September 2002:

Plenty of carp were caught from Plantation Lake in matches and one of the top weights was 190lb from peg 44 by Melvin Gray which was followed by 11 more all over 100lb with 11th place going to 107lb. All the fish were carp and caught on the pole.

Forge Lake produced 15 carp to Mr Simmons and Mr Tully with the best scaling 27lb. They also landed a sturgeon of 16lb and the best baits were boilies, meat and worms.

Robert Harman fished a pleasure session on Mill Lake to catch 72lb of mainly carp 4oz to 1lb 8oz plus tench and crucians. All were played on No 8 elastic.

Stubpond itself is producing plenty of carp at night to 14lb to Arthur Bones though surface fishing with crust and dog biscuits during the day is also working for some. Meanwhile catches on Chart Lake included plenty of small carp, tench, roach, rudd, perch and a few blue carp.

Syndicate and Middle Lakes are actually fishing better than Gold Lake for bags of fish, though Syndicate Lake has also produced a couple of 20lb carp. Lots of crucians are being taken from Middle Lake and match anglers need 100lb to frame. One angler who caught 97lb didn't even win his section. Day anglers are catching between 40 and 50 carp of a sitting.

One of the best methods is fish small cubes of meat down the edge, feeding the occasional cubes of meat and lots of hemp.

Meat is now allowed on matches at this fishery as an experiment and anglers have had success with hair rigged meat. The limit is four 330 gram tins and with all the anglers sticking to the rules, meat in matches is expected to continue.

The waters are teeming with carp fry for the first time. Previous years the spawn has been eaten by other fish and it remains to be seen how many survive the winter and what action is to be taken.