Yateley Pads Lake - February 2009

I got the call from Chris Naylor - a mate of Ben’s in early December, asking me whether I’d be up for a weekend session on perhaps the most famous carp angling complex in the UK – Yateley. I can still remember as a kid, reading about the captures of the historic fish in its lakes (when it was run by Leisure Sport) & the legendary anglers that had spent countless hours on its banks. Although I had never seen the Car Park, North & Pads lakes, I have long been eager to read anything I can that bears reference to them, & being offered an opportunity to fish a lake steeped with as much history as the Pads had to be grasped with both hands. The history of the lake has become an integral part of carp fishing folklore, but having lost such characters as ‘Jumbo’, CEMEX Angling have since undertaken a restocking program at the lake & introduced a day ticket system to give anglers like myself the opportunity to fish this famous lake. Up to date reports revealed that there were now more than twenty fish over 30lb, with the lake record just shy of 40lb & in only four acres of water - I felt this was probably the best opportunity I’d ever get to catch my first UK thirty. So with the wife’s blessing, I accepted Chris’s invitation, & made my plans straight away doing as much homework as I could. It seemed from what information I could gather, that the majority of recent captures had resulted from fishing solid PVA bags to prominent features. My first priority was to ensure that I had good quality, fresh bait for the trip - nothing to worry about there as I’d got 100% faith in the bait that I’d been testing for the past few months. Armed with just three kilos of boiled bait, some fresh hempseed, a few maggots & some corn for good measure, I was sure that this would be more than enough bait to cover all eventualities. I pre-tied plenty of rigs for the session as I needed to make sure I was fishing at 100% effectiveness for the period of time I was going to be on the bankside - my fishing time had to be maximised as much as possible, whilst not forgetting it was also a ‘bit of a social’.

In the small hours of Friday morning, I crept out of the house, packed the car & began the hour-long journey to Ben’s house. Once I’d made my way down the eerily quiet M5 & headed West across the Midlands, I arrived to find he’d been awake for ages such was his excitement! We bundled our gear into his car & began the arduous journey south to Yateley village in Surrey to meet up with the other two lads. Once there, Ben & Chris introduced me to Andy & after exchanging pleasantries over a good breakfast, we paid a quick visit to Yateley Angling Centre in an attempt to gain some local knowledge about how the lake had been fishing. After a short drive down the road from here, we arrived at the car park that served the Car Park, Pads, Split, North & South lakes. As I was desperate to see the Car Park Lake, I quickly donned my boots & I was off, leaving the lads in my wake as I could barely contain my excitement at being able to finally set eyes on the famous pit! It’s actually quite surreal in a way, as I stood staring from the first swim that I’d come to. I could almost visualise some of the country’s most famous & sought after prizes moving through the snags that abound the marginal areas of this magical lake…

Once the lads had caught up with me, I managed to drag myself away from the Car Park Lake & set of on a trek around our home for the next forty-eight hours – the Pads Lake. Although we failed to spot any fish, there were plenty of areas of bubbles fizzing to the surface, which indicated there were fish feeding, particularly in the vicinity of the open water in front of the main two pads swims. Once we’d completed a circuit of the lake, we headed back to the car park & proceeded to draw for swim selection. Chris put numbers one to four in a hat & we each drew for swim selection (the person drawing No.1 having first choice) & this would allow us to select the swim we most fancied, diplomatically. Ben got first shout & plumped for ‘Waiting Mans’. Next out, Chris chose ‘Between Pads’ & I opted to go just up from Ben in ‘Cornman’. Andy chose ‘End of Pads’ & after issuing a final ‘good luck’ to the lads, I was off to set up in my swim of choice. Once I’d set up the bivvy in the tight swim between the Split & Pads lakes, I had a delicate plumb around the swim, which revealed an awful lot of weed. One thing I didn’t want to do was to disturb the swim with lots of casts with a big lead & marker float, but I needed to find some areas where it would be possible to present a bait. After a few casts followed by a slow & studied retrieve, I managed to pinpoint some areas worthy of attention. I decided to fish one rod with my favourite short-range bottom bait method to a small clear patch in the weed at thirty yards. Due to the amount of weed that covered the bottom in the swim, I opted to fish the other two rods on chod rigs & I introduced a small amount of hemp, chopped & whole baits over each spot with a small spod for good measure.

Having done my homework on the venue & with advice from both Ben & Chris who had been fortunate to fish the lake before, I was convinced that by adopting these methods, that this would be the best way to approach this fickle lake. Having only ever seen pictures of the lake before, I was eager to set eyes on the place & when Ben had described the lake as “it just feels like home”, I now realised just what he meant. Knowing that I would be fishing a swim that most of the great carp anglers of our time had fished before was going to be a most humbling experience. I could almost feel Ritchie McDonald’s presence…

The lads spent the day busying themselves preparing their swims & once the darkness descended, I made my way round to Bens swim with my receiver & lager in hand to discuss all matters carpy. The eagerly awaited first run of the session came just into dark, to Chris who was fishing opposite Ben. When Chris issued his familiar ‘WOO HOO’ battle cry, we knew he was into a decent fish! Once Andy had gone round to help weigh the fish & take the pictures, a quick phone call revealed the fish to have been a mirror of 23lb 8oz (read Chris's report here). We issued our congratulations to Chris & celebrated the first fish of the session, & drank to many more! Some time around 10:00pm, I bid Ben farewell & clambered into the sleeping bag & after a long day, I didn’t take me long to drift off to sleep. I woke early Saturday morning to the news that Andy had taken a 27lb 8oz mirror on maggots (read Andy's report here) from an area at range, so once I’d made a cup of coffee, I reeled in all three rods & ventured round to the other side of the lake to pay Chris & Andy a visit with Ben. After a handshake & a ‘well done lads’, we had a quick look at the pictures - both mirrors were lovely clean-looking fish – typical of the Yateley strain.

During the evening of the previous day, I’d seen a couple of fish show to the right of my swim in an area I couldn’t access. After some extensive plumbing work during the late morning of Saturday, I was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the swim due to the amount of weed covering the bottom & I eventually decided to fish small, solid PVA bags into the weed with small inline leads, short braided hooklinks & long fluorocarbon leaders fished completely slack. After positioning all three rods, another good fish crashed out twice in the same spot to the right of my swim & I quickly weighed up the options of whether it was worth a move to the next swim up. As it was only a short distance, I made the move & quickly got the marker out to try & identify the spot where the fish were showing. I cast the marker beyond the spot & slowly dragged the float & lead into position between two banks of weed. As soon as I was happy with the spot, on retrieve a huge bow wave erupted from the spot & I’d obviously spooked a good fish from the area. Not to be outdone, I discreetly cast out a chod rig into the gap as I wasn’t certain of the bottom make-up & I didn’t want to recast the marker just in case. I fished a another chod rig out to the right of the swim towards the point at around thirty yards & fished a single bottom bait close in to a clear marginal spot next to a set of old pads. It seemed that most of the feeding times were exclusively at night & this allowed Andy to spod plenty of maggots & a small amount of boiled bait over the spot that he’d taken the 27lb fish from the night before. Both Ben & Chris had spent the day with a marker rod making sure their rigs were presented on correct spots for the final night.

Ben had spent some of the day talking to a Car Park Lake regular who was fishing directly behind him & during Saturday, he had suffered an unfortunate event… He’d noticed that a coot had been repeatedly diving in the same spot around ten yards out from his swim, & each time it came up, it appeared to have been spooked by something. As Ben had noticed this & is normally quick to react to changes to the situation he is faced with, he quickly reeled a rod in, checked the rig was okay then placed it close to the spot. Within minutes, the indicator on that rod hit the butt & the line stayed tight. As soon as he picked up the rod, there was some minor resistance & suddenly all went slack. Once he’d reeled in transpired that in actual fact he’d been cut-off. Both him & the Car Park Lake angler agreed that it was probably a pike that was the cause.

Again as darkness arrived, I equipped myself with Carlsberg & headed round to Ben’s swim & it wasn’t long before Andy’s maggot presentation started to reap rewards again, taking a double-figure mirror at around 7:00pm. Little did we know what the night ahead held for him – during the night he took fish of 24lb 8oz, 29lb & 29lb 12oz (all mirrors), along with a token tench for good measure! Although I received a couple of liners during the night, I was genuinely surprised to wake the following morning having again received no action. With mine & Ben’s impending blank I reasoned with him – was there anything else we could have done different? When a regular turned up to visit friends on the Car Park Lake, after a quick conversation with Ben, he confirmed his suspicions – the lake was indeed being fished heavily with maggots & even went as far as to suggest that he felt that the Pads Lake was becoming another ‘Sandhurst’… 

Evaluating the session, both Ben & myself were both genuinely pleased for Chris & Andy & we felt that the episode was a good success & although maggots seemed to be the way forward, I was unsure that I’d have been able to present them effectively over the heavy weed that I was fishing over. For myself, to have spent time in the company of three genuinely great lads, fishing a lake steeped in as much history as the Pads Lake & ultimately being able to satisfy my curiosity (& perhaps misplaced fascination…) with the Car Park Lake was an experience I would not have missed for anything. I hope I get an opportunity to fish the place again!