The bailiffs on Barden Lake have created another fine swim in the Willow Bay area. The old ‘Secret’ swim has been closed during the summer months and this new safer ‘Secret’ swim will be open all year round. This will carry the halfway casting rule, as do the other swims in Willow Bay. The old ‘Secret’ swim will be reopened in the autumn for day fishing.

Society bailiff Phil Hollens continued his run of fine fish with this latest capture at 40lb 13oz.

Phil Hollens and Michael Mcmahon have been amongst the fish recently with these fine captures. Phil with the Brute at 38lb 4oz and Michael with a 37lb 5oz and  a 24lb 4oz.

Well done fellas.

Young Alex Stokes enjoyed a red letter day with his dad Gareth on the New Lagoon recently, catching 30 Tench to 4lb 10oz and eight Carp to around 5lb. Alex caught all his fish on the float and using sweetcorn as bait. Well done Alex.

In one of our recent Society matches, Match Secretary Martyn Hill,  hooked and landed a stunning 9lb Barbel using legered flavoured luncheon meat. Martyn caught the fish fairly early in the match and hoped to follow it up with another. The fishing was a little tough due to the running coloured water and unfortunately Martyn was unable to entice another Medway torpedo. Although Martyn did not go on to win the Match, this was a very memorable catch as we do not have on record any other Barbel being caught in a Society match. This capture puts Martyn in a very strong position for the new ‘Bill Mitchell Match Specimen Trophy’. Well done Martyn.

Regular club match angler Roger Trask fished a Wednesday Classic last week on the Old Ballast Pit and caught a very big Crucian which weighed in at 5lb 2oz. Roger initially didn’t realise the magnitude of his catch until the word got round to the rest of the match anglers. The weather was atrocious, so Roger had a job to find someone to take a picture in the conditions. Once the fish was weighed, photographed and witnessed, the fish was quickly returned to the water. By the end of the match, everyone was telling Roger that it was probably a record sized fish. Unfortunately, the pictures taken were not of good quality and did not do the fish justice. Since the capture has been reported, it has caused a bit of a stir in the press as most people believe it to be a true Crucian. We know the origin of the fish as around 5 years ago, the Club stocked several broodstock Crucians of over 3lb, supplied by Coarsefish UK. Since the, we have had several 3lb+ captures, 2 fish over 4lb and now this one. We won’t know 100% until a recapture occurs, but we are very confident it is one of the stocked true Crucians. Well done Roger.

Venue regular, Jason Craven got amongst the quality Rudd recently, bagging a nice 2lb specimen

A warm sunny day afloat on Weirwood turned into a very productive day for Austin Battell recently. Using the Westin W3 8ft Dropshot rod, Austin caught 4 nice Pike to nearly 12lb and several nice Perch to 2lb 6oz. The Westin Shadteez and Crayfish patterns were the best lures on the day.

Jason Craven’s 8lb 8oz Tench from the New Lagoon won him the monthly Pallatrax prize in the May edition of the Freshwater Informer. Well done Jason, a selection of the latest range of Pallatrax hooks are on the way to you.