April 2010
I was night fishing at my favourite day/night ticket fishery, Banjo lake in Stanstead Abbots on peg 1. Me and my friend where having a chat when all of a sudden as the sun was setting, my left rod which was fished to the far margin made a couple of bleeps. I then hit into what felt a big fish. Straight away it went for the snags, but with a lot of pressure I steered it away and then in a mood it steamed down the lake into the swim next to me. After applying a bit of side strain I managed to get it into the right direction, as it got closer the monster spotted an overhanging tree and decided to head for it, inches from the tree I steered it away.
After a further five minutes of fighting, it surfaced and I saw it's tail as it went back under. It had a distinctive pattern on the tail and I then had a thought that it might be the biggest resident of the lake “Melvyn's fish”. My legs where shaking at this point. It surfaced again and my friend managed to slip the net under the fish. I was so happy and I shouted with joy “YES!” We then put him in the sling and my friend held the scales up and it weighed a whopping 29lb 2oz.
After hearing me shout, Dave the bailiff and a few other anglers came over and Dave then told me that it was a lake record and confirmed that it was “Melvyn's fish”. I couldn't believe that I actually caught him. It was the best fight that any fish has given me and it beat my previous PB by 10 lbs and I was over the moon. I caught this stunning mirror on 12 lb line and played him on a 2.75 test curve rod. I used a mainline cell boilie tipped off with a plastic pop up corn on a size 10 Korda Kurvshank in conjunction with a pva bag of pellets and I scattered half a kilo of cell with the throwing stick.
Ben Blower (Aged 16)
June 2007
Catch reports will be posted here on a regular basis - Please contact us if you've got any good catches to report.
Catch report up to 28th June
Still plenty of carp being had from pegs 5,8,11. But Peg one last week turned up the new lake record Common of a very impressive 22lb. The Mirror record still stands at 28lb 4oz. Loads of silver fish coming out on pellet and corn with some rudd up to 2lb and roach up to 1lb 8 oz.
Catch report up to 22nd September
Nine year old Josh Evans (with a little help from his Dad Chris), had a new PB mirror of 15lb out on a 24 hour session over a bed of trout pellets and corn. His succesful hook bait was Baitworks Atlantic Heat fished with plastic corn. Josh ended up with 4 fish in total, all coming at first light. Well done Josh.
Bailiff Dave Anderson had a Banjo PB with a cracking common of 16lb. Fishing over corn and pellets with plasic corn was Daves tactic. They are getting bigger Dave!!!!
Plenty of carp still comming out all over the lake, with with the biggest being Melvins fish last week at 24lb 6oz. We also have been told that a Tench has been out at 8lb by a 16 year old. Photo's are on the way. Well done to all.
Banjo Lake is run as a Day/Night Ticket fishery and tickets are only available from the Lee Valley Regional Park Fishery Bailiff on the bank side. Please note bookings only as spaces are limited, please contact the Bailiff Dave Anderson on 07908 948066 for availability