Avoiding the blank 19 part 2

After the last hard session on linear Jase and I decided to go somewhere a bit easier to fish and a plan was hatched to visit Todber Manor the next weekend, Jase was there first and secreted himself onto little Hayes so once I finished work I drove up to join him.  To be fair my heart wasn’t in it and I would have been much rather blanking on the little lake, but I was there so I gave it a go.  My main attack was a variety of maggot rigs and small bags of

maggots during the daylight hours and then I switched to zigs before I went to bed.  Jase had our only real action at about 10pm with a 14lb carp but to be fair we were not sat in the best pegs and we had missed the chance to get on them so it was our own fault.  Needless to say I blanked and went home with my tail firmly between my legs.

The next weekend it was back to the club lakes, I did a lap around the little lake and saw nothing so I decided to have a look up the north bank of the big lake and a bit of a think, I came across numbers of fish moving around towards the shallower end of the lake so I decided to give it a go on the big lake for the night.  Maggot rigs and small bags of maggots were fished on a silty area and also on a gravel spot I knew of and I awaited the night’s events.  I managed to land a bream and drop another bream in the night and the morning was far less eventful, in hindsight I should have sat on the little lake as that was playing on my mind again all night but I will never learn.

My next session was a fortnight later due to a spot of snow and work, I had decided by this time that a fruit machine tactic should be the way to get a bite from the little lake so I had earmarked an area that I fancied for the fish to start moving over once they decided to wake up.  I set my stall out in the swim and had 1 rod on a short range spot and the other across the far bank as I believe that it might be good for an opportunist bite across there.  Long story short was that I put 6 spombs of maggot and crushed boilie over both area and then sat back, I may have had a liner in the night but cannot be sure, the rods stayed out all night until it was time to go home and prep for next week.

Next trip was a Wednesday afternoon where I managed to get a few hours in, same area, almost the same bait as I was trying something new but no indications or signs in my short time on the bank. However I was back 2 days later on Friday, again same swim and tactics but nothing to show for my efforts, not even a sign.  I must be honest that by this point even I was questioning my sanity, but I was now targeting 1 fish so had the fish the lake it is in.

The following week it was turning into groundhog day, same swim, same tactics although this time I had 2 nights at my disposal, I may have seen a carp on the first morning at about 10am but it was hard to tell as it was a small movement under the far bank trees, but I put a rig on it just in case.  And again on the last morning as a small working group from the club I was involved in was walking around we saw what was probably a carp in one of the corners, just a swirl and some fizzing but it was hope.

That week saw a lot of plans change and I decided that it would be a good time to start a new adventure with Jase, he had already joined a club that was closer to work so I decided to join him.  My first trip was a Thursday night to Saturday lunchtime and I had the first night to myself, on turning up at the lake that Jase had suggested I managed to get a good look around and decided to settle in the shallow end for a couple of hours and to get a feel for the place. 

I had seen a few fish behind an island but the water there was only a couple of feet deep and I did not expect the fish to stay there.  I was using method feeders on carp gear for a start and after a couple of hours I was getting itchy feet, since I was one of only 2 people on the complex I set my deeper up and went for a plumb around the lake looking for any interesting features.  I found a few and I also found a pod of large fish tucked away towards a snaggy corner, so at 10pm I was soon moving my kit around to a new swim. 

The new swim was up a narrow arm of the lake and by using my 18m baiting pole I was able to place my 2 rods in likely looking area with the minimum amount of disturbance, I was soon settling down for the night. I was woken up a couple of times with big liners on my left hand rod, but nothing materialised and come the morning I was feeling quite deflated that nothing had happened.

Jase turned up mid-morning and this coincided with me moving swims one hop to my right, I had seen a fair bit of fizzing up against some bushes on the far bank so I thought that it was worth a shot and moved expecting it to be better the next morning. 
We went off for a bit of stalking in the afternoon and found a few fish in the shallows, but they had obviously seen bread before as I dropped a bit of flake in front of one and it near enough ran out of the bay screaming for its mum!!  We settled in for the night, Jase in a swim that he had fished before and I sat next to him, I had changed my rigs to naked helicopters by this point and at about midnight I got done, Jase on the other hand had 17lb and 15lb commons for his efforts.  

Late in the evening another of the club members tipped up and managed a 10lber in the early evening so even though he was fishing 4 rods in every available swim I had still messed something up and I needed a change.

I was next out the following Wednesday having decided to start focusing on other species and trying to enjoy my fishing again as chasing carp had become a bit of a chore to be fair, I went on to a water that I know has a number of tench to over 7lb but average a lot smaller and thought that I could try out some new specialist rods.  I was fishing helicopter feeder rigs and over the course of a reasonably short session had my fires stoked by a few small skimmers and rudd, but it had been great fun and a plan was getting hatched for the weekend.

Friday night I got down to the big lake a bit later than usual due to vehicle problems but I was soon setting up in open water in an area where I have caught my target species before, bream.  The target was a 6 pound bream but I had heard rumours of larger getting caught by some of the carp anglers so there was always a chance of a surprise.  I found a silt gully beside a gravel bar and tried to feed 2 pints of particle mix (dead maggot, pellet and corn) as accurately as I could through the spod in the strengthening wind.  I started with 2 paternoster rigs over the baited spot, one on worm and the other fishing dead maggot on the hook, but by 9 pm and with no signs I decided to swap one rod onto a method feeder and ping it into the middle of the lake where I had an inkling that there may be some fish holding up.

I was proved right as an hour later the baited area rod was away, as I picked the rod up I could tell it was a decent fish and a few minutes later I was slipping the net under a very decent looking bream.  As I was in the process of sorting the scales and camera the other rod was away as well and this was another slightly smaller bream, what a start to the campaign.  I weighed the second fish first and it was 6lb 8oz, a sfew quick snaps and then it was the bigger fishes turn, it pulled the scales down to 8lb 10oz and was only 2 ounces under the lake record!!  That was it I would have been happy packing up then which is just as well as I didn’t get any more signs throughout the night, I was up early though and I saw a few carp showing off to the left in the area that I had had the bream on the method the night before.  As the bream tend to hang around with the carp the method was dispatched back out in that area, I kept working the main spot but with no signs, then about 10 minutes after I had recast the method the rod pulled up tight and I was away.

As soon as I lifted into the fish I knew it was a carp, I started to worry straight away about the size 12 hook and 8lb mainline but it was very well behaved apart from swimming straight into and then out off a large snag down the left of my swim. After a bit of messing about under the rod tip a LARGE carp was nestled into the landing net and to say I was happy was a massive understatement.  It weighed 32lb 12oz and is a new PB after over 10 years.

Photos done I gave it another hour but the fish had stopped showing and with storm Hannah closing in I went home a very very happy bunny………….

So thats the story of the last month or so and you can watch it all here:

 Avoiding the blank 19 Part 2