Hendre Fishing Lake Carp Singles Competition Summer 2019

Hendre Fishing Lake is a stunning coarse fishing lake situated at the bottom of St. Mellons just on the edge of Cardiff before entering Newport ,not far from the coast. This lake was originally dug to alleviate the flooding in the surrounding housing estates and areas. Hendre Fishing Lake is one of the best "Carp Runs" waters in South Wales, Its holds a good head of double figure carp to 30 lb+  along with other fresh water species in high numbers such as Bream, Roach, Tench, Perch Rudd & Pike along with some visiting species such as Chub. Now under management by Jason Massay, a Nash sponsored angler, this lake offers superb coarse angling for the novice and pro angler alike. It was decided this year they would hold a local carp fishing competition for all the season ticket holders and then any open spaces in the competition would be offered to any angler who wished to enter. 

The competition was to be done in 3 rounds total. The first 2 being qualifying rounds where 12 anglers would take each other on and only the top 5 go through to the final round. Each angler would be drawn from the hat in turn and then they would have to choose the swim they wish to fish during the competition. This mean not only luck was playing a part but also some watercraft, as knowing your swim would be a great advantage. Once the swims were selected the anglers would then have 30 hours non stop fishing to get as many carp as they can.

The first 2 rounds were in July , one on the first weekend and one on the last weekend of the month with the final planned for the middle of August.

First Semi final 6-7th July draw 8 am

1 Kieron Carmichael

2 Nigel Lancastle

3 Michael Cleaver

4 Jason Turner

5 Stuart Hutchison

6 Carl Scott

7 Chris Weston

8 George Rauch

9 Shaun Harrington

10 Joshua Hancock

11 Kelvin Smith

12 Chris Robinson

We have been having some extreme weather this year with temperatures jumping to the high 20;s very quickly and sudden downpours and thunderstorms in between. This meant the fishing would be very interesting and every angler was in with a shot at winning the competition. The first weekend of July arrived and the anglers were set. Straight from the off the Leaders soon started to show and by the end of day one the competition was very close with a battle going on for the leading position, who was building a big weight of fish very quickly,  and another for the bottom positions all chasing to qualify. Kieron took an early lead from the back of the island peg 12 and managed to keep going into the evening with the car park bank chasing him very close and managing to take the lead in the first day.  A battle for top position ran Into the second day where we saw a switch in the weather and a change in the wind direction, this mixed  things up a bit , the back of the island swim  started slowing down and bites were hard to come by. Carl Scott, on the railway bank, which is one of the favoured pegs for the competition, started taking a lead and was driving the carp into a frenzy fishing on the top feeding biscuits and using bread on the hook. 

This turned out to be the winning method on the second day with all anglers trying their hardest to get those last minuet bites coming into the last hour with a very close battle between the trailing anglers all fighting for that last qualifying place but Kelvin Smith managed to pinch the last position on the day despite watching one fish get away from him after landing it and leaving it in the net to rest he continued to re-cast his rod on the spot only to watch the carp jump from his net and get away. 

Competition Results Semi Final 1 

1st Carl Scott 

2nd Shaun Harrington 

3rd Michael Cleaver 

4th Keiron Carmichael 

5th Kelvin Smith 

Second Semi final 27-28th July draw 8 am

1 Martyn Russ

2 Mitchell Marchant

3 Luke Martin

4 Gemma Phillips

5 Martyn O’Connell 

6 Jordan Hitchings

7 Carl Campbell

8 Dan Walker

9 Dafyn Lewis

10 Cj Decroo

11 Thomas Evans

12 Jordan Miles

After watching the first competition and seeing the angling for myself I have to admit i was quite nervous as I myself was entered into round 2 of the competition. and i saw some brilliant angling by the guys and i knew round 2 would be no exception. The second round day came and we all met up in the carp park of the lake to await our names to be drawn and then pick our swims. I had 2 in mind the back of the island, as it performed so well in the last comp, and the railway bank swim on the top near the centre sluice gates. Shockingly i was the first name to be drawn and i think it took me by surprise as with out thinking i shouted swim number 2. This is the one closest to the point of the island on the railway bank and a swim i knew very well. More names were drawn out and everyone chose their pegs and it wasn't long before we made our way around and started to set up. We had roughly 45 minuets to get everything ready to go when the horn sounded and time to get the rods in.

The horn was blown and everyone started casting out their rods, except me as i hadn't heard the horn. It wasn't until i heard one of the bailiffs shout rods in i knew it had started. I cast the one rod out towards the corner of the island to a spot that fished very well and the other i placed towards the point, an area where the bank juts out into the main bed of water in the no fishing zone. I then proceeded to bait up with 5 spomb full of bait over each area, This was the largest size spomb so it would be a good amount of bait getting down on the spots. The idea was to wait for a bite and then place another 2 over each rod after each fish. The first person to catch was around the back of the island and it wasn't long before he was showing us the way. My swim had remained quiet for the first half of day one with only a few liners. Peg 1 , the peg next to me being fished by Gemma Philips, was starting to get some action. as she had her first bite but managed to loose it as it dived under her other line causing a twister and the fish manage to get free. It wasn't long before she managed the second bite and finally landed a carp. 

Gemma continued to catch next to me, she was fishing short just off the bank towards to no fish zone and this was doing the trick for her. She continued to get the bites into the afternoon where i finally managed to sneak out a bite and managed to land myself a lovely 15 lb carp. Finally off the mark i thought so i placed more bait over the spots and waited. As it turned out this wasn't a good thing to do as i think the carp were backing away from the baited areas and only feeding towards the back as singles seemed to be the winning formula. I didn't manage to get any more bites during the competition and just like round 1 the leaders soon took control of the competition and built a good lead leaving the rest of the anglers battling again for position and to qualify.

The weather had been very strange during the competition from extreme heat to blasting winds and pouring rain. The anglers were all fishing hard and did their best to manage to pull out the fish that did get caught. Mitchel Marchant decided to stay awake right through the night working his swim on the surface during the early hours and due to his hard work he was rewarded with a couple of fish securing his place in the final. There also seemed to be a small battle going on at the end for the last qualifying position which ended up in a tie between Gemma and Thomas who both managed to get through to the final due to thier score being all tied up. 

Competition Results Semi Final 2

1st Dafyn Lewis

2nd Jordan Hitchings

3rd Mitchell Marchant 

4th Gemma Phillips 

5th Thomas Evans 

The Final - August 17th & 18th 

 Carl Scott 

Shaun Harrington 

 Michael Cleaver 

Keiron Carmichael 

Kelvin Smith

Dafyn Lewis

Jordan Hitchings

Mitchell Marchant 

 Gemma Phillips 

Thomas Evans 

The weekend came and it was time for all the anglers  to take on the final round of the singles carp competition on Hendre Lake. After watching the first 2 rounds I was sure we were in for an active competition and some great angling. The anglers drew their pegs and chose their swims at 8 in the morning and set up ready for the sound of the horn at 9 am to signify the start. The weather was a bit strange with some strong winds and mixing from strong sun to overcast within minuets. The strong wind would surely make casting interesting especially along the railway bank where you are open to the full force of the elements and the wind would also effect how the lake would fish. 

It wasn't long before we started to see a pattern emerge with the back of the island peg 12 catching early in the match and managed an early lead with only the odd fish coming out to the other anglers. The strong wind seemed to have forced the fish to stay at the back of the wind meaning they would be behind the back of the island and down in the no fishing zone. This meant peg 12 could take advantage of this and build a big lead very quickly.  The anglers on the railway bank were struggling for bites and really having to work hard to get their fish.  As the evening drew in on day one there was a change in the weather and a change of fortune for some anglers and it wasn't long before Peg 1 started chasing the leader. 

By day 2 we could see there had been a bit of action in the early hours for some of the anglers and Peg 1 managed a huge run of fish through out the night and into the morning which was enough to catch peg 12 who was continuing to lead until the end of day one. Peg 1 managed to pull away and increase his lead continuing to catch every now and again to build the lead but peg 12 continued to chase him right to the end but Peg 1 managed to hold his lead by landing a couple more carp in the closing afternoon making sure he couldn't be caught. 

In the meantime a small little comp was going on for the final 3rd position with Mitchel and Kelvin being very close but Kelvin managed to take the position with a nice little capture in the closing hours.Even Kieran managed to grab one last fish during the closing hours, It had turned out to be a very interesting competition and I for one really enjoyed it. There was some very good angling going on and all the competitors did themselves proud. When the final horn blew it was clear to see that Peg 1 had taken the comp with Peg 12 being  close behind him and Kelvin on peg 3 came in 3rd position. Jason and the bailiff team worked very hard during the competition  and i really hope Jason decides to now keep this comp running each year. 

Final results:

1st Place : Jordan Hitchings

2nd Place: Dafyn Lewis

3rd Place: Kelvin Smith

72 hr Session Back of Island - Hendre Lake

By Martyn Russ

After the great session on the lakes opening myself , Joel Mathews and Stephen Quinn decided to do a 72 hr session down at Hendre Lake but as we were delayed getting to the lake on Monday due to appointments we fond that nearly all the swims had gone and by lunch time the lake was full. We had managed to get the very last peg at the back of the island on the house bank. A swim that many of the local anglers rated but i personally have never fished. We had decided on fishing in a group and taking certain areas of the swim each as the back swim is actually a single and a double joined together in size. 

Joel had decided on targeting just in front of an overhanging tree on the edge of the island and another rod tucked in tight to the right of the island. I had decided on one rod under the big tree on the right side of the island and one next to it fished slightly further back from the tree just to the right. Stephen placed both rods into the bay one along the margin area towards a small bush and the other cast slightly into open water towards a larger bush where we had seen fish topping. For the first night we all just chose a high attract bait and placed the rods on the spots with a handful of boilies over the top scattered about,. 

 I had chose to place one rod out with a Solar Candy Floss 20 mm boilie Topped with a Mainline IB Popup glugged in Pineapple Korda Goo and the other was a Solar Candyfloss Cork Dust Wafter 16 mm soaked in Sherbert Korda Goo fished on a whipped D rig on a Size 6 Pallatrax Gripz SP Hook Each set up was completed with a small GodmanPVA 18 mm mesh stick containing a mix of Solar up and down mix and other oils and attractors. By the time we were all set up and all rods were in it was coming up early evening so we settled down for a coffee and waited for some action.

 

 

I was actually the first to catch but it turned out to be a greedy bream. Joel was the fist off the mark with the carp with a lovely little common. I followed shortly after with a nice common at 17 lb 2 oz. Then it was Joel's turn again with another 2 carp in quick succession taking us through the first night. My next fish came in the early hours 13 lb 8 oz again caught on an IB / Candy combination followed by a quick double take where I landed the first and lost the second.. Joel also had one during the early hours that managed to get the better off him during the fight and ended up wiping my rods out but that's the risk you take when fishing close together.

Stephens rods remained quiet for the first night apart from a strange take where it took line then dropped the bait. Then come early morning when he had his first proper run the fish managed to pull him into the margin area where his line ended up breaking from a branch or something. Then around lunch Stephen managed his first carp of the session followed by a huge bream The carp then suddenly seemed to switch off and the water went quiet with no sign of the fish right into the night. As the water had gone quiet Joel decided to pull his rods at 1 am to get some sleep. myself and Stephen continued to fish though the night. I managed another 2 small ones at 2 am and then nothing until the next morning. 

As we entered the final morning and had planned to pack p and be gone by 4 pm I decided to spod the remaining bait out over the spots. there wasn't much left only a couple of spombs but it seemed to spur them into action as Joel landed a small double and then i followed just before lunch with the biggest fish of the session at 21 lb 12 oz and then my final fish of the session which turned out to be a lovely 15 lb Ghost carp. We had a great session over the 72 hours and i learnt a lot about the swim and really enjoyed the company. It was nice that all of us ended up catching and i can't wait for the next adventure.

Wet Nets & Tight Lines

Hendre Fishing Lake Opening weekend - Jne 2019

by Martyn Russ

Once again the time of her approaches that signals the start of a new season . The lakes have closed and rested the waters, carp have taken advantage of the sunny days and hot weather and begun spawning. Workers were scurrying about the banks, sweat pouring from their brows as they clear the grounds and cut the grass ready for a year long heard of anglers to come trekking around the lakes targeting the monster size fish lurking in the brown murky waters. Excitement fills the air as you prepare your tackle for the up and coming battles. Companies release loads of new products to help you catch more but seem to catch more anglers than fish. Memberships and season tickets are paid and fishing licences now renewed as that magic date comes quickly and soon it's time to get packed and go fishing.

Normally I personally avoid fishing the open weekends on venues as it  is always very busy  and the fishing pressure effects the way the carp feed. This year I was talked into it and I am glad I did choose to go. The morning came and my fishing partners Stephen Quinn and Joel Mathews had decided we should get there early and meet up with others so we could all choose the swims fairly but to our surprise there was only one angler on the lake at 8 am, one of the bailiffs, Scott, who was actually there to  fish the open weekend he had chosen the centre sluice peg. I was going to jump on the peg next to him but we were told not to go on the pegs till 10 am as members were all allowed to setup one day before the lake actually opens, a great little bonus to catch the carp when they are very hungry after spawning. As I had to go pick up medication I stashed my gear in the trees next to the bank and left Joel watching it whilst I popped away to pick up my bits. By the time I got back we were told we could start setting up. I had gone in the second swim on the railway bank with Joel next to me and then Stephen in the very next peg. This meant the 3 of us would be fishing in a line and we would be able to bait up along a line so all 3 swims could take advantage of the feeding fish off the baited area. By lunch time on the first day everything was set up and ready, we baited up a small area with boilies only, for the first day, with high attract hook baits to see what they would do and if the fish were up for a feed. Fishing yellow Solar top banana popups as singles and also as snowmen on top of 20 mm IB bottom baits. The wait began , they had decided fishing would be allowed to start at 6 pm that evening so we had plenty of time to prepare things like sticks, stringers and Spod mixes.

6 pm came and the announcement screamed across the lake "ALL RODS IN" and that was it, fishing had began and another season started. It wasn't long before the first fish came out to Scott fishing on the end peg. It wasn't only him on the peg but also 2 others had joined him which meant 6 lines coming from one swim out in the open. This gave them a great advantage and they would be able to pick off the fish as they slowly move up the lake., The lads took full advantage of this and from day one they were constantly catching. The centre Sluice peg managed a whopping 120+ carp out over the opening weekend which was amazing and a great result for Scott and Kieran who was working hard non stop all weekend and casting was spot hot hitting his mark almost every time. With the pressure from the amount of anglers on the lake, with every peg full, I thought we may have to work a little harder to entice the feeding fish to travel further up the lake so i mixed up an high oil spod mix and baited out in the swim. It wasn't long after doing this i had my first fish of the session and lovely 14 lb carp. This came to the Solar Top Banana Pop up fished on a D rig Ronnie Style with a Godman PVA mesh Stick made up with solar up and down mix with my secrete mix added. Joel wasn't long behind me catching his first carp again on the Solar Banana but this time he had topped a mainline IB bottom bait fished snow man style..

After catching each fish we would then re-cast the rods and bait up over the top with a couple of spod full of particle mix. Although the end peg was catching consistently all day from the swim we noticed a lot more action was coming in evening and early hours for a lot of the other pegs. The second day came a went with much the same type of action catching the odd fish during the day but getting most through the night. Fish had started coming out all over the lake so the carp were defiantly hungry and the new season had kicked off to a great start. By using Whipped D rigs, Size 6 or 4 hook and Solar Top Banana Wafters or Snowmen rigs consisting of 15 mm bottom baits and 14 mm popups. I would thread a Stick made from the Godman PVA 18 mm mesh  packed with Solar up and down mix and other oils and ingredients. This seemed to be the winning bait for me for the session as most of the fish were caught using this set-up.

 
 


The action seemed to be consistent over the next couple of days with a lot of fish being caught from the end swim by the centre sluice by Kieran and Carl who were having a proper red letter session. I also noticed that nearly all the carp were double figure up to 20 lb with only a couple of smaller ones coming out and none of the bigger girls. Joel was also starting to catch consistently each day as he seemed to catch on to the winning tactic very quickly and was soon into more fish. Stephen managed to get a couple of good runs but down to bad luck managed to loose a couple at the net and a strange occurrence where the line seems to get cut by something mid water. He eventually managed to land one by the end of the second day.
  
We had a nice surprise on day 2 when Joel decided he wanted to put a fresh bait on and lifted his rod and started to reel in when a pike of around 4-5 lb decided to snatch his bait. He had managed to catch it clean in the scissors of the moth area right in the corner with his line clean away from the ,mouth so no chance of snapping but the pike could have turned and bit through the line. He was lucky and despite the pike tail walking during the fight and giving him a good tussle he managed to land it. As hes never handled a pike before he asked me to hold it for him and to sort it out as Summer pike can be very delicate and you must treat with care.l We got a quick picture and got him back in the water as quick as possible and made sure he was well revived before releasing him.  

The Hendre Fishing Lake open weekend turned out to be a brilliant session. All the anglers were catching and many of the Club FAW members getting new personal bests. Joel managed to do it twice in the one session including his first ever double take. Club FAW member Robert Folland also managed a new Personal best dead on 20 lb and i am sure many other anglers on the lake that weekend had some amazing fish. It was a great time, we all caught fish, had a laugh on the bank and i can't wait for the next adventure!

Tight Lines & Wet Nets 

Ron & Liam at Duffryn Springs - March 2019

By Anthony George Ron Potton 

So I set set my alarm for 5:30 am on Friday 29th March , ready for session at Duffryn springs with my fishing buddy Liam, who was fishing the day with me as he was just getting back into carp fishing after a few months off the bank concentrating on being a dad to his little girl, now he's ready to hit the rods again so was keen to get out on a session. So, as we arrived at the venue around 8:30 am, later than I usually set off,  I was thinking we wouldn't get the peg we wanted but to our surprise we were the first people on the whole complex. We decided to bait up our chosen swim with Solar Candyfloss 15 mm Boilies and Bait-tech Tripple N Boilies. Using a mix of the 2 would give me more options to target and also be able to see what bait the carp would prefer on the day. It wasn't long after allowing a bit of time for the swim to settle after baiting up the fish began to show signs of feeding. I was the first to get my rods out as Liam had to set his up from scratch. I targeted close to the island with one rod and the other i put into open water at 3 rod lengths.  

Not long into the session my right rod screamed off, the bite was very aggressive and the carp bolted straight to an over hanging tree snag, I managed to steer the fish away from it and after a few minutes of hard fighting I had a lovely common around 11 lb, as soon as the fish was weighed and returned i continued to put more Solar candyfloss boilies over the swim to hopefully encourage any fish in the area to stay and keep feeding. The rods fell quiet for a few hours so i decided it was time to re-evaluate my approach,  I then changed one rig to a solar candyfloss wafter glugged in candyfloss booster set on a Ronnie rig set-up. At around 12:30 my left rod with the wafter on burst into action and it kited right across the swims and across my other rods but thankfully i had carefully sunken the lines  so they wouldn't get picked up if this happens. I eventually managed to get another cracking common into my net weighing 14 lb. 

Liam's rods remained silent for a couple of hours but then suddenly he too was into some actions and unfortunately as he was playing the fish in the hook pulled and the fish gone. My heart sank and i knew how low he was feeling at that moment. He got his rod straight back out into the mix and after applying a few more boilies out in the swim, within minutes of the bait going out he had another fish on. What seemed to be a lovely carp on the end actually turned out to be a good size Bream and to top it off he followed with another bream a short while after. We decided to drop the Solar Candyfloss boilies into some of the Triple N glug,  why not have a go. Within minutes of putting bait out and resetting the rods, Liams rod bolted into action and the fish off towards the edge of the island where there was some nasty snags in view. He managed to keep it away but as he was applying a lot of pressure to get it away from the snag he had yet another unfortunate hook pull. Talk about unfortunate.  

After a couple the rods became silent and the water went calm and was very peaceful just sat relaxing, no fizzing or fish showing so I then decided to throw the remaining boilies out in all three swims hoping for a last gasp carp or two. It was around 17:00 when my right hand  rod screams off and I was straight into a over hanging tree. The line locked up and i felt gutted thinking it was tethered i decided to sit my rod back on the rest and left it watching my line after a few minutes it started to twitch a bit meaning fish was still on there and moving out of the snag. After a short while it bolted off to the right bending my rod right  round so I let the fish play for a bit and eventually got him in my net, the biggest of the session, a common weighing around 15 lb.

Just as the day was drawing in to a close getting slightly dark we decided to start packing down . Then my right hand rod again goes off to the right and was a nice easy one straight in to the net with very little fight weighing in at 14 lb another lovely common. That was the end of a great day. I  learnt a lot about the lake and my own rigs and tactics. I had to work hard to get the four fish I had, but all in all it was a good days fishing and great company.

On to the Next Adventure ......