After losing a nice fish on my day session, I was not detered and had a good look about before I headed home to collect the kid’s. I even chucked out some bait in some likely spots.
With the househusband bit done, I was on my way back to the lake again. I had a look in the luckily spots and a couple more, in the end I settled on this one. With both rod’s set up with bags and my Pellet mixture, I was all done for another night on the bank.
By 1130 I had managed to get plenty of liners and a couple of 10 lbers, which I was just hoping would go away – which they did. Around 0115, the left hand rod was off, however this time with a much better hard fighting fish on and with a long but easy fight another fish was in the net.
30lb 2oz of stunning Common, that will do me and the second one in the space of two days.
I rebait my rod and flicked it back out on the spot and then got my head down. Within the hour it was off again with another common around the 16lb mark.
Another bag was made up and put on the spot again. I was off to the land of nodd again.
At 0530 the same one was off and I was yet again, playing a very hard fight carp and once I had avoided the tree line margin stags, it was under my control and soon in the net.
25lb 2 oz Common
What a night that turned out to be! Would you belive it, there was a hard frost on the ground, my net was frozen to the ground every time I landed a fish, which added to the fun.
With the big change in the weather and a week of frosts here and snow up North. I spent the first hour of my limited time here (when the kids are at school) looking around the lake and getting a feel for things. I ended up setting on a nice swim at the back of the wind, the sun was directly shining on the margins. This is in my belief, that with the extra day light hours and sunny days, together with the the frosts and the cold winds, the lake temperature should be at a steady level and the fish will continue to feed more.
Looks lovely and warm but there is a real chill in that wind.
I just baited both rod’s with pva bags filled with catalyst/Betafin Pellets soaked in liquids (as before) and added some catalyst Food Dip for an extra boost. One rod was fished on a pop and the other on a wafter with paste wrapped around it – no other free offerings were put out.
At about 1215 my left hand was off and I was into to a fish, unfortunately it made is way to a small island which had a nice overhanging bush on it. The fish managed to shed the hook, the safety clips did their job and drop the lead, but probably too late. I have just over an hour and a bit to make amends.
When I am travelling down to the lake, I try to think where would the fish be? I take into account the wind, weather and any information I have gathered from my last few trips. Well, this time I was completely at a loss to where that may be. So I planned a good look around the whole complex, this took me just under two hours. I was still not really feeling the love anywhere and I had only seen a few fishy signs.
I settled on one of the point swims which is on the middle section of the complex, as it just felt the most fishy swim about. I got the kit to the swim and as I was still mulling things over when a fish topped along the dividing back and then another one in the far corner. These are two spots that I am unable to fish, I did feel that I was closer to the fish than any other swim.
All set up, I got the kettle on and settled down for a bit of afternoon/early evening fish spotting.
As the sun was setting over the lake, I tucked myself up in my bag and drifted off to sleep. Just before midnight, I was woken up by an absolute screaming run on the righthand rod and after a hairy fight – the fish tried to go into both of the bays next to me and under a overhanging bush, it was finally in the net.
What a stunner all 33lb 5oz. With the photos done and the fish safely returned to its home. I then recast another pva bag filled with Spotted Fin Catalyst & Betafin pellets soaked in both Betafin & minaminos, with a Frank Warwick Masala pop mounted on a long shank turning hook, tied to Semi stiff Fin skin. I got back in my bag to dream of Carp.
That morning alarm call comes all to soon, time to pack up.
What a beautiful little corner of paradise I am in today! The lake was still fishing very hard, so I thought I would try something different. I had been dropping small bits of bait in this area on and off over the past month. Thinking ahead for the odd day session however, why not do a night? Its well known that if the fish are on the snags, they will venture out after dark, (that was my thought process) and with quite a few liners in the night, I was feeling confident, unfortunately not to be this time, we shall just keep on at it.
I am out for a few nights over the Easter weekend – as the wife and kids have gone to visit her family in Dorest.
My original plan was to fish with Rob on the Mill Pond. We thought that if we left it until the Saturday am before I arrived, we would get a feel for the number of anglers on over the weekend. If we were lucky, they may only be fishing two nights (being Thursday/Friday) and then head home. Unfortunately, this back fired on us and 4 anglers arrived late Friday afternoon and were on until Sunday. Plan B, off to the Airfield Lake I go (also with the same notion that most of the anglers would be off home by noon, after already having done 2 nights), well my luck was in and with only 5 angler’s fishing – including me, on a 60 arce lake.
After an hour or so of looking, chatting, working out where people had fished and what my best options where, I settled for one of the island swims.
I spombed out a mix of Catalyst & Betafin Pellets soaked in minominos & Betafin liquid, the Catalyst boilies which had also been soaked in the Food Dip.
Both rod’s had pop ups on to start with and if I had no joy, I would change over to a Snowman rig.
First day & night
There turned out to be more sunshine than I thought there was going to be today. This took the chill out of the cold North wind and gave me a positive feel about the afternoon and evening. This was not to be and the first 24 hours past without a fish, which is not an unusual occurance for this lake. It being so shallow, an average of 3.5ft in the area I am fishing, I had also had a lot of bird activity of in my spots.
From Swans to Tufts and even Gulls diving down, the clarity of the lake is way better than previous year’s.
Second day & night
With a friend joining me today, a move may be in order, we shall see what fishy signs there are this morning. The cold winds are still about, I may well be fishing the warmest area of the lake, which is one of the reasons I picked it.
Looking very appealing for a bit, I must say.
With the fish showing a couple of swims down to the right of me and being unable to cast there. A swim move was clearly in order, all done and dusted by the middle of the afternoon, I soon found a couple of nice spots that the fish had shown themselves.
With the light fading slowly, I poured myself a glass of wine and remember that I had not eaten much at all today, better fix that then, Ridgemonkey time.
Third day & night
All that happened so far after the swim change, is that I have had a couple of bleeps on the margin rod and a good night sleep – not quite what I was after. I was feeling a bit shocked this morning, I thought the move was the right thing to do yesterday. I will have to mull things over and see what the morning brings, before I make any rash plans today.
There’s a bit of wind on the water and the wind is from the North, which is behind me, and the forcast is that there is going to be a frost tonight.
After a lot looking and thinking about my next move, staying or moving on to another swim or even going home. As the family where away, I didn’t feel like a good option as I am just as comfortable on the lake as I am on the sofa at home. So I felt it was time for a good look around the complex before I made my mind up.
After about an hour and a half of looking around, I knew I was better off staying put and seeing what the final night brought. There was no other area which stood out. Therefore, I got back to my swim and rebaited with fresh catalyst hook baits as well as tiny bags soaked in the food dip. I placed these back on my stops and settled down to a rainy night under the brolly.
At around 2330 the left hand rod burst into life and I was finally attached to a nice common – well 10lb of fish roughly. But it was a fish and a blank saver. I was not going to complain. We all must learn somthing from fishing, never give up, you will get there in the end.
