The weather this week was all over the place and affecting my gardening work. I decided that I would completely bin off Wednesday and move that job to the following week. I was affected both Monday and Tuesday by the rain and was home early on both days. I even considered going Tuesday afternoon and arriving before the real drop in pressure on Wednesday as well as a good storm. However, Ian was due down Thursday and this would be the last social trip until September as I’m away for a week and having days out the following week.
I thought that getting up at 0430 hrs was the better option on Wednesday morning, but not 100% sure about that, really.
I arrived at the gate at about 0600 hours and had been mulling over my options since Monday. I honestly didn’t fancy the same swim. However, the wind would be pushing South Westly for the first 24 hours and then swing around to North Westly for the coming 48 hours. With that in mind, the wind would move quite dramatically along with a pretty dramatic rise in the pressure. It would be as low as 986 Mbs on Wednesday and back up to 1020 mbs on Saturday. You can see why the thought of going Tuesday crossed my mind.
Based on Steve and Adrian’s results as well as my results, it was looking more favorable to fish the same swim again. Instead of the swim that the South Westly would be pushing into and then watching the wind pushing the carp away from that area. Sitting there for another two nights, that thought of Tuesday pops up again, but I was dead tired. The prospect of checking out the dredged snag crossed my mind, if I lost a good fish within the first 24 hours, I would simply have to fix the issue. Which, I’m not sure is possible for me, by myself or move, and if you follow my blogs, moving isn’t something I do often.
Back to arrival day – Wednesday, once the wind swings North Westly, I’m thinking it may just push those carp out of the sanctuary, and into the area where I picked those two takes last week. I feel this is a better plan than my other one.
Simply, if the Double Gravel is free, I’m in there, and Ian’s planning on going in the swim behind me. It would make social much easier than being over the other side of the lake! I wasn’t 100% if Ian would come, as there had been a weather warning issued for strong winds and after the other October disaster how could blame him?
His 70rh is this year, and I didn’t like it when it happened to me in my 30s! So God knows how I would feel now, probably take up day fishing.
Well, it was free and my choice was simple.
Bivvy was set up first, then back to the car for the first barrow load of general kit.
The second load consisted of the cool box, Weber, bait, and comfortable camping chair.
I normally do the bait first, but as it was only around 7am, it would be to get the kit in the bivvy to avoid any rain and then get the rods out. I would hopefully leave the baiting up until 1030/1100 hours, depending on the weather front arriving.
It ended up being about 1000 hours, but that gave me 3 hours to possibly catch a carp. The real heavy rain looks like it’s going nowhere near us. But around 1600 hours, there are a few thunderstorms popping up, we shall see how that pans out in about 5 hours!
I’d decided that both rods would be as close as I could get to the Sanctuary entrance and would bait this up with about 20 Dot Spombs. Not wishing to over bait this area. As once the Northwesterly arrived I wouldn’t be able to get the same range and would have to drop the right-hand rod from that area. That choice would be made tomorrow at some point. I would chuck a few spombs in those areas in readiness for this and keep in mind that I wanted the carp to carry on out the Sanctuary and into this area. Not stopping where I’m fishing tonight. This is why the only 20 spombs approach for the first night, I need to see how it goes.
I moved my bivvy back away from the wasp nest and changed the angle of the door. Keeping in mind the Northwesterly winds, which should max out at about 20 Mph before I head home Saturday morning. Unlike today, which is only around 30 mph, unlike the coastal regions which could get 40 mph, hopefully, it says there, otherwise my bivvy could look like Ian’s!
That, unfortunately, turned out to be a rubbish night, the weather certainly didn’t turn out to be what they said. Over the course of the morning, I put a lot of thought into my approach for the next night. In the end, I opted to leave the left-hand rod out for another 24 hours and move the other rod across to the end of the next island. I felt all my eggs were in one basket, and splitting them up made more sense to me.
I put 4 spombs out around that rod but didn’t top up the other, I felt it was too late in the day to do this.
Ian had decided not to come down this week, as the weather was looking pretty rough on Saturday. There is always the possibility, I also will no doubt go home Friday lunchtime, looking at the forecast currently. I actually think they may be correct this time, but I will only make my mind up Friday morning after they have updated the forecast. I need to be home early Saturday morning. I don’t fancy a car full of soaking wet stuff and then having to dry it all out. If I was going home Sunday it would’ve been a completely different story, but sometimes you have to cut ‘n’ run.
The rain finally arrived late yesterday afternoon but was more or less gone by 2130 hours. A few carp crashed out and certainly gave me a lot of hope for the coming night. It really looked up for a bite tonight.
With a couple of bleeps on the right-hand rod around 2230, it felt like it was going to happen at any moment. NO was the right answer. I couldn’t believe it. By 0730, it was pretty clear this trip was going to be a blank one. If it hadn’t been for drying my kit out, I would’ve started packing up instantly, as I was pretty grumpy at this point, clear blue skies and a light north wind. Plus not catching a carp during the daytime fishing period, dusk or dawn doesn’t fit into this time frame.
The best thing I can do is put the kettle on, my video, and make use of this time effectively.
It got to 0930, and I slowly started to back away from my kit. The wife has a couple of weeks’ holiday, plus I need to catch up on my gardening work after all the runs recently. I will be lucky to get one night out next week and after that, it’s fun time with the family until September. I generally keep away over the bank holiday weekend, especially the last one of the year, and after the past few weeks I don’t think I’m going to miss a great deal.
Until next time
Richard
UK Carp & Coarse Fishing 