The Old Pool

I first became aware of “the old pool” when I read some old angling diary’s written by a chap who in time would become one of my closest angling buddy’s. My first viewing was on the way back from a session elsewhere. First sighting was of a small pool surrounded by ancient woodland, with more weed and lily pads than id ever seen before; in fact I really didn’t have a clue as to how I was going to get a rig down through it! In time I would come to realise I needed to wade the baits out, move the weed away, lower the baits then let the weed cover it all over again!

The first session on the old pool saw me arrive and head towards the woods in the arm of the lake. The peg I fished was, I found out later, called the ‘black hole’. The lake is in the shape of a number 9 and from what information I had gathered from the internet throughout the previous months, the arm was quite a productive area. I had been set up for half the day and had seen a few fish. A good look around the lake and I found some great climbing trees, some have had climbing spikes hammered in to them in the past and made the trees very easy to climb and had obviously been in for a good length of time, as the bark is growing around them! There were a fair few fish mooching around the area and with two nights ahead of me I opted to spend the next 2 days and nights here in the shallows, but to no avail. I left on the Saturday gutted I was going, but raring to get back.
         
The following Thursday came and back up to the old pool I went. I dropped my kit and had a darn good look around, the only place I found fish was cruising up and around the ‘Rhodes’ which is a tight little swim with overhanging rhododendrons that nearly meet up with the lilies in the water. This swim too was choked with Canadian pondweed and silkweed. I saw a few fish over this session but got no results. The following session saw me opting to fish the maggots.
I fished the cornfield side in the ‘tight swim’. It is virtually impossible to cast from here due to the overhanging alders that hang to the surface of the lake in front of the swim, but the margins are excellent with a drop off from a sandy shelf in two foot of water, to the silt which has about five feet of water above it. I put baits in position and climbed the alders to the left to see what, if anything, I could see. Well I could see my baits clearly and also the fact that there where a few fish in the weed in the bay. As the evening drew on and the light started to fade, these fish started to become quite active and where soon mooching up and down the margins of the bay. After a few swirls in the area of my maggot rig at dark I sat up late into the night expecting the left hand rod to tear off.By midnight my eyelids were getting heavy and I opted to get some sleep. I hadn’t even dropped off when the left hand rod tore off. After a short tussle with what was obviously a carp I managed to land it into net. I looked down to see a near leather of good proportions. I got organised with mats and scales and up she went. The 21lb 8oz mirror carp was well behaved whilst the photographs were taken and back she went. I was on a major high. This was my biggest fish of the year, and I’d only done a few sessions on here.

21lb 8 oz of ancient carp

Once I had settled and repositioned the rod I was back in my sleeping bag, giving it Z’s, probably with a great big smile on my face. I awoke to a screamer from the same rod. I flew out onto the rod and connected with another fish only to pull out after a few seconds. The hook had straightened! I could have cried.The rest of the session saw me see no more fish and have no further activity in the spots I was fishing. A little dejected but still very pleased with the fish I had landed, I left for home.

I had to miss the next 2 weekends due to family holiday commitments, but my thoughts were constantly on the old pool. My next session saw me set up in the shallows with fish showing frequently in the area. They would not go near the baits, even after sitting and spraying maggots over both the rods the fish still showed no interest. They seemed preoccupied with whatever was living in the silt. After a frustrating 24hours in the shallows and many mozzy bites later, I decided to move into the bay and chose the ‘tight swim’ again. At half past three in the morning the left hand rod tore off, I connected only to have my 15lb fluorocarbon hook link snap. Angry and upset I re baited the spot and got back to sleep. 2 – 1 to the old pool. I left for home that morning looking like a pin cushion. I had forgotten to use repellent and had been eaten alive. My next session was the last week of the summer holidays and I had promised to take my daughter with me. We set up in the ‘tight swim’ and the baits were positioned in the usual spots. That evening we saw a fair few fish in and around the bay, they were definitely feeding as they kept dropping down mouthing the silt then moving off and returning to do it again. Thinking we would definitely get a run through the night I settled in for some early sleep just after darkness fell. The following morning came without interruption; we had breakfast and reeled in to go for a walk around the lake looking for fish. We found in excess of 15 fish in the shallows and went straight back for a rod. Within ten minutes of flicking out a free lined rubber dog biscuit I had three fish rise together for it. The lead fish took it aggressively and round went the rod. As the fish tried to tear off up the shallows all of the other fish in the area bolted out of the arm leaving bow waves, well that was that, no more chances now. After a good tussle I netted the fish with a tonne of weed.
         
We cleared the weed out of the net to see a cracking fish nestled at the bottom of the net. We were both beaming.I left her in charge of the fish in the net and ran back to the bay to get scales, slings and camera. We did the photos and weighed her in at 23lbs 10oz. Yessss my biggest fish of the year again!

imaculate 

The following session saw me setting up in the tight swim. My confidence in this swim has become quite high at the moment. The fish have been following a pattern of movement in and around the bay to my left and usually when entering the alders to my left they would drop down and then start to hoover the sandy shelf. I have found a great tree from which I can see most of the bay and see my hook baits on both the ledge and at the silty bottom in front of the alders. Id found a sunken tree trunk in front of the alders going out at nearly 90 degrees from the trees and watched the fish move over and around this many times. Frequently, the fish either cruised along the trunk or midway up the shelf. Having seen a stunning mirror carp come around a few times, I was becoming expectant. Around it came for another mouthful; it only just missed picking up my bait on the shelf! I was getting very excited. I knew it was going to go off! Because the weed is so thick in this bay I sneaked back to the rods and stayed near them. An hour later, still no pick up. I went back and climbed into the alders. There was still a reasonable quantity of bait left so I climbed back and settled down for the evening with a brew. By the time darkness fell, I was not seeing many fish in the area so chose to settle in to the sleeping bag. Come first light I was up and looking, still plenty of bait in the swim so I relaxed on my bed. It was around seven when the mallards turned up and started diving on my baits, giving me loads of indications on the alarms. I put my boots on and catapulted a small pebble towards them. They soon got the idea and cleared off. Having just sat down and removed my boots the bleeps started again. Bloody ducks! I got a boot on then realised that the bleeps had turned into a single tone run and there was line spilling of the spool. I left my other boot and dropped onto the rod connecting with the fish. It felt very underpowered, I turned it from the main weed bed with ease and started to guide it towards me and the waiting net, a quick shake of its head and out popped the hook! Did I swear? Not half. I was furious with myself, not that there is much I could have done about it. I consoled myself by putting the kettle on and wading a fresh trap out along the shelf and repositioning it. Over the following few months I fished most weeks, putting in as much time as I could, but to no avail. With the shutting of the arm in October, the fish seemed to gather down there in the sanctuary.I fished the venue hard till the end of December mainly seeing nothing unless I went into the out of bounds areas, typical.

         
Having spent the early part of the winter on the old pool fishing the bay area and seeing nothing, it was time for a rethink.
 4 weeks before Christmas and I found fish starting to show up on the gate swim. The first sighting was around 10am on Sunday morning, typically just as I was leaving for home. I managed to get some baits on them and spent some time watching them before I really did have to leave for home. But I knew id found a wintering area finally.I was back on the lake within the week saw me arrive at 8 am hoping to get baits in before the fish turned up. I went up the tree but saw nothing. Baits in position and I was content when at approximately 10am I went up the tree to see 34 fish all over the area where I had two rods! Gob smacked can be the only word. Mid afternoon and the fish had drifted off away back down in front of the point. The day went undisturbed. The following morning and at a similar time, the fish returned, only to leave again at a similar time, without as much as, a line bite. For the next 2 consecutive weekends I was 'on fish' and I don’t mean 1 or 2 fish either, I had definitely found a congregation point , and as usual it was in the north east corner. But was it a feeding area? I was fishing maggot bunches over a mix of maggot and hemp on one rod and the other on the 'snail n shell' boilies. Both rods were in clean areas amongst the shoal. Each weekend my baits were positioned accurately, and for up to 48 hrs unmoved. Over the next3 weeks I could not get any interest whatsoever. What were they doing? Nothing really, they were all spaced out quite evenly with a few in contact with others. Occasionally, a fish would separate away from the shoal do a small circuit of the area (probably travelling 18ft in total) then slot back in with the shoal. Other fish would follow a very similar route too so I obviously re-positioned a bait into this area, fish would pass within inches but show no interest whatsoever. I think what I had found is more of a basking area than a feeding area. I think this because of the regularity at which the fish arrived and left. It just happens to coincide with when the winter sun rise’s high enough to bathe the lake surface and at just the exact point too.

inches away

The metabolism of the fish is, at this time of year, now at such a low rate that they are not in need of bait, as a food source, but are just depending upon proper naturals to survive. There had been no sighting of any cleaned areas around the lake whatsoever. The areas where I have seen fish are no cleaner than anywhere else. That weekend the lake froze solid.

With the arrival of the first session in February, saw me preparing particles and getting baits air dried. That done I felt I could arrive in good order and make a new start on there. I arrived and made my way through the wooded section of the arm to find it frozen solid. I continued up the path to the point swim, thankfully there was no ice on the main part of the lake. I dropped the kit on the gate swim and got up into the trees for a scan of the area. Nothing at all was showing, but I didn’t really expect to see much if I’m honest.  I had a quick scan of all the margins in the bay but saw no signs of fish having visited any spots recently. All the usual marginal places were dirty with leaves, twigs and other obstacles. I opted for the gate swim.One rod was positioned off the alders at about 40 yards down the left-hand side of the lake and the other was placed towards the left side of the swim at about 20 yards out. Both were being fished on Snail n Shell. I put out 15 baits on the long rod and just half a dozen on the near rod. Back up the tree I went, to see nothing. With the strong winter sun bearing down onto this part of the lake, I thought chances were looking good.  A brew down me and all set up I could relax. Early afternoon soon came round and I was up and about looking for any visual signs of carp. I sneaked through the Rhodes and lo and behold what did I find there? One of the biggest residents in the lake was bathing in a sun patch tight in underneath. I couldn’t get a hook-bait near the fish but still chose to move into the Rhode swim. Within ten minutes the rods had been sneaked into position and the rest of my kit had followed me. I risked a quick look at the fish again, this time it had turned slightly and I could see that it was a very long, dark, deep fish, definitely one of the largest in the lake.I removed myself carefully from the bushes and crept back to my kit. Kettle on and I’m happy, I've got baits within a few feet of a lump and its middle of winter. With prior knowledge of the forecast (which was for -4C) I knew the Rhodes would not freeze solid. As evening drew on another quick look found that the fish had left the sanctity of the bushes, but I was confident that it would be back. Darkness fell and the night closed in, I sat watching the lake for any signs of fish activity, not that I really expected to see a great deal at this time of the year. By 11pm the whole of the lake had frozen. Morning came and on went the kettle. The whole of the lake was frozen solid, with the exception of underneath the Rhodes. I sneaked a look into them to find it empty. Not a sign of a fish. By 9am the sun was up in the sky and the whole of this end of the lake was lit up, after a very cold night it was pleasant to feel its rays beaming down on me. I fished on till 1pm then seeing as the ice was not melting and the forecast was for a colder night, I broke the ice in some marginal spots, put a few handfuls of particle into each and left the water to freeze over them. That will keep the ducks from getting at it anyway. Roll on next week. The following week the lake froze shut and winter arrived.