It’s been some weeks since I have been out on an overnighter in the week. This has been mostly caused by the extension we are having done at home. I am so pushed for time when I get back in the morning with unloading my fishing kit and then reloading with my garden kit, as my part-time gardening, has gone a bit full time. Much to my wife’s ‘reminding’, I am falling behind my househusband chores. Fingers crossed, normal service will resume by the end of July and what perfect timing that will be!
I arrived down the lake at my normal 7pm time and with the wind nicely pushing onto the tower bank. I really liked the look of this and saw a couple of fish roll – I was a very happy camper. It also helped that I knew the swim very well and could flick the baits on the spots. I put a small amount of Spotted Fin particle blend out and a pouch or two on catalyst boilies before the seagulls arrived, will have to put the rest out after dark.
As the sunset set and night fell, I was feeling quite confident. I had a couple of bleeps around midnight, it was looking good. It was not to be.
The sun rose over the forest, it was all too soon packing up time. It was a bit hard this morning, there was a couple of fish rolling over my baited area. I hung on as long as possible, but it was not to be.
After a very hard week at work, as a house husband/gardener, I was due a trip out. It’s a tough life but someone has to do it!
I was surprised to see so many people on the lake again. The top carpark was full and the tower car park had a few cars in it. I stopped for a walkabout. I found a couple of swims I fancied and one free on the island. I headed over that way for a look and discovered Ian, my friend, on the daisy field swim. Now that’s what the Doctor ordered! A good social with a few glasses after a hard week. I popped down and checked if he didn’t mind if I doubled up and he was fine with that. There is probably some 10 acres in front of this swim.
I set up on the left of the swim and put my baits into the same bay area, as I had done before.
One rod was more in open water than the last time and on a hump, we found with the Deeper.
The rod in the bay was also fished on a likely spot.
But more in the middle of a large gully with a small bit of weed. Both areas had about 10 spombs of a ground bait mixture made up of different size pellets & types from Spotted Fin, plus a bag of their particle mix.
And I was making up bags with a handful of Catalyst boilies in each one,
with a 15mm Catalyst wafter tied up with their Chod filament Ronnie Rig style. I find this works very well for me on this lake.
I was finally all set up after some 2 hrs after I had arrived. A nice glass of wine and a long chat was very much needed. It was nearly midnight catching up with life. This is the fun of socials.
Around 3 am, my left-hand rod was away and after the normal battle you get on here (I thought to myself), it felt a bit bigger the fish I have been catching at the moment on here and sure it was.
At 5oz over 20lbs, I was very happy.
With a new bag makeup, I was time to get my head down, I dropped off listening to the dawn chorus, on a very misty morning.
The day passed with no action and the temperature rose nicely. This was until mid-afternoon when the rain arrived and a nice cool breeze picked up. Just what the dr ordered.
As the sunset over the lake, there were a few fish about and we were feeling very confident. The first and last take came around 4am to Ian’s right-hand was off. It was a very unhappy Airfield Lake common, just under 10lbs. This was nice for him and as the fish had started to spawn again (sometime during the night). This was a complete surprise to everyone fishing. They first started in early May (as normal) and had done it a couple of time since. There had been no signs for the past couple of weeks.
If you had arrived down the lake at 6am you would have never know that anything had happened. I packed up slowly and was all done and home by 10am.
It’s only a few days away and I hope your kit is ready.
I cant what myself, but with work and my extention bring done and the wife away for work. I am stuck until the following week. Good luck to you all on the rivers.
Why the perfect capture shot, is the question I ask myself quite a lot when flicking throw Facebook, there is a distinct lack of night shots and I know that technology has moved on with slings and sack, however, there is no way off stopping the stress placed on the fish. it has just be captured and taken out the water weight and then put in a retaining sling for 8 hrs.+, all because there is a demanded to have the perfect shot, which in my book is just not an expectable why to treat fish and it amazes me that anglers are happy to do this, when they treasure the quay so much and get upset when they get eaten by otters or and angler mistreats the fish. hypercritical I would say if you are in the list of anglers that keep the fish in a sling/sack for more than 10/15 minutes, which is all that is needed for you to set up the camera kit, which is what I have been doing for more than 35 years for carp fishing. we are in a battle to outwit the carp and landed them and that the job is done. it does not matter that you did not get a photo or it was poor quality and not in the perfect spot. you have captured your quarry and one the battle, now put the fish back and reduce the stressed caused. I have seen anglers taken the photos in the morning after the fish has been in the net most off the night and then place the fish back in the retainer and then sit in there brolly’s checking if the photos are perfect and if not, they keep repeating this process until they get it spot on. and then would why the fish, goes belly up a couple of weeks later. I believe this is partly driven by the industries demand on perfect shots, which is a bit narrow-minded in itself as most are anglers and by the modern day angler that is hooked on Facebook and the need to also outdo there fellow anglers with the best shot and the most likes. I come from there era of secret squirrel and you never really knew how had caught what other over the grapevine, I have embraced Facebook, as it nice to see how well other anglers are getting on, as it a battle between the angler and the fish and not a battle between us all, unless you are match fishing. The barbel anglers fully understand this and do there upmost to look after the quarry, why can’t the carp anglers, with the advice of camera technology and remote systems, the perfect shot can be taken at night, the more angler that start doing this and showing the rest that fish safety must come first the better. how do we know how much stress build up in a fish over time, just look at human beings there is a great deal of people having to take tables for stress which has built up over time and this must be the same for all living things, I have done a page on my website about Carp Safety Photographing Fish which is the way I have been doing this for many years and with camera technology moving on thinks can only get better.
Just remember the next time you see a photo of your target fish, how much stress was placed on it at the time and will it be around for you to catch it in the future, look after the fish and they will be around forever.
