With a good storm around this weekend, I was lucky to be able to move a couple of gardening jobs, which was not a problem as Friday morning it was tipping it down.
I arrived at the lake to find one person set up. I really felt I had to be in the thick of it, from a wind point of view, this gave me a couple of choices on the swim front. After standing around in the rain for some time, I spotted a good fish to the right of me and as over the past few weeks, I had spotted a few carp along the right-hand tree margins. It’s an area which is not feasible as you are highly likely to lose a carp.
My choice was made and I quickly set up camp and got the rods out. The first one went very well and I no sooner had a bream and needed to get the rod back out. It all went a bit pear-shaped when my reel broke, the line guard had a malfunction and snapped off a couple of bits.
The wind then picked up and my casting went all over the place. I got that sorted out and we were back on track. The baits were on my chosen spots and my baiting up was finally done. I could get the kettle on (after nearly 4 hrs), now time to relax for the next two days.
Oh, joy, I think I may have found the long-lost bream shoal, I have just had another one. Let’s hope the carp are not too far away and they move on by nightfall.
As night fell, there were no signs of any carp, but the wind was certainly stirring things up. It was like fishing in the sea!
It was around 9pm when my left-hand rod pull tight and then drop down, it gave a small twitch up again, that was it – I quickly picked up I had to catch up with the fish who was heading towards me. Well, more to the point, towards the small island next to me and under the snags. I gained line and point the rod tip under the water and pumped the fish away from the snags. At this point, I didn’t feel I was going to be a big fish but once under the rod tip, it woke up and gave me a right run around for some time. Then it was safely in the nsr and I could breathe again
26 – 6 common
Now came the fun – getting the bait on the spot with a very strong crosswind. I was quite lucky and my line looked pretty good and was pointing at my horizon marker.
My next fish was on the right-hand spot and it was yet another bream. This can be a bit frustrating as there are not many of them about in this lake. I can’t quite believe there are no carp out there, fingers crossed for the next bit being a carp.
My next take happened on the left-hand rod, which answers the question of was it on the spot? It ripped off, just after 0530. It was a resounding yes. This fish certainly did know it was hooked but this time headed for open water. This relaxed me somewhat until I woke up and realized it was heading for the right-hand bush. No chance. After a short battle in the margin, my second carp of the trip was safely in the nsr.
25-15 common
The rod back was back on the spot again, it’s just after 6am and my head was feeling it, after a windy night, 2 carp & 2 bream. I thought I better get back in the bag and get my head down for an hour.
The day past with no action for me, the wind died down and even the sun popped out for a bit, it felt like a summers day. There was the odd carp crashing in the far left corner and I’ve been having liners on and off over the last couple of hours.
It was just about 1720 when that rod pulls right up to the buzzer and held there. I jumped up, pulled into the fish, felt a bump and it was off the hook.
I checked the rig and all was well. I redid a new hook bait, got it out there again and hopefully, we’ll get another chance later on tonight.
I was up about 2am, as there were fish crashing all about, this boosted my confidence for the night. I had two more bream but just after 3am, the rain set in and I am sure that put pay to me having any more fish. My dad is down the week, I need to get home pretty early and it was my first real wet pack up for a long time. The rain was set in all day, which would make drying thing out tricky.
Well, that’s me done for a week.
Until next time Richard
Please subscribe to my Video Diary
UK Carp & Coarse Fishing 