My other lake is closed for spawning and the Airfield Lake spawning is well over now, I’m back out in my mozzie-infested secret swim; it’s not that secret really.  I do get surprised by the number of anglers who don’t know about it.  On my last trip here a long-time member walked in and exclaimed “I wondered where you were fishing”, “I never realized that this swim is here!”  Lucky me.  Also, the fact you can only fish it with waders on does put a few people off.

My selection on the swim was purely based on shade from the sun during the daytime, the forest was hotting up, but the breeze, I was hoping for made it just be bearable.  I’ve positioned my baits in two different areas this time at varying depths, I’m slightly out of touch with the lake, it’s been over 3 weeks since I was here last.  I’ve scattered a good amount of bait over both spots, not too far about apart.

The first take finally happened just after 6 30 am, after what felt like a long night.  At one point I thought the carp had started spawning again but then released that it was the geese as they’d moved and the noise had also moved, they were certainly making a racket at 2 am.  The fight was pretty straightforward until the carp tried to head under the tree to my right and then between me and the bank.  This was a bit of an issue if I waded too far out, but the carp was heading left and I needed to keep it away from the snag further along the bank.

A lot of agro was had by this little hard fighting Airfield Common; with the shallow waters and their big tails, they go like rockets.  The wind dropped and changed to the east, there were also clear skies, it’s going to be a hot one and I’m glad I’m going to be out of the sun for a good part of the day.

This morning and afternoon passed by in the heat, my friend Ian came down for a brew and a chat.  This certainly broke up the day nicely, there is only so much Netflix you can watch in a day trying to avoid the sun.

The wind was picking up nicely from the Southwest again, I’m pretty hopeful of a few bites tonight.  I’ve not added any more bait to the swim and actually left the rods out, my hook baits will last over 48 hours and there is no real point in making any disturbance when I don’t feel it’s necessary.

The next take was a long time coming and at one point during the night, I was wondering if it would actually happen, but you have to have faith in your abilities and it will come together.  At 5.22 am, the left-hand rod was away and another fight ensued.  I was trying to avoid the snags to my right this time, I was able to get well out into the lake and nearly in front of those snags.  This does help to guide them away and back out onto open water.  I’m then able to play them out – hopefully without any issues.

14lb 10oz Common

I’m pretty happy with my results, considering the weather conditions, I’ve been out on the hottest days of the week and was lucky enough to get two bites.  The weather at the end of the week is looking awesome, so I’m just going to hopefully squeeze a night or two in before I have a couple of hospital appointments (and covid tests).  It looks like my other syndicate will be closed for a good 3 weeks due to spawning or even longer as the owner likes to give them a couple of weeks to recover before we get back on, which means a few weeks fishing on the Airfield Lake.

There’s a nice breeze on the lake from the east and cloud cover, this is due to break up a bit, and then the temperature will be picking up again.  It would be nice to get another bite, it just depends on the weather.

It didn’t come to fruition, unfortunately, but I had a nice slow cool pack up and headed home.

Until next time

Richard