We said goodbye to Ian, Simon and Neil this morning, as they headed back to the UK with smiles on their faces and looking forward to their next visit next year.
It was their 1st trip to Solace and they certainly made the most of it, with fish to 54, a few 48's and 49's, plenty of upper 30's and 40's and a little homegrown doughnut for food measure. I think they finished with 19 fish overall with an average weight of about 40.
We also got to see a few that we haven't seen for a fair few months, some we've only seen once or twice in 3 years (there's still 6 or 7 that we haven't seen at all yet) so it was brilliant to see fish stocked 3 and 4 winters ago at 14lbs coming out between 36lbs - 41lbs. The stock in Solace, I hope you agree is already pretty impressive for a lake just under 3 acres, but it's also exciting to think about these young fish next year and in the years that follow.
Ian fished in Inflow, which for those that know is very weedy this time of year, but after finding a spot on day one that he was happy with and getting a bite so early in the trip on the Saturday afternoon (38lbs) he continued to work the spot all week, with atleast a couple of bites every day, including one of the long commons at 54lbs in the middle of the week.
Simple, but very accurate fishing and baiting using a mik of Kings Pro Liver GLM and King Squid as free offerings and Pro Liver GLM Wafters over the top accounted for all of aians bites.
Here are some of his highlights.
Simon fished in The Middle swim for the week, and flatter seeing plenty of activity out Infront of him, confidence was high as I left them to it on Saturday afternoon.
It didn't turn out to be quite the banker it looked like it was going to be though and bites were very hard earned, there were fish regularly Infront of him, they just didn't want to drop and feed out there this week, maybe because Kevin and Kevin who fished in the area the previous two weeks had done so well they were treating the area with caution. But even with a couple of losses he managed fish to 49lbs and ounces which he was rightly very happy with.
Neil, who fished in Wallace's had a trickier week. With autumnal nights creeping in and the water cooling down I really thought that deeper, siltier water out Infront of him would do bites, but they never really showed up, and after a couple of hookpulls in the first two days it looked like he'd have a difficult week.
But like the other guys he fished well and persevered and the results eventually came with this stunning mid 40 common and lovely mid 30 mirror.
Great angling lads and looking forward to having you back next year.