My only gardening job on Friday was cancelled, and I had my kit all set to go, I was soon heading down to the Airfield Lake. Ian had called when he arrived just after 10 am and we went over our options. We picked a couple of swims that I could head for when I arrived. I then set about organizing the bait and bits I would need. I like to bring lots of different options with my baiting up, e.g boilies, pellets, particles and all soaked in liquids. Once I’ve arrived at the lake, I can simply pick what I’m going to use, mix them up and leave a few buckets in the car.

My original plan was to arrive at 11 am Friday morning, but ended up down the lake by 6 pm Thursday evening (due to the cancel gardening job). I quickly got camp up as the nights are closing in quickly, Autumn is well underway.

I’d spent a bit of time looking over my Deeper scans on the Fish Deeper website page – as I do before my session. Just to refresh my mind about the swim and if I’ve forgotten about any interesting spots that could make all the difference.

I’d spotted a couple of interesting features that drop down from the 2ft/3ft bar and there’s a couple of gully that goes down to 4ft before the main 4ft area that then drops off into 5ft.

The lighter the area, the deeper the water and these two gullies will be where I’m looking to put bait in. I also decided, I would wade out my freebies, this would reduce the noise in the area and I could also feel about for those spots. I still leaded about to check what sort of silt was out there, as I don’t fancy the real thick goo you get.

The air pressure was at the lowest it had been for some weeks and was slowly rising, a South westerly wind was blowing and the conditions for our choice of swim was all falling into place for the next few night’s.

My rigs were my normal ronnie rigs with stiff booms. I would still be using the Catalyst wafter with a Go2 10mm wafter to top it off, which is more about colour than the flavour.

The first 12 hours were very quiet and not much showing, until after about 7 am. Ian popped over at just after 8 am after losing one to a boulder, which was a real shame, however a good sign that the carp were down here and feeding. This is always good to know.

Just before noon, Ian was called my name, I quickly got my waders on, grabbed the remote and headed next door to his swim, to find a lovely looking Common safely in the net.

We sorted out the weighting kit, did the snap and I also Ian did his first water shot!

I was on may way back to my swim, just about to walk up to the bivvy and my right rod burst into life. I picked the rod up and headed into the water and out passed the bush, the carp was kiting to the left.

I was well over the moon after the battle I had with the dead tree down the left hand margin!

Love the wider shots these day.

With two fish in quick succession and it was around lunchtime, it was a good time to stick some bait out, sort the hook bait out, pop over to Ian’s swim, have a bite to eat with a glass of wine and a good chat about future plans over the coming winter months.

The homemade burger and a few glasses of red hit the spot and I was back in my swim by 4 pm, the rods back out looking forward to another night on the bank.

The night past with no action, which is becoming the new norm, the carp are starting to come out in daylight hours.

The sunshine was coming up over the New Forest and was making the inside of my bivvy sparkle with the reflection of the water. The clouds were slowly building up from the west and a gentle breeze was picking up as we head into feeding time, with (hopefully) the chance to get another one in the net this morning.

Baiting up time soon arrived. I needed to put a bit of thought into this, if I move one rod further out into the lake or stick with my plan which had only produced one take – to Ian’s three. With that in mind, I got the marker rod out and set up the spomb rod. It was definitely time to change at least one of my spots.

I had a look at the swim to the right of me in the early evening and the view you get is absolutely beautiful, the vista is breath taking at time’s.

With yet another peaceful night in for me, Ian on the other hand, had a bit of a nightmare with a drop back that ran straight into the snags along to his right. He just about made contact with the carp in time, but the speed and power of these Airfield carp, he didn’t stand a chance. He did get the rig back after trying all sorts of things to convince the carp to come back out. All was not lost as he managed another 16lber just after 4am, but with no sleep, he was suffering a bit when he popped over for a morning coffee and a chat about his night’s events.

With the prospect of clear, flat calm waters and bright sunshine, something these carp aren’t happy with. It was time for a slow pack up, head home and get out with the family for a lovely walk in the forest this afternoon.

Until next time

Richard

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