Location – Airfield Lake
Hours Fished – 67 hours
With another opportunity to do another 3 nights on the bank and the weather conditions are looking favorable – I had to grab the chance. I’m sure the hot weather isn’t far away and I would be roasting again soon.
The wind was due to swing around to the northwest and if I’m lucky, it may push the carp out of the sanctuary area. You have to try, you can’t sit on your laurels on the same old spots each week.
Ian arrived first and gave me a call, we discussed the options; I’d been looking at the weather and thinking that there were a couple of areas that looked interesting. He informed me that he’d spotted a few fish showing when he arrived and it looked pretty good. The decision was made and as long as the swim was free when I arrived. Perhaps my luck was changing as it was!
My plan was to pile in 4 kilos of 12mm Catalyst boilies straight away and about 10 spombs of hemp, this was going on a deeper area of the lake which was a bit silty. I’d discovered on the Deeper lakebook. Both rods would be fished in the area with a snowman set up on a Ronnie rig, a 15mm Catalyst wafter and a 12mm Catalyst pink pop up.
As the afternoon progressed the conditions got even better; there was a good blow on the lake with light drizzle. I was feeling quite confident. Realistically, I was not expecting a bite the first night, but hopefully during daylight hours tomorrow.
The morning arrived and the wind had swung round to the N/W, despite seeing carp showing (and hearing them) overnight, we both failed to get a take on the first night. This is becoming the norm here.
I put on new PVA bags just after noontime – this is a method I’d previously done very well on here and I was interested to see if it was still a good method. I will be putting out a few spombs of hemp later on this evening, but I was planning on keeping things peaceful as possible.
My first take arrived just after 0315 on the second morning – only a small fish that didn’t cause me any issues, which is always a stroke of luck.
Airfield Lake infamous 10 pounders!
I was also blessed with a stunning sunrise to watch as I was making up another bag.
With the bait back out there and watching the sunrise, I wrote up my blog – it’s truly humbling to watch. The nightjars buzz away as they do on the heath above the lake, you forget about all the problems in the world.
Not sure if I dropped off fully, but just before 6 am, the same rod was off again. This time it was a harder fight and at one point it was off down the left-hand margin, but once I gained control it was simply playing the carp out under the rod tip until it was ready for the net.
19lb 5oz Common
With the mist blowing gently across the lake, it was perfect.
An idyllic place to spend a few nights fishing.
With another bag on the spot and the sun blasting down on the bivvy, it was brew and blog time.
The other rod ripped off just before 8 am and after quite a long fight (and a good few rods lengths off the bank), the hook pulled. You just have to expect as part of fishing on the Airfield Lake and move on. It was brew time once the rod was back on its spot. There was a steady breeze from the North onto my face and the sun was blasting down. I’m not sure if I will get anymore takes until later this afternoon, this is when its due to cloud over (or even tomorrow morning); we shall see if the luck changes.
With no further action, by noon it was extremely hot and felt like the best time to bait up for the last night. I simply topped up the swim with the rest of the hemp and about a kilo of boilies, I chucked a couple of fresh bags out on to the baited area – clearly no need to charge anything tonight.
Much to my shock I had no takes overnight, despite being quite close to where Ian managed a couple – including this lovely mirror.
It does go to show that you can be close to the fish, but sometimes that’s not going to produce a take.
It was certainly going to be a hot one and with the mist rolling over the water, I enjoyed the last few hours watching the water and having a couple of brews. 8 am arrived and it was pack up time, all the kit had dried out nicely, which is a help.
Until next time
Richard
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