. Consequently, the little critter led me a merry dance. I did enjoy the tussle immensely in this lovely pool that is devoid of any nasty snags, to my knowledge. As long as sufficient side strain can dissuade a trip to the marginal vegetation, the day is generally won with patience and a strong wrist. So it was this day. My net was wet, Merlin and I were happy. With the swim well and truly ‘stirred up’, I could assemble ‘Fred J’ at my leisure.

I love ‘The Lift Method’. There’s something mystical, surreal, about a float rising up, Excalibur like, above the pool’s mirrored surface, when you consider it’s normal bite indication is a disappearance downwards, into the depths and out of site. Employing it this day was particularly poignant to me; using a technique promoted by my childhood angling hero, Fred J Taylor, in conjunction with the rod bearing his name. A delightful symmetry, I felt. Although a method primarily with Tench in mind, it also works admirably for other species prepared to pick a bait up from the bottom and, especially with Roach, as it gets the baited hook quickly past the ‘little ‘uns’, to the lake bed where the likelihood of bigger fish is greater. However, my faith was severely tested when I hooked small bream after small bream when I believed I should have been catching big Roach after big Roach.

A change over to Merlin and a running leger with golden grains as hookbait brought a little improvement in my luck. Chub, not Roach, graced my net now. They gave me a good scrap at around 2lbs a piece and half a dozen in number, but they were not the roach I so wanted. Back to the ‘FJT’ rod, the float and the FJT Lift it was, but this time corn on a gilt hook, to see if I could fool them.

Izaak smiled upon me that afternoon, and it worked!!!! The big Roach moved in, finding the corn to their liking. The float never remained stationary for over long. Slow lifts mainly, with the occasional instant disappearance without notice, just to keep me on my toes. They were all around the same size, comfortably over the pound and in pristine condition. I even had the heart stopping moment of knowing I’d got myself another ‘two’, when I saw a giant Roach hooked well and tussling hard a rod length or so away, with ‘FJT’ well bent; then the deceitful creature morphed itself into a Roach/Bream amalgamation weighing 2lbs and 2ozs ……… why do they do that to us? It did scrap darned hard though and was still kicking like the devil in the landing net.

All too soon the smaller Roach wised up, realised where the food was and moved in, by which time I guess I’d winkled out a lot of their big brothers anyway. Best to quit while I was winning. Time to head homeward. I’d achieved all I’d wanted and more but, most importantly, a ghost from my past had been exorcised.

Catching Carp

Well here's a couple of photos we have received.

Fred Tillett who stayed for the past 2 weeks caught lots of Pike & Carp, but here he is with his PB Grass carp weighing in at 25lb 4 ozs.

See you again  in September Fred.

Rob Sawyer has had a good start to his fortnight. Having stayed at Lonsdale last year he hadn't fished the Arches Lake so with that in mind took himself off there this morning. A couple of hours later he was rewarded by landing this 18lb beauty on our peach & black pepper boillies.

What Tincas!

Pleased to say Mr. Williams as started off the day well.

After speaking to Paul yesterday, he followed the advice he was given & took himself off to the Arches at 4:30 am.

He enjoyed the next few hours catching 10 tench all over 5lb.

Lightowlers & Browns

Hi Guys,

Thanks for sending over the photos & write up so quickly from your stay at Lonsdale last week.

Paul, Val and Family.

The weather was up and down but the carp where biting, from stories told we took note and fished through the night where Bob cleaned up at the start of the week catching fish from Midnight to 6am. Steve shocked the group by getting up at 4am twice this week (not a normal thing to do so must have been wanting the fish) and fishing until late on a night. Bob had a great week catching 23 carp in total ranging from 8lb to a new personal best of 21.3lb. Fishing harder than usual Steve also had a good week with 8 carp from 4lb to 17.3lb.

Mike also had a great week catching carp and we all seemed to have cracked the pond. Mike caught a total of 19 carp ranging from 9lb upto 17.5lb and right to the wire was still pushing Bob for the most fish of the week.

Steve Brown started slow however towards the back end of the week this soon changed. With a total of 15 carp from 9lb upto 16.7lb with 2 excellent looking grass carp. Again pushed to the wire still catching in the afternoon of our last session.

This has been a great week fishing for carp and they where all in great condition at the start of the week nothing was biting during the day and we had to fish through the night but at the back end of the week the bigger fish where caught in the afternoon.

Thanks again for a great time

The Lightowlers and The Browns