With a pending operation on my tooth this coming Friday, I’m making the most of the time I have available at the moment.

It’s now Sunday, 17th March, and I’m back out on the Airfield Lake. I arrived at about 1:30 pm, and after looking around for an hour and a bit, I visited Saturday before I went home in the same area.  I’m hoping to spot something, there wasn’t a single sign anywhere. I ended up pitching in an area where I had seen the carp on Friday morning. It was a tricky one, as this area has three swims with access to slightly different areas, and from where I was pitched up Friday/Saturday, you can’t 100% tell where the carp are showing

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Ultimately, I opted for the Cliff Swim for two reasons; it has a good view of the lake and plenty more options to cast at showing carp. The downside is it’s a pain to get to, and waders were definitely required. It certainly felt like the spot to be. One rod was cast off towards Gate Island in a small bay area, with a lovely silty area. The other was a bag flicked out just into a light weed bed, leading to a lot thicker weed, with small clear spots. I also spombed out four large spombs of nutty particles, just to get those carp digging about.

As the evening comes to a close, I’ve started to hear the odd crashing carp in the distance. Fingers crossed they get closer.

The night was dead, except for about an hour when the carp went crazy somewhere to my right. I’m not 100% sure where they were as it’s hard to tell at night on a big water.  That was it until around 11:30 this morning when a couple walloped out just off the island way out in front of me, clearly larger carp. Just after noon, I headed out for a walk and spoke to a couple of other day anglers who hadn’t spotted anything either. The thought of a move didn’t appeal to me, but I did feel the open water rod should be closer to some would work, as they particularly love hiding away this time of year. You can see them in open water, but they rarely pick up hook baits. This place is such a conundrum sometimes, which makes it so appealing each year. It’s like starting over every year

I can only hope my adjustments make some difference, and my first Airfield Lake carp isn’t too far away this year, unlike last year when it took me until 30th April. Oops.

I settled in for my second night full of anticipation, but alas, despite hearing carp topping a lot closer, they were, unfortunately, not picking up my baits yet. My last morning was going to be a very wet pack-up, as it was a very wet and drizzly day. Hopefully, I could time my exit for a little dry spell, as I find with this rain, you get very wet without realizing it.

I gave it until about 10:00 AM, then started my slow pack up, in the misty, mucky surroundings.

There were no fish caught in the end. I managed to pack up reasonably okay, but still wet, though.

Until next time,

Richard