Arriving there well before the 7am opening time I was third in the queue. I couldn’t believe that it was going to be this popular on a week day and I was even more astonished by the additional 7 cars turning up behind me which, by 7am, looked more like a convoy.
Arriving on the specimen 2 lake to find that there were already two people camping there the night before, I decided to fishing specimen 1 which had no one on there and had only pike anglers for the last 3 days before.
After talking to the bailiff (which is always the best thing to do at any time during the day) he directed me to the old willow tree that had shown fish all day the previous day. Having a quick walk around and seeing that this was a likely looking spot, I planted both rods either side and kept a keen eye out for any movement while the sun was coming up!
The wind was pushing down into the corner I was fishing in but there seemed to be a massive amount of scum and weed floating across the top of the water. This then turned into a small nightmare as it kept holding up on the line and pulling the bobbin up giving false bites. Even after trying back leads, it seemed to be getting worse as the day was going on. A change of swim was in order.
After noticing that there were a few more carp on the surface about 50 yards down to my left, I re-rigged the rods, removed all the weed and rubbish from the line and headed down to where the fish were showing. I would say that this was the best decision of the day and shows that an angler who is willing to be mobile and follow the fish, will catch!
The left hand rod must have been in the water a maximum of 2 minutes before the bobbin began to climb and the air was filled with the sweet sound of the alarm in distress. The tale-tale sign that there was a fish hooked was the scream of the clutch accelerating at an alarming rate. Grabbing the rod with utter most speed and agility, I latched into a nice bend in the rod that continued to speed of across the lake. Now as I started to make ground the fish decided that it would try and dive into an underwater snag that I could not see....the rod went dead. Walking up and down the bank and trying desperately to free the fish from as many different positions as possible, I came to the conclusion that it had beaten me. Then, remembering that I had been in this situation before; I slackened off the rod and line and hoped that the fish, if still on the end, would free itself. After watching the slack line in the water for about 3 minutes, it suddenly went taught again and the fish was back on after freeing itself. The fish was in the net before long and a very happy me was beaming over the beaten beast.
This 20lb 8oz fish was caught on my new favourite rig of pop-up plastic sweet corn. I have been trying different plastic baits out from enterprise tackle and have had many different catches. Many of my fellow fisher mates think that I am MAD by using nothing but proper bait, but I have well and truly joined the “plastic revolution”.
If you have not already had a look at the plastic fantastic, then have a ganders at the following:
http://www.enterprisetackle.co.uk/imitation.htm
Arriving on the specimen 2 lake to find that there were already two people camping there the night before, I decided to fishing specimen 1 which had no one on there and had only pike anglers for the last 3 days before.
After talking to the bailiff (which is always the best thing to do at any time during the day) he directed me to the old willow tree that had shown fish all day the previous day. Having a quick walk around and seeing that this was a likely looking spot, I planted both rods either side and kept a keen eye out for any movement while the sun was coming up!
The wind was pushing down into the corner I was fishing in but there seemed to be a massive amount of scum and weed floating across the top of the water. This then turned into a small nightmare as it kept holding up on the line and pulling the bobbin up giving false bites. Even after trying back leads, it seemed to be getting worse as the day was going on. A change of swim was in order.
After noticing that there were a few more carp on the surface about 50 yards down to my left, I re-rigged the rods, removed all the weed and rubbish from the line and headed down to where the fish were showing. I would say that this was the best decision of the day and shows that an angler who is willing to be mobile and follow the fish, will catch!
The left hand rod must have been in the water a maximum of 2 minutes before the bobbin began to climb and the air was filled with the sweet sound of the alarm in distress. The tale-tale sign that there was a fish hooked was the scream of the clutch accelerating at an alarming rate. Grabbing the rod with utter most speed and agility, I latched into a nice bend in the rod that continued to speed of across the lake. Now as I started to make ground the fish decided that it would try and dive into an underwater snag that I could not see....the rod went dead. Walking up and down the bank and trying desperately to free the fish from as many different positions as possible, I came to the conclusion that it had beaten me. Then, remembering that I had been in this situation before; I slackened off the rod and line and hoped that the fish, if still on the end, would free itself. After watching the slack line in the water for about 3 minutes, it suddenly went taught again and the fish was back on after freeing itself. The fish was in the net before long and a very happy me was beaming over the beaten beast.
This 20lb 8oz fish was caught on my new favourite rig of pop-up plastic sweet corn. I have been trying different plastic baits out from enterprise tackle and have had many different catches. Many of my fellow fisher mates think that I am MAD by using nothing but proper bait, but I have well and truly joined the “plastic revolution”.
If you have not already had a look at the plastic fantastic, then have a ganders at the following:
http://www.enterprisetackle.co.uk/imitation.htm
