Airfield Lake

Tower Swim

3 nights

It’s been a painful 10 days, but most importantly, the tooth is out! I’m 90% recovered and back on solid foods – which is nice. I do love soup and yoghurt; however, it does get boring. Finally, I’ve stopped taking painkillers, which is extremely nice to be off them.

With the wife and kids off to the mother-in-law’s this weekend, I had the opportunity to get out for a few nights or go with them. The weather over that way wasn’t as nice as here, so after some thought, it felt like the better option was to go down the lake. She would get more time with her mum instead of me dragging them out and about like yesterday, which actually turned out to be a gorgeous day. Sometimes when the weatherman gets it wrong, it’s actually nice weather instead of rain, which we have well and truly suffered with. Unfortunately, it’s not gone away; it just avoided the south yesterday.

The weather is a bit all over the place for the next few days and heading through the week. I’m hoping to get another trip in, but the weather could scupper my plans. Just have to see how it pans out. I was hoping the water levels would have dropped, but it’s pretty much where it was the other week, and with more rain due this week, it’s not going to drop anytime soon.

I arrived at about 10:30 and bumped into a fellow member just loading his van, a morning angler, packing up, and another member who’s been on since Thursday but has had 2 carp, plus the guy in the car park had one as well. Not fishing great, but carp coming out.

After a trip around the top lake, which with the strong winds due overnight, tomorrow was my favourable option, I checked my favourite swim, which is still underwater, the island where I was on my last trip, but the Tower swim was telling me something. I’d not seen a carp, and nor have I yet, and it’s 16:29 now. Slightly worrying, but from tonight I will be on the back of the wind and not in the heart of it. Not sure if that’s good or bad; we will have to see.

I’ve opted to fish quite close to this bank, as it’s pretty coloured up, plus it has good access to the car park if I need to move swim, etc. I baited up one spot with hemp only and the other with boilies only, just interested to see how well each baiting situation performed. I would be fishing various Spotted Fin pop-ups as well, trying to get a feel for what the carp are looking for.

I had a couple of bleeps late evening and in the night on the right-hand rod, but that was it until… I woke up to alarm bells in my head this morning and turned out to be a screaming run on that very rod. It had been too long since catching a carp. It felt like a typical Airfield Lake common, shaking its head, but as it rolled into the net, it was this beauty – 28lb 6oz.

That will certainly do me, and it’s nice to start my Mockbegger season with a nice lump.

With the rod back on the spot, it’s time for my first brew of the day and to soak up the atmosphere.

After some thought this morning about the lack of liners on my left-hand rod, drifting the Deeper over my swim as I didn’t want to disturb the swim until later in the afternoon. I made the choice of moving to a similar range along the drop-off from the plateau into the gully between the margin shelf. Oddly, I found the best spot at the same number of wraps as the other rod.

I then baited 3 spombs over each and one between them, and hopefully, there’s a good chance of a take or two.

A Tench made an appearance in the early evening on my right-hand rod, which was nice, but not needed. They are also getting bigger along with the carp, which is very good to see, as once this lake was pretty barren and void of anything except for carp, as in its past, it was a fish farm many years ago.

The second night was carp-free, plus not many showing overnight compared to the previous night, and the following throughout the day, with me only spotting a couple of fish. Something had switched them off; the pressure was getting lower and due to drop to 998 mb over the next 24 hours, along with a mostly overcast day and a very warm night coming up. The conditions were perfect. Someone just needed to tell the carp. There were three day anglers on over the day, and no one spotted a carp. I decided to stay a third night as it felt like my best option, instead of coming back at the end of the week when the pressure would be going up and then down, which could be the issue on here at the moment, along with the sudden influx of angler pressure.

As the afternoon was due to rain mostly, in actual fact, all afternoon and night in the end, I reeled in at 11:30, spombed out a small amount of bait, and headed out for a good look about in the midday sunshine, which was extremely pleasant but not very fruitful on the carp spotted front. I’m starting to wonder if spending April on the club lake next year would be my best option, after staying on Meadow until it closes rather than coming on here straight away.

I got back to my swim just in time to flick the rods back out before the rain arrived. I had a drop-back around 15:00 hrs, which I believe was a Tench, that was quickly flicked back out, and I settled into a very stormy afternoon and night, hoping that at some point I’d get a take. The carp were a lot more active, and some sounded very close by. I was on edge, thinking I would get a take any minute, but here I am at 07:45 on my second cup of coffee still hoping that’s the case.

Plus, it’s still raining, which should stop by 09:00 hrs as opposed to 21:00 hrs last night when it was originally supposed to stop. It’s absolutely rubbish forecasting these days. I probably do better myself by just guessing, it would be cheaper.

The closer 09:00 hrs gets, the closer to packing up time. I’ve enjoyed my 3 nights and had a stocking carp, which I’m not going to complain about one bit. It’s simply hard going on here at the moment, and hopefully, in 2 weeks when I’m back, things will have changed. Certainly, now Meadow has closed, the number of people fishing will have risen, which in turn means the volume of bait and fishing disturbance around the lake will have gone up, which can only be a good thing to get them moving about.

Until next time,

Richard

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