Location – Airfield Lake
Hours Fished – 71 Hours
This week’s trip could go one of two ways with the weather, as its going to change dramatically. The pressure has fallen way down to below 997mb and the lovely warm south westerly is going to turn into a cold north easterly. The wind is going to pick up and the sun will be shining.
I’ve pitched up with the SW wind in my face, this will mean the cold northerlies will be from behind me and I will be on the sunny/warmer bank. However, with the openness of this part of the lake, it could all go wrong, but I feel the southerly winds will have pushed them over here. It has often done this in the past with some cracking results.
The left hand rod burst into life just after 1830 with a lovely but small Airfield Lake common carp.
You definitely can’t dictate what picks up your bait, but it would be nice at some point in time to get a real lump!
I rebaited the rod and got it back on the spot. This was a good time to have some noodles.
The second take of the session, was in the middle of the night, to the same rod and the fight was pretty straight forward again. The ease of landing these fish, I’m putting down to, I’m now wearing chest waders, instead of thigh wader and the ability to get out into the lake further.
15lb 9oz Common
Now that’s a lot bigger and hopefully will stay that way. Possibly double in size!
I was up early watching the lake and spotted a couple of fish. It wasn’t until 10 am that the left rod was away again. I was into a nice steady take with definitely a better fish. It slowly plodded off to my right, I waded out past the tree and slowly pumped the fish towards the nets.
Nice action shot just moments before the hook pulled out! Joy. I am not a happy camper. But, this is what the lake is all about and we will carry on trying. It would be nice to get another daylight take and with Ian around for a brew, it was perfect timing for some action shots. The rod was soon back out there.
I topped up the swim after lunchtime, I popped over to Ian’s swim for a bite to eat and a few glasses. I headed back at just after 1600 and got the rods back out. I settled down to watch the lake until it was dark.
It was one of those quiet nights, with not a single bleep and not a fish crashed. I was awake a fair bit after falling asleep way too early; the stars are absolutely wonderful this time of the year. The sky was perfectly clear and the lake was flat calm. The NW wind picked up just after 0830, which is good conditions for this bank – just need the carp to think that.
The question today is freebies – put more out or just leave alone? Tricky choices and one of the hardest decisions an anglers has to make. I love my bait and on here you need to stop and hold the shoal when it arrives. There has been no action since my last take and having topped the swim up again yesterday afternoon. I believe its best to leave well alone.
It was yet another blank night which I was shocked about, the fish should have accustomed themselves to the big weather condition change and they were clearly more active last night, but not happy to pick up baits.
Until next time
Richard
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Things you certainly don’t get to see, from your home.
With fishing and all sorts of other of life’s problems – when you are struggling to catch a carp and it appears it’s never going your way (however hard you try), the trick is not to panic, otherwise, you can start changing all sort of things around to try and catch fish. Don’t get me wrong, things need to be tweaked all the time with fishing but when you are catching fish, you tend to do this by small degrees. When you are on a long run of blanks you can easily start to change all too much at the same time, this is a fatal mistake and will result in more blanks.
If things are going wrong and you just can’t catch, you need to analyze the big picture so you can determine where you may be going wrong.
1. Are you the only one on your lake blanking? If you’re not, you are probably doing it right and just need to pinpoint why other people are catching before you change anything.
2. Are you fishing at the right time of the day when the fish are feeding? Are the weather conditions perfect when you are on the bank?
3. Are you fishing the same old swims all the time? Could it be your favorite swim is not what it was in the past?
4. Could there be a big hatch going on each time you are there? We have all sat in a swim with carp everywhere over your bait and you don’t get a fish or even have a bleep, they are just preoccupied with natural food.
These 4 things are very important to think about before you start changing rigs, bait, etc. The worst thing you can start doing is swapping rigs and bait around every few hours. It will not give you a true picture of whether any of them are working and you can easily start to spook the carp out of your swim with too much casting in & out.
Firstly you must not despair. This happens to all anglers, whether they tell you or not. It’s best to take note of the above 4 things and then determine if you need to change any rigs, bait. As long as you’ve not changed your rigs, checking them and using them for the correct situations, like you have done before. Why would there be a need to change them? You will have confidence in them.
Bait – as long as you are using a top-quality bait and applying it correctly, as you were when you were catching fish, it’s not an issue. Change between bottom wafters and pop-ups is a perfectly normal thing to do. You should be doing this all the time anyway, as things do change.
Once you have gone over the above minefield of possibilities. Hopefully, your head will be a lot clearer and you will have worked out if you have changed or have done something to affect your fishing. It’s as simple as switching back and lastly, there is just good old luck, it can be with you or not. Remember it’s only fishing and it can all change at a drop if a hat and you can have a trip of a lifetime or the last half of the season can be your best ever and the past 6 months of blanking is all forgotten and distant memory. If all else fails, pop over to your local easy club water and bag a few 10lbers, this will certainly make a lot of difference and prove you’re doing nothing wrong, it will give you a great boost.
Hope this helps
Richard
As you will have read in part 1 of this, I was certainly struggling to catch a big carp or even catch regularly. So I took some time out and thought about what was going on and want to do. Well, the only option was to fish another lake, which I knew and would hopefully break that chain.
Well, the first trip on there I had 2 fish and lost one. This gave me the boost in confidence that I needed and I then was feeling much more upbeat about fishing. I was so keen again, I soon returned, well one night later and managed to bag 6 x 20 + my first UK forty and a new PB mirror. This goes to show that you should never despair as it will turn around again and you never know what’s coming your way.
Full blog on that trip – Mega Trip
Hope this helps
Richard
