"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.