So is a new year and I thought that I had better start to
resurrect my blog from the perpetual abyss of internet limbo as I have not
updated it for a while. Looking ahead to
2019 I am going to be using this blog to add detail to my Vlog that can be
found on You Tube so let’s start with:
There was a prequel to this video that never made the final
cut; I had been on a bit of a recce to my favourite club lake seeing if I could
figure out a head start before the weekend as to where I wanted to fish, the
answer was yes, the little lake. After I
had completed a full lap of the big lake which included speaking to one of the
regular who was drying a weigh sling, I took the time for a quick peek around
some of the snags on the little lake. It
was quiet as usual and it was not until I got to a renowned winter area that I
saw anything, well I saw 3 common carp 2 that were big 20’s and another that
was well…. Massive. That was my plan all
set for the weekend and I knew where I wanted to have a couple of baits sat for
the Friday night.
So my first bit of fishing saw me setting up on the opposite
bank to where I had seen the fish, the main reason being that it incorporated
casting to the front of some snags so if I was fishing locked up opposite I
stood a better chance of extracting the carp.
I had swapped back to 16lb Illusion Trans Kaki fluorocarbon as mainline
for this fact as it has considerably less stretch and more abrasion resistance
than mono. I fished an aggressive but basic bottom bait rig on both the rod
cast to the snags and my other rod that was fishing a sandy bar in the middle
of the lake. The night passed without incident but in the morning a fish was
fizzing up beyond my open water rod, I tried a quick cast at it with a lighter
lead but it did not like that and ghosted away.
Before I left I checked the area in question and it seemed to be new
weed growth, which I thought was strange in late December.
My next trip was Christmas Eve and I was doing a day session
with my mate, Dave. I did have a cheeky
look at the little lake but we decided to go on the big lake in the end, we set
up on a point in t deeper end of the lake as it was a cold and bleak looking
December day, I had seen a fish show before Dave got there but it was at the
other end of the lake so we thought that we could chase them later. As it turned out there was not a lot moving
on the big lake until the afternoon and although we were casting at showing
fish and also fishing on known spots no action was forthcoming during the
day. I even moved further up the lake
chasing the fish later in the day but it seemed like the fish were backing off
the leads.
It was few days until my next visit and I was back down onto
the little lake to start, I had managed to wangle an 8pm start with the boss so
I turned up onto the little lake and put the rods out onto the wrapped spots in
the dark. Again it was a quiet night with nothing to show for my efforts, I did
not even see anything in the morning period this time so morale was low. I had to collect a parcel at lunchtime so I
popped off and did that, when I returned I had a look on the Big lake. As I mooched up the north bank I saw numbers
of fish, some bream but a few carp in the shallow water at the top end of the
lake, this was enough for me and I was soon setting up in an area that I felt
gave me a good chance of a bite as the fish moved up and down the lake. As I
was setting up I could see a large silt area in front of me and there were fish
moving across it almost constantly, the down side of this spot was the fact
that it was swan depth water so I was unable to feed until after dark. I cast small bags of maggots with small pop
up hook baits one into the weed and one onto the silt but at the end of my
session even after a few recasts and trying zigs of various lengths I had
managed just 1 liner. I found this amazing considering the amount of fish that
I had seen.
My next trip out was a day only session on New Year’s Eve, so
I went down to another club lake near Romsey called Nightingale that has a few
more fish per acre in it, they go to 20lb but average upper singles and low
doubles, so I had packed my 2.75lb rods and a new toy that I shall talk about
more in a minute. I have fished tis lake a few times in the past and I know
that one of the hot spots consists of casting under the far bank foliage, so
one rod was set up under there and the other was sent into open water towards
the island. Both rods were rigged with naked helicopters, Ronnie rigs with size
6 Barbless Krank hooks and 12mm pop ups.
The reason for this being that the bottom of the lake is silty in places
so by using these rigs I should be able to present a rig anywhere on the
lake. It was a good start to the day and
I had 4 carp to about 10lb before lunch, it was at this point that I decided to
have some fun though and set up the float rod.
I baited a few margin spots in the narrow part of the lake, a couple
under trees and one next to some lillie’s and I was confident that at least one
should give me some action. After
resting the swims whilst I ate some lunch I tried the first couple against the
trees and found them to be very snaggy and full of very small fish so I was
soon moving into the lilly swim. 
It was
not long after getting into the swim that I had a positive lift on the float
but I pulled a little hard and lost the fish due to a hook pull. Even with all the disturbance it did not take
long for signs of feeding fish to appear in the swim again and I soon hooked
and landed two carp on the light float tackle, it was great fun and I will be
trying to use that tactic more often in the new year. As I only had a couple of
hours before I had to get home for another delivery I went back to the main
swim and managed another 3 carp before having to leave, all out from under the
far bank trees. Once again that small club lake had delivered with a great days
sport.
New Year’s Day saw a last-minute change in my plan and I was
soon driving across Salisbury Plain towards Shearwater, the reason for this
being the fact that my new long range rods had been delivered the day before
and I needed to try them out. I was
lucky when I turned up and I managed to get onto the area of the lake known as
the lawns, this looks into the deepest bowl of the lake and gives access to a
lot of open water which was ideal for what I wanted to do. I used the deeper to get an idea of the depth
of the swim and also to see if there were any fish in front of me and once that
was done I was able to start fishing.
The plan was simple, 20+ wraps feeding sloppy spod mix and fishing zigs
underneath, I am not going to go into too much detail as it has been covered to
death by lots of other people. The day
however, was slow possibly due to the hundreds and hundreds of people who had
decided to go for a walk, I managed a small 3-4lb carp within the first hour
and then had another foul hooker about lunchtime. It was still a good day on the kit trying
front though and I knew that I would have to work on my casting to get the best
out of the rods as they are a foot longer than I have been fishing of late.
I had planned for another whole day on the bank on the
Wednesday as well but as I woke up there was a cheeky ground frost and I didn’t
really fancy it, I did have to pop out and grab some bait late in the day so I
packed the float rod as well and decided to try Barnmoor lake at Witherington
farm for a couple of hours. I did not
last long there though as although I was on carp the numbers of small fish made
fishing maggot difficult and I hooked and lost several small fish before
landing a 6 oz roach on a size 10 hook and 4 maggots. I decided to pop back down to Nightingale
lake and I was soon walking around its banks priming a few spots that looked
good for a bite, as the weather was still cold I had decided to concentrate on
the car park end as I felt it was slightly more sheltered from the cold
wind. It took a while but I finally
managed to extract a carp from one of the swims and at 6lb I was very happy.
My final trip over the festive break was off to Brasenose 2
on the linear complex, I went with my mate Jase, he wanted to get onto St Johns
but as we turned up it was looking very busy in the areas we wanted to get into
so we had a look around B-2. As we were
driving around the bowl a guy was packing up from on the beach swim in the
bowl, I had a quick chat and it turned out that he had managed a couple of fish
on his first night so it was looking better than some other places. We moved in and to cut a long story short we
should have stayed at home, I was fishing a couple of spots at 30+wraps and
discovered on the last morning that it was littered with snags, I think I got
done into one with very little indication.
Jase was fishing closer and had a dropped take at about 8pm but that was
it really, I cannot say much more. In
hindsight we should have gone onto St Johns or Hardwicks but hindsight is the
best angler I know.