I don't think I need to mention how awful the weather has been lately and how it's messed up my best laid plans. No doubt many anglers up and down the country are having their fishing totally destroyed by the recent floods and storms that have constantly and unrelentingly battered the country. I personally am sick of it, day after day.
I had planned a Roach campaign after that elusive two pounder, but the water I wanted to target for them has suffered from relentless flooding and colouring up. I didn't fish last weekend because of this as there wasn't really anything else I wanted to do, but frankly that drove me round the bend as I have a need to fish as much as I possibly can so this weekend I did the only thing I could and went Carp fishing at a water that has been unaffected by the flooding problems. The water I fished is a new syndicate that has recently been formed that I was lucky enough to obtain a ticket for. The stock of fish, while still only relatively fresh and young are exceedingly good looking, and hold great promise for the future. There are also a few original fish in the lake that have been in there an undetermined amount of time and one or two that are over twenty pounds so along with the young stock fish there is an unknown quantity about it as well as some variety to keep you guessing what might be on the end of your line.
The first session was a short five hour morning one, on what was essentially a miserable, dank and cold day, but the fish fed and I managed to get off the mark with a couple of smaller originals. I set up on the back of the wind in a corner of the lake that had some calm wind unaffected water close in as I had a hunch that a few fish might well be hanging about in the area. I haven't really baited this water as such having only put a bit in on the odd occasion, but the bait I am using has an established track record for me and is a well known classic winter catcher. Around mid morning I had a take on the left hand rod placed a few yards out in around 6-7 feet of water, the banging sensation and lack of a decent fight told me that this was only a small fish, and so it turned out to be as a small common of upper single figures came to the net.
Pleased to be off the mark the bait went back out to the same depth as before, now I'm talking about depth more than particular spots here as the lake is actually an irrigation reservoir and as such is fairly featureless in that respect, however it is very deep and I believe it is crucial to find what depth the fish are sat or prepared to feed at on the marginal slopes of the lake. And this proved to be correct thinking on the following trip the very next day. But back to this session and less than a few minutes after replacing the hook bait I received what I assumed to be a savage liner on the same rod, however after waiting expectantly for a while no takes from fish were forthcoming and so I retrieved the bait, checked it and replaced it at the same depth again. Around 1.30pm the same rod was away again and this time whatever was on the end was going crazy making some quite fast and powerful runs, telling me that this might be a slightly better fish. The water here is very clear and soon I spotted a ghost carp battling for freedom in the deep, cold water. Moments later I slid him into the net a very nice conditioned fish of 13.12lb and with a common carp scaling.
That was it for that session but before I left to do the school run I threw on a few broken boilies as prebait with a view to returning the following day for another go in the same swim.
The following day I was full of confidence having got the same swim again as well as the morning being fine and bright and calm in complete contrast to the previous day.
I placed the rods exactly the same as I had during the previous session and at the same depths thinking that with the warmer and brighter day the fish would be bound to visit the same areas. Well it turned out I had been lulled into a false sense of security, because by lunch time the wind had picked up to a considerable speed and had also changed direction to the previous day and it became quite cool. Also no runs had been forthcoming and so I had a hunch that the fish may have been sitting at a different depth. The right hand rod was moved further out and deeper down the marginal slope as an experiment to see if my feeling was right. A while later that rod received a take proving I was justified in moving it and I landed my first of the stock fish. A very handsome and heavily scaled mirror of 14.13lb posed for some pictures in the ever strengthening wind which actually made taking the shot very difficult as my brolly and all my gear continually tried to disappear into the lake because of it !
Once again the rod was replaced at the same depth as before and a short time later the alarm registered another take and another lovely looking stock fish slid over the net after a short, spirited fight. This one weighed 13.12lb
I think you will agree these are super looking fish and are typical of the fish that have been stocked here. As I said it's a new water and it is very early days yet, but hopefully with time we will have a fantastic water with some stunning looking fish of sizeable stature.
