Big Fish Column: 'The most wanted fish in Berkshire' to be found at Haywards Farm Lake

Inconsistent weather brought inconsistent fishing results again last week with the rivers in particularly poor shape. There were, however, signs of improved fishing on some of the stillwaters and one fish in particular has got local game anglers talking, so much so that it has been dubbed ‘the most wanted fish in Berkshire’!

The most wanted fish in Berkshire

I have a regular weekly catch up with Chris Hayward to get the latest trout returns from the Sportfish Game Fishing Centre but this week, despite some amazing catches, he was buzzing about ‘the most wanted fish in Berkshire’.

The team at Haywards Farm Lake on the site have a competition where a fish is tagged on introduction to the water and anglers pay a pound on top of their regular fishing ticket to enter. The premise is simple, catch the tagged fish and you win the entire kitty.

Of course, the longer the fish evades capture the bigger the prize pot becomes and Chris was full of the fact that the prize has now reached £1,000 – yes, enjoy a day’s trout fishing and in addition to catching a fish or two, you could also bag a cool £1K!

What really had Chris excited was that the fish – sporting a very distinctive and visible yellow tag – had been spotted regularly during the week but had resisted all the patterns cast to it. Have you got what it takes to catch the most wanted fish in Berkshire?

Even if you can’t catch the prize fish the news from the complex is superb with the rod average for the week an incredible eight. Catch of the week went to young Alexander Jaffrey who netted a personal best blue trout of exactly 8lb, the fish hit a damsel nymph fished on an intermediate line in testing conditions.

Stillwater success

Carp fishing does tend to improve with the arrival of February but Windsor’s Dean Butler got in early with a cracking winter mirror of 18lb 12oz from Island Lake Fisheries at Theale.

Presenting two halves of a mini boilie back-to-back on a size 10 hook in a small PVA of boilie crumb and maggots Dean had just one take during a wet and windy 24-hour session on the venue. Dean banked the specimen with 12lb main line, coated braid hook length and a 3oz running lead.

Dean also reported that he saw at least two other ‘big doubles’ caught while he was on the water, perhaps carp fishing spring really is on the horizon?

Kennet perch

Few big River Kennet perch have been reported to the Big Fish Column this winter but we are now approaching the best time of the year to bag a big river ‘stripey’ and a few local anglers are beginning to put in time in pursuit of them.

Despite a good push of water, Slough angler Tim Charles managed to find a big area of slack water behind a submerged tree in which to present his legered lobworm hook bait last weekend. After picking up a small-ish chub early on, Tim connected with a lovely perch of 2lb 14oz late in the afternoon, beating it with a size 8 hook to a 4lb fluorocarbon hook length and 6lb main line.

I think we shall see a lot more good river perch reported as we head into the back end of the season and, despite its well-publicised problems, the Kennet is still capable of producing the occasional monster.

Any anglers wishing to report catches may contact me at ian@bigfishtrail.com