Culley benefits from fruitful Stonar Lake

Coarse angling

The variety and quality of catches across the Canterbury and District Angling Association’s waters has been superb with Stonar Lake at Sandwich proving particularly fruitful. A phenomenal all-carp weight of 322lb has been caught by Terry Culley with 29 fish safely slipping into his landing net. Terry’s fine haul included several good ‘twenties.’ Chris Culley was also in touch with big carp and finished another great session with two small commons and a mirror brace of 21lb 4oz and 20lb 2oz. Mixed bags have always featured from Stonar and Tony Cox has caught another with lots of rudd to 1lb 8oz, bream to 4lb, five small common carp and heavier mirror carp of 14lb, 16lb and 18lb in a most memorable visit. Dave Armstrong’s catch of 23 bream to 6lb, a small common carp and an unexpected big eel of 1lb 8oz was of note as was Ian Ashdown’s 10 rudd to 1lb 8oz, 11 bream to 6lb 2oz, two small commons and two eels also to 1lb 8oz. Thirteen bream to 5lb 8oz, a small common and a 17lb 10oz mirror fell to Clive Lammin while a traditional approach also worked well for Robert Dougless, who finished with roach to 1lb 12oz and bream to 5lb 8oz. Several anglers have caught around 10 carp each during single sessions at Stonar including Andrew Palmer and Dave Kemp, with fish to over 20lb not uncommon in such catches. Keen river angler George Howson swapped his running water gear and tactics to hook numerous roach to 1lb 8oz and seven good perch to the same weight. Roach to over 1lb and bream to 9lb have also been caught in numbers by lots of anglers at Stonar with all the popular swims producing fish. Despite a more autumnal feel to the weather, the carp at Fordwich Lake have been active and anglers there have been catching from the ‘deeps’ and the ever-popular north bank. Continuing on from the four carp from Stonar, Chris Culley bagged an 18lb 4oz mirror and five commons ranging from 13lb 2oz to 27lb 8oz. Colin Hurst has landed the biggest fish of late with a fantastic 33lb 15oz common carp while Gilly Gilmore landed two thirties of 30lb 10oz and 30lb 2oz, both common carp and super mirrors of 25lb 8oz and 21lb. Steve Shepard and Dave Footman have been in action at Fordwich with Steve hooking a 24lb common carp and mirrors of 23lb and 21lb. Dave landed a 17lb common carp and a 16lb mirror. The ongoing local outbreak of Koi Herpes Virus (KHV) means that keepnets are not permitted to be used on any Canterbury and District Angling Association waters at this time. KHV is a serious viral (notifiable) disease of fish and can result in large scale mortalities. Dip nets remain in place on all CDAA still waters and nets, mats and slings must be dipped (fully immersed) for a minimum of 15 minutes. The association’s committee thanks all members for their help and understanding in complying with this instruction.