Without knowing enough about the fish stock, we were unsure of exactly what the lake would be capable of producing & ultimately, this was the added extra spark required to fire us on. Our first session during early August, was planned for twenty-four hours & after spending an hour or so in the pouring rain looking at swims & trying to find the best place to start, we opted to set up in an area on the fringe of a large weedbed, where we felt sure that fish would be close by. However, once I’d taken to the water in waders, I realised just how severe the weed growth was, & I actually struggled to find any suitable areas to position a rig. After spending a lot of time trudging up & down the margins, I eventually found a couple of areas that I could present a rig on. Once the traps were set, I spent the majority of the day sheltering from the rain & trying to dry out. As the evening approached, we sat & discussed our individual tactics & mulled over ideas for the future. Certainly, I’d underestimated the weed growth & I’d arrived with a preconceived idea that I’d be fishing at range. Armed with 12lb mono & 3oz distance leads, it was a bit of a wake-up call to be fishing the margins amongst dense weed! Needless to say nothing was caught, but we did see several signs of carp activity within the area we were fishing, so we were pleased that we’d got the location right. Before we left, both Ben & I took time to scout around the opposite end of the lake, where we were fortunate to spot more carp enjoying the afternoon sun. From this, we identified a number of areas worth targeting for future sessions.
Date: Tuesday August 11th, 2009 Time: 5:42pm
I was back at the lake just four days after our first session, & this time my tactical approach had undergone a serious overhaul… the 12lb SUFIX Synergy had been replaced with 20lb DAIWA Sensor mono, 30lb NASH Armourbraid leaders & inline dung leads were incorporated & fished ‘drop-off’ style. I had to ensure that any fish that was hooked ejected the lead straight away & that I had the best chance of extracting them out of the dense weedbeds. I opted to set up in a tight swim that allowed access to what Ben & I believed were potential night patrol routes for the carp. Clearing some of the weed in the margins revealed a couple of clear spots where I could position my rigs, which was done with minimal fuss & each spot received a token handful of hempseed in an attempt to draw any passing fish to investigate. I had been fortunate to spot some subtle signs of carp activity at short range in the early evening & I was even lucky enough to witness two seperate commons close by, the first being a dark fish of around mid twenties, with the second around low twenties... they were certainly in the area! Heavy rain began at sometime around 3:00pm & apart from having to reposition the left hand rod after about an hour, when a feisty pike got its prey stuck in my line, nothing happened until dark, when I started receiving liners. At one point, the indicator on the left rod lifted straight up to the rod butt & stayed on a tight line. As I was unable to reposition the rig at night, I opted to just slacken the line off again &hope the rig hadn’t moved. The rain relented at around 3:00am & after twelve hours of persistent rain, I was glad to eventually get out of the sleeping bag in the morning & dry everything out before I headed off home. Evaluating the session, I knew that my line / leader wasn’t as tight to the lakebed as possible (it was still trailing over small patches of weed), & although I’d employed the use of two backleads, I felt certain that any feeding fish that came into contact with my lines would have ‘done the off’. In the future, I had to make 100% certain that my lines were firmly on the bottom & undetectable as possible.
Date: Monday August 17th, 2009 Time: 9:04pm
The following weekend I returned to the lake around 4:30am on Saturday morning & met up with Ben on the car park. Chris was already in situ, having fished the Friday night so with cup in hand, we made our way round to Chris’s swim & persuaded him to get the kettle on. Chris proceeded to fill us in on the events of his session & after finishing our early morning brew we left him to get a little more shut-eye, before we went for a scout around round the lake. Despite not seeing any positive signs of fish, we decided to return to an area of the lake we had both fished last time, where we’d seen fish on previous visits & there were certainly one or two small ‘dinner plates’ (small clear patches within the weed), where we felt we could present a rig. Due to the severe Canadian pondweed infestation that had dominated two large areas of the lake, my thoughts regarding swim selection would often revolve around areas where the weed growth was visibly minimal. However, I came to realise that the majority of the lakes carp population had an obvious attraction to the denser areas of weed growth & interestingly, seemed to prefer areas where there was an abundance of silkweed. For certain, I needed to be fishing in these areas, but I had to come up with an effective approach for this type of fishing. I got to work making a small weed rake that would screw directly into a spare landing net handle & I also constructed a small cup that would fit the same handle. A method was beginning to take shape - by wading out with a ‘prodding stick’ to find suitable areas to present a rig, I would clear the area with the rake & make a small channel back to the rod tips so that the leader could be kept out of the way of patrolling fish, which I was able achieve with some tiny 1/8oz backleads which I had made specifically for this purpose. After raking, by leaving the area to settle for a while, I could lower a rig into position & by substituting the rake head for the cup, I could then deposit a bed of bait very accurately. I arrived at my swim knackered after pushing a loaded barrow with a flat tyre - a word of advice here - I’ve learnt a good lesson… keep the tyres on your barrow correctly inflated. Mine had deflated since the last time I used it & then I’d pushed a full load round on a flat tyre. When I tried to inflate the tyre for my next session, the inner tube had been damaged. It took some searching round on the internet to locate a new one & fitting the damn thing is a two man job!!! Having chosen to fish a swim a few yards down from Ben, I spent ten minutes or so clearing two small areas that looked almost ‘natural’, then I left the water to settle for a while I set up my camp & sorted my rods out. After about half an hour I returned to the water & the right hand rig was lowered into position & was followed with a good helping of chilli hempseed, the left was positioned with great care & received a small amount of whole & chopped baits. Taking great care to ensure the leaders were as inconspicuous as possible, the traps were now set & all I needed now was for Mr carp to come & dine at my dinner table! As it turned out, the session was largely uneventful, aside from meeting & having a very long conversation with ‘the legend’ (local angling ‘hero’ & specimen hunter extraordinaire…), & being fortunate to receive a visit from the young bailiff who showed us some pictures of some of the resident fish. From what information we could gather, we knew there were a few 30lb commons & mirrors in the lake with the rumour of a forty, but my appetite was whetted further by the news that there’s also a fully-scaled mirror believed to be well over thirty!
The following morning I made a grim discovery… With not so much as a bleep during the night, I presumed no fish had visited my ‘spots’. Following an early morning cup of coffee, I slipped on my waders to sneak out into the water to take a peek… All the particles, chopped baits & the majority of the whole baits had gone - I’d been cleaned out! Worse still, was that I could very clearly see the leadcore leader trailing over a small shelf to the lead & was perhaps as much as four inches off the bottom. This was not acceptable & although I was confident that what I was doing was along the right lines, the method still needed some ‘refining’.
Waiting for action in a quiet corner of the lake...
Date: Monday September 7th, 2009 Time: 5:28pm
I managed to fit two forty-eight hour sessions in during late August / early September & as a result of this time spent at the lakeside, I felt as if I was still some distance away from formulating a positive plan of attack. It did seem however, that the majority of the fish spent much of their time in & around the southernmost end of the lake closest to the car park. In the latest session, Ben managed to get in amongst the bream & whilst this was not what we were trying to achieve, ultimately it turned out to be an extremely valuable lesson for us all – that his rigs were presented in an acceptable manner in an area where the carp spent a fair bit of their time. Unfortunately for me, this presented another problem – I was using 20lb mono to combat the weed which seriously hampered my casting & although another re-think was needed, I was beginning to get a positive picture in my head of what we needed to do to catch these wily old creatures…
Date: Monday September 28th, 2009 Time: 8:10pm
After a quick overnighter the following weekend yielded just one tench, it was another two weeks until I was able to get back to the lake for a full forty-eight hour session. During my time spent away from the lake, very little (if anything) had been caught & it was time to re-assess the situation… The regulars were focussing most of their efforts on one area in particular, which has good form from previous seasons. Similarly Ben, Chris, Rich (a new acquaintance) & I had spent the last month fishing an area adjacent to it with no success either. With approximately ten anglers fishing hard in an area covering about an acre of water with nothing to show for their efforts, I felt it was pointless returning to the same area unless carp were evidently resident. With this in mind & no positive signs of fish to go on, I opted to move further round the lake to an area where the weed began to thin out & I’d seen carp activity earlier in the season. I selected a swim that had access to a small weedbed to the left & a number of small silt pockets at various ranges & after spending a great deal of time with the marker float, I opted to fish all three rods at around ninety yards over a minimal scattering of baits. The first night was uneventful & I spent the bulk of the following day watching the water intently & deliberating long & hard over my next move. The bulk of any fish activity that I had seen was limited to the odd patch of bubbling & the casual ‘bream roll’ at long range. I had a little ‘lead around’ at that range to determine the bottom make up, & after realising that the weed wasn’t too bad, I chose to remove the leadcore leaders & fish two rods long with fluorocarbon leaders. After depositing a kilo of bait over the area, I went to sleep feeling as confident as I’d been so far. The next morning a heavy mist gave the lake an eerie feel & just as I was preparing to make the first brew of the day, the middle Delkim burst into life. On lifting the rod, in a split-second it hooped over everything went solid. After ten minutes or so of trying to get the fish moving, I put the rod down to let everything go slack. Every now & again it would take a couple of inches of line & it was clear that it was just sulking in a patch of sub-surface weed, with the occasional shake of its head betraying its presence. I called Rich who was round in a flash, & he summoned Jake (the bailiff) who arrived with the boat around forty minutes later. Observing the safety guidelines, we donned lifejackets & interestingly, although the lake was crystal clear, as we made our way over to the spot where the fish was lying, the water began to colour up heavily & it was evident that there had been fish feeding in the vicinity. Once we were right over the top of the fish, I applied heavy pressure & as the rod tip pulled down the fluorocarbon leader swiftly parted. Upon close inspection, there was no evidence of fraying & the break was clean, indicating that it may have been cut on something sharp. I was understandably gutted, but with thoughts going through my mind of possible fish size, I was pleased that my rigs were set up safely & I knew that the lead had discharged immediately, leaving just a short hooklink for the culprit to get rid of. Reflecting on the situation, I was confident that using a fluorocarbon leader was the way forward, but it needed to be ‘bombproof! To compound my problems, the 12lb mono main line made it almost impossible to put any pressure on the snagged fish, due to the amount of stretch in it. Ultimately, I knew the answer was to use a braided mainline, but with the excessive cost associated with spooling up with large amounts of this material, it was important that I made the correct selection…
Scene of the lost battle from the boat
Date: Monday August 19th, 2009 Time: 6:37pm
The summer seemed little more than a distant memory as almost overnight, the trees turned to a vibrant shade of gold & the seasonal temperatures had begun to reflect the arrival of October. Despite this, the lads & myself still managed to maintain our bankside presence, despite the lack of carp action. Poor Rich had even suffered the unfortunate event of having a blow-out on his barrow that sounded like a gunshot when it exploded – in fact, so severe was the force that it completely shredded the outer wall of the tyre! Our results had been limited to picking up the occasional tench or bream, & I even had an extremely bizarre event of lassoing a pike around its tail after casting out to around eighty yards. Despite not catching much between us, we kept ourselves highly entertained by playing several games of ‘conkers’ after the many Horse-Chestnut trees around the lake decided to rain its produce down on us in the adverse weather! You’d be amazed at what lengths we went to mount them on short lengths of ‘Kryston Quicksilver!!! Whilst we were only a few short weeks away from December, the weed was still causing us a lot of problems & although the bulk of the Canadian Pondweed growth had subsided, large surface areas of the lake were covered in thick blanket weed that rendered some swims almost impossible to fish.My main concern with this was that much of this weed was abundant on the surface close in. This was present in the majority of the swims & in most cases it meant having to drape your main lines over it to the rig. Whilst this in itself would seem not too much of an issue, a slight breeze would cause your lines to pull up tight, making line lay to the rig far from ideal. On top of this, not only did the false bleeps created from the ridiculous amounts of dead leaves drive me crazy, but the ever-increasing tufted duck & mallard population seemed to have an attraction to these areas of blanket weed & inevitably, they’d have me half out the sleeping bag in the dead of night with my heart pounding as they waddled merrily along picking up all three lines at the same time with their feet! Something had to be done & as I wasn’t fortunate enough to own a pair of ‘chesties’, I dug out my old eleven metre pole & rather crudely managed to strap a small rake head to it. I was certain that if I could clear the path for my main lines & get the line lay correct, I’d be increasing my chances of a pickup quite considerably.
Date: Tuesday October 27th, 2009 Time: 5:02pm Throughout the summer, we’d met all the guys who were targeting the lakes carp population & it had taken me until only very recently to realize that Ben, Chris, Rich & myself were in fact the only carp anglers on the lake. By this I mean that as winter had arrived, the other lads had all switched to angle for the lakes predators – therefore technically they were specialist anglers, as opposed to out-&-out carp anglers. I had a conversation with a specialist angler one afternoon that gave me plenty of positives regarding the lakes winter carp fishing potential. He’d said that he’d seen a lot of carp during the colder months & that he’d never known anyone enter into a sustained winter campaign for them. In addition, he was convinced that he’d witnessed two fish that were in excess of 40lb during the previous closed season! I managed to get one more forty eight hour session in before the end of October which turned out to be a bit of a nightmare for various reasons including having all three main lines weaved together one afternoon following the effect of strong winds & drifting blanket weed, then during the early hours of one morning, the wind direction swung round 180° & the rain arrived forcing me re-peg the brolly & turn it round in the increasing wind & rain. However I did learn some very interesting things about some of the clear marginal spots amongst the weed. After wading out to one or two of them, I scooped some of the silt samples up to see what they contained – it was full of broken mussel shells & alive with bloodworm! No wonder these spots were being kept so clean. Both Ben & I knew that this was a natural food source that we had to tap into for the winter ahead…
Date: Monday November 23rd, 2009 Time: 8:49pm I managed to get another three sessions in during November, two spent fishing an area that was known to have some decent form from seasons gone by, followed by a return to the swim where I’d spent much of the summer. Although I didn’t catch on either of these sessions it was another useful learning curve in as much as I was able to identify one or two areas that looked as if they’d been fed on by carp in recent times. Although much of the area was unfishable during the summer, the weed had given way to some prominent clear areas that gave me confidence that fish were responsible. After a good ‘lead around’ I identified a pronounced area of gravel at around sixty yards, where I was able to position all three rigs. Whilst putting a kilo of bait onto the spot, a fish rolled in the half-light of dusk giving me a real confidence boost. Although I couldn’t guarantee it was a carp, at least it backed up my theory that fish were clearing these areas consistently. After getting a series of ‘liners’ during the early morning, I left to consider my options for the remaining months of the season & to come up with a plan of attack. After analysing the bigger picture, it was evident that the carp stubbornly chose not to play by the rules – it seemed that they were unwilling to follow the wind in most situations (at any time of the year), & invariably they’d often turn up in an area of the lake where technically they should not have been, so swim hopping & moving around the lake appeared to be quite pointless in retrospect.I decided on a plan of action for the winter, I planned to target just one area of the lake & keep the bait going in regularly on the same spots. I knew that the carp visited the area frequently during the summer months, so I had no reason to believe they wouldn’t continue to visit the same spots during the winter. With the cold weather really starting to bite, I’d finally decided to ditch the oval brolly in favour of my Ultralite, & after purchasing the ‘Duvet’ sleeping bag from AQUA, I was suitably prepared for cold nights ahead. All I needed now was a ton of bait & the fish to succumb to my plan…
Date: Tuesday December 15th, 2009 Time: 11:18pm
After much deliberation, I decided to take a week off from the relentless pursuit of the ‘Oakwood myths’ during the final week of November in order to keep the wife happy. After all, I’d fished virtually every Friday night straight through September, October & November without taking a break, so I figured now was the right time to give it a rest. However, I did manage to do a short day session on my local canal after a short spell of prebaiting & although I didn’t catch, the new bait was being cleared off the spots regularly & this gave me some extra confidence in it.
My bait for the winter campaign
I returned to Oakwood the following weekend with renewed optimism & after plumbing the area I intended to focus on for the winter, I decided to prime the swim first before beginning to fish it the following week & I opted to fish another swim further along the same bank in the meantime. My main target swim revealed an area of firm gravel that sloped steadily into a clean silt pocket just few yards to the left of it at around fifty yards range & five foot of water. I clipped the lead rod up at this range, then proceeded to spod two kilos of whole & chopped baits onto it, where I hoped it would clear sufficiently before my next session & give me a good indication whether fish had been feeding on it, or not. I arrived back at the lake five days later to find Ben already in residence a few swims further along the same bank. After a brief chat, I continued to my swim & quickly cast a lead out to the clip to find that the spot was still a little weedy, but sufficiently clear enough to allow me to present three balanced bottom-bait rigs on eight inch hooklinks presented ‘blow-back style’ with 3oz leads. With very little indication of fish activity during Friday night & Saturday morning, the clear skies meant that the lake received a good deal of sunlight & at one stage I noticed a few bubbles appearing right on ‘the spot’. Within minutes of this, I had a series of single bleeps from the middle rod, which eventually prompted a rig change. When I reeled the rig in, the hair was twisted several times around the shank of the hook (I had prevented this from happening during the cast by using foam), which left both Ben & I to question, had I been done??? I hastily tied up another rig & gave it two hours in position before heading off home, & although the session was another blank one, one thing was certain… something had been feeding on the spot, which gave me a much-needed confidence boost. Before departing, I spodded another two kilos of chopped & whole baits onto the spot & planned to get back to the lake as soon as possible...
Date: Tuesday February 2nd, 2010 Time: 5:03pm
The final few days before the festive period allowed me to squeeze in a couple of overnight sessions, the first of which saw the temperatures plummet to –5°C, that prompted all eighty acres of the lake to freeze solid. A few days later, a small area of the lake thawed enough to enable a return… then it promptly froze for a second time, forcing me to leave my gear to gather dust for a few weeks. Although no takes were forthcoming from these two sessions, I did receive a few positive indications after introducing some pellets in sloppy form & using small pellet hookbaits. I was certain that there had been fish in the swim up to the point the lake froze & I was disappointed at not being able to get back into the swim following a full four-week freeze-up. I returned to the lake in mid January & I’d opted to revert back to using chod rigs, but after a long discussion with Ben, I chose to use leadcore instead of the long fluorocarbon leaders I’d employed earlier in the season – the reason being that I felt that fish were ‘grubbing’ around in the remnants of weed & coming into contact with the leader as it was draped loosely of the small patches of decaying weed, possibly spooking them off the spot – hence the slight indications, with no positive pick-ups. By employing 45lb ESP leadcore leaders, hopefully I would avoid spooking any feeding fish from the zone. After getting good drops on all three casts, around half a kilo of bait was pulted out to the spot whilst I got the bivvy set up in the worsening rain. Once dark set in, I began getting liners & sometime around 6:00pm, I received what seemed like a typical bream bite on the middle rod. However, I lifted the rod to find nothing there & the rig looked fine. Once recast to the spot, I topped up with another quarter of a kilo of bait & the liners continued through the evening, eventually grinding to a halt around midnight. During this time, I’d seen no signs of fish showing & I left somewhat amazed that I hadn’t hooked any of the culprits. The following weekend I was able to do a forty-eight hour session & with temperatures dropping down as low as -4°C, the lake again froze on both nights. This session also turned out to be a bit of a headache too as not only were the tufties learning that the small round balls that we were heaving into the lake quite tasty & nutritious - the seagulls were beginning to cotton on to it too… With only six weeks left before the lake closed, I was becoming increasingly dubious about any potential opportunities arising before the season end, largely due to the instability of the prevailing weather conditions.
Date: Monday March 1st, 2010 Time: 6:47pm
I managed to squeeze in another three sessions from the last week of January to late February between periods where the lake had frozen up on several occasions. The last of these trips was in marginally better conditions with cool winds & light rain for the duration of my twenty-four hour session. After receiving a series of single indications in the early morning that was now becoming a common pattern during these sessions, I swapped over to 2oz running leads, long fluorocarbon hooklinks with a single grain of imitation maize fished over a couple of small spods of corn in a desperate attempt to work out what was happening in the swim. After around half an hour the left rod was away & for a moment or two, my heart was in my mouth... However, the minimal resistance on the end of the line soon revealed the culprit – a small bream. The picture of what had been happening in the swim over the last few months was now much clearer. I believe the bulk of the ‘liners’ to be these shoals of small bream that are attracted by boilies, but are not able to physically get then into their mouths. In all fairness, I don’t believe that my approach to fishing the area of the lake that I had chosen was wrong, I simply think that the carp weren’t visiting the area as often as I’d like to have thought they were! After all, textbooks would have us believe that the area was simply perfect for the winter, but almost inevitably it seemed that the carp steadfastly refused to adhere to basic carp law… With only one more session left before the end of the season, I was left to consider what my final move would be. Although the session was to be a bit of a ‘knees-up’, hoping to end the season on a high was top of my agenda.
Date: Wednesday March 17th, 2010 Time: 9:46pm
For my final session of the 2009 / 2010 season, I had hoped to fish a different area for my final ‘throw of the dice’, but when I arrived at the lake with Ben on Saturday morning, there were already two anglers in situ so we headed back to the swims where we’d spent the bulk of the winter period. I finally managed to arrive at my swim at around 9:00am completely exhausted after pushing my barrow loaded with what seemed like more food & cooking gear than tackle! Being in no hurry to get started, I set up the Ultralite, then rigged up both rods with chod rigged Tutti’s. Once I’d made a couple of casts to get a feel for the lake bed, I hit both ‘choddies’ out at around seventy tards, getting nice firm drops on both. I then proceeded to spread around 100 baits over the area & it wasn’t long until the kettle was on & Chris was down for a brew. Needless to say, nothing was caught, but we had a good social with plenty of good food a couple of bottles of France’s finest for good measure that ensured we got a good nights sleep. During the evening whilst we filled our bellies, we evaluated the season coming to a close: All the reports suggested that only twelve fish had been out all season. Talking to the other anglers, they actually believed that in fact, it was probably closer to seven or eight! On top of this, we didn’t get started on the lake until late August & most of these fish were caught prior to our campaign getting underway. So although we’d not caught, we’d hooked & lost three fish between us & while this doesn’t represent an achievement by any means, considering the minimal amount of action received by the other anglers, our ‘failure’ could be brought into true perspective. The most important thing was that we’d learned some very important lessons & even after suffering all of the blank sessions, we were still supremely confident that we would make it all count the following season. On a personal level, I was happy to leave the lake to be, knowing that my next return to the lake would be in three months time when the lake would return to life, the trees would be in full bloom & the long, cold nights would be long-forgotten. It seems quite strange that after eight months of blank sessions, that I was looking forward to having another season chasing the lakes mysterious inhabitants! I can fully empathize with anglers that come to this lake in an attempt to ‘unlock its secrets’, then after a few weeks decide it’s not for them – it’s a tough test for the mind & the soul!
With the ending of the regular season on March 14th 2010, I turned my efforts to a stretch of local canal, with thoughts of catching a resident twenty-pound-plus ghostie. Once the weather begins to show signs of sustained improvement & the fish start to wake up, I will begin to visit Oakwood more frequently to give em some grub & plan my strategy for the year ahead.
Date: Tuesday June 29th, 2010 Time: 10:41pm
During the three-month lay-off of the closed season, both Ben Chris & myself continued to make regular visits to the lake as soon as the weather had begun to improve in early April. The plan was relatively simple – to note fish sightings & to keep plenty of bait going onto those spots - the theory being that as they were beginning to become more active due to the increase in water temperature, their search for food prior to spawning & the weed taking full hold would hopefully enable them to recognise these feeding spots throughout the forthcoming season. By sticking to the same area that we’d spent much of the season before, we saw plenty of fish sightings to give us confidence that what we were doing was along the right lines. Throughout the previous summer, we had tried to fish around the weed, whilst the carp were content to stay held up in it. This season, the plan was straightforward – we’d got to fish in directly into it! Ben, Chris & I had booked off the 15th & 16th of June so we could be on the lake on the opening night. I pulled into the car park at 1:30pm & soon had the barrow loaded up as I began the arduous journey round to the swim I planned to fish. I arrived to find Ben & Chris already in residence in their respective swims & after a quick chat & a brew I continued on to my swim to get everything ready for the start of my session. The weed was not as severe as it had been the previous summer & after a 'lead around' over the area that I’d been priming, I was relatively pleased to find that there were some small clear areas within the weed – a good sign that the spots had been fed on regularly. This discovery forced me to alter my plans slightly. I had intended to fish balanced bottom-bait presentations, but as the area was still a bit weedy, I decided that chodernoster presentations were just what the doctor ordered. After a few casts to pinpoint the spots with accuracy, both rods were clipped up so that I could get them ‘on the money’ at midnight. In conversation with Ben, he had decided to put a lot of bait onto his spots earlier in the day & just fish small sticks once it was time to cast out, which I agreed was a good idea so with that in mind I pulted approximately three kilos of boiled bait out to the spot & left it to be for the day whilst I observed it closely during the afternoon. As the afternoon lazily progressed into the evening Ben, Chris, Rich & myself enjoyed a couple beers whilst we sat around discussing our thoughts for the season ahead. To bring in the season with a bit of style, we fired up a couple of barbecues & popped open a couple of bottles of France's cheapest. With our bellies full of burgers, chicken & red wine, we enthused further following a couple of possible subtle 'shows' during the evening – the excitement was growing! The following morning, I awoke to a series of single bleeps from the left-hand rod & I peered at my watch - it was only 4:30am. I strained to look further round the reeds & spotted a coot diving right over my baited area - great. After sending the offender on his way by casting an empty spod towards him, I climbed back in to the sack for some desperately needed shut-eye. Within minutes of drifting off into the 'land of nod', another couple of bleeps signalled the coots' return. Once again I was out of the bag & the spod was despatched with a little bit more aggression! After this continued to happen about a dozen times over the following half an hour, I reluctantly admitted defeat & fired up the kettle. I sat by the edge of the lake for around two hours watching the water like a hawk & consuming copious amounts of tea where I may have seen the occasional sign of fish activity at extreme range amongst the hoards of ducks that frequented that part of the lake. Ultimately, due to the hot, sunny weather & the fact that the bankside activity was very busy compared to quietness of the preceding three months, there was no concrete evidence to suggest that any carp even ventured into our area of lake at all during the period that we were there. I decided not to return to the lake the following weekend - largely due to England's second World Cup group match being played against Algeria on the Friday evening & having too many things to do up until then to keep the wife happy. With this in mind, & having seen what effect the start of the new season had had on the lake, I decided to give it a miss until the following weekend where I could fit in a full & uninterrupted forty-eight hour session in, when hopefully the bankside activity would have died down a little bit. Admittedly, after watching England's abject performance in their respective group game, I did wonder whether I should've made the effort after all. Despite this, Ben maintained his bankside presence & with a single tench to show for his efforts, this reassured me that I had made the right decision.
The following Friday I left work at 1:00pm on the dot, packed the car & made my way down the M6 towards the lake of my obsession to the sounds of Kasabian. After pulling into the car park, I quickly loaded up the barrow & headed off in search of carp. On my way round the lake, I stopped a few times to check a few of the large lily beds for signs of life which I figured would be a good bet, considering the hot & sunny conditions at the time. In one particular swim, I spotted a couple of pads lift & on closer inspection, I could just about make out the frame of a large, bronze coloured common that looked simply huge! I watched for a few minutes before continuing my journey looking for the closest fishable area to the lily bed where I had earlier seen the big common. Just two swims further down, there was a gap between two lily beds that looked like a perfect place to ambush these fish. Once I'd noticed that there was another angler set up in the swim that I had been priming through the closed season, my mind was instantly made up - I'd have to fish the swim between the pads & in all fairness, it was an opportunity I simply had to take. A quick plumb around with the lead rod revealed a light covering of weed on the bottom, no more that eight inches thick all over the area, & I decided to use 12" long braided hooklinks set up blowback style with balanced snowman hookbaits & two ounce flat pear leads mounted on lead clips & leadcore leaders. With a nugget of foam on the hook, both rigs were swung into position & two kilos of freebies were liberally deposited onto both of the spots. The bailiff arrived moments later & was curious to know why I hadn't wanted to fish my usual swim. When he looked over to the guy who was set up in it, he said "he can't fish it anyway - he hasn't got a ticket" - "I'll tell him he has to leave". With that he was off. Eventually, the guy packed up & made his way back towards the car park, stopping behind me for a chat. He introduced himself & explained that he was from Lithuania & that his English wasn't too good. "You drink beer?" he asked, to which I explained that I didn't want a drink & thanked him all the same. "No, no, you drink beer with me" he said, so I accepted his offer, thinking that he would then carry on his way & leave me in peace. "You like food?" he the then asked & I again told him that I had plenty of food & I didn't need any more, but thanked him for his kind offer. At this point I should have known better - he was 'buttering' me up for something. He again said, "No, you eat - I insist" & he opened up a small plastic tub revealing some small spicy snacks. "Eat, eat” he said so I took him up on his offer & sampled one whilst we stood watching the lake drinking a can of lager each. Then he started... He looked straight at me & asked "I watch you catch carps tonight?". I said that I didn't understand what he was asking me. "I stay here behind you, watch you catch carps in night?". This guy was going to set up his tent behind me, rather than get kicked off the lake because he didn't have a ticket to fish. Very quickly I text Jake (the bailiff) to tell him what was going on & within minutes he arrived. Jake very politely explained that he had to leave as he was going to lock the gates to the fishery for the night. "No, I stay & watch man catch carps tonight" he said pointing at me. "He say I can stay", but Jake was having none of it, telling him that camping was strictly forbidden & that he had to leave. Very reluctantly, the guy made his way down the track towards the car park, tossing his empty lager can into the bushes on the way & Jake hit the roof. He ran after him, telling him not so politely this time that he'd had enough & after his littering act he needed to go sharpish! Fortunately, the chap didn't reappear, although I fully expected him to, & I was eventually left alone to continue my session - what a fuss! I managed to get a fish taking floaters in front of the lily pads in the late evening, but only very delicately & I eventually retired to bed after listening to the Chile v Spain World Cup match on the radio. I woke at around 3:30am after a fish noisily rolled at close quarters & the sun was just beginning to appear over the trees. I lay there for a couple of hours watching the sun slowly getting higher in the sky, when out of the blue, the tip of the right hand rod hammered round, the Delkim let out a one-noter & the reel clutch was whizzing at high speed. I leaped out the bag & as soon as I lifted the rod, there was no resistance revealing that the hook had actually pulled during the take. At first I wondered if the fish could have been foul-hooked, but considering one of the hoobaits had come off the hair, I assumed it had been hooked ‘fair & square’. Within a couple of minutes, a new rig was lowered into position & I deposited another kilo of freebies onto the spot. Almost straight away, large plumes of bubbles started heaving to the surface right on the bait & not long after there were sheets of bubbles coming up in an area covering about a meter square. I couldn't believe that I was not getting a pick-up in this situation & I was becoming increasingly concerned that the rig had buried deep into the weed after the heavy feeding activity & after watching the spectacle for two and a half hours, seeing the slack line flicker & lift all the time reducing me to a near nervous wreck, I decided enough was enough, something had to be done. As I feared the hookbait simply wasn't visual enough, I quickly reeled in the left rod & set up a chod rig. I lowered the rig into position, alongside the right hand rod as quietly as I could & slid a backlead down the line to pin it out of the way, left the line slack & switched off both of the Delkims. After parking my backside down on the chair, I turned round to tidy up my tackle box only to hear the clutch on the rod I'd just positioned going into meltdown. Straight away I leaned into the fish & it didn't take long to get it into the margins where I could clearly see that a small common around 8lb was twisting & turning on top of the leader trying desperately to shake the hook & just as I went to put the net in the water, the small common achieved its objective - the hook unceremoniously came adrift. At that point, around mid-morning, the sun was baking down on the lake signalling another very hot day & I decided to rest the swim by reeling in both rods & putting in another kilo of bait. Ben arrived around lunchtime & dropped in two swims to my left & we spent the day trying to keep cool whilst we continually scanned the pads for signs of carp activity. As the evening approached I put each rod back on the spots, this time fishing chodernosters as after I had lost the common that morning, I felt that if the lead had ejected I'd have stood a better chance of the hook holding for longer during the fight. Whilst sitting in Bens swim around 10:30pm, my receiver signalled a blazing run on the left hand rod & once in the swim & I was horrified to see a swan furiously shaking its head after it had somehow managed to pick up my hookbait. Ben very calmly hand-lined it to the bank where he managed to hold the swan long enough to retrieve the hook from the edge of its beak & then releasing him again! Around midnight, I retired to the sleeping bag & no sooner had I taken off my boots, the right hand Delkim bleeped a couple of times & the line pulled up tight that turned out to be a small bream. With a fresh cork ball pop-up tied on, I repositioned the rig & concentrated on getting some shut-eye. A much bigger bream put in an appearance at 2:30am & I woke at around 5:30am sweating like mad as the sun blazed down on the Ultralite. With the kettle on, I sat & watched the spots intensely as the fizzing begun again, but without the intensity of the previous morning. Ben came down to see me & I told him that I reckoned tench were to blame, which was confirmed around half an hour later when one rolled lazily on the surface. After we'd consumed a couple of cups of coffee & a hearty bacon sandwich, I decided that it was time to start packing away. As I was loading up the barrow, the spool on the right hand rod began to spin purposefully & the back of the pads started to shake & I dived on the rod fully expecting an angry carp to be responsible, but instead a good-sized male tench popped up on the edge of the pads with a very guilty look on its face. Once I'd made my way off the lake, I evaluated the session; I'd had six takes (albeit one of them wasn't from a fish...), resulting in two bream, one tench & two hooked, but ultimately lost carp – perhaps as much action in two days than I'd received during the previous season! I now knew that it was imperative that location was of upmost importance on my future sessions instead of blindly waiting for the fish to come to me.
