A winter days fishing on Butterfly Lake to check fish condition and growth rates.
I don’t get the chance to fish too often on Butterfly Lake, so this weekend I thought I’d get my line wet just to see what type of growth rates the carp have had over the last few years, and to inspect the health condition of each fish. Most of the carp in here were stocked at a size and weight ranging from 6 inch to 2lb and in the last few years we have mainly re-stocked Butterfly Lake with tench and bream.
My chosen peg for the day was the one in front of the bottom lake meadow gate, which is the closest swim, not far from our Woodpecker and Owl camping areas. The swim starts off shallow and then deepens to about 4.5ft, before shallowing up again towards the island, so it’s a trench where I knew the fish would be holding up in this colder weather. I put a keepnet out, just for taking some records and to show you some photos of the type of fish haul you can expect to catch. On a nice day in May or June, or just after fish spawning you could expect to catch even more than this! (Please note that keepnets are not permitted).
We sometimes have fishermen who struggle and question what they can catch. I always tell them that if the tactics are correct, you should catch throughout the summer, as our lakes are not heavily fished. So guests who holiday with us at the end of May, or through June should expect an excellent days fishing. I was fishing about 4 pole sections out and I only fished the one line as the bites were consistent, so there was no need to bait the margins or closer to the island. If the bites had dried up, then I would have tried close to the arum lilies on the island, it’s a great spot, but it is shallower. I used 6lb main line and 3lb hook length with 4 Stotz weights 6 inches from the size 16 barbless hook. With the bait plum on the bottom. Sweetcorn and maggots were used throughout the day, using a small preston CAD pot to ship out a handful of maggots and corn each time, just to keep them active and in my swim.
Regular baiting is essential to keep the fish confident and feeding, but the key is not to over feed.The carp in Butterfly Lake fight really well. Pound for pound, they fight harder here than the other two lakes (Mayfly and Dragonfly), and overall I had a great day. I didn’t weigh the fish, but inspected them and I was pleased to see that in general they all had healthy fins & mouths. I caught around 125lb to 150lb in weight, something a match angler would be very proud of. After a day of fishing like this, I don’t think I will leave it so long before fishing Butterfly Lake again.
I also caught a number of small perch, tench, and some nice size roach to 1/2lb, but i didnt manage to catch the bream that were recently stocked.
Please Note: We do not allow keepnets. The only reason we use a keepnet is to take a record of fish stock, transfer fish into our other lakes, or to inspect the health of each fish.
Landing nets, unhooking mats, barbless hooks and a disgorger are required before fishing our lakes.
We look forward to a brighter year ahead and to welcoming guests back to Perran Springs again this summer.
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