New Lake Reecord | April 2012

What a way to celebrate your first ever trip to France, with not only a new PB, but also a NEW LAKE RECORD Mirror of 39lb 2oz!!!

This is exactly what happened this week at Joy Lake to Richard Pearce, who visited us with girlfriend Shannon.

And just to prove it was no fluke, Richard also banked back-up 30's of 38lb 3oz (although Shannon is claiming this one as she chose the bait and cast out the rig!), 2 different 36's, 32lb 4oz, 2 different 32's, 31lb and a 30lb - not to mention a host of 20's. Quite a first trip to France!!

Richard weighed the new record Mirror twice, and I verified his scales using both my Fox Digitals and my Avon's the next day. The fish came from the Point swim @11.30pm on the Sunday night, and fell to a Quest 20mm Surf N Turf boilie.

The second biggest fish of the week @ 38lb 3oz would have also been a new lake record had it come earlier in the week. This fish came from a stalking session in the Withy swim, and as mentioned Shannon is claiming this fish (or half at least!), as she picked the 20mm Fruitalicious Pop-up hook bait (because she liked the bright orange colour - who says carping needs to be complicated?!) and put a lovely cast between 2 set of pads. Richard landed the fish however!

Not only were we delighted for them both, but also to see the fish have packed on some weight in the mid winter - making up for the previous harsh winter where the lake froze over for several weeks.......

Many congratulations to Richard and Shannon for a superb week!

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20 'Grassies' Introduced | June 2010

Weed can be an amazing thing - when we first bought Joy Lake two and a half years ago we had almost no surface pondweed. Last summer it appeared and began to spread the more we tried to control it.

Whilst it is not impacting on the fishing yet, if we take no action this year it will almost certainly become a problem next year.

Having spent many hours in the boat & waders hauling out more and more of the stuff, we decided we needed re-enforcements - 20 young grass carp.

Although only averaging around 1lb in weight at the moment, these fish are the ideal age to tackle our weed as they feed ravenously, and in years to come will eventually switch onto anglers bait to give an added attraction at Joy Lake.

For now though these fish have a job to do.......

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2 PB's in 2 minutes | April 2010

Carl Taylor had one of those magical carping moments that don't come around very often, on a recent visit to Joy Lake.

Having just landed a new Common PB of 27lb 14oz, and whilst still posing for the camera, one of his other rods tore off (Carl's Dad Bill can be seen over Carl's shoulder on the photo below, going for the rod!!!!).

The Common was quickly slipped back, and Carl soon had a new Mirror PB of 33lb 10oz in the net after a good scrap.

Nice one Carl! (and Bill of course!!)

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A pair of 35's in 24 hours | April 2010

After a quiet first 24 hours for Kevin Jarman's party, the Joylake carp suddenly switched on and Kevin's son Gareth was the first to benefit.

Within the next 24 hours, Gareth not only more than doubled his existing PB of 17lb, he upped it again!

The first fish of 35lb 2oz sadly did'nt make it onto camera (Dad Kevin was REALLY in the doghouse!), so Gareth decided he'd have to catch another PB, this one coming in at 35lb 10oz less than 24 hours later, and happily with photos this time!!

Both fish fell to Quest's Pineapple Crush, from the same spot on Stump swim.

The group have now had two further 30's to date, plus plenty of back-up 20's and doubles.

Look out for the full report & feedback at the end of the week................