Location – Meadow Lake

Hours Fished – 74hrs

With a free weekend and a friend kindly looking after the children after school.  I was on my way to the syndicate straight after the school drop off.  I arrived to find only 2 other anglers on the lake, which is a good start, there was no hiding from the wind this weekend as it was going to be every direction possible, but the pressure was low and only going to rise slowly over the next 48 hrs.  I settled on a swim where I believe the carp would be close by, if not in the swim.

With immediate heavy rain forecast which would last until just after 3pm.  I took the decision to find one spot, bait that area and fished both rods there.  I would then spend the morning and early afternoon looking for signs of carp.

I have baited with a mixture of 12mm and 15mm Catalyst boilies, particle blend mixed in and some leftover pellets from my day trip all nicely soaked in Catalyst Syrup.

I’m using bright pop-ups today in the hope of attracting an inquisitive carp or two to pick up my bait and I may well change them over for the night, will think on that one.

The rain finally died away and I got the marker rod out again.  I quickly located the spot I was looking for (after viewing my Deeper lakebook logs) and soon had a load of bait on the spot.  I moved my right-hand rod over there.  I didn’t change the hook baits, as I was interested to see.  The water was very clear so I was hoping this would give me an edge over the other anglers who had arrived during the day and early evening.  The wind had swung to the East – which is right in my face and something I would have to live with for a few hours, not the best option for me, but I feel the carp are over this side of the lake.

The first take happened just after 1am to the right-hand rod, it was a couple of bleeps, the bobbin pulled up to the top and held there.  There was no option put to pick the rod up instantly and pull into a fish, at first I thought it was a Bream or Tench as there was no fight from the fish at all and was quickly in the NSR.  The photos were even pretty simple, except that it was raining at the time.

18lb 14oz Common

That will certainly do for starters and with a fresh hook bait sorted out, the bait was back on the spot.  I could get back in the dry, sort the kit out and update my blog while it was fresh in my mind.

It was a peaceful night after that,  with only a single bleep at around 5ish.  I was up pretty early and spotted a couple of fish roll over the right-hand rod again.

It’s a very murky morning with a lot of fine rain and a N/E wind, oddly there is a warm feel to the wind after the past few days.  The pressure is down to 989mbs, there is certainly a good chance of another take over the next 24 hrs.

At around noontime, I baited up both areas with 4 spombs and changed over to fresh hook baits.  I got the rods back out onto the spots, as I didn’t think there is any need to change anything for tonight, I feel there is a great opportunity for another fish tonight.

The second take of the night happened just after midnight to the left-hand rod again and this one was certainly not being reeled in straight away.  The take was an absolute belter and the fight was the same, the first part was to make sure it didn’t get anywhere near those snaggy tree’s all along to my right.  It was tying its upmost to make ground on me, but I held firm and finally had the fish under the top rod.  I was paranoid about the large boulders that this swim is built on, but after what felt like a lifetime, the carp was on the surface and under my control.  It did have the odd lunge down to the depths again, it was soon on the surface and nicely into the waiting Nsr.  Love that feeling when you know it’s all done.

33lb 13oz Common

Perfect, well happy with that.

Another PPS pop up, flossed on, blobbed down and flicked back out.  I then put a brew on and sorted out the bivvy, no point in trying to get my head down yet.

Just after, that I heard a carp crashing over my spot, well that’s a nice boost and fingers crossed for another bite, you just never know.

A very misty morning arrived and it was soon packed uptime; it’s always nice to get home early after a long weekend fishing to spend the whole day with the family.

Its been a very productive weekend, will have to work on getting the right-hand rod to produce some action – certainly not going to complain.  I was in fact, over the moon – considering that my weeks trip was not that long ago and it was a complete failure.  It does put you on the back foot, but you have to believe in yourself, have the confidence to move on and leave that week in the past.

Until next time

Richard

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