River Stour proving ideal for variety of catches Two-horse battle

The River Stour has been producing some good mixed autumn bags of fish, with most locations experiencing catches.

Glenn Brett has enjoyed a great 2021/22 season so far and his latest trip to Fordwich saw a good mixed bag of more than 15lb from the river. Proving the diversity of the premier fishery at Fordwich Lake, Chris Culley landed a trio of common carp that included fish of 10lb, 25lb 10oz and 33lb 10oz.

Mirror carp fell to John Collins and Steve Payne at Fordwich Lake. Payne banked a 23lb fish and Collins one of 22lb in a busy period at the 33-acre water. Lee White took three more fish comprising a 12lb mirror and commons of 22lb and 25lb.

While the carp anglers have been successful at Fordwich Lake, three more big carp have been hooked from neighbouring lakes at the Fordwich complex.

Tom Fleet successfully tussled with a 24lb mirror carp at Trenley Lake while Karl White’s brace from Stour Lake included a rod-bending mirror of 27lb. Dip tanks remain in place on all Canterbury & District Angling Association still waters following an outbreak of koi herpes virus in Kent. Nets, mats and slings must be dipped (fully immersed) for a minimum of 15 minutes. Thank you for your continued help and understanding in complying with this instruction. Ahead of the Cooke Pike Cup, predator anglers will be encouraged to know that a specimen pike of 23lb 7oz was caught by a local angler from the River Stour in the past few days while fishing with lures.

This season’s Cooke Pike Cup will be held on Sunday at Fordwich and Trenley Lakes. The draw will be made at 8am in the Fordwich car park and fishing will be between 9am and 3pm. The CDAA have membership vacancies. For further details, see the association’s website at www.cdaa.co.uk or phone 01227 710830 during office hours.

Only two Greenhill Sea Angling Club anglers could find their way to Reculver to fish in the Reculver Cup on Saturday. The winner was Mark Bowman with seven dogfish and six whiting, which gave him the prize for the most fish caught at the event. Second went to Mike Terry with five dogfish to a weight of 7lbs which included the heaviest fish of the match - a dogfish of 2lbs 2oz which is a very good size for a dogfish. Overall, 18 fish were caught at the competition, weighing 17lbs 1oz. The next competition is scheduled for this Saturday at Deal. For more information, contact Dennis Foreman on 07730 211412.