Aug 2019

Smiling Moggy Makes Charlies Day!, 25th Aug

Charlie Sheppeard, here from Fleet for the week with his dad Alan and big brother Tom, had his heart set on a big Catfish and the La Gléhias cats were more than happy to oblige.

Charlie set up his gear at swim 3 (double swim) along Willow Walk, and having had a few good lumps out already this week, cast his cat rod armed with a La Gléhias 25mm drilled pellet along the bank towards swim two, about 20ft out, spraying a few pellets out over it. It didn’t take too long for the record breaking moggy to make an appearance. Hooked in the scissors, Charlie’s brother Tom thought it looked like it was smiling  The previous Junior Catfish record has stood since 2014 at 43lb, but Charlie smashed that this week by landing the whopping 58lber!

Mar 2019

Catfish Cause Commotion for Merlin, 30th Mar

Merlin Barnes has managed to break the longstanding Men’s Lake Record Catfish, last recorded at 55lb2oz by Des Chapman in 2010!

Our muscly moggies have defeated most, but not Merlin. The van driver from Hereford, here for the week with best buddy and two time lake record holder Saul Mulvey, came geared for the task of teetering the seemingly infrangible tadpole record, and he did.

Having chosen a saucy spot between the two islands, close to the reeds in the shallows, Merlin trickled in a mash-up of our own natural coloured Ouest Malibus and Mainlines fruity bright yellow Essential Cell boilies from around mid-day after setting up. The Cell pop-up hook bait and pva bag with more Cell were stealthily bait boated out to nestle in with the freebies. Merlin continued to offer light smatterings of freebies over the hook throughout the day which eventually tore off later that evening.

The La Gléhias monster took Merlin on a merry old dance around the lake, all the while being cheered on by pal Saul over the top of his lap-top whilst continuing to enjoy the movie “Gangster Squad” with Josh Brolin on Netflix. Merlin finally bagged the beauty after almost half an hour of battling the record breaking fish. But that’s not the end of the story. In addition to the 63lb 4oz record breaker, another of Merlin’s rods tore off before giving him a chance to return the first giant tadpole.

The second moggy was taken mid water off the old stream bed, a couple of meters up from the sluice and came in at 40lb 4oz on a Ouest Malibu boilie tipped with a yellow plastic sweetcorn pop-up over a smattering of the same Malibu / Cell freebie mixture as before. It’s always the way. You wait for one giant catfish and two come along at once!

For the record, as of 22:15 on Thursday 27^th March 2019, Merlin Barnes is officially the Men’s Catfish Lake Record holder at 63lb and 4oz.

Well done Merlin! Don’t let it go to your head!

Mar 2019

Saul Smashes Lake Record for a Second Time, 30th Mar

Saul Mulvey visited us here at La Gléhias in May of last year looking to bag himself a big one, and he did. The 35 year old van driver from Worcester walked away with the Men’s Common Carp Lake Record title, courtesy of ‘The Big Common’ at 45lb on the nose.

Having found our Ouest Malibus pretty darn successful last year, Saul ordered some more of the same, along with some La Gléhias Parti-Mix for this trip.

Despite enjoying some lovely sunshine this week, the deeper waters are still quite cold, with the carp spending much of the days up in the shallows where the water is a little warmer. Using winter baiting tactics and observing where the carp were showing, Saul sent the bait boat out with 2 hair-rigged Ouest Malibus on a bed of La Gléhias Parti-Mix about two thirds up the Gorse Bank to a promising looking cave under the gorse. Saul’s natural angling instincts paid off as the spot came up with the goodies and he landed the gorgeous record breaking 47lb Common. Good to know, we don’t believe this is the same Big Common that Saul caught last year. We’re calling this “ABC” aka “Another Big Common”.

For the record, Saul Mulvey is the current Men’s Common Carp Lake Record holder as of 14:56 on Wednesday 26^th March 2019, having banked the beautiful Common at 47lb,

Well done Saul! Don’t let it go to your head!