Latest News
Welcome to Sapphire Lakes and our New Website. This news board will be regularly updated with the latest news on whats happening at Sapphire, what baits, rigs and tactics are working. So please be sure to check this page for advice before you visit.
December 2011 - "We would like to wish all our customers a Happy Christmas and New Year!! & look forward to seeing you all in the new year !!
2011 has been a strange year, but more 20lb plus fish have been caught in the carp lake than ever. Must be a good sign and shows that the carp are putting on a constant weight. Despite the low water levels, fish are still being caught!! Last weekend saw 2 local carpers take five fish from 17lb 9oz - to a beauty of a common at 23lb 7oz!! in a 48hr session. All fish fell to fruit flavoured pop-ups topped with plastic corn - fished on chod rigs.~
Now winter is upon us we have had a couple of frosts and still not much rain!! however, it is not taking a lot for the lakes to freeze over - so if you havn't put your gear away yet its always worth ringing before you come, in case we are frozen over !!!!
This years lake record stands at a Mirror of 30lb !!! (we weighed it 3 times to double check!!) caught by one of our regulars - Mr Jeff Hilton
Pleasure anglers are still managing some decent catches on red maggott and chopped worm. Even the carp in the match lake seem to be liking lots of maggotts at the moment.
Merry Xmas - Graham
August 2011 - Update
Match Lake: The lake now has some decent colour, and catches are well up at the minute. Lots of small carp are being caught on soft hooker pellets and corn around the margins. The bigger carp are still falling to method feeder with corn and pellet working well.
Carp Lake: The recent rains have cooled things down a little, but one of our regulars (Dave from Sheffield) had a real beauty, 28lb 6oz Common last week. Most people are still managing to catch despite the low water level. Chod rigs seems to be fooling them at the moment and plastic corn is still performing.
Stock pond: Lots of silver fish action on pellet, corn and luncheon meat - some good size crucians also falling for those baits.
June 2011 - It's been a bit mixed over the last couple of weeks, the best session this year came to Matty and his brother Tommo!!
Carp Lake:
It's been a bit mixed over the last couple of weeks, the best session this year came to Matty and his brother Tommo!! who managed nearly 140lb of carp out between them. Tommo managed to winkle out a gorgeous 26lb 9oz Common and Matty just came in short with a 23lb common. Most if not all their fish came to pop ups fished on chod rigs and CC Moore baits. There was one 20lb mirror and some late teens out over the weekend, again falling to pop ups.
Match Lake:
A bit slow at the minute, but my gut feeling is they are getting ready to spawn!! Historically they normally start during the last week of May and are showing signs now.
Stock Pond:
As usual good mixed catches are coming to soft hooking pellets and corn, also luncheon meat and pineapple boilies seem to be picking up the bigger carp.
May 2011 - 30lb mirror banked on the last day of April
Jeff Hilton managed to bank a beautifull mirror carp weighing in at exactly 30lb!!!!!!! Jeff who fishes here every year caught this beauty on a pop-up cell boilie fished on a helicopter rig. Came as he was packing up on saturday morning after loosing two other fish during his 3 day stay. (photo to follow)
April 2011 - The carp lake is fishing well with 5 20lb fish out since this weekend alone.
Match Lake: The match lake is fishing well with good catches coming to corn and pellet fished on the method or cage feeder. The new carp are still a little grouped together but are breaking up now more anglers are using the lake. Silver fish can still be had to maggot and caster. Best weight this year was a regular angler, catching 37 carp for 205lb fishing cage feeder from the car park end.
Carp: The carp lake is fishing well with 5 20lb fish out since this weekend alone. Bright baits seem to be working well, especially little snowman baits. The lillies are just beginning to show through and the fish are up in the water during the warmer spells.
Stock Pond: All the normal baits are working well, and pleasure catches are up to the normal levels. Biggest fish out so far has been a 15lb 12oz mirror which fell to double red maggot!!!
March 2011 - Most servere winter but spring is in the air
"Welcome to Sapphire lakes in 2011 - Thankfully the weather is picking up following the most severe winter of my time here - in some places we had 12" of ice!!!!. So, with the improvement of the weather the catch rates have picked up also. The carp have been showing on the milder days and fish have been caught over the past 3 weekends. The biggest being a 18lb 4oz common. Single baits seem to be doing the business at the moment and at least 3 fish have come to "Trigga" boilies.
The match lake has had a stock boost with 4,000 roach and bream and 500 common carp in the 3lb-4lb range to add to the exsisting stock of larger carp. The biggest was a 21lb mirror last year.
The stock pond is fishing well for silver fish on maggot, chopped worm and caster. One or two bigger carp has been caught and a pleasure angler had a 15lb 2oz mirror out yesterday on double maggot!!!!
Looking forward to seeing all our regular and new customers throughout this year."
May 2010 - The good old British weather
Well, yet again the good old British weather is not helping the fishing. With warm days and close to freezing nights the fish don't seem to have settled into any patterns at the moment.
Carp Lake.
It's still fairly clear for this time of year and carrying a little extra water at the moment. However, over the May bank holiday there was ten fish out with seven all over 20lb's. The biggest being a 24lb 3oz Mirror from the road side on popped up plastic corn. First timer, Sam Clarke from Essex managed to catch a pretty 21lb 14oz Mirror from the gravels swim - caught on one grain real maize topped with one grain of plastic maize. Bright baits seem to be working the best at the moment.
Match Lake.
Again the weather is playing a big part in the catch rate here, combined with the un-precidented water clarity it's making things pretty hard at the moment. Having said that, pleasure anglers fishing this week have done well fishing corn and pellet on the method in the deeper water at the car park end. When the sun does shine, the carp can stil be had off the top and shallow pellet waggler.
Stock Pond
Still fishing well with both carp and pole anglers doing well. Bright 10mm pop-ups are doing well fished upto the railway bank for the carp. Fishing pole at 12-14m on pellet, corn and maggot are resulting in some good mixed bags. Baiting two areas and alternating seems to be the trick on the pole.
April 2010 - Easter News
The bank holiday weekend was very slow on the carp lake, but things have really picked up this week there has been six 20's out the biggest being a 20lb 6oz mirror caught on bloodworm dumb-bell bottom bait. The sun has brought the fish up on all the lakes and anglers are even getting carp off the top on the match lake
March 2010 - Slow Start but picking up nicely
Welcome to 2010 at Sapphire, things have gotten off with a slow start but over the past two weekends the carp in the carp lake have started to wake up and fish have been showing all over the lake. Up to now only one fish has come out - a 25lb 2oz Common caught by Phil from Notts. Managed to catch it on a cut down pineapple pop up fished with a small bag of pellets.
This weekend saw the stock pond come alive with 3 weekenders managing 40 carp between them, fishing corn and small pop ups close to the railway bank. Every angler had fish on here this weekend.
The match lake is the last to pick up and anglers are now picking fish up on small method feeders with corn or pellet.
There's pleanty of water in all lakes at the moment, we are about 1ft above normal for this time of year and colour is coming back to all the lakes making the fishing even better.
Looking forward to seeing all our regulars again this year and all the new faces who want to give us a try." |
