Lost For Words

Catch Report

An Unexpected Three Nights on Airfield Lake

Firstly, I must thank my wife. She’s on holiday this week, but she completely understands my need to get on the bank when the weather conditions are right. It really is appreciated.

I’d spoken to my friend after he arrived on Wednesday morning, and we had a long discussion about where to fish. In the end, we settled on Airfield Lake, specifically the southwest corner.

I wasn’t going to be able to arrive until around 1600 hours due to a couple of doctors’ appointments, so I used Wednesday morning wisely, sitting at home with the Deeper Maps+ app on the big screen and studying the area I was planning to fish. I spent some time measuring the distances to the horizon marker and working out the safest way to approach the swim.

With the water levels having dropped so much, there are now bars and boulders appearing everywhere. Areas that were previously straightforward to fish have become considerably more challenging, so accuracy and, more importantly, safety were going to be key.

My original choice of swim was ruled out, so I headed back to a swim I’d fished a few weeks previously. There was still around 3½ feet of water leading into the deeper area of the lake, and with some strong winds forecast, I felt this gave me the best option.

With the conditions in mind, I decided to take around 3 kilos of mixed Nutrabaits boilies, along with roughly three-quarters of a jar of shelf-life Jurassic Particles. The plan was to bait relatively heavily initially, but I could top the swim up if necessary using 24mm boilies catapulted around the area, along with the remaining particles.

For hookbaits, I was using Ronnie-style rigs incorporating Hobo Armour Terminal Tackle, coupled with 24mm hardened EnerGize hookbaits

The results over the three nights were completely unexpected.

15 x 20lb including 3 over 27lb
5 x Doubles
0 x 30lb+

The biggest of the carp was a beautiful Common of 27lb 3oz — a truly special fish and an incredible result from a session that I certainly hadn’t expected to unfold this way.

Sometimes everything just comes together: the weather, the water levels, the location and the preparation. This was certainly one of those occasions.

Until next time,

Richard

Full Tally –

27lb 3oz
26lb 6oz
16lb 6oz
12lber
25lb 2oz
20lb 5oz
23lb 7oz
24lb 3oz
27lb 2oz
21lb 5oz
17lb 13oz
21lb 4oz
17lb 10oz
23lb 15oz
20lb 14oz
10lber
23lb 2oz
27lb 0oz
20lb 4oz
24lb 13oz

It’s time to catch up on some sleep. The full blog will be out in a couple of weeks, along with the video on my YouTube channel. It’s going to take some editing.