This is Paul Mcassey with one of a stunning brace of common carp caught from Weston. This was a new PB for Paul who has fished with me as a guest on three occasions. The joy on his face when he scooped the ent under the fish certainly made my year – well done my son!!!

 

Another stunning Weston common for Lance who came on the three day guided trip. Lance fished like a pro, landing a rake of fish from the fantastic ‘rhodies’ swim with the best of the bunch this cracker. And to make things even better, his team manged to stave off demotion too!

 For those of you who have not seen it before, this is the fantastic Weston park lake that we fished. A beautiful estate lake, it contains over 160 carp, mostly twenties with fish to high thirties. There are lots of big commons in Weston and it is a beautiful and secluded place to fish…

 

 Here is a shot of the famous Weston carp browsing in the margins. After climbing a tree located near to the shallows, I was amazed to see around thirty big fish cruising in the shallow water. I flicked out a few spicy chicken boilies, expecting the fish to spook and was amazed to see them swim straight over and start feeding! All of the fish in this picture are over twenty pounds, with the biggest over thirty (a common too!) i nearly fell out of the tree…

  

 Fishing at Weston is a magical experience – the lake is surrounded by beautiful woodlands and the lake glistens like a jewel surrounded by green velvet. 

 

Weston also contains mirror carp – here is Dave Miller with a new PB twenty-one pound fish.

Another mid-twenty common, this time for Pete who was fishing in the shallows. Pete was so absorbed in the fishing that we had trouble getting him to take a break for the evening barbecue…

 This is Matt Underwood with one of the ghost carp found in Isis lake at the Watermark fisheries. Notice the famous houses in the background – these are luxury holiday homes and are the perfect place for families and couples to enjoy a holiday with a spot of fishing!

The ghosties in Isis are legendary – there are lots of them with plenty of singles and low doubles to provide superb surface sport.

  

How’s this for a tench? This is a typical fish from the awesome Bradley’s gravel pit. The tench here average six to seven pounds with fish into double figures. This is Phil Greene with a new personal best…

 

And here’s the moment that makes it all worthwhile – one of my fishing guests slips a superb fish back into the crystal clear margins at Bradley’s pit. Smiles and handshakes all round!

 

To all the guests that have fished with me so far in 2007 – cheers lads – hope to see you in 2008!

 

For more information about guided trips with Matt Hayes in 2008, please go to www.anglingdirectholidays.com

  

The guided trips season began in April and May with the first of the carp trips.  As usual, Weston park was a fantastic success. This stunning lake has a large head of twenty pound plus fish in it, including a lots of mid-twenty commons.

Six lads fished for three days including two nights bivvied up and I am pleased to report that everyone caught fish. Indeed everyone caught at least one twenty and that meant that several of the boys had personal bests.

Thankfully, the weather remained good if not a little on the cool side, a bonus as it turned out because I am sure that hot weather would have seen the fish spawning.

As usual, the spicy chicken boiles did the business  – in total the six anglers got 46 runs over the three days, resulting in 37 carp landed, most of whoich were over twenty with a number of beautiful commons.

One of my most loyal clients, Paul Mcassey had a one-to-one trip with me just prior to the group arriving and his reward was a brace of stunning mid-twenty commons - well done Paul!

This year we also had several trips to the exciting new Watermark fisheries in the Cotswolds. The main venue, Bradleys, a huge gravel pit of over 130 acres is somewhat daunting when you first see it but it does contain some mighty fish. Tench were the main target and several of the lads had PB tench with fish to over nine pounds cuaght during the sessions.

The Bradleys tench are stunning, averaging around six to seven pounds with individual fish going into double figures. It also contains a number of very big carp to over forty pounds, many of which have not been caught and the recent introduction (November 2006) of over 2000 single figure fish is bound to produce explosive sport in the future. Believe me, the fish willgrow very fast in this water and next year’s trips should produce some stunning carp as well as the tench.    

Additionally, several guests fished inside the main complex at the Watermark where there are a number of luxury holiday homes that surround some stunning lakes. One of the lakes, Isis, contains a very big head of ghost carp and they are willing surface feeders! Though not a pushover, Isis always seems to produce either off the surface or to feeder fishing tactics and we had some great sport there.

Thos of you whom are interested in booking a luxury fishing hoiday in the UK could do worse than contact the Watermark and enquire about hiring one of the houses – they are superb abd absoloutely perfect for wives and families. 

This year’s barbel trips took place in late Septemebr and ran into October. With the river low and very, very clear the fishing was tough. The Severn was in particularly bad form, carrying cold, deoxygenated water flushed out of the Clywedog dam. This made the fishing doubly difficult and I have never known the river so quiet as anglers struggled to catch.

Thankfully, we enjoyed some sport by using subtle tactics combined with liberal doses of patiience. All of my guests caught barbel and that is some achievement in the circumstances.

The predator fishing trips started slowly too but I ma pleased to report that all of my guests caught their first zander and we nailed some pike too. As the autumn began to wear on the fishing got better and better and by November, when young Sam Blackwell fished with me the fishing was really taking off. Sam nailed some pike, perch and very, very nice zander with several fish between four and eight and half pounds, all caught on lures. The biggest zandr caught by one of my guests on a trips so far is 13-8.  

Matt 

 

 

 

Every day I receive numerous posts from this site but the sad fact is that I don’t have the time to reply to them. I know that most people think that I spend my time sitting around doing nothing but fishing – sadly nothing could be further from the truth! Most of the mail I get from the website is questions such as ‘ I am fishing a such and such pond, what do you think would be the best bait?’ or ‘have you ever been to ….?’ Much as I would love to reply to these questions there simply are not enough hours in the day. So, what I am trying to say is…please stop sending them because you will not get an answer.

Those of you who are interested in booking me for guided trips should follow the links to the Angling Direct Holidays website – you won’t get discount by trying to come direct!

 

Matt