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.
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
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