The Old Hall pt 11

Arriving under the cover of darkness has seen me nail a few fish early on in my sessions on the old hall lake, its an approach I've used in my fishing for nearly 2 decades now. This session was like the previous ones this year. I arrived and loaded the barrow of kit and started trundling along the path under red light from my headlamp, on arrival at the lakeside, i stowed the barrow and switched off the light, with my eyes closed for 30 seconds i reset the light receptors in my eyes and awakened my ears, listening for sounds of these ancient fish. Its amazing how much more you can see once doing this. During daylight hours its rare to set eyes on a showing carp in this lake, with an occasional sighting of a ghostly shadow drifting around confidence can rise quite quickly.
Within a minute or so of resetting myself i was soon hearing the occasional disturbance of the lake surface. I wandered the path along the lake and before i was halfway along i heard fish crash out up in the shallows where my gear was stowed. I continued my lap and heard little till i got near the shallows again when again the sounds of a fish breaking surface caught my attentions. I opted for the east corner and proceeded to flick 3 rods out on 18mm B1's all topped with a 10mm scud pop up, all with a 5 bait stringer attached. One rod out towards the island, which i still couldn't see due to the total blackness of the late night. One rod out at 45 yards onto the silty lake bed, the 3rd rod flicked to my right in front of the stream. With the forecast to turn wet and windy from the north west, this could potentially see the fish follow the new wind and push in towards the corner i was fishing.
Daylight broke through within no time and i could re bait the rods and get them exactly where i wanted to present my baits. Out came the spodding gear to deposit 15kg of sweet sticky hemp onto the 40 yard mark, keeping the bait tight to the marker float meant i was fishing into an area of about 10 square foot in diameter, with two rods positioned on it, one on the far edge and one to the left of the patch. On top of the hemp i limited myself to just 50 hook baits to try and encourage faster selection of my hook baits. If fish were showing or giving me indications of their presence then i would up the rolled bait going into the swim. Again the right hand rod was positioned accurately onto the mouth of the stream bed adjacent to the reeds but just on a single scud pop up and no free food offerings to distract them. This spot has produced a fair few fish for me in the 3 previous times i had fished this swim so my confidence on the spot was high. I have seen fish entering the reed beds at this point, where they then use the back of the reed beds to approach the furthest stream. It was finally time for a brew and a little shut eye before the dog walkers start to appear.
Midday had arrived and i had seen a few fish drifting around in the shallow water when suddenly a fish crashed right out on the near side of the island, its an area i've refrained from fishing due to the island being a floating structure chained down, it moves a fair bit drifting on wind changes and although i've fished towards it, i've never gone close, this fish proceeded to crash again, about 3 yards off it. I pulled a rod off the hemp patch and flicked it out to the spot the fish had shown twice on and set the rod.
I filled the kettle and rolled a smoke, before either was lit the locked up rod went round violently and i pounced, knowing i had no choice but to pull the fish away from the danger, i leaned into it, burying the rod underwater to my right to encourage the fish to break surface, and drew it away under steady pressure. Once in open water i could relax and let the fish steady itself into a more normal fight, it went for the marginal lilly pads to my left on more than one occasion but was soon nestled in the folds of the net. A lovely mirror carp  over 15lb was my reward. I re baited and recast the rod back to the spot the fish had come from.
The afternoon had passed quite quickly and i was sitting having a coffee with one of the syndicate lads when this same rod went off again, a fantastic scrap ensued and after a powerful marginal battle another mid double carp, a 16lb 9oz common this time was on the mat. Paul did the shots for me and the fish was soon slid back into her watery home. Buzzing now wasn't the word, Paul had sat with me on many occasions and he'd often said he'd love to be there when i banked one, id banked my 27th fish of the season on here and he was there to experience it with me. Every fish from this lake is special, its size is totally irrelevant to me, just catching one is enough of a thrill, to have had 2 in an afternoon was amazing.

immaculate 16+ common

Darkness was soon on me, 7 pm and it was black, the moon is only just coming over the horizon at the moment and although its a half moon its not up long enough to give much light to the venue. I had re done the rods, 2 back onto the hemp and one up the stream mouth, which i still hadn't applied freebies to, just the hook bait. By 10 pm there were fish crashing on the left hand side of the island, out of reach due to the overhanging trees on my margin, but they were still close, they had dropped away from the reed beds but not far and seemed content not to disappear off to the deeper water at the far end. I was knackered after little sleep so turned in to be woken with the right hand rod doing its best to leave the rod pod, even on tight spool the fish was managing to take line off the reel in inches, i leaned into the fish for it to start to kite across the lake towards the far corner, at least id managed to move it from the reed beds, with steady pressure it was turned from its route across the lake and swinging right to left on me, always gaining it was soon time to make a 2nd attempt to control it and turn it away form impending doom in the shape of the island, the fish turned when pressured and was shortly under my feet, crashing and rolling in 3 ft of water, unhappy and unwilling to come towards the waiting net. but in it came. A big framed near leather met my eyes, "single scale" a repeat but a welcome one, especially as she was looking immense since the last time i had seen her in march. Into a retainer she went for a few minutes while i set up the camera and got sorted with mats and scales etc. At 23lb 9oz she was still the biggest fish i've banked from the venue and again once on the mat the best behaved of them all. She was returned in a short time and went out of my hands with a drenching flick of her tail. Rod sorted, kettle on the smile on my face must have been immense.

I sat up till an hour or so before dawn when sleep was dragging me into the bag, in all that time i hadn't heard another fish show anywhere around the lake. Silence had descended, the fish had disappeared.
Waking late and having had no indications on the rods since the big mirror, i re baited and recast, adding another 50 baits to the hemp swim, i pulled the left hand rod off the area and flicked it back to the more successful area id had the two doubles off near the island and locked the rod up tight.
Breakfast and some coffee was much the order of the day. I was still knackered, id had maybe 4 hours sleep since i arrived. between the "gmornings" off the dog walkers i snoozed on and off for much of the morning, waking around lunchtime feeling worse than i had for the extra sleep, it was coffee time and a double strength one got me back to normality.
The afternoon passed quietly, the weather had turned and was pushing, as forecast, directly in at me, everything looked right for more fish but i couldn't dare hope after the success id had, often up here when it looks perfect for it, it doesn't happen.
I was contemplating a curry when a passerby started to chat to me, i was stood on the high ground when the stream rod roared off, getting down was precarious and i was soon laying on the floor with the rod in my hand, covered in mud, but with a fish on the line. It was soon in the net and i had landed my fourth of the session, this time a small 8lb common, one of the few that came through the successful spawning 6 or so years earlier.

This was photographed on the mat for stock records and slipped back, none the worse for its ordeal. Minutes later the hemp rod went off with a bream over 4lb. The rods were re baited and got back out with just one change, i left a single rod on the hemp patch and chose to fish one rod to the island.
I was soon settled into the bivvy as the night was cool and windy when again the island rod went off on a slow but steady run, lifting into the fish i realised it had kited away from the island and was passing me from left to right, it was soon under control and after a strong tussle under the rod tip was in the net, another pristine common of 12lb+.

Once on the mat i could see the fish was excreting partly digested hemp everywhere, it was pouring out of the fish. Yet over the 2 days i had received little attention at all on the hemp patch, no runs with the exception of the one bream, very few line bites, even though i was fishing the line through the swim to give me indications. Maybe the fish had become preoccupied with the tiny grains, or was there just not enough b1 out there to keep their interest. I'm not sure what went on but i will fish over another big load next session on, this time with a few kg of rolled bait among it
Looking back through my sessions, i have fished this peg 4 times now for a total of 15 fish, exactly half of what i have caught this season on there from the one swim, with 2 sessions in here producing me 5 fish each. Definitely a very productive peg. But with autumn now on us and much longer spells of darkness i'm confident the fish will spend more time in the deeper water and so that is where my attentions will turn for the next session i think