Latest from Zenia at Anglers Paradise
Matthew Colegate, 26 from Leigh in Kent caught some stunning Koi including a Two Tone Koi!! Matthew lost count of the number of Koi he ended up catching, the biggest at 8lb 8oz and 8lb 2oz, I’ve included all the pictures as they are far too good not to share!! All the fish were caught on free lined mixers/A2 baits pellets.
I’m personally extremely envious and I’m sure many of you will be too!!
The catfish are waking up and on the feed _ see the latest from North Devons top cat venue!
Well Done to Angeline Gardiner who has caught not one but two Personal Best Cats! A 20lb and a 23lb Wels Catfish!!
Both from the Easy Access Lake.
THE CATS ARE ON THE FEED!!
Getting reports left, right and centre about Catfish catches from the Day Ticket Lakes and the Anglers Paradise exclusive Lakes!
Oliver Dietrich from Virginstow, decided to do a day and a night on Nirvana’s Specimen Cat Lake and caught a Personal Best 51lb Wels Catfish!
Oliver caught the Cat using Robin baits new Hybrid boilies, the picture isn’t great as it’s a self take taken at night.
Come join in the action and book yourselves in on one of our several great Day Ticket Lakes!
WELL DONE OLIVER!
(Above)Ian Fowler caught a 38lb 4oz Mirror from our Day Ticket Kracking Carp Lake at Nirvana. Ian caught the big Mirror with a trimmed down Element hook bait on a running rig size 8 barbless hook on soft braid fished 12 metres from bank in swim 1. Ian also caught this lovely 26lb 3oz Linear Carp from the Specimen Carp Lake. Ian caught the beauty using The Element by Denham baits presented as a snowman fished on a 3oz running rig, size 6 barbless hook to N’trap soft hooklink placed beside some lillies on the island margin.
(Above) Matthew Colegate completely smashed the Main Carp Lake catching a variety of Carp! Mathew caught Mirrors of 20lbs 6oz, 20lbs 4oz, 19lbs 10oz, 17lbs 14oz, 17lbs 8oz, 16lbs 14oz and a 19lb 6oz Common, all in immaculate condition. All fish were caught on a simple blow back rig with A2 Baits Fruity Fish Wafter over A2 Baits Fruity Fish freebies with a couple of handfuls of corn.
(Above) Nick Rayment also joined in on the action and caught himself a 24lb 4oz Mirror from the Main Carp Lake on Mainline Cell.
(Above) AMAZING GOLDEN CATCH! Here is Jonathan Sanders from Corsham, Wiltshire with his truly fantastic Personal Best 5lb 8oz Golden Tench from the Specimen Tench and Orfe Lake! Jonathan caught the beauty on float fished sweetcorn.
Father and Son, Daniel and Michael Shephard stayed with us last week at Anglers Paradise for the first time and wanted to catch some of the Specimens on the main complex Lakes.
Michael Shephard caught a stunning 26lb 4oz Common from the Specimen Carp Lake, Daniel caught two pretty scaley Mirrors of 22lb 1oz and 14lb 7oz, with Daniel also landing a 15lb 5oz Common from the Main Carp Lake. All fish were caught on our popular Paradise Baits ‘The Twist’ boilies. Daniel said – “It has been a pleasure fishing on your complex, we will definitely be coming back with some more of our friends thanks again for having us.”
(Below)2 PERSONAL BESTS FOR YOUNG HARVEY! We are over the moon for Harvey Cooper, age 10 years old from Seaton who’s beaten his Personal Best twice in 2 hours! Harvey caught a 17lb 6oz Mirror and a 22lb 12oz Mirror from the Main Carp Lake. Harvey set up on Friday 13th on Neville’s Point with his brother Tristan and Dad Scott, casting his baits over to the margin of the 5c’s island he settled into the session. At 9pm Harvey had his first take which resulted in a 17lb 6oz Mirror (New PB!!) he left that rod out to let his swim settle. At 11pm his final rod burst into life which resulted in another Personal Best 22lb12oz Mirror. Both fish were caught on Paradise Baits ‘The Twist’ boilies. Harvey said – “Two pb’s in two hours, I was well chuffed!! Friday 13th not unlucky for some!!”
(Below) Julian Chidgey had a couple of hours at Anglers Paradise on the Specimen Carp Lake. After seeing a couple of big carp sunbathing amongst the weed, it took him a while to get them interested, but then out of the blue a lovely fish appeared in the margin and took a stray mixer. Swinging the cut down pop up hookbait into position gave him an instant take and a beautiful 24lb Mirror.
Water temperatures are slowly rising and this normally gets the catfish moving. The latest report from Anglers Paradise come right on time. The first few weeks of springlike weather often see the cats go on feeding frenzy with multiple catches likely especially from Eldorado’s catfish lake that has very good head of fish. If you want a fish of lifetime try the Day Ticket Nirvana lake which has cats to over 50lb!
With the temperatures rising, the Cats are showing!! A 35lb Cat came out of Eldorado’s Bottom Cat and Carp Lake and here’s Jack Sparrow who caught a Personal Best 47lb 3oz Cat from Nirvana’s Specimen Cat Lake on a Krill Wafter on a running rig with a pva bag of smashed up halibut pellets and ground bait. As you can see Jack caught the Catfish at night and had to do a self-take so the quality of picture isn’t great but you can still see the size of it!
Big Fish Off
The latest series of the Big Fish Off is scheduled to air on ITV4 starting on the 29th March at 8pm. Not sure when the episode that was shot here is on, but there are sure to be some cracking episodes with a load of laughs, can’t wait. The show will be discussed on Soccer AM this Saturday,17th March and there will also be clips from the forthcoming series.
The Big One
If you’re planning on visiting The Big One Show between the 24th and 25th March in Farnborough, Hampshire, then make sure you pay the Anglers Paradise Team a visit! They will be on stand 28a along with Deception Angling. Zyg and Zenia will be there to greet you. Over the course of the weekend there is an opportunity to win a holiday for 8 people. For a lucky few, or probably the early birds, they’ll be a chance to take away a sample of the “Twist” which is one of the Paradise Baits range, produced exclusively by Burton Bait Rollers.
All the big angling names will be there, as well as their products and hopefully there will be some cracking deals to be had. “We hope to see you there for our 1st ever show, we are very excited!!”
Fish Moving Well
Lee Abbott one of our estate staff lost a big fish on Kraking Carp the other day. Fish are moving well now that the milder climes are here, were glad to see the back of the cold spell we had the other week, even we experienced snow even though it “never snows in Devon”
Special Easter Offer
We still have Fisherman’s Majestic on offer (sleeps 4) on March 31st normally £900 a week, for the offer price of £700. Fabulous views across Dartmoor at a saving of over 20%. Offer is on a first come first served basis. Come and join Rose and myself for. Apart from the offer there is still are a limited number of villas available over Easter.
Otters have become a controversial topic within the angling world with the reintroduction of the species into areas where their numbers have dwindled proving disastrous in some instances. I have no expertise in this area so can only give my own views and feelings without any scientific facts. I have seen otters on the rivers around North Devon on many occasions and I am always thrilled when I glimpse them as they hunt the river. Otters have been present on North Devon rivers for many years and have a big place in peoples hearts this is in part due to literature like Henry Williamson’s famous tome “Tarka the Otter” and the film ‘Ring of Bright Water’.
I believe that wild otters are part of North Devon’s natural Eco-system and belong as the damage they do on the river is acceptable. Sadly eel numbers have plummeted as have salmon and sea trout numbers and this undoubtedly forces the otters to look elsewhere for food. When they find a lake stocked with big meaty fish like carp they undoubtedly feel that they have stumbled upon a natural bounty. The fact that a specimen carp can be worth several thousand pounds is of no consequence to the otter. To the fishery owner an otter visit can be devastating which is why responsible fishery owners are investing thousands of pounds in building otter fences around their lakes.
Anglers Paradise are investing many thousands into the building of an otter proof fence to protect the valuable stock within their lakes.
See post below from Anglers Paradise.
PROTECTING ANGLERS PARADISE
Sadly, with the ever increasing threat of Otters being released in the UK, means that all Fisheries need to take action in protecting their stock.
We have commenced work on our Otter Fence which will protect the Anglers Paradise Lakes, it’s a BIG job but we have had to do it for the future of Anglers Paradise.
Otter Fence
Construction on the Otter fence has progressed. The fence now runs from the Trout Lake to Easy Access Lake and beyond, a mammoth project in order to protect our stock from Otters and other predators. Evidence of Otter damage is a constant reminder that the population has soared in recent years.
The fence should hopefully be completed within the next couple of weeks.
Opportunities to fish for pike are limited in North Devon with only around half a dozen venues holding the species. If you fancy a try at pike fishing Anglers Paradise has a good stock of these toothy critters available to target with lures. See report from Zenia at AP below.
PIKE ALERT
Ashley Bunning used his day off work to have a couple of hours on Valhalla. Ashley caught 3 Pike in total with this being the biggest and used a Ecogear Ikajaco Lure to catch them.
Remember our Predator Lake Valhalla is now open for all to fish until February, time to get some Winter Lure Fishing in!
Call 01409 221559 to book.
(Above)Nicholas Rayment, 61 from East Sussex joined us for his free week after his 10th year in a row holidaying with us and decided to target the Specimen Carp Lake as the Main Carp Lake is being prepped ready for the fish to return.
Nicholas was made up when he caught a 22lb 12oz Mirror and a 23lb 8oz Common making his week! Nicholas fished from the Pagoda, using a bottom bait presentation size 6 wide gap hook with a 20mm Krill Boilie fishing over a small bed of hemp, sweetcorn, 10mm boilies and 15mm half baits.
(Above)Oli Dietrich, 43 from Virginstow was a very happy chappy after landing a 26lb 8oz Common also from Nirvana’s Day Ticket Xanadu Lake. Oli used a 18mm bottom bait on a simple blow back rig, with two kilos of freebies around the hook bait in the margin, and was caught on a Robin baits new test bait TT.
(Above)Alan George 39, from Treharris, South Wales caught a 21lb 14oz Common from Nirvana’s Day Ticket Xanadu Lake. Alan caught the Common using Mad Baits Nuts snowman on a Fluro D Rig, fished over boilie crumb and whole boilies.
Paul Craddock from Southampton fished the Specimen Carp Lake and caught a PB 27lb 2oz Mirror off the top on a Sticky Krill Floater. After a 20 minute battle through the patches of Lily Pads he finally landed the fish, Paul couldn’t believe that he beat his old PB by 10lbs! Paul said – “New PB was now 27lb 2oz… That one fish made the whole trip worth it. Thank you for the opportunity to fish such a fantastic venue.”
EASY ACCESS COMMON OFF THE TOP
5C’s Member Maggot Mick Whitfield recently had a few hours on the Easy Access Lake and managed to catch this lovely 12lb Common off the top on dog biscuits.
It just goes to show that if you get the conditions right then you can fish off the surface any time of year!