I took the opportunity to swap things around with work this week. My wife is away in London from Friday morning, and I suddenly realized why I’m not working that day, which then meant I could fit two nights in, along with the warmer weather forecast. This would get the carp in the mood to spawn as soon as possible. It had to be better to get out sooner rather than later before the inevitable happens.
I was back home after my planned two jobs this morning packed the car, got on the road, and was on the lake by 1300 hours. After last week’s results, plus looking at the weather forecast, assuming it’s correct, of course, I was going to need shade, plus as much of the light breeze as possible. It felt logical to be pitched up along the North Bank. The pressure was now clearly on the rise towards 1030 mbs before I headed home Thursday morning.
When I found the Swampy Swim free, that was just perfect for me. The Copse Swim was taken, and I nearly went on The Gate Island but felt getting more bait into this area was going to be preferable. Plus, it would be a great time saver in this heat, and the swim is in the shade by 1400 hours onwards, a real plus for me.
By 1700 hours, there were a lot of day anglers and night anglers about; you could tell the weather had changed from last week. Plus, it’s a bank holiday week as well. If you like to capitalize on the short week with your holiday, personally, I used to prefer to work, get the cash, plus a day off, and then take another Monday. Gone are those days. You can tell I’m old; I even used to get paid overtime.
I baited up with about 10 spombs over each spot, as always trying to get the noise over and done with, then simply top up with about 4 more tomorrow regardless of whether I catch a few or not. If I catch a few, I will top it up a lot more.
Throughout the night, it was pretty much dead, except 3 bleeps in a row, which I hoped would convert into a bite. I wish.
The morning arrived, and finally, a breeze on the water. It had been flat calm all night long, which never gives me any confidence whatsoever. Now that I have a lovely southerly breeze in my face, I’m feeling a lot more confident, except for the big orange ball in the sky, which was away in the Caribbean for the winter. These carp should start getting on the move towards spawning. Hopefully, a couple of days on the munch first would help.
My first whole day was zero signs of carp; even the fry were not about. By the end of the day, I was starting to think that the carp were just waiting for the water to reach the right temperature before they spawned. I did both topping the swim up, just new hook baits, and fresh bags. The night was slow again, until the early hours when I was convinced I heard spawning activities. The mist rolled in, and I could see a bit, until about 0730, and along the far margins, there were definitely spawning carp. I knew from the weather it would be a close call these few days. I was probably a day too late, but that’s fishing. It’s now 0820, and the pack-down has started as there’s no point in being here today. Maybe next week they will have switched off with the coming weather change. I do wish they would behave like normal carp and just spawn once in June, not randomly over May each year. At least we know where we stand, I suppose.
Until next time,
Richard
Get 10% off Deeper With Code – RICHARD10
UK Carp & Coarse Fishing 