Waiting List – 2020 and 2021

I have a bit of a problem that I cannot fix without your assistance !

While sorting through the flood of bookings for the 2022 Season I have had numerous requests from people who want to be put on my 2022 Waiting List.

This morning I went to transfer those requests into my little blue book only to find that it has disappeared, I have turned this place upside down and cannot find it anywhere.

Obviously I still have the names for the 2022 Season and I have started a new list in a new blue book, my problem is that I no longer have the names of those of you who have previously asked to be put on the waiting list for the 2020 and the 2021 Seasons.

Sorry

In order to correct this I must ask you to re-submit your names if you still wish to be on the waiting list for 2020 and 2021.  If you can also indicate your preferred periods that would be helpful.

We do not get many cancellations but we do get one or two most seasons and it is always nice to think that they can be given to someone who has been waiting a while rather than someone who just happens to be in the right place at the right time.

Thank you for your help with this.

Availability Update – 2020/2021/2022

It has been a very hectic morning because of the opening of the 2022 calendar and I would like to thank everyone for their continued confidence in Helen and I to provide you with a great session of carp fishing.

My only regret is that I have had to disappoint so many people this morning, I just wish that I had 3 Septembers !!

19 weeks of our 32 week season have already been reserved and assuming that you all confirm your bookings then the current availability is as follows :

2020

Fully booked

2021

July the 10th and the 17th only

2022

April the 2nd,  the 9th,  and the the 30th

May the 14th,  and the 21st

June the 11th and the 18th

July the 30th

August the 6th

September is fully booked

October the 8th,  the 15th,  the 22nd, and the 29th (last week of the season)

2023

In accordance with our normal practise the 2023 Calendar will open on the 1st of December 2020.

The 2022 Season

I am just posting this as a reminder that the calendar for the 2022 Season will open from mid-night on the 30th of November.

Importantly, that is 11 pm UK time, to be fair to all please do not submit your application before this time.

All inquiries will be dealt with in order that they arrive in my in-box, please ensure that you use the following e-mail address :

moulindegraf@hotmail.co.uk

If you have multiple options please list all of your dates on the one e-mail in order of preference.  In the event that I am unable to allocate you with your first option I will allocate your second option, and so on.

If you are trying to reserve multiple weeks please ensure that this is made clear in your e-mail.

I will reply to all inquiries before close of play on Sunday the 1st of December.

If it is of any interest there are still 2 weeks available for the 2021 season and they are the 10th and the 17th of July.

Availability 2020

Yesterday I posted an article about the unexpected availability of the week commencing the 15th of August 2020.

I would like to thank everyone who has inquired about it but in an effort to stop my phone from ringing I must inform you that the week in question has now been booked and is no longer available.

I am receiving a constant flow of inquiries regarding next season so I would also like to take this opportunity to confirm that the whole of the 2020 season is booked.

Helen and I thank you all for your continued support.

 

Unexpected Availability – 15 Aug 2020

 

Due to unfortunate circumstances we have just received a cancellation for the week commencing the 15 of August 2020.

If this period is of interest to you please contact me directly by either telephone on 0033 555 48 69 74 or via e-mail on    moulindegraf@hotmail.co.uk

If you are not able to take advantage of this opportunity please share this information with anyone who you think may be interested.

 

Catch Report Summary – 2019

I am a great one for quoting facts and figures at everyone when they are here fishing and people do sometimes wonder where I get it all from, well the answer is simple, I get it from Helen’s spreadsheet.

You will all know that my fish are micro-chipped and every detail from those little catch sheets that Helen and I get you to complete is duly transferred on to her spreadsheet, this can then be interrogated to produce all manner of information.

I am not pretending for a moment that I know how to do this because I don’t, but Helen does.  I ask for the information that I need and she produces the stats, the only weakness with the system is that it is only as accurate as the information that has been input to it.

There is always an occasion when people forget to scan a fish or forget to record a number, or weight, etc, but the vast majority of you keep immaculate records of your catches and as a consequence I reckon that our data is 99% accurate.

This is an invaluable tool and it allows us to manage our fishery with the accuracy that we do, to everyone who has contributed to the data this season we thank you all for your input as we could not do this without you.

The average catch this season has gone up as has the total weight of fish but the average weight of each fish has dropped, this is mainly due to the fact that I introduced some new stockies last Winter and they have been appearing on catch records at an alarming rate and bringing the average down !!  Hungry little blighters.

As usual we have only fished 26 weeks of this year, we have had a total of 66 anglers plus 10 other non-fishing guests so the average number of anglers per week has been 2.538, lets call it 2 and a half.

In between that we have been completely closed for 6 weeks randomly spread throughout the season, so if you add that into the mix then the average is reduced to 2.06 anglers per week of the 32 week season that we operate around.

I must be a politician because I can make up stats as I go, if you spread the 66 anglers across the year then it works out to 1.26 anglers per week for the whole of 2019.

I prefer to use the first version because it gives a truthful indication of how lightly fished our venue is; an average of 2.5 anglers per week for 26 weeks of the year.

The total weight of fish caught this season is 32 thousand 161 pounds, yes 32,161 lbs, if you divide that between our lucky 66 anglers then that is an average of 487 lbs each.

We have recorded a total of 925 fish caught, divide that into the total weight and it gives an average of 34.78 pounds per fish, or in real money that is slightly shy of 34lb 12oz.

This is down on last year’s average but, as said,  that is mainly due to the number of times the new stockies have been showing up as sub-20lb fish.

We have recorded 203 individual fish caught but we have also recorded 53 fish as non tagged or no tag recorded, primarily the latter.  Obviously we have no way of knowing for sure whether some of the 53 are the same fish as the 203 or completely different fish so the best I can say is that the total of individual fish caught is between 203 and 256.

If you divide these figures into the 925 fish caught then you can conclude that the average number of times that each fish has been caught is between 4.55 and 3.61 times per fish per season.  Obviously some more than others.

What I can say is that this season we have had 3 fish caught for the very first time since we stocked them in 2012, so that has been a very pleasant surprise.  We also still have several fish that we have never accounted for since their initial stocking so I am convinced that there are more surprises to come.

The total caught of 925 divided by the number of anglers makes for an average of 14.015 fish per angler per week, lets call it 14.  That is up from 2018 when the average was 12, but of course that is only an average.

Every angler is different and the conditions vary from week to week and even from day to day.  Another key element is the number of anglers fishing on any one week and how they spread themselves around the lake.  Here are some interesting stats :

Groups of 1 angler;  the best 1 angler catch was 63 fish, the least best was 9 fish.

Groups of 2 anglers;  the best 2 angler catch was 96 fish, the least best was 9 fish.

Groups of 3 anglers;  the best 3 angler catch was 69 fish, the least best was 14 fish.

Groups of 4 anglers;  the best 4 angler catch was 85 fish, the least best was 28 fish.

Groups of 5 anglers;  The best and worst was the same group with 47 fish.

You can interpret these stats in many ways but I would say that if you are by yourself and you are “on-the-fish” then the potential is there for the session of a lifetime, but, be aware if you cannot locate the fish, because 10 acres is a lot to cover by one angler and they are not always easy to find.

Groups of 4 produce a better average across the group providing everyone with the chance of a good average session.

I have had to massage the figures slightly as we did have a 2 angler group who only caught 3 fish, but they were only here for a 24 hour session so I have removed them from the above stats.

We have also added to our dry-net total this season by 2, giving a grand total to-date of 5.  One was a genuine dry net and try as he might he could not locate the fish.  The second is questionable as the chap in question had to leave rather early and go home so he never actually had a chance to rectify the situation.  But stats are stats and 5 dry nets in the 7 years we have been recording them is a pretty good stat in my book.

The Big Carp Award this season goes to Big Adi who is currently our lake record holder at 66lb 06oz :

The Top Rod Award was less simple as I have been torn between 2 catches.  Geoff knocked up a total of 63 big carp for 2195 lb of fish and he was fishing all by himself, that was an amazing feat.

But stats are stats and I have awarded this season’s Top Rod to Garry, and although he was part of a 2 man group he still knocked up an amazing individual total of 72 big carp for a total weight of 2421 lbs.

I am sure that you will agree that it has been a fantastic season across the board.

I don’t know about you but I can’t wait for next season.

 

Final Catch Report for 2019

You will all know that my 2019 season actually ended last weekend with Marcus and his family making one last splash with 42 big carp to 65lb.

The first Saturday in November is normally as far as I will push the season for no other reason than it is around then when the weather changes and the first real signs of Winter arrive.  It is nothing to do with the theory that one cannot catch big carp in the Winter because you can, it is more to do with the damage that is caused around the lake, and particularly to the edges of the swims, when the ground gets soft and slushy.

Well this week the weather has proved the case once again.  It has been raining on and off for the last couple of weeks and the ground was already starting to soften, but this week it has rained and rained and rained, and then it rained some more just to rub salt into a wound, and it has been very unpleasant to say the least.

For 1 or 2 hours, on 1 or 2 days, the lake looked its usual beautiful self :

but this was the exception.

We have had rain so heavy that there have been rivers of mud flowing down my drive which have washed great sections of it away (another job to be done come the Spring).  My stock ponds have turned into liquid chocolate with the volume of mud being washed down from the surrounding fields, my boat has sunk, the lake flooded, and the quad bike which normally creates no damage has churned some of my tracks to pieces.

And this was the week that Simon tried to squeeze in one last session BEFORE Winter arrived !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He arrived on Saturday afternoon during a lull in the storms, he was accompanied by his friend Ian and between the 3 of us we managed to move all of their kit down to the lake without getting it wet, they chose to fish together from swim 5 and effectively fish the deep water area from swim 4 through to the dam wall along the side of swim 6.

From the minute they arrived there were fish feeding and showing everywhere but once again the bulk of the activity was in the silty areas.

It was a race against time as it was going to be dark by 6pm and the next storm was due to arrive at any time.  It was at this point that I became aware that Ian is the proud owner of Carpier Clothing, a smart line of clothing specifically aimed at carp anglers.

His clothing certainly looked the part but it was going to be tested to the point of destruction this week.  As it was it certainly proved to be durable and, very importantly, it was warm, check him out on

home

It is a rare occasion when I have any sympathy for you anglers, enjoying the tranquillity while doing what you love, but this week the rain woke me up several times through the nights, pounding on the roof, and I must confess to considering how the Lads were coping with each deluge.  Only for a second though before I turned over and went back to sleep.

As it turned out I need not have bothered, they simply battened down the hatches, or in this case closed the doors, and waited it out :

Very cosy.

The rain isn’t really the issue, it is what the rain does to the temperature of the lake that really makes the difference.  So far this season the rain had been warm and coming up from the south but this week the rain has been cold, very cold, and it has been blowing down from the north, I am sure you are all aware of the problems in The Midlands and The North of England this week ??  Well we have been receiving the tale end of those storms as they have been whipping around.

As a consequence the temperature of the lake water has been dropping by one or two degrees per day, and that is much too quick and severe a change for big carp.

Once the temperature stabilises at its new level the carp will quickly adjust but a big fluctuation like that really does change their behaviour, and that change is never in favour of the angler.

As for the fishing ? well it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, the weather was bad enough to take the edge of any angler and lesser men would have spent most of the week wrapped up in the Gite but Simon and Ian made the best of a very difficult situation and managed a very respectable 15 big carp to 54lb.

The final tally was :

Zero Babies,   1 Double at 17lb,   1 @ 24lb,   1 @ 25lb,   1 @ 26lb,   2 @ 28lb,   2 @ 30lb,   2 @ 31lb,   1 @ 34lb,   1 @ 35lb,   1 @ 41lb,   1 @ 51lb,  and 1 at 54lb 14oz.

Simon would have loved to have caught Pumba, as it was him that came up with the name, but it was not to be.  However, Pumba might just have some competition for Simon’s affections, he seems to be getting very friendly with Poseidon at 51lb 10oz :

Ian just wanted to get rods in and catch a couple of fish so he was more than happy to add a couple of pounds to his PB when he met The Slab who weighed in at 54lb 14oz :

When they left on Saturday it had just about stopped raining and by the afternoon the sun had returned and I was out in the forest cutting up some more wood in preparation for the Winter proper.

Today the weather is beautiful and sunny, but cold.  Helen is out doing her usual 10 miles around the french countryside and I am about to go and put the kettle on.

If I find time this week to interrogate Helen’s spread sheet I will produce a catch summary for the whole of the season so watch this space next weekend.