St Claudes Lake

Comments

Monday 28th September 2009

I fished Stonebridge Fishery for the first time on Monday 28th September. The weather was dry and mild but with quite a strong wind. I decided to fish peg 5 as it was quite sheltered from the wind. I could see that there were quite a few Ide just below the surface about 8 metres out. I started fishing on single red maggot on an 18 barbless about 12 inches deep under a 0.3 gramme dibber. I was into quality Ide from the start ranging from 8oz up to about 1lb 8oz. Within 30 minutes I had drawn them into about 4 metres and used just my top 2 with a long line to catch. After 3 hours I estimate I had caught around 60lb of fantastic quality Ide using about 1 pint of red maggots. The bites had slowed so I clipped up a maggot feeder to throw to the island a distance of about 25m. I was dropping my bait about 2 feet from the island again using red maggots and fishing 2 on a 16 barbless. I was unable to tighten up to the feeder before the tip was going round. Bites were instantaneous on every cast and I added another 20lb in an hour. Accuracy was vital to ensure a bite straight away. I had a superb days fishing with easily 80lb in just 4 hours. My catch was all Ide except for one solitary skimmer. Ian Butler

Bag Up Big Style!

Would just like to say I had a great day's fishing today 05/08/2009. This is the first time I have fished at Stonebridge I fished on St Claudes Lake on peg 7 on the method feeder, up to the island and just off the island using 8 ml hard pellets - caught 58 Carp + 32 Hide and lost loads - total weight for the day 125lb - Fantastic Day !. I fish Woodlands, Oaks and other local fisheries and can't believe this place isn't packed out every week!!! But hey this can stay a secret for me and I can go every week and Bag Up Big Style!!!

Paul

Norman Lamont of North Allerton

Norman discovered Stonebridge St Claudes Coarse Lake on Friday 15 July when fishing a mixture of baits including pellet, meat, sweetcorn, maggot and floating dog biscuits. He had over 50 silver fish and over 100lb of carp. Norman returned to Stonebridge the next day to try his hand on the specimen carp lake and achieved a catch of 19 carp, 4 over 10lb, with his best going to 18 and 1/2lb using both his pole and his bomb rod. He also lost 2 big carp as they took off around the island.

Billy Gillespie of Darlington

Billy was fishing at St Claudes Lake at Stonebridge on Saturday 19 July with his son Callum and his party, Mick Fadian and Sean and Micheal Peach. All of the party were having a productive day catching silvers and carp to 5lb. When Billy turned his head to speak to Mick he had his top 3 pole sections dragged away. He immediately gave chase, running to the boat moored 3 pegs away and jumped into the boat. We had had 3 days of continuous rain, one of the oars was missing but fighting the headwind Billy manfully paddled after his top 3 which were heading out towards the island. As he got within striking distance, the fish turned and headed up the lake with the pole sections in toe. After further exasperatingly close encounters, in which he almost got to the sections, the fish went deeper and Billy's beloved top 3 disappeared under the waves like a submarine diving. We at Stonebridge commiserate with Billy at his great loss and will of course return his pole sections when the big'n relinquishes them. Meanwhile, Billy warns all others fishing at St Claudes - hang onto your pole and watch out for the big'n!

David Cook of Newton Aycliffe

77 year old David said quote, best day's fishing for years. I stopped counting after 107 fish over 6oz, I didn't bother to count the rest. I'm not as fit as I was so the concrete path and easy access to the pegs helped no end. I found it good to catch so many skimmers, rudd and hyde on maggot and pellets. I'll be back.