Trip 44 Carp Fishing – 2019 – d

The school holidays are less than a week away and the weather conditions are looking perfect for a change, a dip in the pressure and light rain showers, it’s worth being on the bank.

With the wind pushing up from the south, I had in mind a couple of swims and after looking at them all I opted for this one.  It’s well away from any other anglers – unless some set up very late, fingers crossed on…

Trip 31 Carp Fishing – 2019

This trip I have taken an old friend as a guest on the Airfield lake for a couple of nights. To my surprise, there were a fair few anglers on the lake this weekend – when I say a few, I mean 12 on 64 acres, which in reality is not many at all.

The swim choice was pretty limited.  We hadn’t fished together for a long time and were looking forward to a social, so we needed an area to suit.  We…

We’re going to approach this session very slowly, not put too much bait out (or even just use bags at first) and then build the swim up with a mixture of 12mm Smokey, Catalyst and a load of hemp.

Around 6pm after the day time feeding period was over, we set about finding a few perfect spots.  I opted for one to my left, along the margin shelf, right at the bottom in 7 ft of water, with a very dramatic rise up in a matter of just over a rod length.

The other area was on a 7.5ft Plato with 9ft over water surround it.  This just had to be a feature they would visit.  Both areas were baited with boilies, hemp & tigers with a Ronnie rig injunction and a 3oz & 2oz Zipp lead.  One rod has a Smokey wafter and the other a Catalyst wafter.

We then sat back, soaked up the view and had a couple of glasses of wine.

Over the night I heard plenty of big fish crashing out, but couldn’t locate their whereabouts, it’s pretty dark out here!  As there is no light pollution, it’s a great spot for stargazing – too much cloud cover tonight.

Morning arrived with no action in the night for both of us!  This wasn’t much of a surprise at the cold east wind blew most of the night and there was a good drop in temperature first thing.  As the night progressed, it did warm up, the pressure was starting to drop.

The lake does produce fish in the day time, I wasn’t planning on reeling in until noon time.  The Tufted Ducks had moved in on the Plateau rod, which as long as there is only a small amount activity, I feel will cloud up the water and encourage passing fish to investigate.

Just before 10am, the very same rod ripped off and I was attached to my first Airfield Lake carp.  After a pretty straight forward fight, the carp was safely in the Nsr and we began to organize the weighing/photographing kit.

  23lb 6oz Common

That will do me.  I hope a few more grace my net over the next few days.

The morning passed with no more action, around noontime, we set about locating some more features with the Deeper and always with the marker float.  We certainly discovered some very interesting things out there!

  The beauty of the Deeper is that it was all done with a minimal disturbance on the 4 casts we did, we simply let it drift in the wind and it recorded away.  As the baited rods were still in the water, we had analyzed the data and quickly sorted out the rods for the night.

I moved my margin rod as after 24 hrs of no action, it was time for a change.  The first night I clearly heard fish in open water, Ian moved one rod out of the bay onto a nice spot we found.  We topped up the swim with some more bait, being very mindful, that the Tufted Duck was on the munch!

The second night passed by with no night-time activities!  The discussion was made to not recast until after 7pm tonight unless we really needed to.  The rain which had been on and off all night was due to stop by mid-morning and the pressure was nicely dropping down still more.

With no signs of any carp in day, I redid my rods and was hoping for a last night capture.  The wind and pressure had dropped and we were expecting a warm night ahead – it was certainly looking more favourable.  Just before midnight, the left-hand rod was off and I was into my second carp of the trip.  It was off down the left-hand margins hoping to find one of the snags down there and it came close, I felt the line twang a branch or two, but with a bit of added pressure, it was under my control and in the margins in front of me.  I was feeling a little bit more relaxed and it soon slipped into the Nsr.

18lb 13oz Common

Very happy with that and especially after all the effort I’d put in to find the right spot and getting the bait application right.

Let’s hope there are more to come before I am off home tomorrow, to spend the rest of the week with my family.

The rest of the night passed very quietly and a misty morning soon arrived, with the odd fish showing.  This was a real change from the last few days and a boost of confidence for the last few hours of my trip.

The weather had finally changed for the better (after the cold snap and very frosty mornings), the night temperatures are looking better from now on and the trees are more full of colour.  We heard the first cuckoo of the year, no signs of the swallows or swifts yet, but I am sure they will be heard by next week.

Ian is staying for a couple more nights and with the change in the weather, I think he will be in with a real chance of some nice carp.

I’m off just after noontime and it’s time to have some family fun in the sunshine with a BBQ or 2, the Easter weekend is set to be a real hot one – makes a change for a bank holiday weekend!

Until next time

Richard

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Trip 27 Carp Fishing – 2019

At my eldest daughter’s request (honestly) she wants to come fishing on the Estate Lake over the holiday, not to fish, but just to have some Daddy time.  She had taken a bit of interested in the lake since I joined and had come along to check the otter fence after the storms in early March.  She had helped to get a fair few of the sticks out of the lake which had fallen in.

We’d been for a walk…

Trip 26 Carp Fishing- 2019

I have the chance of another weekend, just as the school Easter break starts and my Dad is down to help look after the girls.  This is so I can carry on gardening and the kids don’t have to go to a holiday club.  I was on my way once the wife was home Friday night.

When I drove around the first lake to the Tower car park, I was amazed to find about 10 anglers on that lake.  I was starting to…

After walking around here yesterday, watching a good few carp who were spread well over the whole lake.  They were predominately in this area again, I put most of my bucket of pellets & boilies in this area, in the hope to hold the fish until morning.  I’m starting to feel they love this area in Spring, as it has the sunlight and avoids the through current from the stream to the outlet.

I have scattered a few 12mm Smokey and Catalyst boilies over where my bags have been placed.

        And I’m using a mixture of catalyst pellets and crushed hemp soaked in catalyst particle syrup in each bags, which with an Evo maggot cluster boosted with Catalyst.  On the other, I have two Go2 10mm Wafters white choc and a Natural Cat wafter, Ronnie Rig style with a 2oz Zipp lead, just in case I feel the need to recast without a bag.  There will be less disturbance and less likely to spook other carp in the area.

As you know, I have talked about before about observation being a key factor, and after a couple of hours, I thought it was time to check out what was going on.  There where clearly carp in the swim and the odd liner had confirmed this.  I carefully climbed a little way up a tree to give myself a better view and found after watching (for the best part of an hour), the carp were on the top, despite the very overcast day and light drizzle.  Unfortunately, coming here light in tackle it was not possible to change over to floater gear.  First job on the list when I get home I feel.  I could only seat on my chair and hope one of them fancied a feed.  By the time 1 o’clock arrived and there was only an hour left to go, it looked pretty inevitable a blank was coming my way.  By now there were a few more fish up and about.

But most importantly fishing is about learning and moving forward, which is another part of gaining knowledge about the lake.

I certainly need to do a night at some point, as they may well feed more at night and the floaters will be packed ready for my next session.

Until next time

Richard

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I arrived just after 1930 and had a drive around the lake, there was only one other person fishing.  This ruled out that area.

My big dilemma was, do I fish in the wind or at the back of the wind?  The wind still had a bit of a chill to it but it should stir the carp into feeding (well we hope so).  The first swim I looked at was very calm, it was set back in a bay but after 40 yards you would be in the full blast of the wind.  The second swim was out on a point and down the southern end of the lake, it would take the full blast of the wind.  You can’t get a bait to the south bank.  Or do I fish the back of the wind, where I had picked up some fish on the Deeper when I was out Tuesday, I didn’t catch anything then but they may still be there.  I walked into the swim and a fish crashed out over this area, I took this as a sign that I just had to stay.  The guy who had set up before me on the other point had heard fish, so you never know they may be waking up a bit.

There is a bar that heads out from the swim to about 40 yards and then drops into deeper water.  This is where I was going to place my baits and also baited up with crumbed boilies micro pellets and hemp, all had been soaked in the catalyst particle syrup for the past few days both.  The rods were set up with 3oz flat pear leads and a Ronnie Rig set up.  Both had dumbbell wafters on Catalyst and the Pink Pepper Squid and packed nicely into a solid bag of the same mixture.

And that was me all done.  Time for a brew and wait for Storm Eric to arrive, which was supposed to peak around noontime on Friday.

The night passed with no fish action.  The storm arrived and kept me awake on and off.  There was less rain than I expected which was nice.  I  struggle to catch in the rain on this lake, still don’t understand that.  My plan is to watch the lake for any carpy signs and then move 1 rod off the baited area or leave it there.  I will continue to top up the swim, as its only micro pellets and will soon break down over 24 hrs.  With a small break in the weather (well rain), I took this opportunity to rebait both rods and stick another 10 spomb over the area.  Unfortunately, I still hadn’t seen any more carpy signs, since my arrival.

Fingers crossed.  There are now 8 other anglers on the lake.  This will add a bit more pressure and hopefully get the carp on the move.

The second night has passed without a bite.  I’m feeling the conditions are improving as last night the wind carried on blowing and the temperature dropped.  This makes me feel that the back of the wind can only be the place to be and with some sunshine forecast today, that could easily bring them on the feed.  The lake has not fished that well over the winter and I feel that they will soon pick up their game.  It normally fishes very well over the winter period and you just need to be there when it happens.

I have moved the right-hand rod along the treelined bank for the last 24 hrs with a single hook bait on it.  I’ve been playing around with different colour combinations just to try and entice them a bit.

We shall just have to hope and see if the next 24 hrs brings me a carp.  Effort equals rewards or madness this weekend!

I settled into the last night and as the wind calmed down, I had a couple of carp show over my spot.  This was a real boost for the last night until another burst of wind and rain arrived, they seemed to vanish again.  Around midnight, it was all flat calm again and I sat up watching the lake until 1am but didn’t see or hear anything more.  I drifted off back to sleep no long after that.

Well, it wasn’t meant to be as they say.  The water level came up over an inch in the past 24 hrs, which can’t of helped.  Also perhaps the sudden influx of anglers.  It’s been very quiet over the winter.  But saying this, it’s been very enjoyable being back on the bank.

Until next time

Richard

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