Location – Airfield Lake
Hours Fished – 68 hours
This week my wife is back working in the front room and I was gardening for a few hours each day (and then finishing the homeschooling). I was surprised that we had done so well by Thursday morning that the wife suggested that I go fishing Thursday night, instead of Friday lunchtime time! Not knowing if every week would turn out like this, I jumped at the opportunity as the weather was looking pretty good, let’s hope the weatherman is right this time.
I arrived just after 2 pm and after a discussion on the way down with Ian, I felt that it was time for a social, with the opportunity to fish one lake each. This did make a lot of sense. I’d been watching the Middle Lake for some time and was waiting for the right opportunity to get on it and this hopefully was it.
I opted for a swim where I’d done well from before and set about baiting an area up. I planned on fishing both rods there the first night and seeing how things progressed.
I baited an area off the tip of a point with plenty of chopped up boilies, particles and fished a 15mm Catalyst wafter with a 12mm pink pop up.
There was a lovely moon out
The night passed by with only a couple of bleeps, unfortunately, Ian lost a carp, which is not a helpful start to the session.
I was up early and the morning was lovely. I’d spotted a carp showing, so I quickly switched over to a bag and dumped a bit on its head.
Just after 8am the other rod ripped off, to what felt like a nice fish, and after a couple of close calls, with the overhanging tree along the margins, I was relieved to get the fish in the Nsr50.
21lb 4oz Common
Well happy with that. Hopefully, plenty more to come my way. The rod was back on the spot and it was time for a brew and enjoy the sunshine. The afternoon turned into a rainy one and it continued through the everning. As my bivvy was facing that way, I was in for a ‘interesting time’ but there was no real option, unless I wanted to face a tree.
I moved one if the rods to the right hand margin and was pretty confident it would go off early. However, to my surprise it didn’t! The other rod was left on the spot which produced this morning and I was very confident that would go off again.
The rain arrived just after 6pm and was due to carry on until midnight (and get heavier). It was going to blow in my door and at some point the door needed to be closed as the evening progressed.
I was surprised that the margin rod didn’t go off over the course of the day. The rain and the wind arrived, as I had set up knowing the wind was due to come straight into my bivvy door. I spent the next 12 hours tucked away inside watching Netflix and trying to sleep as the wind rattled the tent all night long. Morning arrived and the wind was more bearable, the rain had finished and the start of an overcast day was upon me. Boy, did the conditions feel perfect. Let’s hope the carp play ball. They had started to crash about 5 am, after they had been silent all night.
Ian shouted out about 1pm ‘any chance of a hand?’, ‘as I’ve got a nice lump on!’ When I got over there, the carp was plowing up and down the margins without any signs of giving up. It certainly looks (and according to Ian felt) like a lump, it just kept on fighting, but after this adventure, it slipped into his net and we could both breathe a sigh of relief.
4 am Sunday morning, the bobbin dropped to the floor with a massive drop back and I had to reel like mad to catch up with the fish who was kiting right towards the overhanging tree. I applied side strain and unfortunately, it was followed by a hook pull. I recast that rod and got back into bed, I lay there thinking about what happened and dropped back off back to sleep. The wind had picked up overnight and I was suffering from lack of sleep. This is never good in my book for fishing, you need to be 100% on it.
0530 the same rod belted off again and this time I had a better hook hold. Despite its best efforts to find a snag, the fish failed and was eventually in the Nsr50. The smaller fish give you the complete run around in here.
12lb 1oz Common
Very happy with that after the hook pull and the balance of life restored.
I quickly got the bait back out there, as I was very confident of another take (if I was lucky).
Eventually, the wind abated and the sky cleared. The sunshine came out in time to dry things off a bit but there was no more action on the carp front. This was much to my surprise. Ian had no more carp overnight, but we had a good social, keeping the correct distance apart but we did put the world to rights. We discussed how the lake had evolved over the years, how the carp have changed their feeding patterns and their spots over the past couple of season’s. This year it’s been producing well for the both of us and long may it continue. Why would you complain? 64 acres and only 4 anglers on the complex on at stormy Saturday nights (when the wind is pushing hard from the southwest).
It’s just magical
Until Next Time
Stay safe
Richard
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