"Silty Mere" pt 8

The next month saw me fishing alongside Andy to sightings of fish at range from the back wall. We had decided to work together and bait up a large area and both have rods on it. This was the only place we had seen fish show with any regularity. Each week saw me making the trek round through the woods to the back wall, with Andy arriving as soon as he could escape the evils of work. We had been spodding to an area that had a light spattering of weed at around 110 yards, with a 10kg hemp/hemp pellet spod mix. On top of this would go a kilo of 18mm boilies and at least 2 rods, one on the edge and the other right in amongst the free bait. Within an hour or two of finishing spodding, the fish would show up in the area and start shouldering, tailing and getting their heads down. They were, obviously loving it. Could we get a pick up? Not a hope. Occasionally we would get what we assumed were line bites, whenever this happened fish would exit the swim sharpish creating furrows through the shallow water.

           

During this long spell of inactivity on the lake we were seeing fish every weekend turn up in our baited zone, but never getting pick ups. I had to miss a weekend due to family commitments, what a weekend. Big scale had been seen looking huge, and to top it all out she came to Andy on a quick evening session off the top. Great stuff, Oh the weight, well we don’t really know. Andy’s scales bottomed out at 30lb!  A fortnight later she was out again at a staggering 31lb 14oz! I can only imagine how poor Andy felt. Still his first 20 was his first 30. I just had to have a piece of her while she was up at this weight. Having had her at 29lb 12oz three times, I just had to.

I got down handy on the Friday morning, 4am to be precise, the missus doing the school run meant I was away early. To be totally honest my eyes didn’t shut that night, I got the kit round to the back and collapsed on top of it. A few swigs of water and the rods were out on singles into the well prepared hemp area. Andy had been down on the Tuesday and topped it all up with another 10kg mix. In total we had now used approximately 70kg of hemp/hemp pellet mix in the last few sessions. I settled in and got the kit organised. Kettle on and I’m all done.

God it looked good, but didn’t it always. I had opted to fish a rod to the snags, something I don’t like doing from this peg as it can get a bit scary as there is a closed off snaggy peg to my right and fish always seemed to try and get in there, saying that, Rick had fished it a lot and had had no real trouble. My eyes were trying to shut by 9am and as fight it I decided to get some sleep. I had seen no signs of fish anywhere on the lake since I had arrived. I awoke to a screaming run.

After a tussle and a half in flapped and bounded what was surely a big twenty. I peered into the net to see a big mirror, she had looked big last time out at Easter, but nothing like this. Her colours had darkened since the spring and she had the most wonderful slate grey colouring to her upper flanks. Onto the mat, scales zeroed, and up she went. I could not believe what my digital scales were telling me, 27lb 11oz, surely not. I repeated the weighing procedure and again she went to the same place. I carefully sacked her up and took her out into some deeper water.

Onto the phone I went, the 2 Andy’s, Rick, and a few others back home. Within 30 minutes Andy was down from Chester and with me getting ready for the photo shoot. He had arrived at the perfect moment of the return, and we watched her swim away. Two years time and I reckon she will go thirty.

After a short weekend away in the welsh hills, I was back, filled with hope. Big Scale had been visiting my hemp bed for at least six or seven weeks. Rick and I started walking the fields towards the back wall. No way, we must have misread the angling log in the security offices. We thought we were the only ones on. Distraught we got to tench corner where we found Simon. I definitely had misread the log. Simon had been there for the previous two evenings for just a few tinca’s, yet out in front of him were carp, everywhere! We stopped and chatted for a while, discussing where he had seen fish and the times they were showing. From what Rick and I saw, the fish were all over the bottom end of the lake and showing out in front of the boards. We both agreed it looked like they were going through the motions of spawning, Simon was going at first light the following morning so I chose to stay put on tench corner and put all my rods out long so as not to disrupt his fishing too much. Rick high tailed it round to the double peg on the back wall. Good stuff, this meant that a moved could be made if things changed. Darkness fell and we seemed to have the whole lakes population of carp between ourselves and Rick on the far bank.

            

After a good social evening of beer and smokes with Si, into the bag I went, thoughts of Big Scale in the mind. My worries were now whether she had spawned and dropped a big chunk off weight. Just after climbing in I got a short run and flew outside in my socks, the bobbin had dropped back to its original position, bloody bream.  I awoke to the dawn chorus, and with 20 minutes or so before daylight I started to re-bait and reposition the rods. As I went to reel in the third rod I disturbed what was obviously a good fish at about 60 yards out, it turned and headed to the left where it stopped and turned back. I quickly threw a halibut on and a small tangerine sized bag of hemp pellets and dropped it 10 yards in front of the fish. I was disappointed to see it turn and head out into the centre of the lake. Unimpressed with myself for scaring it out I turned, set the bobbin and jumped back into the bag, leaned out and put the kettle on. Watching the lake from the comfort of my bed I soon realised the fish from the previous evening had gone, as had often been the case on here. They seemed to move around a lot due to the amount of pressure from the lines in the water. Swigging down my brew, I got a call on the phone from Rick to see what was happening, I told him of my error and I could sense his sharp intake of breath. Just as I put the radio down I noticed a slight disturbance over the last rod I had cast. Suddenly a large swirl a single beep from the alarm, the bobbin twitching, and off it went. All hell broke loose as I connected with the fish. A hefty lunge and I knew who this was. Thump, thump to my left she went. She kited into the margins and headed for the pads, it was here I had seen a glimpse of the plates on her right flank. Now I was crapping it. Don’t lose her, don’t lose her, I kept repeating myself to myself. I followed her up the bank trying to gain line, trying being the operative word. Away she went stripping line of the reel, this time I leant into it and stopped her quickly, in she came and away to my right she went, crashing into Si’s left hand rod, he awoke to the sound of his alarm and flew out of his bivvy, as she went underneath his other rods. I leant again and she turned, wallowing just 10 yards out. Oh yes it’s her. Realising what was happening he got to grips with the net and crouched next to me. I told him who it was and he smiled, into the net first time, thankfully. Yes! Now, for the weighing procedure.

As I lifted her onto the mat, I didn’t think she was any bigger than when I had last caught her. Now I really was crapping it. I sent Si to wake up Andy the bailiff. With their help she went up on the scales just as the battery in my digitals packed in. Typical! Everything zeroed again and up she went on Si’s Avon scales and round went the dials. He read it aloud and my smile grew even larger 30lb 2oz. Well chuffed. A little dance, and into my arms she went for the photographs. Truly, she is an awesome beast, amazing! Back she went into her watery hole, with a flick of her tail she did her usual trick of a good soaking and off she went straight across the lake to the snag island. On went the kettle and off back to bed went Andy and Simon.Leaving me to my thoughts. Out went the call to Rick, he was buzzing for me and he already knew from my dance that I had done my first thirty. Out went the texts and phone calls.

I spent the rest of the session on the shallows but my heart was not really in it. Had I not travelled up to the lake with Rick I honestly believe I would have wrapped up and gone home. Rick followed this capture up the following morning with a fish I have not caught, called the ‘Orange One’ at a good weight of 24lb. My targets were achieved and I was finished. The Silty mere is now a venue I would see little of, I feel that to chase one or two fish in this lake would only see me getting too many repeat captures of some magnificent fish, but I need to move on, hopefully taking some good friends with me to new pastures. 

"Silty Mere" pt 7

We were loaded up by 9.05 and on the motorway by 9.10am. The following 50 minute drive was to prove slightly shorter than usual, even with a 50mph stretch of the M53. We signed in with security and were crossing the fields by 10am. After dumping all the kit onto peg 1 we decided to have a good mooch round. After all, there was no rush, we had four nights and five days. We had got it right, everybody had gone home, with the exception of Ian on the back wall. We knew Ian had already been on the lake for five days with only a single tench and a pike for his troubles, yet every thing looked perfect. We opted to fish from the back wall having seen what we though were fish moving at a good distance out. Dropping the adjacent swims either side of Ian, this looked like it was going to be a social evening. Ian, at this time, was contemplating going home in the morning which meant Rick and I could double up in the big peg. Until then I would fish the stump swim. I was happy about this as it was off the reed bed opposite me that the ‘Pretty One’ was last to be caught the previous autumn.

I began my session with the application of 5 kilos of hemp and pellet mix. This was spodded into a reasonably hard clay area about 60 yards out with deep silt surrounding it. A few 21mm pellets were catapulted on top and a rod dropped nicely on the right hand side of the baited area. The second rod was fished about 80 yards to the corner of the reed bed on a halibut boilie and the third rod was thrashed out towards the large clay area in the central area of the lake, on a single 18mm Maple8 boilie. A few baits were sticked out towards where the lead had landed and I was pleased to see all the baits were to land within a few yards or so of my hook bait. I was fishing this at the back of Ian’s swim slightly, but it was out of his casting range so it felt sort of justified.

As twilight crept in, all the rods were re-positioned with fresh hook baits and the traps were set. After a chat and brew we were all surprised at the lack of nuisance fish. I turned in early that night as I was tired and struggling to keep my eyes open. 11.30 and I was being woken by Ian telling me Rick had the common in his net. I struggled to wake and get out of my bag, but knew how much I had to. I approached Rick and shook his hand, smiles all round. Up she went taking the Reuben’s round to 24lb 2oz, a little under weight, but in excellent condition. Waking to the alarm clock on the mobile at 5am on the first morning of a 5 day was a little upsetting but up I got. A quick scan of the lake surface and I could see nothing. I sculled my rods in one at a time and put out fresh baits. Whilst doing this I heard what could only have been Ritchie casting a bait to a long range mark, once I was done I went to see him with cup in hand. A glance at his face and I knew I hadn’t dreamt the common. Drinking coffee and crouching in the dark watching a glass flat lake surface as dawn creeps on can teach you a thing or too about carp, as light filtered through we were sure we could see one or maybe even two carp cruising just below the surface at about 100 yards away straight out from us. They were definitely on the silt patch. By 10am even Ian had risen from the depths of his sleeping bag and we still had not had a touch. Well, other than tuftie’s and coots which were all over my hemp mix, I decide a wander was in order. Nobody had been near the shallows since we arrived and with the sun on the water I felt like it was worth a look. Rick joined me and we were soon clambering the stile to tench corner. We got to the shallows to find two stock fish about 10 yards out from the little island and a few other fish cruising a range. A move seemed in order already. As we turned to head back a fish chose to announce its location off the smaller set of reeds about 90 yards out from the bank. Three times it lumped out. That was enough for me. Within the hour Rick and I had stripped my kit and bundled it round to the shallows to find even more fish had moved in. He had decided to stay put on the back wall. Having had the common straight off, in his position, I think I would have done the same.

My left hand rod was cast to within inches of the overhanging branches on the little island, with a 21mm hook bait pellet and pva bag of 4mm pellets. The middle rod was fished on a Maple8 boilie with a 3 bait stringer, tight to the reeds where the carp had shown itself, and the right hander was thrashed to the sunken island 140yards away again on Maple8 but this time with just a single hook bait as a stringer would stop me getting the range on my cast. Instead I used the throwing stick to get some freebies out to about 90 yards, even the 18mm baits would go no further. All day long the fish were coming in and out of the shallows cruising in what seemed to be threes and fours. This had to go off, surely.

By late afternoon a light breeze had sprung up from the south west pushing water slightly in towards me. This was looking good. I could still see the occasional carp on the back of the wind in the flat water but there did not appear to be the numbers that had been here earlier. By darkness the water had flattened off and I was worried that they may have followed the breeze. I could see nothing. I could not even move back to the far bank as Rob had arrived around 7pm and dropped into my peg from the previous night.Wednesday morning and again I was up before the dawn chorus. As light levels rose I thought I could see fish out towards the sunken island so out went fresh baits. As the suns rays started to break through the haze thick, low, cloud cover arrived, creating a cool morning, this was soon followed by a south westerly breeze. Not good spotting weather at all. By 6.30am I was on my third coffee and hundredth prayer to the Pretty One or any other carp that may take a fancy to my baits. Come to think of it even a tench would be a start. Still seeing nothing, and nowhere to make a move to, I decided to put out a bed of 70, 21mm halibuts, at about 50 yards, directly in my vision, hoping to stop any greedy pigs in their tracks. These baits were in about 2 foot of water so I should see anything showing an interest in them. If this was to be the case then I could quite easily drop lead sizes and get baits amongst the fish with little or no disturbance.

11.25am and my middle rod, at the reeds, received a single beep, followed by a fast drop back, immediately I was on it and soon picked up enough loose line to come into contact with a solid fish, this was no tench. After a short but spirited fight a superb linear stock fish lay on my mat. Weighing in at 13lb 12oz, not a large fish, but I was overjoyed. After the photography was completed, thinking it was a repeat capture, I got my pictures out to find it was a different fish to what I though. Chuffed.

By mid afternoon I decided to reel in and go and see Rob and Rick, after a quick social and a brew I headed back towards my peg but this time going over the fields so I could get some freebies out over the trees, nice and tight on the reed bed where I had had the fish from. Once done I went back and repositioned the hook baits back onto their spots.

The sun broke through and soon after Rick hooked into a big fish, this turned out to be ‘Big scale’nice one Rick! Something stopped me from going round and seeing it. I don’t know why but I just didn’t bother, deciding to watch the weighing and photographing of the fish through my monocular. Shortly after the return and phone calls I was settling in behind my rods when one of the other regulars approached. I thought I saw my right hand rod twitch but then the other two rocked. Wind I thought. As he asked what it was Rick had caught, my right hander went off on a single tone run. This was an epic struggle as I had hooked the fish 10 yards off the snag island at about 140 yards out. I had it on a tight line from the off as the clutch was screwed right up. The stretch in the Daiwa sensor mono was doing its job nicely. Up and down it went along the island not trying to go in but also not coming any closer. Personally I don’t think it realised it was hooked. I had to put pressure on it. As I did so it started to turn in towards me and pick up speed, I struggled to keep it all tight but managed it, with some luck, I may add. Once it was within 20 yards of the bank it went ballistic. Coming right up out of the water, tail walking, was a big mirror carp. I could see the lead hanging off her chin and the little teeny size six peeking out of her rubbery lips. It didn’t look a very tight hook hold to me but thankfully into the net she went and out popped the hook. She had been netted well, up on the scales she went and at 25lb dead on.

This was an excellent weight for her. She was photographed by a newcomer to the lake, another Andy, a decent lad I had met quite a few times through the previous winter and early spring. I had learnt not to acquaint myself too readily on this lake as people came and went quite rapidly. Unbelievably as we were taking the photographs Rick was landing the dark scaley one on the far bank. This session was already looking promising.

As darkness started to creep up on us, baits were set for the night and being up at this end of the lake, alone I sat and brewed up, sitting on my unhooking mat watching the lake until the late hours when I finally dragged myself into bed. Thursday morning, same routine as usual, up early and sat on the rods. Just after first light a text from Ritchie reveals a new unknown twenty, 23lb to be exact. This fish was virtually identical to the one id had the previous day and so unsure of it we had to check Ricks pictures against the digital images from my capture the day before, Oh yes she’s different, just. I put another 70, 21mm pellets out over the same spot as yesterday just in case. If they don’t show at least it concentrates the tuftie’s and coots into one place. I had just finished a superb sausage breakfast whilst watching the reeds at the bottom end of the lake when I saw a very big fish crash out, I trained the monocular on the spot, up came the fish again. That’s enough for me. I wrapped the kit and made the move to the now vacant tench corner. As I passed one of the regulars he offered a hand and asked if I had ants in my pants. I told him what I had seen and he replied saying he could not be bothered moving again and I must be mad, he had left tench corner less than 15 hours ago. Twenty minutes later and I was in tench corner, scanning for any visible signs of carp. Up I clambered into the alders, but could still see nothing. I opted to fish two long rods over the silt bowl, and one towards the third platform off the reed beds. All were fished on Single 18mm boilie’s. As darkness fell the wind picked up pushing hard towards the reeds. The forecast was for rain and it was soon to arrive, not heavy but persistent.

5am and I am woken by the cessation of the rain drumming on the brolly. All was quiet, a scan of the lake and I could see it was flat calm. I swung my feet into my boots and threw the kettle on. Well this is it the last morning, come on fish, come on Pretty One! During the night I had seen a headlamp from across the lake where Rick was fishing and assumed he had landed a fish and would have it sacked up. I put my coat on and reeled all three rods I, re-baited and hung them on the rests. Grabbing my brew I walked round through the woods to go and get the photo’s done for him, I could then settle down for the last few hours of the session. I get round there to find he was recasting towards some fish showing at range, not far from where I had just dragged my rods from. Rick, it turns out, had lost the fish in the margins and had not received any other action all night. I scrounged a few boilie’s as I had about six left and that was it, I was off back to my rods. All were repositioned almost exactly the same positions as they were previously in.

At around 7 o’clock a fish visited my right hand margin where I did not have a hook bait, as I had opted to fish all 3 rods at range. Minutes later and it was back again. As it left I reeled in the right hand rod and placed it in the swim, surrounded by half a dozen crumbed baits. My eyes were closed when I distantly heard the unmistakable sound of a delkim. It was mine! Assuming it was the marginal rod I made a grab for it, suddenly realising the line was leaving the middle rod at a fast rate. I struck and smiled as I felt the pressure of a big fish. This was no stocky. After a hectic struggle I managed to manoeuvre the fish into the nearby margins, Andy was on hand with the net but the fish was having none of it. A quick sighting of a big yellow stomach and I said “ I think this is big scale, its going hard like big scale”, as the fish neared in front of the net I saw a series of huge moon scales on the fishes right hand shoulder. It was the Pretty One!

            I started to stress, she was punishing me up and down the margins always trying to turn out into deeper water and eventually i managed to guide her to the waiting net and in she went first time, Andy lifted and she was mine. A quick call to rick with the words “Pretty One” and as we sorted out mats, scales and the like he dragged his rods in and high tailed it round to us.

     What a fish, photo’s done and looking spot on she went back quietly and slid out of my hands seemingly without a care in the world. Oh yes and the weight 21lb 7oz.  

The following two weekends would see me start at the far end of the lake on tench corner for the day and night, then I would end up moving in the morning after sighting fish cruising in the shallows. Each time the move would produce fish soon after positioning baits along known patrol routes, the result, being a few stockies and the following weekend, an unknown fish at 19lb and a repeat capture of the damaged mirror at 18lb. Followed by another repeat capture of the small common. The fish were becoming easy to find and track around the lake, getting pick ups was becoming the norm in the sessions.

"Silty Mere" pt 6

March saw me trying to keep the wind coming off my back and with the Northerly winds we were getting this saw me concentrating my efforts on the back wall. The first weekend saw the densest fog I have ever fished in, settle on the fields around the mere. In fact, from the car park I couldn’t even see the stile! Things felt good on this session especially after the sighting of not one but two carp roll off to the left of the big peg just after darkness. Baits were, as usual, fished in the normal feeding spots, but to no avail. Self doubts had settled in after many long winter nights fishing but things were starting to look really good and the following few sessions just saw everything slotting into place, buds swelling on branches, activity from critters in the undergrowth, pheasants waking me at first light and shrews everywhere ! A few sessions into March saw me move back over to tench corner, the previous weeks wind was pretty much a constant south westerly, this pushing into the little shallow bay on my right. The lake was seeing more and more newcomers each week and due to this I started to bivvy up to the right of the alders, mainly to reduce the risk of an unwanted neighbour moving into my area. Odds were low on sighting fish due to the waves, crashing all along the bank. Baited zones were established as quickly as possible, with the usual marginal spot set up; my right hand rod was put out the 70 yards to the reed bed just off the third platform. This was a single Active 8 pop-up mounted up about 1”. The middle rod was put out on a halibut pellet and fished over a pva bag of 4mm halibuts. Having had a visit from Andy, I found out that Rob had caught a dozen fat tench over the last couple of nights. These were all caught at range from the double peg on the back wall. After watching Rob for a while I could see the range he was chucking his leads. Long. By my judgement he was dropping them on the hard mound in front of the 3rd and 4th platform. That night the wind and rain increased in their vigour. Every few seconds there were waves crashing against the side of the bivvy. According to the local weather forecast we were to get gusts up to gale force 6 - 7, no problems I thought I’ve been in worse than this.

By first light I was considering a move to the back wall for some protection and maybe some sleep, I had not slept too much as I had been hanging on to the bivvy for all it was worth. I started to wrap the kit up when the middle rod went off with a wet screech. A half minute later and I was unhooking a mature bream of around 6lb, back it went and out came the rods. A quarter of an hour later saw me in the relative calmness of the double peg, tucked in tight to the Holly tree, rods out at range, (all three), kettle on. Bliss.

The Radio provided me with regular weather reports and the forecast was looking really bad with gale-force winds of 8 -9 and driving rain. Thankfully now off the back of me. The reality of being in the lee of the trees was brought home to me when the first branch hit the water surface 10 yards out. During the afternoon I awoke three times to hear trees cracking and coming down in the woods.

Later in the night I would wake to hear another four trees cracking, on what sounded like the sunken island to my right.I awoke to belting run on the left hand rod, I hit it and it kited to the right, then nothing. I reeled in to find a hook-length that was shredded, damn pike! The winds were still hammering at the bivvy and after struggling to survive it i decided to call it a day. Walking back through the woods I had to make two detours to get round the downed trees and branches and had to unload my trolley to get past the big oak that had snapped off about 15 foot up from the ground.

The last weekend in March saw yet another blank session, but this time it was event-full. After thinking I had seen a fish rise in front of board 3, I had reeled my rods in and went for a wander. The entrance to the platforms is now destroyed and would be a challenge to get your kit onto them!  I balanced my way on and crept along. With the reeds having died back, I had little natural cover so moved slowly, putting my feet down carefully every footstep.

As I sneaked down to the 3rd platform a fish bowed out from 10 yards in front of me! Gutted but sort of pleased I checked out the others the same thing happened again this time of the 5th platform. I turned and shot back to tench corner, buzzing. Two rods were thrashed out, tight to the reed beds and left for the rest of the session. Again nothing!My head was done in, the fish were obviously starting to move, and it had to happen soon. It just had to. The end of March and the start of April saw typical British spring weather, sunny one minute wet the next, hammering down the next and so on.

8 am Friday 2nd of April saw me loading the car, with the sun shining and temperatures looking good. Forecast for the weekend was for a wet one with sunny spells. All done, all I had to do was to drop the little-un off at school and I was away. I sat to swig the last of the coffee and I was on my way. On arrival a quick chat with one of the regulars on tench corner and I was away to the back wall. A quick phone call to Rick to let him know i had the back wall covered, there and then he arranged for the afternoon off and would be getting here just after lunchtime. Whilst baiting up the middle rod, the male swan put in an appearance and started to steal what I was putting in, thankfully he doesn’t seem to be able to find the 4mm pellets. As I’m using him as a marker there is a good swirl to the left, the swan looked and cleared off, carp or pike? Minutes later back he comes now finding some of the 21mm baits.  Rick arrived and set up in the stump swim to my left. We were made up, the fish were showing and the sun was shining, what more could we want? A big fat carp, that’s what. After the success of last season my targets this year were for three fish, ‘The Pretty one’, the larger leather and the dark scaley one. How badly I wanted that dark scaley. Having lost him off the surface in June from under my feet I really wanted to add him to my list.        

My traps were freshened up just prior to darkness, the left hander out at 140yds on a single halibut pellet tipped with half a flouro pop up. The middle was also on a halibut over the spodded bait and the right hander was 20 yards past the corner of the sunken island on an Active-8 tipped with half a flouro pineapple.

Everything looked perfect. “Come on fish” Just after dark my middle rod roared off and after a few short runs produced a pike of around 5lbs and one trashed rig. I made another and cast the rod back into position. Just after finally dozing off at around midnight I had another run, this time at range on the left hander, I hit it and felt a good weight at the other end. This was it, it had to be. After a long hectic fight I netted the fish, elation. I looked into the landing net to see a huge pike.

nasty horrid things

Gutted and dejected I wedged the net into the bank and went to get Rick to give me a hand. After weighing and photographing, it was put back.. Rick got the brews on whilst I built another new rig, I dislike catching pike when carp fishing as I hate tying rigs!

Rod cast back out, cuppa’s gone and back to sleep. I awoke to yet another pike 20 minutes after dropping off, again to the middle rod off the large bed of bait. This time it was just nicked in the scissors of the jaw and my rig was fine. I woke to find myself crouched behind the rods, my right hand delkim light was on, screech, it went off; I hit it and felt something kite out into the lake. After a long spirited fight I finally had the fish ploughing up and down the margins, clipping my other two lines. I reached down and sank the tips into the margins; this was a carp for sure. Into the net first time, up went the arms. I strained to see into the mesh and saw scales, lots of big scales, and a line of scales to the tail.  I’ve done it, the dark scaley one and he’s huge”.  First fish of the year and it’s a target fish! Into a sack for the few hours till daylight and I was getting no sleep. I find I cannot sleep when I have a fish sacked up; I tend to sit alongside the sack stressing out. The weather put paid to that when I suddenly realised it was lashing down. With a break in the rain at 8am and light levels increasing out onto the mat he came and up into my arms for the photos. Away he swam unaware of the extreme pleasure he had given to me.

well worth the wait when they look like this 

Other than a sighting of a fish lumping out towards the oaks at range I saw nothing all day. A tench arrived late in the afternoon and other than liners I would receive no further action for the rest of the day, Oh well, who cares. The rain became heavy and persistent for the rest of the evening and well into the night. Sunday morning saw Rick wake me up with a fish on, crashing into the line on my left hand rod; out quickly to help him I netted a carp we have not seen prior to this capture, of the slate grey variety, a lovely looking fish of 12lbs+.  Smiles all round and time to wrap the kit.

The decision to have a 5 day session over the Easter bank holiday had been taken during the middle of a freezing January night. With good foresight Rick and I decided to organize the time off work to fish the week following Easter. This was chosen as we presumed there would be a serious amount of anglers on the lake for the duration of the holidays. How right we were. We planned for a Monday lunchtime arrival hoping pegs would be clear of anglers and cleaned out by the swans and duck population. As the date had crept nearer the preparations had stepped up a gear. Bait was organized and involved a 25kilo bucket of pellet and hemp mix, a few kilo of 18mm Maple8 boilie’s, a few kilo of the new Halibut boilie’s and 3 kilos of 21mm Halibut pellets and a kilo of 4mm pellets for bags. Seems a lot and certainly added to the weight of the kit.

           

Thursday evening i was at home tying up some pellet rigs and I received a text off one of the lads, he tells me he has gone down to the mere and is fishing in tench corner. He goes on to say that there are 6 other anglers on the lake, two on the back wall, two on peg 1 and two on peg 2. Gutted to say the least ! Over the course of the weekend I would get to hear of a few captures, firstly was that the tatty mirror had graced someone’s net from  the back wall alongside a stocky carp of around 10lbs. The chaps on peg 1 had also had some stock fish around the same weight.

Sunday lunchtime would see the lake empty with the exception of Ian who has now moved into the double peg on the back wall. During Sunday evening I received a call from another lad letting me know he has set up in tench corner for just a quick overnight session and will be going shortly after our arrival. That’s handy as it frees up what I feel to be the top peg on the lake! I know where the common will show first and its here. I know how badly Rick wants that fish so I may back off and let him go in there. We’ll see.

That gives me two real options: Peg 1 involving 2 long range rods to the sunken island, on single hook baits, and one off the little island over a big bed of bait, or fished short just off the reed beds. Or option 2 Go and muscle my way in with Ian on the back wall and try to get all my rods as close to the usual spots as possible. There is a third option seeing as I have my waders packed and that is to fish the little snag island peg and get into the water to cast. Decisions, decisions. Still none of the biggies have shown, oh how glad I am to here that. They’re waiting for me and Rick to show up that’s why! All I want is the Pretty One and the big leather

            

Tomorrow seems so far away……..

"Silty Mere" pt 5

With the onset of the cold frosty nights during late October, come November saw the dying back of the weed beds. In front of tench corner there had appeared a very large clear clay patch. Feeling confident of a fish or two I decided to stick with fishing in this area. Having not seen a fish for weeks now either at range or in the margins I decided to fish all three rods on the clay bar. Other than a bream, this session proved to be fruitless. The following session saw me again fishing all rods in the same location. When I arrived I found a bloke to the right of where I normally set up. He was fishing all his rods out towards the reeds and kindly allowed me to fish to my normal spots. After chatting for a while I found he was on his first session and had earlier landed a fish he reckoned to be a 27lb leather! After querying him for a while I decided his weighing was well out as the fish he was describing was one of the ones i had previously had in the summer. Adamant that his weight was accurate I let the matter drop having obviously upset him, by politely telling him that all the fish are well recorded and that no fish like that was residing in the lake. One of this chaps friends was later to tell me how all of his fish are over weighed. Who does he think he’s cheating, certainly not us.

This session was different, it was wet and windy but was much warmer than the previous few weekends, with the rain driving in sheets across the open expanse of lake. At around ten o’clock on the second night of such weather, the left hand rod tore off leaving a wake behind it that was visible even in such darkness. Immediately I  was in contact with something that was not impressed. It was thrashing itself against the mainline, trying to tear itself off the hook, in time it was under the rod tip steaming up and down the margins by which time I was soaked through and dripping wet. I had taken my boots off whilst lying on my bed and due to the manner in which the fish tore off I had not had time to put them back on my feet, let alone get some waterproofs on. So there I was shivering, soaked through in my mud covered socks, playing something huge. After what seemed an eternity the fish was netted, along with a good sized ball of weed. I secured the landing net at the edge and without looking into it ran to the bivvy for my boots, after ripping my mud covered socks off, boots and coat got thrown on, I ran to get a mate from his slumbers to give me a hand, explaining on the way back to my kit at how well this fish had fought! We got organised with scales, sling and mat and went to get the fish, on lifting it I realised the size of the fish, it was not actually that large, but had given me a right runaround, I looked into the net to see one of the newer stock fish. Confused as to where the enormous fish I had been fighting with in the rain had gone I matted her and lifted the scales.

She was only a short fish but had what looked like a rugby ball in her stomach. Her flanks were devoid of scales but she had a scattering of large plates around her tail wrist. Back she went and judging by her reaction upon entry into the water she was an unhappy fish. She would later recognised as a fish that Rick had caught on his first session in the shallows in the early spring. These stock fish are, I’m sure, going to become some of the hardest fighting fish in the lake, and judging by their speed of growth it will only be a few years before they start attaining the magical weights of 20lb plus.

The following morning saw the chap next to me wrap up and leave with out even a goodbye. Soon after Rick moved off the back wall after having a blank session and joined me in tench corner, I allowed him to fish to my right where "Billy Liar" had been fishing. He placed his baits out towards the reed bed, where later that night he picked up a lovely looking fish of around 19lbs. A good session all round.

These were to be the last fish caught from the venue this year and as winter drew on things got harder, colder and wetter. Not to be deterred we continued fishing small amounts of bait on known hot spots, but to no avail. Just at the end of the year both Rick and I started to fish the shallows at extreme range, towards the sunken island, chucking the leads around 140 yards had take some practise but soon i was dropping the rigs into the area i wanted to fish.My thoughts were that the fish were hanging in and around these snags at the back of the prevailing winter winds. There is a lot of silt in this area and i believed that opportunities to catch a winter carp from the lake would be more likely from this spot than anywhere else on the lake.

The first session of the new year saw Rick and I arrive at the lake, late on the Friday afternoon, expecting to have it to ourselves. Unbelievably, there were already seven anglers scattered around the banks. We both set up down on tench corner and fished balanced hi-viz flouro, single, pop-up baits out at range. After an un-eventful night I decided a move was in order and joined one of the lads on the shallows. After thrashing two rods out towards the sunken island and placing a marginal rod just out from the reed bed on my right I settled in. The weather was turning for the worse and a cold north easterly had sprung up and was pushing in towards me. During the warmer months I would have been very happy at this but at this time of year I prefer to be in the lee of the wind. At least my two range rods were in calm water. Soon darkness was on us and having shared a good curry we settled in for a long cold night. This was to be yet another blank session for us and everyone else on the lake.

Two weekends later saw us arrive after darkness due to work commitments. We could do little about bait placement, so I just cast two rods towards the sunken island and again placed a rod in the margins and sprinkled a few dozen baits around it. We settled in and got brewed up. Shortly after eating my two range rods started to give me what appeared to be liners, bream I thought to be the problem. This continued for much of the night, with nothing being hittable I tried to ignore the bleeps as best I could. This led to a very disturbing night with me on edge at each and every bleep. I was already awake as first light crept in on the Saturday morning with freezing fog and visibility down to about 5 meters. There was little I could do about repositioning my baits accurately so I left well alone and decided to catch up on some sleep. I was wakened by one of the lads with the offer of a brew and by ten o’clock a wind had picked up from the north east and helped to clear the remaining fog, I soon came to realise the cause of the indications I had been getting all night, small sheets of ice. As I reeled in the range rods I at last could make out the island. The rods were re-baited before being thrashed back out to the snags. One rod fell short by about 20 meters so was recast, again only to fall short. By this time my hands were approaching blueness so I decided to call it a day and leave well alone.

Saturday came and went with no action to any of the anglers on the lake. During the evening the wind continued to blow and eventually the sky cleared to reveal a multitude of stars and one very large burnout from a meteorite. Great stuff!  I decided to back-lead the rods in case the lake froze up solid, so as to ensure I could get the lines and rigs back in the morning. That night the temperatures plummeted down to about - 6 and we awoke to find a completely frozen lake, the ice was not thick but it called an end to the session. After dropping the bivvy and wrapping away the rods and other kit we headed off on the walk back to the cars, hoping and praying not to have a flat battery, good job we used Ricks car, mine would have undoubtedly been useless.

February arrived and with it a warm front, with winds blowing up from the south. We arrived in good time on the Friday morning to find five anglers already pitched up on the meadows spreading from peg 1 through to tench corner. This left us little alternative but to travel round to the back wall. 

On arrival at the swims we chose to fish from the double peg with me on the right, fishing the rods a yard or so off the snags. Setting up with bags of confidence I realised I had never actually fished from this swim. After a few trial casts I began to realise why Rick always used waders when fishing this peg, Casting was a nightmare. I found the bank side trees were really restricting my ability to place baits accurately. With me only fishing single hook baits though, I was not too worried about precise locations. The water temperature was up compared to the previous visits to the lake, and felt positively warm to the touch, the chill seemed to have gone right out of it. I opted to fish the halibuts on the island mark and small bags of crumbed boilie’s with pop-ups over them on the other two rods at a range of 40 yards on the clay bars i had found the previous year. Once these were positioned the kit was sorted out and soon I was settling in. With the wind pushing in towards us and a strong sun I thought we stood a really good chance of a late winter carp.

Shortly after lunchtime whilst chatting to Andy the bailiff I heard Rick calling me, I looked down the bank to see him playing a fish, we dashed over to him and stood watching, I positioned the landing net in the margins. It wasn't long till the truth hit us and Rick brought a good tench of around 5 lbs into the net. After release we all agreed that if the tench were prepared to feed then the carp would surely be not far behind  Over the next few hours Rick managed to catch another couple of tench, over a lightly baited spot, and so, not to be outdone I put out about 80, 10mm boilie’s out onto one spot. It wasn't long before this rod shot off, producing a tench of around 4lbs for me. Success? Oh aye. I was smiling.

As darkness fell, the weather closed in and heavy rain began to fall. In no time it was hammering down and drumming so loudly on the bivvy that I could see my alarm lights on but could hear no sounds coming from them. I decided I would ignore them until line was coming off the reels. Again an uneventful night came and went and the Saturday started brightly enough but with an icy northerly wind blowing across the lake from behind us. The waves were crashing on the far bank and the temperatures had dropped considerably since the previous day. We sat expectantly all through the day even hoping for a tench or two, anything for a run at this time of the year, but even the tench and bream wouldn’t play ball. Rick decided to have a stab at a pike that was attacking silver fish in front of him, it wasn’t long before he had banked a small pike, all 8oz of it!

After a few hours dabbling with a plug we had caught pike to around 5lbs before retiring into the shelter of the bivvy for a warm and a brew. The wind was strong, blustery and bloody freezing. Hopes were dashed, and our confidence had disappeared due to the amount of cold water that had gone into the lake overnight. The water in front of us having been warm to the touch, the previous day, was now freezing cold. After a combined decision we all wrapped our kit away and raced the rain back to the cars. Enough was enough.

A fortnight later, and having had warmer weather over the last week, the next few days saw us anxiously awaiting the weekend, I decided I could not wait any longer and set off on the Thursday afternoon, this was partly to do with wanting a choice of pegs and also through the absolute desperateness of the need to fish! Even though the winter had been fairly mild there still had not been a fish out since October. Everything looked good upon arrival and I hurriedly set myself up on tench corner, the sun was strong and pleasant with only a light easterly wind blowing from behind me, this I knew was to turn to a strong to gale force easterly wind by Saturday and helped in my choice of swims, I wanted it off my back, I was not prepared to sit with this in my face for the next three days. As evening came on the winds started to pick up but by 8 o’clock it had dropped completely and the lake had flattened off to a sheet off glass. I was standing out on the alders till just after 10 when I heard what could have only been a fish topping out in the general direction of the boards, I strained my eyes to see if I could get a fix on the location but could not make it out, I considered a wander to the boards to try and see if there was any activity over there but the left hand delkim beeped a couple of times and made me change my mind, I slipped and slided my way to the rod through the mud and paused awaiting any movement on the bobbins. I crouched alongside the rods and waited, but nothing. By midnight the temperature had started to plummet to below freezing, the clouds that were in the sky were skidding along at a rate of knots, providing no cover from the nights chill. We spent the evening chatting and plotting the demise of the fish for the coming year. That night went -4

By first light there had been no activity on the rods, I chose to leave them in place until lunchtime by which time the sun had been on the water for a few hours. Any fish willing to feed may have been on the move by now. The sun was now so hot it was t-shirt weather and I had a feeling that fish were sure to be moving. I re-baited and repositioned two rods at a range of about 120 yards or so. Both with flouro pop-ups fished singly on shot balanced rigs. I sat watching the open water in the vicinity of my baits for the whole day trying to persuade myself that the unseen fish were definitely going to feed. How could they not be moving around and basking in this sun. As the evening drew on I came to realise that it was not looking like it was going to happen, well maybe tonight after all that sun. With the arrival of my mate at just after four on the Friday, we still had the lake privately to ourselves. After a chat and brew he chose to fish the big double peg, and shouldering his kit he headed off to the back wall.

With the onset of dark I baited the two range rods with bottom baits and small pva bags of crumbed boilie’s and flicked them back over the baited zone at around 120 yards. The marginal rod had a scattering of small halibuts and half a dozen large freebies placed in position around the hook-bait. Traps set, some dinner, a smoke and a snooze. The wind picked up and started to blow easterly across the lake towards the sunken island and down towards the shallows. On more than one occasion today I had contemplated a move to the shallows so I could present baits tight to the snags. Now I was glad that for once I had not followed my instincts. Unlike the previous evening this was freezing cold by seven. I mean freezing, the rods were white the ground was solid and the margins looked like they were going to ice over, and the wind, well it was raw. Even a quick visit to the loo stripped all the body heat away from me and caused me to become a dithering wreck. Thank god I didn’t have the wind in my face. With the stove on constantly, inside the bivvy was warm and a thoroughly pleasant evening was had drinking coffee and smoking. This was not a night for sitting outside watching the water and the stars but a night for indoor socials. With the arrival of a mate just after seven it was never going to be anything else. Again an uneventful night passed us bye. Getting up at six am the realisation that the lake margins had frozen, saw me getting the rod tips high in the air to bring the lines out of the ice. During the night the wind had dropped considerably and as the sun rose it was obviously going to be a stunning winter's day. Again the rods went out to range, but to no avail. After sitting watching all day and knowing the lake was again going to freeze over I made the decision to call it a day and make the long walk back to the car.

"Silty Mere" pt 4

July came and went with no other fish gracing the banks for myself, I had fished on the surface off the platforms in the reed beds on many occasions and had quite a few takes. All of the fish had either snapped me up or just come off for no real reason whilst trying to control them and bully them away from the thick weed beds.

            

Nearly all of my fish had come during the hours of daylight but the first weekend in August saw things change. Typically, I was on my own on the back wall. Rick had spent the last few weeks doing uncomfortable night sessions off the boards in the reeds. He was still catching some quality fish whilst all around the lake many of us were struggling to buy a bite. The light intensity, extremely low water levels and high temperatures throughout the summer days had seemed to put the fish off feeding. That weekend I had a frantic Friday night session after seeing little activity through the daylight hours. Just after dark I had a short tussle with a fish that was just happy to plod around on the end of my line. Either this fish didn’t know it was hooked or it didn’t care. After gently guiding the fish into the margins it slipped quietly into the waiting landing net. It was a repeat but a welcome one at a weight of 21lb 3oz, a little down on its usual weight.

After photographing, returning him and repositioning the rod on the ever decreasing clay area I got a brew on, a smoke rolled and went back to sleep, content to have caught. It felt like my eyelids had barely closed when the middle rod belted off towards the right, this was ripping yards of line off the spool, and trying to have the rod away at the same time. As I reached for the rod it bounced off the rest and into my hand. Scaley! I hoped, and about time too. This fish had still not graced the bank to any anglers since we arrived on the lake the previous November, rumours were flying round that she no longer lived in the lake, either having died during the winter or been stolen. I was and still am in the belief that she had gone. Surely she would have been sighted by myself, Rick or another angler. Even Andy and the other bailiffs were starting to believe she had gone! I played this fish with the utmost of care anticipating the sheer bulk of the fish. To my surprise when I finally had the fish in the margins I realised she was not as big as the powerful fight had suggested and once in the net I saw a stunning mirror carp with a group of 4 vertical scales in a cluster on her right flank. After weighing her at 17lb 12oz and some more self photography, (not easy at the best of times, let alone in the middle of the night, with a frantic fish) she was returned to bow out right through the middle of my swim, scaring off a couple of feeding fish.

What a night, I was buzzing, finally a fish that was not a recapture. I dropped Rick a text to let him know of the happenings so far. No response, he must be asleep I thought. Back to sleep I went full of smiles. Again I was awakened by the monotone screech of my delkim, as I flew off my bed the run stopped, had I dreamt it? No, a light was on, as I crouched next to the rod it went off again. A very short fight saw me with another small fish flapping about on the unhooking mat. This time a baby common. Weighing 10lbs 2oz. From what I knew there was only 2 commons in the lake, the big one and the little one at around 17lbs. And now the baby common.

September saw me without a fish on the bank. Just when I thought I was getting it together again I was dropped like a brick. I was down, what didn’t help was that other anglers were catching. I could not believe it, I had worked hard but to no avail.  I was also getting sick of fishing in the same swim week in week out. I had watched fish come in over my beds of bait but not a pick up could I get. As the longer cooler nights started to arrived in the latter half of the month, so thoughts turned to bait. I started to refuse the idea that the halibuts could still work in these cooling waters and I came off them. Big mistake. Using the activ8 baits again I instantly started to catch tench and bream. After two weekends of these bait stealer's, I was pulling my hair out. The fish were still coming out to Rick and one or two other anglers but I was starting to feel left out.

I changed my approach the week later and started to re-bait with the pellets on all three rods, all over a couple of handfuls of freebies. The following morning saw me with my fourth capture of Big scale, what a fish, she was getting back up to her full weight again and was only a few ounces down at 29lb 8oz. After photographing and returning her again all I could wish for was for Rick to catch her.

Saturday morning came and as the light filtered through the clouds off went my right hand rod, again with an extreme battle I managed to land 4 scales again, just as she went into the net out popped the hook. Upon examination the tip had dinked over and was knackered, I’m amazed it held as long as it did.

Again this fish had me thinking it was going to be a twenty pounder. This fish is one of the older stocking of fish and has certainly got potential to be a monster fish in the future. I collared Rick to come and do some photos as he was fishing towards the sunken island on the adjacent peg. This is one peg I have not and will not fish as I feel it is too tight for me to be confident in landing anything I may hook, saying that, Rick has never lost a fish from here. 

 It was two weeks after this session that Rick would finally bank the big girl for himself, on the halibut pellets, all the regular lads were made up for him and congratulations were well earned. Having had my share of captures of this fish I was relieved and happy for him. The scales went round to 29lb 8oz again and we were glad to see weights were on the increase again. All he needed now was to attach himself to the common !

This gave me a pick up and hope for the autumn, but how long should I keep fishing the pellets? As  I made the long walk from the back wall to the car I passed through the woods and over the stile into tench corner, boy did this area look good to me. I dumped my kit and took a breather. Climbing up into the alders I noticed for the first time all summer that there were now some clear spots appearing in the marginal weed, only about 10 yards out. I climbed down and went to have a chat with Rick who was just coming over the stile. As I described what I had seen I pointed to the approximate area and we both saw a nice fish shoot out from the margins just to the left of where we were standing. We looked at each other and nodded. A change of area was in order for the following week. Before leaving I scattered over a few kilos of big pellets all along the margins and a good amount out towards the clear spot. The following few days at home were filled with thoughts of these clear spots, what had obviously caused them and what we had seen. All I could think about was getting back on the lake. I wanted to approach the swim with a baiting campaign of seed particles and decided only to fish this spot for a whole month and to apply 25 kilos of bait each week during the autumn, so on went the cooker. Little did I know what the outcome of this would be.

I arrived with great anticipation as to whether the fish would still be visiting the clear spots I had seen the week previously. On arrival at tench corner I could instantly see that this had been the case, over the last week the clear spots had been revisited and enlarged. There were now three spots, all at least three metres in diameter. I started to spod a large quantity, probably about 15 kilos of particle mix over the largest area to the left hand side of my swim. The other two spots I would fish with normal levels of pellet. These would be topped up as and when necessary. The particles had clouded up the water really well, and seemed to hang in the water column causing many small roach and perch to be attracted. Within an hour or so there were bream all over the particle swim.  I spodded more bait on top of the bream trying to frighten them away, but to no avail. They were staying put. The popped up corn hook bait was snatched at many times by the bream but all this did was cause the occasional bleep from my alarms as the fish couldn't move the plugged in 3oz lead out from the clay  As darkness fell I expected to start to catch the bream with regularity, but this was not to be the case, thankfully. That Friday night proved to be an eye opener. Just as darkness was approaching saw the arrival of an old friend, I gave him a hand with his kit and soon had him set up about 40 yards to my left.

            

Within a couple of hours of darkness I had a belting run on my middle rod, this fish felt strange. It seemed to be twisting and turning and banging up against the lead core all through the short fight. I landed what can only be described as one of the ugliest fish I have ever caught, with a damaged lower jaw looked monstrous, but after weighing and photographing was released to swim back unstressed. She had taken the scales round to 18lb 12oz. I was smiling, it was a fish !

As dawn broke on the Saturday morning, again I had a take from the same spot as I had caught the tatty fish from. This turned out to be what I thought was the dark scaley fish when i first saw it, but once in the folds of the net i realised it to be a different but similar fish at a weight of 16lb12oz, with pictures taken and a quick once over the fish was returned back to its watery home. Rick had seen the battle and brought his rods in to pop round to let us know he had banked one and lost one at the net. 

 The following morning saw me up before daylight re-baiting and repositioning all three rods, back onto the clear spots. Kettle on, cuppa made, time to watch the water. Just after daybreak the rod being fished over the particles shook and tore off, as I reached for the rod the fish stopped taking line, was it off?  I lifted into it to find it was still on. Applying pressure to the fish I gradually dragged it out from the weed bank it had buried itself into. It was well weeded and felt like it weighed a tonne, it shook its head, displacing a huge clump of weed from around its head, that was it, it could see again and it soon realised that it was out of the safety of the weed bed. It went ballistic, I frantically hung on and tried to stop it from taking line. The fish gave in to steady pressure and was soon on the bank.  Again it was the big girl at 29lb 7oz she looked massive. Immaculate in condition and fighting fit with a very fat gut. Whilst she was on the mat she was coughing up and excreting particles. I wondered how long she had been feeding over the baits and decided to get up into the alders and have a look. Most of what I had put in the day previously had gone! Time to top up, I spodded in the remaining 10 kilo’s!

the big girl looking her best

Hours after returning the big girl I had a series of short bleeps from my middle rod again. This happened a few times over the course of an hour or so. I decided to ignore them assuming that it would be the bream wiping me out of bait. The alarm bleeped again and for the first time took a little line,  I struck and was pleasantly surprised to feel weight behind it The fish was heavily weeded and I contemplated going in for it but steady pressure to the rod eventually encouraged the fish out of its cover and it flipped over my landing net, It looked like the little common. After removing what must have been 20lbs of weed from the fish I realised that the fish was a fully scaled mirror. I weighed it at 17lb 8oz and sacked it up for a few moments while i got the camera kit sorted and a photographer to do the honours.

Fully scaled beast

A quick call to Rick had me laughing, He had also banked 4 fish this weekend. He wrapped his kit and came round to see the fish I had sacked up. This was a stunning fish, elated I lowered her back into the edge and held her gently till she swam out of my hands, away into the safety of the thick weed. Having had a chat with Andy later,  i would find out this was a rare fish to grace the banks in this lake. It had not been caught for about two years, yet had not really gained a great deal in weight, but what a superb looking fish

The particle approach worked well this weekend and I decided to stick with it for the following couple of sessions, but to no avail, I was not to receive another pick up over it, but what the hell it had worked for the biggest pig in the lake and a few more fish to add to the album

"Silty Mere" pt 3

Much of June came and went with little or no action from the carp for me. I had slogged away hard on tench corner for most of my fishing since May, all I seemed to be catching was more and more tench and big bream on the pellets, so had decided to fish the Active8 mix with a bit more regularity, often using the bait on two out the three rods, This was still producing tench but not so many bream, thankfully, as its no fun getting dragged from my slumbers in the middle of the night for the greedy, slimy bait stealing critters. During this quiet spell for me, Rick was still producing the goods, showing that the application of bait is paramount to producing quality fish on this venue, with many stock fish coming to his rods, but his target fish were still proving elusive. Sighting  fish was easy at this time due to extremely low water levels, the lake is usually around three to four foot deep, but was averaging less than two foot in most swims. Coupled with the weed and algae growth, which was now breaking surface all over the bottom end of the lake in large rafts, the fish were very obviously feeding well, being seen cruising in all areas of the lake and the weights of the fish were on the increase now after spawning but they would soon drop down again after a second spawn towards the end of this month.

            

I felt the need for a move again, even though I found I could see and target fish in and around tench corner I was having little or no action from the carp. My next session saw me make the long walk to the back wall. On arrival on the Friday morning I pushed myself to ignore some obvious small stockys in tench corner and cart my kit all the way round to the back wall. After positioning baits in the now rapidly disappearing clay strip I settled into the alders for some serious lake watching, I could see fish cruising all over the lake, many were just hanging off the sunken island in about a foot or two of water. I was not too keen on fishing baits tight to these snags in such shallow water, as the fish in here fight like animals and usually strip line from the reels at such a rate that if you were off the rods any more than a yard and the fish would easily get themselves into these snags.

By mid day a cooling southerly wind had sprung up and started to push into the reeds and the bay to my left, in no time at all fish were starting to show tight into the reeds. They were rolling and crashing right out and not one to miss out on an opportunity of some surface fishing I quickly set up a rod, grabbed my stalking kit and walked back the way I had come to the entrance of the reeds. Upon arrival on the boards I moved along with caution as the fish were just behind a weed bed in front of the third platform. I crouched down low and made my way onto the end platform, immediately a fish bowed out from underneath my feet, how had I not seen it? Thankfully the other fish in front of me did not seem too bothered by this and continued to roll and rise at anything drifting across their heads. I let fly with a few pouches of dog biscuits well beyond the fish to allow the breeze to carry them back towards me. I cast my controller well beyond them and gradually drew it back towards the fish. Unbelievably they would not take even a single biscuit off the top let alone my hook bait. After a frustrating hour of this I came to realise that there was a hatch of flies in progress and thought my chances of catching were slim if non existent, they were far to preoccupied with the natural food larder. I tried to create a hook bait from reed mace heads by wrapping the seed fluff up and spinning it onto the hook shank but the fish were oblivious to all my hard work.

As I was leaving the boards I noticed two fish just hanging off the first platform, and with little commitment I flicked a bait towards them, it landed on top of one of the fish which turned and sucked at the bait. I struck, far too early, and missed the half hearted take, I felt like doing myself in as both fish left the swim at speed, causing bow waves right across the lake. Annoyed with myself I felt like I had missed out on a good opportunity and decided to try the other fish again for one last try. As I crept down towards the third platform I could hear them slurping and rolling tight in to the reeds and as I turned to enter the platform I saw the fish were right under my feet. I flicked out some bait and they attacked it with vigour as if they were starving. Why now and not half an hour earlier? I was sure these were the same fish as before. A big dark mirror with large plates rolled, it was for certain one of my target fish, a very heavily scaled mirror carp I badly wanted to catch, I dropped a bait just in front of it and with a flick of it’s tail it rose and took it . I struck and was pleased to see my rod arc all the way round, he was on! The fish thrashed the water to a foam and all the others shot out from the area. I was obviously going to have to give line, and did so, but not quick enough. The line parted from the hook length like the crack of a rifle being fired next to my ear.

           

Distraught, I left the platforms and the reeds behind me and headed back to my swim. I was in a mess, my face and arms were burnt to a crisp from the direct sun I was receiving whilst sitting on the boards, it was only now I noticed how much pain I was in. I coated myself in sun cream, too late I’m sure, and put my rods back out onto the clay bar. I felt like I was suffering from sunstroke and decided on trying to get some sleep. I awoke hours later with the arrival of my mate. Having told him of the days proceedings he decided to dump his kit and get onto the boards for a go at them off the top, good lad, and it wasn’t long before he was back round getting his camera kit having just successfully landed the scaley mirror id lost earlier, how gutted was I! and where was my hook ? gone.

 The following morning brought a cold cloudy miserable day, this was a relief to my sore, burnt extremities. The fish had disappeared overnight and I believed them to have moved up to the shallows, too sore to carry my kit back round there, I stayed put and brewed up, breakfast done, all eyes were on the lake in front of me. In time fish would be showing at range, well out of my casting ability, but nevertheless out went two single hook baits as far as I could thrash them. Later in the afternoon one of these bolted off and produced a fish that tore off to the right with tremendous power, I managed to turn it, only for it to take more line and head left towards the boards, eventually after a long drawn out fight by a powerful fish Rick netted it for me and as we looked into the net we found it to be a recapture, but I was happy. He was down in weight at 18lb 4oz since my first capture of him at a needle width over 20lbs but at least it was a fish. After the previous day anything, even a bream, might have made me smile.

Out went the rod again to the same spot, and within minutes away went the other rod, a short but hectic struggle saw me manage to net a stunning stock fish of 15lb 11 oz with a reverse ‘C’ scale on its left tail wrist. Made up with myself I felt like I had more than made up for my losses earlier in the session, but losing the scaley mirror still troubled me. Other than Rick persevering on the boards with the surface baits the remainder of the session saw little action on the back wall and the following morning saw us pack up early and leave for the long drive home. Still it was good to be back amongst the fish again.

 I could not wait for the following weekend to come but wait I must due to work and family commitments. I arrived to find fish showing all over the lake, many of which I’m sure were the large shoals of bream. The water level seemed to be dropping every week due to the distinct lack of rain. Some of the larger framed carp were permanently swimming around the back wall with their backs out of the water, this made them really easy to locate, but gave rise to panic attacks every time they came close to my baits. It was whilst watching one of these fish that I saw him tilt up and then settle himself. Suddenly he froze. This is when he seemed to realise something was wrong with the hook bait in his mouth, he shook his head violently trying to expel the pellet but to no avail, as I ran towards the rods he decided he wanted to find sanctuary on the other side of the lake. Away he went and after a short but spirited fight he was on the bank. His colouring had changed from a deep chestnut on his upper body to an olive green colour, I think this was due to the lack of depth for him to hide away from the sun. Other than a circular scar on his left flank he was in beautiful condition. From what I could see and from information I could gather from the other anglers he was the only fish to be caught that weekend.

21lb

The following week saw me set up, again on the back wall, this was due to the lake now being virtually un-fishable on most of the meadow side. The rafts of weed had now joined together to produce a solid mat from peg two all the way into the reed beds, covering ninety percent of the lake. The Friday afternoon and night were very quiet with neither of us seeing any action. Over the course of the Friday I must have introduced about 3kg of 21 mm pellets with a dozen large pva bags of 3 and 6mm pellets.

            

Rick and I were now the only  anglers on the lake who seemed to be working hard at their fishing, we were up before daybreak re-baiting as the pellets were starting to break down after only six or eight hours in the very warm water. By being awake for first light gave us the advantage of seeing where the fish were before anybody else thus enabling us to move onto the fish before the other lads woke. This morning the fish were hanging around in the vicinity of our baits so we stayed put. From about six that morning I was up the willow tree on the left of my peg watching one of the big girls come in over my baits every twenty minutes or so. This was exhilarating, each time feeding for a short while then leaving the swim and cruising around the sunken island then back again for another bite to eat. She knew where her breakfast was and couldn’t help herself, well she did have a lot of weight to put on after her spawning. Last time she was caught she was in the regions of 26lb being down 3lbs or more! Each time she arrived in the swim my heart started to race with anticipation of catching her. In she would come, down would go her head, out would come her tail and a good portion of her body.  This went on for hours. I was getting baffled as to why she had not picked up my hook bait. I was getting line bites every visit but no pick ups. This time as she left my swim, following the same route as she had all morning, I reeled in to find my hook had pricked the lead core on the cast earlier that morning and was stuck fast. A quick sort out and a re-bait saw my rig in position before she returned. Still she didn’t pick it up. 

27lb 8oz down in weight since spawning
but in fine condition

At around midday she made her mistake, picking up my pellet and slowly moving off for what seemed like another mouthful. As the line tightened she froze. Realising her mistake she powered off up the lake. After an untroubled fight she rolled across the front of my landing net. I turned to Rick to apologise. He smiled knowingly and shrugged, saying” I didn’t want to catch her anyway till she gets her weight back up ”. She was unhooked quickly and put in the sling just to monitor any weight gain since her last capture. 27 lb 8oz went the dial and after a quick photo-shoot away she swam, straight out over my baits and into the snags. Brew on. Smiles all round.

In hindsight I realise that I might have been putting far too much bait in, seeing as the fish were not actually in front of us in numbers, but it also shows how much of a pig this fish can be and how effective these baits are at triggering a response from this greedy fish.

"Silty Mere" pt 2

The following weekend could not come round quick enough, I knew where the common was feeding and I just had to get back up there. With a little re-organisation at home I managed to get back on the silty mere by the Wednesday morning just 50 or so hours after leaving. On arriving I found I had the place to myself. Elated I crept down to tench corner and proceeded to set up way back from the swim, whilst doing this I saw a few fish cruising at range, it was going to go off I thought. I was here till Sunday, it just had to go off !

Two rods out on the clear spots at 70 yards and one for the common as usual in the margin to my right, saw me settling in anticipation, suddenly a screamer developed within twenty minutes of casting. I hit the rod and it arced over, the fish stripped line and took some stopping, eventually turning it and guiding it towards the bank and a waiting net, onto the mat it went, again a mirror with few scales, at first glance, I thought I had caught Ricks first mirror but soon realised that there was no black eye I had caught a similar but different fish. At 24lb 3oz she went into a sack whilst I got myself sorted. I had recently purchased a digital camera and this was to be the first capture since doing so. Once all the kit was ready, the sack was brought in from the margin and the fish went up in my arms. A couple of clicks later and the shots were done, a quick check of the photos, perfect, and away she went, not the common that was plaguing my thoughts, but what the hell, a lovely looking fish. This I later found out was another of the originals at a good weight, but to be fair she was carrying a good amount of spawn in her. 

24lb+ mirror

As the day wore on it became obvious that most of the smaller fish seemed preoccupied with the yearly rituals of spawning, I was a little gutted as I thought that was going to be it.  Many fish were starting to show in the little bay on the back wall. That was enough for me, I quickly reeled in, grabbed my surface fishing kit and marched around. This area is where nearly all the mosquitoes and midges in the world seem to like to live. Within minutes I was being eaten alive. I got up on my feet and started to have a good mooch round the margins, trying to find the fish. Whilst doing so I started to scatter surface baits all round this end of the lake, with this breeze and heat wave, I was sure a take would be coming off the top, if only I could persevere with it. Onto the boards I went armed with a rod, mat, dog biscuits and net. 

          
All day I continued to feed baits in with only the occasional fish showing interest in them, (but lots of mozzies taking a serious interest in my head, face and arms,) slurping down one after the other, but not the hook bait. This was going to be harder than I thought. There were a lot of fish too busy cavorting with each other to show a great deal of interest, but nevertheless I slogged away in the heat of the afternoon sun. Hours later, dejected, I made my way off the boards and back to my kit. With the arrival of Chris soon after asking if anything was showing, I told him of my capture and showed him the pictures on the camera, but kept my surface fishing knowledge to myself. Having seen so many fish on the far bank I decided to give up tench corner to him and haul my ass over to the back wall, for the night, sure I was going to catch.

The moment i rounded the corner and started the short walk along the bank I saw that what must have been the entire carp population were now in the bay with many of the smaller fish spawning heavily. I persevered with the surface baits but could not get a take.

All evening they kept it up, right in front of my nose, even during the hours of darkness I could here them thrashing the water to a foam further into the bay to my left. After putting up with a large shoal of ‘tinca’s’ all night, I was knackered and in serious need of sleep and at first light I wandered into the bay to see that all the fish were still at it. Out went a few pouches of dog biscuits and up came a few fish, slurping away at the baits. I overcast the fish and excitedly drew my hook bait into the area, they ignored it. Shortly after this, a chap arrived who my mate had gone to France with the winter before, he saw what was happening and instantly set up a surface rod. Within minutes he had had a take and landed a fish just over 19 lbs she was bursting with spawn, and therefore handled with extra special care, quickly photographed and back she went to be immediately courted by some smaller stock fish. Again within no time this bloke had another fish on the bank, an ‘ocean’ fish, at around 15lbs. I was made up to see they were having it, but when was it going to be my turn. These felt like they were my fish, I had got them going on the baits and now he was catching them all. I moved tighter into the bay near the drain point and cast my bait tight to the overhanging trees, in no time at all a fish rose and slurped the dog biscuit in, I struck, the line parted and out bolted the fish into the main body of the lake, followed by its companions. I could have cried, instead, a smoke and a brew was in order.

By late morning I was as sunburned as you could possibly get, two days in this strong sun, with little or no sleep, and I was exhausted. I heard a crash to my left and saw that this bloke was into another, this time it was the first fish I had banked earlier in the year at again a weight of 22lbs exactly. That is it! I was frustrated so back to it I went. I swung my baited hook towards the tree, where I had lost the other fish and crouched into the long grass. With the lilies alongside me on the right I knew if I did have a take I would not be letting it go anywhere near them. Slurp, away went the bait into a rather large mouth, up went the rod and I was finally in! Off it went steaming away, trying to get into the trees, not a big fish I thought, till it changed direction and steamed into the pads, there was little I could do to stop it. I locked up my clutch to stop it taking line and let the rod take all the strain, the fish wallowed and I caught a glimpse of scales, yes I thought I’ve caught the smaller common, known to be about 17lbs, I felt a little disappointed even though this was still a good common. The bloke was alongside me with the net waiting as I turned the fish again and again all the while it tried to gain cover under the trees or the pads but to no avail, I wasn’t going to let it get under either. She rolled onto my line and with a grating feeling gradually came over the front of the net. “It’s the big common” he said, I went to pieces, dropping the rod and dancing round in circles. Elation wasn’t the word.

Photographs done, the common weighed in at a staggering 27lbs 4oz! She was mine at last. Away she swam out of the bay to the sanctuary of the sunken snags. I collapsed on my bed and gave up. Job jobbed. All my life I had so badly wanted to catch a really big common. Now I had just smashed my personal best common by about 10lbs. If another fish was never to grace my net I would not have cared at that time.

The greatest reward i could have hoped for and
off the top made it so much more special

Phone calls had to be made, Rick was the first and rightly so, he had been there with me all the way, and I just wished he could have been there at the time. As I spoke to him over the phone I was looking at the camera images in my hand with a grin on my face that would have made the Cheshire cat proud. Phone calls home and then texts to a few mates before the kettle and a smoke went on. The phone would not stop beeping with messages of congratulations coming in. Physically and mentally, i was in a mess.

With the afternoon sun bearing down on me I cleaned myself up and lay back trying to sleep. It was impossible. That night I put all my rods onto the rests with the rigs in the eyes. Confident the carp wouldn’t be feeding yet, as most of them were still spawning, I wasn’t prepared to put baits out for the tench tonight. I needed sleep.

Since the battle with, and the capture of the common, most of the fish had moved along the reed bed towards tench corner. Chris had seen this and moved his baits accordingly. Good angling. I slept most of the night but awoke to the sound of a text coming through off Chris. It stated that the fish were all over the place in front of him and to come and get a piece of it! I don’t think I’ve ever wrapped up so quickly. I was with him in about 20 minutes looking and watching fish crash and roll all over the rafts of hornwort. A big mirror rolled about 15 yards out, that was it for me, out went some biscuits and up came some fish. A baited hook was flicked out, but again they didn’t really show any interest in the hook bait but would feed on the freebies. I changed down in hook size and fitted a buoyant imitation mixer on the hook and recast. Immediately the mirror came up surrounded by half a dozen smaller fish, she slurped and away went the bait into the cavernous mouth.

Up went the rod and round went the spool, she took off on a very short run. The weed beds helped to control it as there was nowhere for it to get up speed, the issue was going to be getting it back to the bank over the rafts of  weed. The fish battled hard once in the clear margins and was instantly recognised to be the big mirror, flapping due to knowing i was attached to the big girl i steadied myself and relaxed into the fight and in no time she was under control and banked within a few minutes, this due to her probably being worn out, from the last few days cavorting.

            If she hadn’t looked so much bigger than the last time I had banked her a month or so earlier, I would not have weighed her in her condition, but very carefully we unhooked her and I was ecstatic, could she go 30lb?  Not quite as it happens just short at a weight of 29lb 12 oz but i didn't care, what a brace.

a personal best mirror less than 20 hours after a personal best common,
it doesn't get better than that !

I went to phone Rick, but thought better of it, he would be here in a few hours anyway and knowing how badly he wanted this fish, I didn’t want to do his head in while he was stuck in work, I had just caught two out of three of both our target fish in just under 20 hours.

Chris and I both slogged away at the remaining fish that were showing but neither of us could buy a take. Rick arrived and I spilled the beans to him, he was made up for me, that was obvious, but I could tell he was a little gutted as the odds of him catching these fish now grew even less, certainly for this weekend. Chris wrapped and said his goodbyes, leaving us with a handful of fish still in the area taking the occasional dog biscuit off the top. It would be early evening when Rick had a nice mid double fish off the top. I followed this with a grey speckled fish of 17lb 3oz at about 8 o’clock and then a smaller mirror of 15lb 2oz with an hour of light left before dark. What an amazing weekend. I fished through till Saturday evening with nothing other than a few tench to around 5lbs for my troubles. Even though I had 24 hours of my session left I called it a day. Enough’s enough, I was wasted, burnt to a crisp and eaten alive. I wonder what the mozzies eat when I’m not there?