Hello everyone,
First of all may I take this opportunity to wish
everyone a very happy Christmas and a healthy and successful New Year. Just a
quick reminder that this year we are closed for Christmas Day. Having said that
if you happen to be overnighting and want to stay on for Christmas Day then this
is fine. The fishing report is at the end of this following text.
As its sort of the end of year I thought I would
try and give you the flavour of what its actually like being a fisheries owner.
Although Philip and I don't have to do it any longer (thanks to Ryan, Lisa and
the team) the day starts very early, long before the first anglers arrive. Up to
a couple of years ago Philip and I used to be very much hands on. In those days
we opened the gates at 5.00am and closed at 10.00am. Our new opening hour of
7.00am are much more civilised.
During a typical day there is lots to do including
feeding our stock ponds, checking the margins for any casualties, predators,
blocked pipes and the like. Bins must be emptied and any site rubbish removed.
Loos must be cleaned and replenished with loo rolls. The office has to be
prepared for ticket registration, and the kitchen must be spot on and ready to
cook early morning breakfast for our hungry anglers. Our bait and tackle shop
has to be re stocked to ensure that you the customer has everything they might
need. All this happens along with early morning phone calls, answering of
emails, and checking any peg or chalet bookings. Then its time to open the
gates and give all our customers a warm welcome. Its at this stage when 99% of
our customers want to know how the various ponds are fishing and what is working
etc. By mid morning things settle down, most of the breakfasts are cooked and
most anglers are settled comfortably on the banks enjoying their fishing. This
is when we tackle our other jobs, cutting grass, reeds, fixing things that need
to be fixed, checking anglers hooks and giving advice as and when necessary,
picking up litter, checking the water temperature etc.Before you know, it's lunch time and that's when
our hungry anglers come into the office ready for their cooked lunch. The lunch
period can last three hours or so, as some anglers like to feed early, whilst
others reluctantly leaving their peg will come in as late as 2.00pm. Gradually
the day winds along as the early anglers leave. These are often replaced by
carp anglers ready to do a twenty four hour stint. Carpers come as late as
9.00pm in the summer and it is often 10.30pm before everyone is settled, fed and
watered before the office door can close. By then we should have fed the fish
in the stock ponds, emptied the bins, cleaned the toilets and removed any
rubbish from site for the second or third time in the day. Finally our bailiffs
do a walk around the ponds to make sure everyone is okay before going off to
bed. In the summer its a very long day from 6.00am in the morning till often
11.00pm at night.
On top of this, all through the day we have fly men
coming to fish the top lake and wanting the right advice, provision of flies
etc. We also supply trout fresh from the net and a busy summer day can see in
excess of seventy fish despatched. What I have just described is a pretty normal
day and that's what we do 7 days a week. During the year there are always a
host of different projects to do. Summer is our hectic time, whilst winter
means low attendances. Its a difficult time for cash flow during the winter,
but it is probably when we have most time to cut back the trees, make a bank,
weir, or peg repair, paint the loos, etc etc. On top of all the above there are
often chalets to clean. We run a pretty tight ship and on most days we like to
think we get it right.
Spring gives way to summer, and this is the busiest
time because not only are we busy with customers, but as the grass grows even
stronger, the weeds need cutting hedges are growing like mad and suddenly there
are not enough hours in the day. During the summer the water is getting warmer,
lice are breeding like crazy, the fish are going off their feed, water flows are
dropping off and the anglers are beginning to moan because fishing is hard.
When its too hot we all pray for rain. Autumn comes sometimes as a relief as
the water cools and fishing returns to normal. Anglers start to catch well
again. Falling leaves cause quite a problem, this is time of the year when we
must clean the grills several times a day.
A fisheries bailiff's job is a pleasurable
combination of an open air life dealing with livestock and nature while meeting
some really interesting anglers who appreciate the joys of fishing. Our
bailiffs may get a bit grumpy from time to time, but they all try very hard to
be as pleasant as possible and most will go to great lengths to ensure that you
have a good fishing session. There is also a lot of behind the scenes "stuff"
such as admin, accounts, buying and the like. All in all quite a bit to
do.
One of the main things we try to do is ensure that
our anglers follow our fishery rules - its just to make sure that all our fish
are looked after and that anglers have the correct equipment. 99% of the time
we get some really nice compliments. The odd time we have an irate customer who
feels the need to complain. We had one such customer recently. Rather than
complain direct to the owners they decided to air their views on a well known
carp forum putting Pendle View and our staff in a very bad light. Thank
goodness someone alerted me as to what was being said and I have had the
opportunity to defend ourselves. All in all it would appear that a pleasure
angler and his wife came to Pendle View to fish and the lady angler caught a
30lb carp. Lisa (our fisheries superintendent) was off duty when she got a phone
call saying that a fish needed to be verified. Lisa said she was delighted
that a lady angler had caught a big fish and told the lady that she would be
around in a flash. Lisa and Ryan (our fisheries superintendents) got in the
car to get to the scene as quickly as possible. As Lisa and Ryan approached the
lady, they could see that she had carried the carp up the steps and was placing
it on the stony ground. They could not believe their eyes. Lisa questioned the
lady as to her actions and the lady could not answer her. The lady and her
partner did not have a large unhooking mat, net or klin-ik. She and her
husband had come onto the lake pleasure fishing
and had been using feeder rods all day and had decided to put in boilies later
in the afternoon. Although Lisa could not believe what had happened she tried
to remain as calm as possible and advised the lady what she should use in the
future if she wishes to fish for carp. Apparently the couple had got some
boilies from a carper on the next peg. We are waiting for this carper to come
back onto to fish and we shall be asking him why he gave out some boilies to
pleasure anglers. We are also considering asking all anglers on the main lake
to have an unhooking mat. As you will see from the carp forum which features
this incident they felt that we have over reacted. I can sadly tell you that
since the incident we have found a dead 30lb carp in our reeds. We can tell you
that we believe this was the carp that was badly handled and a result of the
above. It is so sad as a fishery owner to have to report this. It takes years
to rear a carp to this size and then to have it lost in such a way. For those
of you who want to check out the story have a look at www.carpforum.co.uk Go to the carp forum
pages and do a search on pendle view.
Here is the fishing report.
Main Lake (Pleasure)
The main lake has seen a lot of rain coming
through giving the silver fishing a real boost. Casters, pinkies and worms
with a little ground bait loose feeding over pinkie or pinkie over caster with
chopped worm have proved the best for the bigger perch. The biggest bag went to
our Fisheries Superintendent, Ryan who caught a 88lb. Ryan was using caster
pinkies and chopped worm on the pole at 13 metres, with maggot as the hook
bait. Ryan also tried feeder fishing with Van Den Eynde super match and liquid
worm mixed with plenty of chopped worm in the feeder which keep skimmers and
ghost carp showing to his net. Our catch reports indicate that the lake is
fishing well at the moment and lots of anglers have reported plenty good bags of
fish.
Main Lake (Carp)
The colder weather has seen a few carp show. The
biggest carp out was by Jack Myers, a nice 19lb mirror in perfect condition.
There were also quite a few other carpers who landed some smaller carp falling
to paste. Ringers dark paste seems to be working at present.
Doughnut Lake (Pleasure)
This lake has taken a turn for the better, and the
catch reports indicate that a lot of anglers have had really good sessions on
this lake. The anglers who have fished the Doughnut Lake have reported bags
containing lots of lovely carp, tench and some lovely silvers. Loose feed
pellets and caster with ringers paste as hook bait have worked well. The
largest bag reported on the doughnut lake was a nice 42lb bag of carp and
tench. The largest tench recorded was 5lb 3oz. Then to our surprise we got an
email shown at the end of this report showing a much bigger 97lb bag of mostly
Carp!
Fly Lake
Fishing has been really good. The best tactics to
use are to let the fly go with the flow of the water. When it comes round
slowly bring the fly in. Due to the heavy rain the water is coloured. Gold
hares ear, flex floss bloodworm, and white cats whisker seem to be the flys that
are a must with rainbows and a couple of blue trout chasing them while browns
are just under the surface waiting for the white moth dry fly. Sport has been
up and down with the rain.
The averages are as follows:
Monday 2.3
Tuesday No anglers
Wednesday No anglers
Thursday No anglers
Friday 1.6
Saturday 2.5
Sunday 2.8
LASTLY
We sometimes get some great feedback from anglers.
Here is once such email which I received this week from an angler called Josh.
It reads
"Hi Lin, I have just returned home as I have been
fishing at Pendle View this morning. I had a couple of hours on the trout lake,
then I went up on the top on the doughnut lake for about four hours and I had a
cracking morning. I have enclosed a couple of pictures for you which I would
like to have included in the newsletter."
Josh fished with us on the 17th December. Thanks
Josh emails and comments like this make our job seem worthwhile.
Well folks that's all for now. Have a Great
Christmas. The next newsletter will be on Boxing Day.
best wishes
Lin from Pendle View
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