Club day at Duncton today.After some very heavy overnight rain the drive down was less than comfortable with some flooded roads.A reasonably mild day,sunny periods and some heavy blustery showers.As there were only 10 of us we could not have the lakes to ourselves and shared them with members and some day ticketers but plenty of room.Started on top pool along with my mate and one of our lady members.Soon all three of us had two fish on the bank,one to damsel on floating line and remaider to either white nomad or cats fished deep on sinkingh or sinktip.I moved to lower lakes and again soon had another on nomad and sink tip.Moved lakes and after moving around having had a few taps etc,settled into a corner swim and soon hooked a better fish,possibly around 5/6lb!!!!!!!!! or so i thought.As i was playing the fish the manager came along and told me i was attached to a very decent fish as he had spotted it from his elevated position behind me.He was't wrong,after a dogged fight a big rainbow rolled and was netted for me by the manager and weighed at 12lb-13oz a PB.
Pretty well all 10 of us had our limits by lunch time and afterwards had a further two fish ticket (discounted by the manager)and again most managed to bank their two fish.All in all a cracking day and even taking my PB out of the equation,it was good to see all the members getting plenty of hard fighting,nicely conditioned fish,most around 1-12 to 3lb.Almost all the fish came to sinking or sinktip lines and cats or white fritzy flies.

Congratulations Chris

Nice to catch fish even better to get yer PB too will get plenty of fish fingers out of that one did you get a cheaper second ticket for the obvious advertising Well done old bean Gaz

__________________
If in doubt, get the montys out

Intelligence is relative to your environment

Hi Gaz,
No he gave us all a four fish ticket at a reduced(members rate)before any of us had started then reduced the two fish tickets as well as we had almost all bagged up by lunch time.He has done this before,he is very fair with a group.

Good on him, seems a good chap , i wasnt impressed with the stocking when i fished it, but all fisheries have these sorts of days , seems yours was a cracker nice place , i like the end lake seems like a haunt for a biggy thats been hiding there for sometime, just get the feeling, im getting the urge to give it another go Gaz

__________________
If in doubt, get the montys out

Intelligence is relative to your environment

Gaz
funnily enough both my mate and myself were saying that unless it fished ok,that would be it,we would be reluctant to return.The club has been twice a year for some time and apart from one brill day when i very first went its been very hard,having said that, someone has nearly always had a decent fish.
Talking to Martin the manager,he reckoned that the members preferred smaller fish for the pot!!!!!!!!!,however he still puts in some very decent fish.Quite a few browns in there as well.
If you decide to go,let me know,we may be able to do a day

Chris
Is he sure the members prefer small fish for the pot or the subs are cheaper that way, i think if hes going to day ticket the water in winter , then hes got to stock it with decent fish , 1.5lb aint good enough for a put and take water, 2.5lb upwards then ok for £35 for 4 fish gaz

__________________
If in doubt, get the montys out

Intelligence is relative to your environment

Here's the review I posted on another site:

Have to say I agree with Dennis Smiths review. I went on 23/10/09 and fished a 4 fish ticket which was my first mistake, after looking at the returns book. I took 2 fish (a r/b & brown both around 2lb) on an Ace of Spades after trying all manner of nymphs all morning with not even a pull or follow. Massive areas of the lake bed were clearly visible under water, but very few fish were seen. Was told by a regular "I did well to catch at all" and that he fishes there because he "likes a challenge". I said I liked a challenge too, but also want a decent chance to catch or else Id snip the hook off at the bend! At least 5 out of 10 people blanked that day. I felt fortunate to get my 2 fish. On the plus side - very pretty scenery.

Lots of highly dubious positive reviews on that site for DM since - all with top ratings & many with identical grammar & syntax.

Nice to see you caught a big fish, chub1, but when you speak to members at the fishery itself & most are whining about the fishery management it hardly inspires confidence.
No doubt there are club membership vacancies there if anyone wants to give it a go!

Such a shame. A simply stunning venue & still has a Hell of a reputation from the 1980's & early 1990's from when the late Ned Kelly (who died in February this year) ran things.

Steve,
it went through the doldrums a bit,looking up again.Some nice fish coming out,rainbows and browns and Martin the manager assured us that there were bigger still swimming around.Our club day was a good one.Quite a few of us had a few hard trips there,but this time around we all caught really well,infact a tad too easy-oh well !!!!!..Pretty well all of us had second tickets after lunch,although things did slow down a tad in the afternoon.Most of the fish were around 2lb with a few to around 3lb,
but were in spanking condition and fought really well.Water was as clear as we have ever seen it as well.Hopefully its back on the up