The Old Hall

Towards the end of last season i was shown around a lovely old estate lake and given the opportunity of a ticket on it for this up coming season, i accepted and made mental plans over the last few months of the year, thoughts of the lake drifted in and out of my mind as the year came to a close. The lake is only fished by a select hand full of anglers and i was honoured to have been given the chance to go at some ancient creatures residing in there, many of which are nearing the ripe old age of 50 years. At around 4 acres and around 35 fish this was to be a new challenge with the chance of some stunning old fish.

With the new year being very mild and late January exceptionally warm it was time for a visit and a 2 night session was organised. Arriving with around half an hour of darkness still, i wandered the banks and found a comfy spot halfway along one bank, with high winds forecast to fish the opposite bank would have been foolish,  this spot would give me pretty much a full view of the lake due to the lack of canopy on the trees.
Having got the kit sorted and home built, it was out with the marker rod to find some likely areas to fish this session and to get an overall idea of water depths, silt patches and such like. Finding the marginal shelf quite sandy and containing areas of interest, with a few feet of water above it, a margin rod was established and baited up lightly. The other rods were fished out toward an island and one in open water, both surrounded by a light scattering of bait. Once settled i did a little marker work from the swims adjacent to my area, i could pretty much get a lead to most areas and finished up with a good mental image of the lake bed and structure. The lake slopes away gradually from the shallower north east corner to around 8 ft in front of the left hand end, no drop offs or features were found, but i occasionally felt the drag of silt.

Over the 2 days i spent up there, much of it was in driving rain and howling winds, i spent much of my time watching the water for signs of fish, but so early on in the year it was unlikely i would spot anything to go on and the session ticked away nicely towards its end.

It would be 2 weeks before i could get myself back up to the Old Hall lake and again i managed to arrive with an hour of darkness still on me. I had been working on a pre-conceived idea that the fish would be sitting in the deeper water for the winter so i settled into the bottom left corner of the lake, again with the strong winds coming off my back, giving me as much escape and comfort from the gusting wind as i could gain. Following through with my plans i fished a rod about a third of the way along the west bank, this went out on a balanced corn bait, over a few handfuls of corn and a similar quantity of B1 pellets, into 8 ft of water. With the line left to settle slackly onto the lake bed, it was time to prepare the other spot. I wanted to present a decent spread of bait in a good depth of water, so found a spot in seven foot of water, within comfy range for flicking pva bags out to, dropping the two rods no more than 10ft apart. I deposited a spread of 40 16mm B1 baits around the hook baits, and topped up the area with  dozen pouches of the B1 pellet.

As the afternoon drew on i had been harassed by the bird life with coots, tufties and moorhens all competing for the food id applied to my swims, but after a few had dived and came shooting up to the surface and clearing off out the area, i was sure there were carp present in the area. As darkness fell the left hand rod gave a couple of bleeps and then proceeded to rip off, i leaned into my first Old hall carp, it steamed along the reed lined margins all the time attempting to bury itself in them, i kept the pressure on and in time the fish turned out into the lake and kited across towards me and into my margins, after a few more dives in the shallow edge i managed to steer it over the net and the fish was mine.

A stunning common carp of 16lb 9 oz, a true bar of gold, with pictures done it was slipped back to its watery home and i was happy as a pig in muck. Off the mark so early into the season on the lake, i was on cloud 9.

The evening passed and in due course it was time to get some needed sleep, the night was uneventful and i woke to a slate grey sky with howling gales and driving rain. Not wanting to disturb the areas i was fishing i decided i would leave the rods alone for the day and by late afternoon the daylight hours were drawing to a close and had passed with no indications or sightings of fish. With the rods baited up with fresh hook baits and again small pva bags they were dropped back into the same areas and a few more pouches of pellets applied to the swim. Again the second night passed with no disturbance. With just one night left the weather on the Saturday morning took a turn for the worst, the gale force winds had picked up and were battering at me, some of the gusts were starting to scare me. By mid afternoon i was coming close to calling an early end to the session, the wind was getting even worse and was now driving the rain horizontally across the lake in waves, the surface of the water being whipped up to a foam. The decision to stay on was not made lightly but with just an hour of day light to go there seemed to be a drop in the amount and strengths of of the gusts, although the constant battering of the gale was still taking its toll on me. The rods were sorted out and re positioned on the spots with the exception of the right hand rod that was flicked up towards the right hand margin but in the deeper water off the marginal shelf. My decision to move this rod came about simply due to the fact that the previous carp had come from what was pretty much a marginal spot, albeit with 8ft of water above it. Shortly after darkness fell, this rod went into meltdown, lifting into a weighty fish it started to kite towards the reed line, but with gentle even pressure it was steered back into the open water. It wouldn't be too long before i slipped the net under my second Old Hall common carp, immediately i was aware this was one of the original fish from the lake and my spirits roared, one of the ancient beasts was in the net. A call went out to a couple of the lads who fish this water and it wasn't long before i had a hand with the photographing of such an ancient fish.

With the excitement over and the fish returned, i escaped the weather and got back into the comfort of the bivvy, dried off and racked up the kettle, a brew was well overdue. The last night passed pleasantly considering the howling gale and driving rain. The pack down the following morning being a wet one was done in haste, but prior to leaving the remainder of the bait i had with me went out onto the areas i had been fishing.