yateley, split lake

[james]

Hi,

I looked at the split lake this year and decided to fish next year. Has anybody got any tips or ways of catching carp.

James

[james]

Hi

Also have you got any plans for the split lake in the coming months Ian.

James

[james]

jimbo

I looked in the guide book and it says there carp up to 31lb.

James

[William]

Hi Ian

how big are the carp that are coming in from the stocking pond and how many?

[james]

Hi,

Is anybody fishing the split lake?

If so how are you doing?

James

[MartinJ]

It depends where you fish in the Split lake, there are areas where you are more likely to catch catfish than carp, and five cats to one carp would not be an unreasonable estimate for those areas, also the cats do not appear to be as wary as the carp and might take your bait before a carp.
Conversely there are areas of the lake that seem to be fairly free of cats.

If you take an average over the whole lake you might catch one or two carp per cat.
If you compare numbers of carp to the original catfish , the numbers are probably two carp to one cat (in my humble opinion) but the numbers of catfish are going up as they are breeding, and I have seen 'kittens' from 9 inches long to low doubles.

[Smarts]

I aim to fish for the cats next season on the Split. Can you recommend any swims? I have fished for the carp on the side with the islands from the spit of land that divides the lake with the other lake behind me.
Also,what baits produce the most takes? I'm not after a beast....just my first ever cat landed!
Cheers,

Smarts

[MartinJ]

I would consider controlling the number of small catfish as they will be competing with carp for food. I don't think the larger carp are growing as it is, whereas some of the cats are putting on 5 lbs a year. Any weight fluctuations in the older carp can usually be explained by spawning or time of year.

I look forward to the introduction of some quality carp from the stock pond and hope they will have the potential to grow and possibly overtake the existing stocks in weight.

I'm not sure about the larger fish that have been mentioned, although I drool at the chance of fishing for them. They would immediately put the split lake into a different league, and increase pressure on the lake (I know that's what RMC want.)
The introduction of big carp would immediately raise the question - will the split lake be added to the syndicate?

[alex]

Ian what sort of size are the cats in the split lake because I don't only fish for carp and finding a good cat lake is getting harder and too many people fish the match lake so it gets too over crowded I mean you hook a thirty pound catfish which it is not going to like too much and decides to tow you around the lake and the last thing you want is someones lines 100 yards across the lake which makes a nice little snag for a cat. It happened to a mate of mine who fished Bever farm he hooked a twenty pound cat which took his other rod and because two other people were fishing to close to him it took thier lines with it and towed my mate all the way round to the other side of the lake where he landed it a hour later. Get my point

[MartinJ]

Yes Ian, the cats are putting on several pounds a year, it's likely that the one that went to 33 this year was 28 the previous year. I'd say that over 50% of the stocked cats are over twenty pounds.
There are plenty of kittens too, the largest unmarked catfish I saw this year was 14lbs and the smallest was one and a half.

I don't think Alex needs to worry about a cat towing him all over the lake, the split lake is too weedy for that. Usually you get a powerful run or two and then it turns into a tug of war with the cat hugging the bottom and making use of any available weedbeds. Steady pressure with strong tackle usually does the trick.