The wife is back from her trip away last week, and I wanted 3 nights before heading back out for a few nights. The family has kindly given me the option to fish 4 nights this week. Unfortunately, next week I’m limited to one night, as my wife and old school friend are off to London for the weekend, which is why I’m so fortunate to have a very understanding family.

The weather has finally made a change. It’s now about 8 degrees warmer than last week, and the wind is unfortunately all over the place, but the pressure has dropped. I was really in two minds about where to go. The Airfield Lake was calling, as the carp undoubtedly will spawn in May as always; they are like clockwork.

As I hadn’t been anywhere near the Airfield Lake for weeks, I decided my best option was to check out there first and see if the water levels had dropped, finally giving me the opportunity to get on the big island. If this wasn’t the case, I planned to have a good look about and then decide whether to head over to the Estate Lake again.  I didn’t really want to do, as I’d spent a lot of time there recently and it wasn’t fishing well either. I’m sure it probably will switch on with the weather conditions changing.

I arrived just after 11:15 AM, knowing that there would be a few day anglers about. However, I was just interested in one area or one bank, being The North Bank, which, if the weatherman is correct about, will be the perfect area to be in.

My favorite swim was free and fishable. I worry about it being free these days, since the removal of the large tree making it possible to actually land carp from the bank, instead of always wading out. This did make the swim quite special and nearly only fished by myself. After spotting a few carp showing in the area, there was no stopping me from getting the gear.

I pitched up the bivvy first to make sure it would fit on what dry land was available. It was close, but it fitted. Let’s hope we don’t get a lot of rain tomorrow night.

I had already flicked a lead about before getting my tackle out of the car, as the weed beds had been problematic this year. Apart from the bar in front of the swim, the rest was all clean.

Just for good measure, I got the marker rod out and cast about looking for the perfect two spots, one on the margins and the other somewhere over the first bar. I then baited up both spots quite heavily for the previous week’s conditions. I can only assume they will go on the feed with the coming weather condition changes. The wind will blow from every direction known to man, which could be an issue when the rain arrives. Hopefully, it will stick to the northwesterly as predicted.

With everything all sorted, it was time to enjoy the sunshine in the afternoon heat, along with a glass or two.

I’m not sure what the first night will bring. It’s been a few weeks since I fished here, probably before the Easter holidays, nearly a month ago.

The first night was as expected, with no action on the rods. This is something that often happens. I put this down to the amount of bait I tend to put out the first night to actually get as much of the noise over and done with. Then I can only introduce a lot smaller amount, knowing there’s always some bait out there. Instead of topping up the swim daily with a greater amount of noise, this will seem a strange way to do things; however, it appears to work here, especially when you are doing 3 nights or more. Single nights are a completely different approach. I will put about 4 spombs over each spot at some point today.

Around 1:00 pm, it was time to get a little bit more bait out and put fresh hookbaits on for the next 24 hours and the pending rain, which hopefully will induce a bite or two over this period. We may even get the odd thunderstorm, and I can believe that, as you certainly can feel something in the air.

Ian popped over for a chat about 5:00 pm before the light rain started. I didn’t plan on staying up too late as thunderstorms were forecast. However, I woke up about midnight very hot and had to stand outside my bivvy to cool down. You could tell something was building in the air. Around 3:00 am, the storm arrived. Most of the lightning was over the New Forest; we just got the light show, plus not all that heavy rain. Looking at the radar at the time, we were very lucky.

I faded away, and I fell back to sleep and woke up just at 8:00 am. Within minutes, my left-hand rod was away, and I was into a mid-double common, which was soon in the net.

Nice 12-pounder.

After redoing my rigs twice as I was not happy the first time, things have to be 100%, otherwise, I have to change it.

Ian popped over for his morning coffee just before 9:00 am. He unfortunately lost a fish at around 7:00 am this morning to the all-too-familiar hook pulls we get.

I was doing some filming around noontime, thinking it’s nearly time for me to remove a snag. I noticed in the water to my left and put some more bait out and redid everything for the afternoon. As I’m not familiar with bite times, I thought it best to hang on until around 1:30 before heading over to Ian’s swim for the afternoon, along with lunch and a glass or two. When I heard a carp crashing in his swim, I grabbed my camera and quickly headed over there filming on the way. I was too slow to capture him playing the carp, as it was safely in the net. I took a look, and it looked like an upper 20 or a scraper 30.

We weighed the carp and took some photographs and a short video.

The carp took the dial around to just over 28 pounds, brilliant result, plus a daytime bite.

Lunch was postponed as the carp had picked up his other line. It was a complete mess.

We had just the line just above the hook to be able to get the fish onto the mat and back into the water as soon as possible with as little stress as possible. It was then time for poor Ian to sort it all out. I headed back to my swim and would return in a couple of hours for a late lunch.

The afternoon was spent with Ian eating burgers and washed down with a couple of glasses. I was back in my swim by 4:00 pm, as I’ve found this can produce a carp around 5:00 pm, not tonight though. The night was warmer than expected with a good blow on the water. I was up by 7:30 in anticipation of the 8:00 am take. I couldn’t believe it rattled off again. I wonder how many carp I could have caught from there over the years.

After a longer and harder battle this time, a lovely 16-pound 5-ounce common was in the net. Nice result, I must say.

With the snaps done and the carp back in its home, I soon had another bag on the spot, hoping I can produce another take at some point today. If not, what are the chances of a third 8:00 am bite?

It’s now around 4:30 pm, and I’ve been around to Ian’s swim for a couple of hours and ended up attending to some vegetation maintenance due to him losing carp. I hope this will fix the issue if not the estate manager will need to take a look and if possible remove the tree that’s causing the big issue.

Before I headed over there, I topped the swim up with about 6 spombs. I’m very surprised that the range rod hasn’t had any action yet. The only theory is that Ian is closer to a gravelly patch than I am, as he has had 4 takes now in open water over my zero take. Something to think about before my next trip out; it’ll be interesting to see what happens tonight.

Just before 9:00 pm, the right-hand rod rattled off, about 30 minutes after Ian called me over to take a photograph of a lovely 21-pounder that he had just caught. My carp was a lot smaller, unfortunately, probably just making it over the 10-pound mark.

At 3:55 am, the very same rod was away again, this time attached to something more powerful. It came in pretty straightforward; I was able to play it out under the rod tip without too much hassle.

It took the scale dial around to 17 pounds 7 ounces, my biggest of the trip so far. The carp had a huge tail, giving it all that power. It’s now just before 4:30, and there’s light in the sky.

Dawn is slowly breaking over the forest, absolutely stunning to watch. Somehow I need to get a couple more hours’ sleep, as I’ve a dishwasher to fix when I get home later on this morning.

Just before 5:00 am, that very same rod was away again. I can’t believe it, really, no bites for the first three nights, then boom, 3 carp on the last night. I’m really glad I stayed on. This fish took the scales to 17 pounds on the nose.

I quickly got that rod back out, hoping I had a good chance of another bite before home time. Plus, there’s a chance of my 8:00 am take that I’ve had over the past two mornings.

I nearly dozed off again, but the fog rolled in, and the temperature dropped considerably. For some reason, I couldn’t get warm again, ended up with the stove on drinking coffee.

The 8:00 take never happened, probably due to the Tench I had about an hour before. I waited until 8:30, then started a slow pack-up and was on my way home by 10:30 am.

Ian had nothing overnight, and I left him there doing another night and a good chance of a carp or two over the next 24 hours.

Until next time,

Richard

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