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I did the same as my last trip, by taking a drive around Meadow Lake on the way to the Airfield Lake and ended up pitching up there again. There were only 2-night angler’s on, plus 2 day anglers, which turned out to be someone doing the night after the other day angler went home. I was sure another syndicate member who generally fishes Wednesday to Friday would be about. The fact that the Gap Swim was free and it simply took my fancy. My thought process is slowly drifting towards staying on here now. I’ve got the possibility of a trip to West Stow Lake in October with Rob again this year. After last year’s disaster with the old Covid, it would be really nice to get back there this year.

I can see myself doing the odd social with Ian. We shall have to see where I end up.

I set the bivvy up first, then got my first load on the barrow over from the car park.

I thought it best to check the swim out for weed before I 100% committed myself to this swim. I know other people have been fishing here over the past few weeks so there shouldn’t be any real issues, I just don’t fancy making things hard for myself just yet. There are a couple of very weedy areas I’ve taken a fancy to and will start baiting them every so often.

Once I had leaded about, it was time to get spombing out my gloppy mixture of all sorts.

That looks appetizing to me. Hopefully, the carp will feel the same way about it. I put out as much as I could before my back and arm started to hurt. I need to be mindful that I don’t cause myself more damage, so I’m restricting myself to a max of 18 wraps, preferably less.

My right-hand rod is in its normal spot, to the right of the swim, well within the wrap restriction, and the left rod is on the limit. I’m OK if I want to fish single hook bait or use a tiny spomb with less bait out there and limit the number of casts. I feel a big bed of bait, sitting there for a few days is the better option.

The weather is looking perfect, the pressure slowly rising, until after I’ve gone home, it then leaps up a lot. There’s a wet day ahead tomorrow and the wind is switching from NW to SW and then to NE on Saturday morning. This along with the full blue super moon that people are getting obsessed with, but that is a completely different blog post to explain my thoughts.

With the rigs all done and the rods perfectly positioned, it’s time to relax, watch the water, and wait for my first run.

Hopefully, this evening or overnight, something will happen.

It was soon tea time, and I certainly needed some food. Unfortunately, the eating part was interrupted by a bream bite, but my food was still piping hot by the time I got back to it (which was handy). I’m currently waiting for dusk, so I can stick some 20mm Boilies out with my throwing stick. If I do it now, the seagulls will have the lot.

Beautiful skies this evening, along with a rainbow.

Going straight down, there must be some moisture in the air, there certainly will be tomorrow.

The night passed without a single bleep, the rain arrived right on time and continued until around 1300 hours when there was a break. That was possibly the end of it, but there’s a slim chance of a bit more.

This was my view for most of the morning, but now there’s a brightness in the sky, plus I’ve spotted a couple of carp showing to my right. Unfortunately, out of my water, but not too far off. I’m hoping this is a good sign. The wind is now pretty much doing a 360 over the next 24 hours, this may also bring them out a bit more. I was hoping for more of a blow on the water, like yesterday, currently, that’s faded away.

The score at the moment is Bream 3 Carp 0, at least they like my spot. You can never tell if the carp are present and it’s just bad luck if you hook a bream.

I thought the weather was going to stay good, but we have had another hour’s worth of rain.

I’ve left the right-hand rod out, it’s had no action on it but I am always hopeful it may well trip up one of the older bigger residents.

Just before 1 a.m., the right-hand rod gave a couple of bleeps. I was out like a shot, as this is the margin rod, there was access to a couple of large weed beds. The bobbin was pulled up tight to the rod and the tip was pulled around a bit. I grabbed the rod and pulled straight into a solid lump of weed plus the carp I hopped for and not a tench or bream. “Great,” I thought. I had to keep the pressure on hopping the fish might kick itself free. No such luck. I got this giant lump moving slowly toward me and under the rod tip after about 10 minutes. I had a couple of kicks on the way in and felt there was a good chance that it could be a carp. I quickly got my waders on and got in the water, holding the line by the leader and not the braid. That could lead to a disaster. I had my Nsr50 net next to me and slowly started to remove chunks of weed from the lump. Being mindful I could find a fish any second and would need to let go of the line – just in case it bolted off. My rod was on the rest with a very loose clutch. I don’t think there’s a perfect way to do this process, you simply take it slowly and hope eventually after a good part of the weed bed was removed, a carp was spotted. At this point I let the line go, but the fish stayed there, I removed more weed, sunk the net, and pulled the leader line up through the weed until I felt the weed. I slipped the net underneath the carp and what was left of the weed bed. The carp sunk to the bottom of the Nsr50 and I continued to remove the weed until I was just left with a few bits. I then got sorting the weighing and camara kit out.

An absolute beast of a common, pulling the scales around to 30lb 10oz, Wow.

In my haste to get it back I only photographed one side, I was worried about the stress put on the fish and I was trying to get it back quickly.

The rod was back in the water and I sorted out a pile of weed. I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to put the bait back in that spot again. Realistically, I had no option at that time of the night and with any luck, there’s a lot less weed now!

I woke to yet again more rain. I was expecting sunshine. The weather forecast had completely changed for today. This is a bonus, cloudy most of the day, possibly more rain and then sunshine later in the day. Still, definitely sunshine on pack-up day, which is always a help these days.

At 1500 hours, it was time to get the last of my bait put there. I’d been lucky enough to get the last of the 20mm Classic Corn Boilies out there with no seagull issues. Probably due to the Osprey flying around the lake on its annual migration home. I made the decision not to move my rods as I was very happy with their position, despite the bream and now tench action I had received in the past 24 hours.

The spombing was all sorted and a quick tidy-up of the bivvy in preparation for an early departure tomorrow morning. I was all set for the night, relaxing watching the water, and a couple of glasses of wine to celebrate.

Traps set and a beautiful sunset this evening over the lake. With any luck, I may catch myself another lump this evening or over the dark hours.

It’s all a bit misty this morning, and my rods have not burst into action for nearly 24 hours, looks like the bream have moved out, and the carp didn’t bother moving in, which I was hoping for.

Think it’s a different swim on my next trip. Even if this one is available and others aren’t free, I need to be mindful of the fact that the hot swim will switch off and the carp will inevitably move. As they have done in the past. Hopefully, they will move in this direction and there will be a need to bait there to hold them. It’s a bit of a quandary – I need to put the bait out, but the swim isn’t productive currently and I don’t really like prebaiting when there are a lot of people fishing the lake, as there is currently. I feel it’s a bit unfair to bait a swim and not fish it, when you know full well someone will go in there and bait up over your bait and then no doubt blank. It’s not the same as following someone else into a swim, as you would be aware of how much bait has gone in or their ‘presents’. What I’m trying to say, is there’s enough bait going out with the current volume of anglers. Then add into the mix, me baiting in swims I’m not fishing with a lot of bait, this is something I’m not comfortable with. However, once the winter creeps ever closer those anglers hang their rods up or switch to day fishing. Less bait is going in, and then I feel I’m okay to do it.

With all that in mind, I may just have to sacrifice the odd trip to keep the bait flowing, if I feel the swim is being ignored by other anglers.

It’s time for me to get going and head home. Good luck if you’re on the bank, and I hope you catch the fish of your dreams.

Until next time

Richard