15th May 2009 - Stubpond Mill Lake

Not the best of days as I awoke on Friday. There was a large cloud cover with a definite threat of rain in the air but thankfully no sign of the predicted wind.

Arrived at the fishery at 7:55 to find I was the first one there, and as it turned out, the only one in the entire complex (except for the weekend night fishers who turned up around 3pm) for the day!

I read on the Maggotdrowning.com forum that fish that hug the island will move away from the bank if there is little or no fishing pressure on them. That is, the more confident they are the further away from the island they will patrol. Coupled with the flat water and next to no wind I decided to fish 2 swims. My normal one by the reed bed (swim 1) and another about three quarters of the way to the island (swim 2). Not far as the island is within pole range but sadly I don't have a pole.

Using water with scopex attractor in I mixed my groundbait - 75% brown crumb and 25% groundbait mix. I fed a large handful of groundbait into each swim plus a large handful of hemp.

As per norm I started with a light match rod setup (4lb line and a size 16 hook). I fed a few maggots and using a single red maggot I cast to swim 1. I thought I would fish this first whilst giving the island fish a chance to move in on the bait in swim 2. Second cast a nice carp of about a pound was in the net.

Caught another carp in the first hour in the same way and then had a few silver fish. Each time I caught a fish I fed 2 or 3 red coloured scopex flavoured sweetcorn into each swim. On the hour I fed both swims with more groundbait. After the first hour I attacked swim 2 as I'd seen bubbles around the area of the bait.

I also switched hookbait to the scopex sweetcorn. Barely had the sweetcorn hit the water when off the float went and a few minutes later another carp was in the net. For the rest of the morning I was fairly successful on the corn, switching swims did the trick as the fish kept on the feed.

At mid-day it all changed - the rain arrived and with it the wind and as a consequence the temprature dropped as well. Casting to swim 2 became difficult so I decided to concentrate on swim 1. I also changed baits to bread and meat to see what, if anything was interested. I caught carp on both however the highlight of the dinnertime session was when the float disppeared while I was fishing a large(ish) bit of bread and up popped a gudgeon!

For the rest of the day I couldn't fish the second swim as conditions were too bad. I had one wonderful bite on meat which felt like a good fish however it spat the hook out after 3 runs to the island - shame. As it was 16:40 I decided enough was enough (it closes at 5) and headed home.

Here is my best carp of the day - just over 3lb.

All in all I enjoyed my day (which is the main thing). I had around 40 fish including Carp, Roach, Rudd, Perch, Gudgeon, Tench (just the one! Why always one?) and Bream.

Less than a month now until my club waters open so am looking forward to that.

Tight Lines.