My original plan was not to fish until the first weekend in September. The weather over the August Bank Holiday weekend was full of thunderstorms, etc., and not particularly good for days out. With a week of school holidays left to go, the family was happy to let me out for a couple of nights. It was worth a try, at least.
So, with no particular swim in mind, I decided to take a drive around Meadow Lake, as I’d not seen it since late March. It was full of weed this year and I really needed to know how bad it was for the coming winter.
There were a few syndicate members here I’d not seen since March, it was nice to catch up with them. I stopped in the first car park and went in the first swim, I ended up staying there. The wind was pushing in nicely. The guy who was in there filled me in with all the information I needed regarding the weed situation and I just felt it was the right place to be. In all honesty, I was happy I was out on the bank again after 3 weeks. It was an easy swim to get to a good one to ease your way back into that 3 night a week routine. After all the stress of GCSE results and college enrollment with my eldest, it certainly felt like the best option for me.
Paul, kindly let me put up my bivvy, as 75% of his kit was in the car, due to the pending thunderstorms forecast. This situation ended up being handy for him, as we had a couple of heavy downpours. Once he was gone, I set about getting the rods in place, leading around a bit, getting the bait out there, and hoping the rain would stay away long enough. Which it did. I was all done by 1500 hrs, this gave me a few hours to relax and take in my surroundings.
My bucket mixture from now on would be Carbon Baits Hemp and Chopped Tigers, with Spotted Fin 12mm Catalyst, Corn, Smokey boilies, milled Particles. Catalyst Super Blend Groundbait, and the last few packs of Fish Bite I’d been saving, plus a good helping of Classic Corn Syrup, to help bind it together a bit.
This was put out over the range rod, and cast alongside the island towards the channel into the sanctuary area. I didn’t fancy going too far, as I wasn’t aware of how bad the weed was further out. I will lead around a bit more tomorrow. The closer in rod was just going to be the 12mm boilies catapulted out, as I planned to trickly more out over the next 48 hours, after the initial load.
The right hand is situated in the middle of this picture, and 9 wraps out on a lovely silty area.
The left-hand rod is 17 wraps out, on gravel, just off the weed bed, and heading out towards the tail tree.
Hopefully, one of these spots will produce a bite tonight, or I may have to adjust something tomorrow. I’m only here two nights, so I may well stick with it.
The skies were fantastic last night, with a bit of a chill in the air, and the same this morning. Unfortunately, there was an event on the estate last night, I believe it was the annual Christian gathering, however, they behaved like teenagers at a rave and the music was blasting out down the valley until well past 2 a.m. With lots of yelling and screaming going on the way past then. I know I sound like an old man, I’ve been to plenty of rock concerts in my time and at least they finish around 11pm and it’s all pretty quiet by midnight. My head is thumping this morning with the lack of sleep and I fancy driving passed all their tents blasting my horn at 6 a.m, to get my revenge. Hopefully, I can have a nap this afternoon and there’s not a repeat performance tonight.
Hopefully, today will bring peace and harmony back, plus the possibility of a carp after last night would be a great help. The carp are certainly feeding on here more than the Airfield Lake.
Over the course of the day, I’m going to think about moving a rod or just leaving them out there. There has been a lot of bait going in and people are getting big hits off the back of other people’s baiting up. This makes me wonder if it’s worth just leaving the rods out until tomorrow morning when I pack up.
The day passed uneventfully, the wind picked up nicely, and the cloud cover increased. I spent part of the day editing the first half of my video and the rest finishing off watching a series on Netflix before my subscription finishes today. I had my lasagne and salad for tea, watched the highlights of the Dutch GP. This was interrupted by a tench, which luckily fell off before I got the net wet.
I needed to get my head down early after my sleepless night last night, which I did until just after 3 a.m. when the right-hand rod was away. The fight wasn’t like the Airfield Lake, but it was slow and steady, this was helpful at that time of the morning.
22lb 10oz of lovely looking Meadow Lake common. That will certainly do me. I put the carp in the retainer, (it was pretty feisty in the net), did the rod, and set up the photo stuff before getting it out of the water. It had calmed down a lot, which was a bonus.
I was a bit late rising this morning, I didn’t set my alarm clock, I needed as much sleep as possible. It was 2 minutes before 9 am when I woke up and I’d promised to be home by 10, which was going to happen.
I got packed away and headed home just after 10 a.m.
I was very happy with my result and would take a drive around again on my next trip and see where I end up.
Kind regards
Richard
UK Carp & Coarse Fishing 