Unusually for me, today was a Monday, a day I traditionally never go fishing. Therefore I wasn't sure how busy the lake would be. I arrived at about 7:00am to discover only three other cars in the car park.
This lake is bigger than Nursery Fields but is in my opinion not as waggler fishing friendly. There are less than 5 good float fishable swims.
My plan for today was to fish the swim at the bottom of the lake where I could place the float tight against the reed bed. I'd fished this peg on my previous visit and had been fairly successful.
I unloaded the car and made my way down the lake. Aside from one angler fishing by the disabled pegs I couldn't see another soul! As I neared the far end I could see that I had it to myself, lovely.
Two rod set up again today, the only difference from last time was that I started with a heavier set up. The float rod (my Shimano carp float rod), 5lb main line to a size 16 hook. The feeder rod was 6lb main line to a size 14 hook.
I fed the float line with a generous helping of ground bait containing corn, meat and very small halibut pellets. I also threw in a generous helping of maggots. For the feeder rod I was going to use 15mm tutti fruitti boillies so I threw in some freebies in the area I was going to fish.
I made my first casts at 8am and then settled back to let battle royal commence.
The fish were onto the bait from the off. I'd decided to start with corn and was rewarded with 5 very nice bream, most of which were between one and two pounds . A 3lb carp was a bonus for the start of the session. The feeder rod remained silent. See pictures below.
As the corn had been successful I stayed on it for the second hour. Three more bream made the virtual net however I didn't have everything my own way as I lost a decent carp. The feeder rod decided the time was right to join in and in came a carp of 5lb and a small catfish!
Three hours in and still on corn. The bream must have been getting full as I only caught one. I did manage another 3lb common though.
The feeder rod went quiet again.
As the swim appeared to be going quiet I switched to halibut hooker pellets, the small ones (sorry don't know the size). Total disaster, not a sniff for an entire hour. The feeder rod stayed quiet as well.
Trying something different again I changed hook bait to bread. It was a good decision as it transpired because aside from the mandatory bream I landed a 5lb common carp.
This hour though will always be remembered for the jaws incident. I'd been lucky enough to land a 7lb common on the feeder rod and had just cast back in and turned to watch my float when I heard a thud and upon turning around saw my rod heading for the lake. I tried to grab it but failed.
To be honest I panicked when I saw the rod being pulled up the lake like a scene from Jaws! I did however manage to pull myself together enough to walk up the lake to the next set of anglers to warn them that my rod was coming.
The two anglers attempted to cast their rigs over my rod trying to hook the line but all initial efforts failed. I started to panic again when the fish turned and headed towards the island on the other bank.
One of the guys and I went around to the far side to try from there only to find that the fish had stalled in front of the island. Just as I was beginning to lose hope there was a cry from the first chap. He'd hooked my rod and got it back!
I made my way back to their swim as fast as I could. When I got there we separated the lines (easily) and I reeled the fish in. It was a common of about 5lb.
So everything turned out well, extremely lucky for me. I must take this opportunity to thank Alan Armitage and Jimmy Thompson for their help because without them I would have been dead when I got home.
Almost as soon as I re-cast the feeder rod out the tip went round and I was into another carp. This time a 4.5lb mirror.
It was now 1pm and to quote Genesis "It's one o'clock and time for lunch" so I reeled in both rods (stable door and horses spring to mind) and sat back for a sandwich and a cuppa.
After lunch I got back to the matter in hand, fishing. I stayed with bread as the hook bait. I managed three carp, one of 4lb, one of 5.5lb and one of 3lb. The bream were back as well, two of them to be exact.
Between two and three pm I thought I would give meat a try. Sure enough it was a success, 2 bream , another 2lb'er and three more carp (two of them 3lb and the other 3.5lb) were all landed during this period. The feeder rod stayed quiet.
I stayed on the meat for the last two hours which turned out to be extremely quiet. One bream and a carp of about 3lb came in via the float rod and a 4.5lb carp, the last fish of the day came in on the feeder rod.
So a very eventful day comes to an end. Thirty one fish and one rod caught. Lesson learnt today!
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