Fishing - Anybody doing any ?

Started on my new syndicate at the weekend, on the Horton Island lake. My first time using a boat, and in 35mph winds at time - it's damn hard work! But I soon got the hang of it after a few near disasters :D

But my god, what an amazing venue.. 65 Acres of Gin clear water, weed beds, snaggy bays, gravel bars, snags, sunken gravel barges, it has it all. Some absolute cracking fish in here, old suttons, 50 year old original fish, with the king of the lake going just over 60lb.

Using a boat is amazing, with an aquascope you can see everything in clear water. Got 2 weeks off to spend here next week, which I can't wait for.

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Yeah me neither :D it's a bit of a baptism of fire, so much stuff to learn. The lake itself has 3x islands and several large bodies of water, all of the swims require boat use - you basically pack your gear into the boat at the compound, launch down the ramp - then off you go, you can't really walk to any of the swims except for ones near the carpark and stuff.

The amount of stuff you can learn about the water, what the bottom looks and feels like and where the fish are feeding - and even if they're feeding, you can drop bait off and see if it's been eaten the next day, it's very cool.

It's very difficult though, when I first went out in the wind - I dropped an "H-Block" on a spot I found, but I was getting blown all over the place, I'd look down and try to get sorted - then discover I'd drifted 50 feet in the best part of a minute... The next day I got much better at it, I did buy a posh 80lb brushless motor for the boat which has a hellish amount of thrust so that helped!

To be honest, the lake is so large and weedy in the summertime - you wouldn't be able to fish it without a boat. Any fish you hook is going to bury it's head in a weedbed, and without a boat you have literally no chance of getting it out. However with a boat, you can get right into the weedbed and get with it - so the chances of landing it become much greater.
 
Bouton Aide said:
@Screeeech what you paying per year for the privs of that syndicate?
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You can get on the Island lake (boating) and two others, for £750 a year, however I'll be jumping on one of the other lakes for the winter, so I'm paying £1500 for access to 5x waters.

It's a lot of money but for what you get, but to be fair I've spent so much time screwing around with day tickets, that for an entire years fishing for this level of fish, alongside serious anglers - is great.
 
Screeeech said:
You can get on the Island lake (boating) and two others, for £750 a year, however I'll be jumping on one of the other lakes for the winter, so I'm paying £1500 for access to 5x waters.

It's a lot of money but for what you get, but to be fair I've spent so much time screwing around with day tickets, that for an entire years fishing for this level of fish, alongside serious anglers - is great.
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That's fab and the best thing is like you said "alongside serious anglers". A lot of people I meet won't pay that price and they expect the world for nothing, horrible anglers as well and they think they are pros when they just talk crap on the bank.

Don't get many chances been part of syndicates...
 
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Bouton Aide said:
That's fab and the best thing is like you said "alongside serious anglers". A lot of people I meet won't pay that price and they expect the world for nothing, horrible anglers as well and they think they are pros when they just talk crap on the bank.
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Yeah it's brilliant.

We had the swim draw on Saturday, (1st day of fishing) after they close the lake for a few weeks in April. Everybody was down, everyone was real nice - chilled, some pro anglers were down too, really helpful and just a million miles away from the normal rat race.

Yesterday morning as I was boating back, I bumped into Dave Lane "Laney" who I'd regard as one of the best carp anglers there is, and we were just sat in our boats chatting in the middle of the lake, as he was looking for a swim for the next three nights, it was just pure class..

He's done a bunch of really good videos about the Island lake over the last couple of years, just him and his dog fishing - they're all worth a watch;

 
father-ted said:
I've never had the urge to fish for carp over 3 days.
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To be fair, I don't normally do more than 3x nights. After that I tend to start to get a bit smelly and ready for a shower! I also find that after more than 3x nights my angling starts to go downhill a little, I stop doing things I'd normally do, like having the urge to move on fish, or have everything perfect and I end up with a "that's good enough" attitude and things start getting slack. I also find time away allows me to clear my head and come back fresher.
 
Bouton Aide said:
Fresher than a carp that double tail walks in the morning mist.
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Oh yeah, a real good fish did that over my spot on Sunday morning, went out for a look at midday and they hadn't touched the bait! it hasn't done a fish yet, so I'm hoping them switch on and start eating next week!

Gonna get my gropro sorted out and do some videos that I might put on youtube, I might also try and get some underwater footage from the boat, as the new gopros are waterproof to 30ft.
 
Screeeech said:
Yesterday morning as I was boating back, I bumped into Dave Lane
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That guy's been fishing Horton for forever lol, i saw him down there on the church lake in the early 90's as i wondered round the place just having a look,
i think at the time the lake had either just turned into a syndicate or was about to
 
cainer said:
That guy's been fishing Horton for forever lol, i saw him down there on the church lake in the early 90's as i wondered round the place just having a look,
i think at the time the lake had either just turned into a syndicate or was about to
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Yeah there's a bunch of them who've been fishing it for years. I was talking to a guy who's been on Wraysbury 2 for ages, cutting his own swims and stuff - it's a real wilderness.

In the early 90s I imagine that's around the time it went to Cemex, there are still old rusty signs all over the place with "Cemex Angling" on and stuff..

Unless something really bad happens in my life, I will absolutely be fishing the complex for a long time - the waters and the quality of the stock are brilliant.
 
Screeeech said:
Yeah there's a bunch of them who've been fishing it for years. I was talking to a guy who's been on Wraysbury 2 for ages, cutting his own swims and stuff - it's a real wilderness.

In the early 90s I imagine that's around the time it went to Cemex, there are still old rusty signs all over the place with "Cemex Angling" on and stuff..

Unless something really bad happens in my life, I will absolutely be fishing the complex for a long time - the waters and the quality of the stock are brilliant.
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I used to fish Yateley back then (mid 80's to late 90's) and remember Horton was originally on the same ticket, it used to be called Leisure Sport Angling and you could fish any of their lakes around the country,
(hence why i was able to walk around Horton Church Lake)

iirc Hall Aggregates/RMC originally owned Leisure Sport in the 80's, they then sold up to Cemex sometime in the very early 90's who then took several lakes off the country wide ticket and made them syndicates,
both Yateley and Horton were on that list, i remember everyone moaning about the price of the new ticket for Yateley as it went up from something like £30 a year to £150 a year once it went 'syndicate'
 
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cainer said:
i remember everyone moaning about the price of the new ticket for Yateley as it went up from something like £30 a year to £150 a year once it went 'syndicate'
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lol :D

And now you have lakes like Bluebell and Norton Disney, where it's like £100 for a few days, and you can't even get a swim.
 
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