April 2025

Steve Burbidge recently fished a day session at Willington Lake that produced a 21lb 4oz mirror.

Mick Baldwin found the Broom Lake bream rather finicky through most of March and early April and although he felt there were lots of fish in front of him they seemed reluctant to feed in numbers. Over 7 trips he managed a total of 223lb made up of 37 bream, 2 carp and a pike. However, Mick’s most recent day session saw the bream finally switch on and he landed 24 bream to 7lb 7oz and a carp for 16lb 12oz.

Sport at Broom Lake has been slowly improving in recent weeks with the carp feeding more consistently, albeit with most feeding activity occurring during the night, early morning and dusk rather than during the middle of the day. Phil Lomax had a productive session over the Easter break with 4 commons and a mirror between 15 and 18lb falling to 18mm cell boilies topped with corn. Phil’s recent 48h session last weekend produced 9 carp including a ghostie, 2 commons and 6 mirrors all falling to cell boilies fished with solid bags, with the carp ranging in weight between 13lb to 24lb.

The track around Broom Lake remains closed for the time being. The contractors are due to return to remove the numerous piles of large woody debris left after cropping the cricket bat willows, and their heavy machinery is likely to further damage the track. The club hopes to be able to repair and reopen the track around the lake in the coming weeks. Click on an image to see it in full.

Late April

Willington Lake has received an influx of small carp during the winter floods that have been showing up in a number of recent catches. It is believed that these small carp originate from other fisheries that were also flooded by the Ouse. Mick Baldwin’s first bream session of the year at the venue resulted in 4 fish for 40lb with a 5lb bream and 3 carp to 13lb, which all appeared in excellent condition and probably included some of the VS Fisheries carp stocked last winter. Kevin Wilikins was hoping for bream and tench but on his first cast his mini boilie was snaffled by a little 5lb 11oz mirror with bad mouth damage suggesting it had previously resided in a commercial fishery. Kevin went on to catch mirror carp of 22lb 12oz and 18lb 1oz.

A number of bream have died in recent weeks from what appears to be the stress of spawning. Water quality has been checked by both the club and the EA and everything appeared to be fine. The recent warm spell has also triggered the carp into showing signs of spawning activity.

Karim Dhanji has enjoyed some productive sessions from a number of swims at The Airman in recent weeks and has managed a total of 9 carp, as well as a few ‘nuisance’ bream and catfish. Karim’s carp all appeared to be in excellent condition and ranged from 13lb to 19lb 10oz, and were identified as fish the club had stocked from VS Fisheries in recent years. Ray Holtum had a run in the early hours of the morning on one of his catfish rods, after an epic fight that lasted the best part of an hour, Ray finally managed to coax the catfish into his landing net. Ray needed the assistance of another member to lift the fish and net out of the water and it then pushed the scales around beyond the 70lb mark.

Members should note that the lake that lies to the West of The Airman is on private land and has nothing to do with SDAA. Any SDAA member found straying beyond the perimeter fence that surrounds The Airman is likely to receive a ban from the club.