The weather has been dismal this winter but my fishing buddy and I have still carried on regardless through high winds and rain, freezing cold days with biting winds, and the blanks have been trying to beat us into submission!
When we saw the forecast milder spell coming over the last few days we were in no doubt the fish would feed, and though the water temperature showed a rise of just a degree that was indeed enough to trigger a feeding spell on the lake.
We were however a little surprised at the number of fish we caught over the course of two day sessions with 13 plump, hard fighting fish sporting some glorious winter colours coming to our nets topped by a winter twenty for me. The condition of the fish served as a nice reminder of why we put so much effort into our winter fishing.
A true reward for persistence and patience as we knew it would come good again sooner or later.
The temperatures are set to drop again later next week but in the meantime the mild snap is continuing over Christmas hopefully bringing the water temperature up another couple of degrees. If we can time it right once the festivities are out of the way there may be another window of opportunity.
Until next time, thanks for following the Blog and I hope you have a great Christmas!
Not the best looking Carp I've ever caught but being one of just a handful of larger residents in the lake I wasn't complaining!
The change over from summer to winter Carping can be a daunting time for many Carp anglers. The fish become harder to catch due to falling water temperatures slowing their metabolism down causing them to feed less, location becomes more difficult, and the weather becomes less conducive to being out on the bank making it harder to motivate yourself to get out there. Those are the negative points, the positive side is that once the temperatures have settled things can get a bit easier, the fish are in their best condition of the year and there are less anglers about meaning that actually there is more chance of catching them once you have located them.
I consider myself a bit of a winter specialist, preferring to do most of my Carp fishing at this time of year. Mainly because the banks are quieter but also as mentioned above because the fish look superb in their winter colours.
So how do I go about catching Carp in winter? Well the first thing I do is to look at the lake I am fishing, which way does the lake lie, i.e East / West, North / South ? where does the Sun rise and which bank will get the most sunshine and warmth? which direction does the prevailing wind blow in and which bank will be the most sheltered? Depth is also a major consideration in winter, deep lakes generally are much harder winter prospects than shallower lakes. If a deep lake has some shallow shelves or reedy areas that get the sun then these are the places I will target. Shallow waters warm up much faster than deep ones and will respond faster to the rise triggering the fish to feed in response.
The lake I am currently fishing I would say falls under the deep category and has been proving a tricky prospect since the temperatures started to drop and winter proper has set in. It is a very steep sided reservoir with virtually no shallow areas apart from the very top of the slopes right up against the bank where the water is only a foot or two deep but is not what you would call a shelf, just simply the top of the steep sloped sides. This has made it a tricky venue even when it was warmer and we found that baits placed as tight to the bank on top of the slope got us the most bites with only one fish so far coming from the bottom of the slope in 12ft of water. You would probably expect this behaviour during the warmer months but what of the winter? Where would you expect the fish to be? Well on days that are cloudy and over cast I would expect the fish to be sitting mid water in a layer of slightly warmer water they feel comfortable in, but on bright cold sunny winter days I would expect them to seek out the little warmth the Sun has to offer by being right up on the tops of the slopes, especially if there is over hanging tree cover or reeds for them to sit in.
For many winters now this has proven to be a winning formula, searching out areas of whichever lake I am fishing that offer one or more of the factors that would offer the fish a comfortable position. My most recent session on my current lake proved once again that Carp are creatures of habit and will react the same on any water and that there is always somewhere that offers you a chance of catching them.
The lake I am fishing lies in a roughly North West / South East position according to the compass, meaning that at this time of year the sun rises at the Eastern end of the South bank and swings along on a low trajectory until it sets at the Western end, so naturally the North bank gets all of this light on clear days.
Yesterday after sitting for the vast majority of the day biteless, despite the fish being evident in and around the areas we were fishing at the top of the slopes the Sun finally broke through as forecast at about 2.30pm. It was as if the fish were anticipating this happening already being resident but they were just waiting for the sun to warm these slight margins enough for them to have a feed. And this, it seems is exactly what they were waiting for as in the last couple of hours of light my friend and I had several pick ups and I managed to land a couple of fish. Considering the water surface temperature was reading 5.3 degrees by this time the fish fought like absolute animals, which was surprising considering how cold the water was and indeed when holding them for pictures it was like holding blocks of Ice, I was losing feeling in my fingers while holding them they were that cold!
It's a great feeling to land a winter Carp and this was no exception even though the fish aren't that big, the winter colours are lovely, the reward was in sitting it out in very cold conditions and keeping the faith that they would behave exactly as expected once the conditions became conducive to them feeding, The tiny rise in temperature of the marginal water once the sun came out being just enough for them to want to feed.
The challenge now is to try and catch them when they aren't visiting these areas on overcast and dull days. A little bait application should help in this respect in persuading them to pick the bait up from the deeper water at the bottom of the slopes, we may have to adapt out rigs and baits to fish on the sides of the slopes which really are quite steep, or use Zig rigs.
As I said deep waters are much more of a challenge in the winter and a virtually featureless reservoir presents its own challenges in locating where the fish want to be on any given day depending on conditions, but the rewards are worth the effort.
Myself and my Son travelled back up to Yateley again for a three night session this weekend. Being half term it was an ideal opportunity to do another longer session. This would likely be our last trip this side of Christmas but we do have another penned into the diary as soon as the festive season will allow before normality resumes in the New year.
Upon arrival it seemed the lake was pretty quiet which went against our expectations, however it seemed the reason for this was the lake had been fishing hard the last couple of weeks since our last visit which seemed to have put many off. From what I have gleaned so far this is pretty much the norm on the Match lake anyway and not to be put off we went in search of suitable swims in which to set up camp.
I had a hankering to pick up where I left off last time and decided to do a night in the bottom bay again and pending any activity or lack thereof would be prepared to move onto any showing fish. You may recall last time I felt I had definitely had pick ups while in the bottom bay but that the fish were 'getting away with it' and I had come suitably armed with a modified rig to hopefully convert any pick ups into fish. It seemed however that this time I was not visited during that first night as I had no obvious signs of activity from the alarms.
It was apparent laid there all night listening to fish ( they sounded more like cattle being thrown in ! ), crash out a few swims further up that a move was indeed needed, and so the next morning I wandered up the bank with a rod and a light lead to search out any clearer areas in amongst the still profuse weed beds on which I might present a bait in the areas they had been showing. Indeed I saw signs of fish in the thicker parts of the weed beds while having a feel around and felt confident I was making the right decision.
Having moved the house and all the gear and settled into the new swim, right hand gravelly I think it's called, fish continued to show in the general area throughout the rest of the day making me more certain I was in with a chance. Fishing the left hand rod on a Chod rig in a channel in the weed and the right hand rod on my normal blow back rig close to the Island on the right hand side of the swim on what felt like a clear spot.
What I didn't account for that evening was the way the temperature suddenly plummeted and almost certainly dropped into single figures from being in the upper teens or low twenties. It was a shock to me and I'm pretty sure it was to the fish too! Late October I have found can be a tricky time with the temperatures yo yo'ing as they do and needless to say a very quiet night followed with an odd fish showing here and there but they seemed to have moved off the area.
A warm day followed and the next night was a lot warmer, in fact ridiculously so with the air temperature staying in low double to mid double figures. Crazy weather, and it's no wonder the fish seem confused and difficult to tempt. Despite the odd fish still showing here and there they just didn't seem to be showing any obvious signs of feeding, in fact I am more of the opinion they were just ridding themselves of parasites from being laid up in the weed beds and inactive.
Quite a frustrating session to be honest, especially as my Son managed to get a take on the third morning which he unfortunately lost due to a cut off. Such a shame as he worked hard to get the fish's head down only to lose it to misfortune. He did nothing wrong, the line must have simply touched a sharp Mussel or something when under tension. I felt for him and he handled it well considering. He re set the trap hopeful of a repeat occurrence but no more action came during the rest of our stay.
To say the Match lake is a head banger is an understatement, but we will continue to persevere . All being well by the time the next session comes around some of the extensive weed will have died back and the fish should have settled into a more predictable pattern as should the weather.
To be honest I fully expected our first few sessions to be tricky so I am by no means bemoaning our luck. In fact I actually think we have done better than most having had chances on our first and second sessions on the lake. I have fished plenty of difficult waters in the past so this is nothing new. Carp fishing is a puzzle and I think we are close but need to find a few more pieces before the picture begins to look complete.
Another atmospheric Yateley morning.
After the serious stuff at the Match lake it was time to return to our little fun water this weekend. The high winds we have been experiencing with Hurricane Ophelia and storm Brian had coloured the water slightly due to the undertow created by the prevailing wind and the long narrow shape of the lake, thus stirring up the clay sediment on the bottom.
I opted to try out a rig modification I have come up with for the Match lake, and though these fish are very far from clued up when it comes to rigs It would still give me an indication as to whether the rig is working as I intend it too.
After a long slow day with little buzzer activity I finally had a take on one of the rods. I had placed this rod away from the usual areas we have been catching from in an attempt to see if I could tempt one of the better fish in the lake. After a short fight a glance in the net confirmed I had managed to score one of the slightly better residents possibly proving my theory right as to the kind of areas they preferred to feed. My test rig also seemed to be working as I intended and therefore will be being used on our next trip to the Match lake later this week. All being well if I can find some feeding fish it will be put to the true test.
The fish itself was slightly pale in colour as expected due to the lack of water clarity, but a pretty specimen nonetheless and heavily scaled on both sides.
The next few days will be spent preparing to do battle with those famous old wily Yateley Carp! Lets hope they are in a feeding mood and that my modified rig proves difficult for them to deal with!
Our Autumn adventures proper began last Thursday as we packed the car and headed off to the Ferry. Our destination being the famous Yateley Match Lake. I like many thousands of other Carp anglers have wanted to fish the Yateley lakes for as long as I can remember. I have never been a crowd follower and never will be, but there is no denying the heritage that these lakes represent in English Carp fishing history.
The lakes these days are not the same as they were back in the early days, most of the original stock for which these lakes are well known have long since gone, but they still hold some superb looking specimens from subsequent stockings and in the case of the Match lake a mere handful of original fish survive to this day. The selling off of these lakes by the previous owners CEMEX saw the lakes on the East of the complex bought up by Farnham Angling society, an open to all fishing club with a large membership and some very nice existing waters in their portfolio. This means of course that the lakes do get busy at times and the fish are under an enormous amount of pressure all year round. If you are lucky enough to be able to drop on the fish, with the right approach, there are some incredible rewards to be had.
Travelling long distances to fish for wary Carp has never bothered me, no chance of pre baiting and it takes much longer to get to know a lake and it's residents habits, but if you have a bait in the water, as far as I'm concerned you have as much chance as the next fellow. Observation on arrival is key of course and we, my Son and best friend and myself walked the Match lake and adjacent Copse and Nursery lakes looking for clues as to where we might find success. None of us expected to catch on our first session at a strange water of course and this proved to be the case, but during the next few days we learnt an awful lot which will stand us in very good favour for subsequent visits, and of course we shall continue to learn more on each try.
The Match lake is roughly 13 to 14 acres and for much of the year solid with various types of weed. A large proportion of this seems to be a cotton candy type silk weed that reaches from the bottom almost to the surface, only small areas being clearer or supporting a more normal type of hornwort or Canadian pond weed. The silk weed is nigh on impossible to fish or present a bait in and then the chances of actually landing a fish buried in this mess is probably extremely slim. The areas with hornwort also seem to be the more popular swims, as it can be raked out a lot easier than silk weed and there are clearer patches amongst it if you search hard enough. I would imagine that once the first frosts set in, ( if we get any! ) the weed might abate a bit. This is what we are banking on for the next few months anyway as it should make presenting a bait a bit easier even if the Carp feed less as the temperature drops!
Our observations on this visit led us to believe the majority of the fish were favouring the areas of silk weed, no doubt they can move through it fine and will have created underwater corridors for themselves to navigate around it, they certainly showed more regularly in amongst it than anywhere else on the lake.
Eventually after a couple of hours walking and very tired legs we all decided on out individual plots. No social session this one as we all chose very different areas to fish, so it was communication by text for the most part, sharing our findings and observations in these areas.
For my part I chose the furthest point from the car park, a small bay in the far corner which despite still containing some weed seemed to offer a fishable and bait presentable area. I won't give a blow by blow account of my findings but I did find some obvious areas that fish had clearly visited and presented two baits on those spots.
We'd been told by other anglers that it was a night water, but as always your own findings are the best guide before taking notice of what others say. My own experience on this trip would suggest this may indeed be the case as all buzzer activity was between set times in the hours of darkness. Indeed for the three nights we were there I received activity on the two baited spots on every night and only at night, the daytimes being seemingly devoid of activity or fish in the bay. Further more I am certain my baits were picked up and ejected on all three nights with the fish ' getting away with it'. the positions of the bobbins and line angles confirming this in my mind after each subsequent bleep or series of bleeps on the alarms. clearly these fish are extremely cute when it comes to dealing with anglers rigs. This is something I have taken a great deal of interest in over the last few years, rather than dismissing each bit of buzzer activity as simply liners or small fish attacking the baits. I believe on many waters we are constantly being picked up and our rigs being ejected by fish without even knowing it. This has made me pay particular attention to certain aspects of rig mechanics, constantly making adjustments until they stared to convert more of these pick ups into fish. It seems likely that despite using my normal rigs that I supremely confident in, these fish have diminished that confidence and it's back to the drawing board! I am actually not convinced the rigs themselves are at fault, more what happens after the fish has pricked itself and the headshake that causes the hook to be flung from their mouths. Heavier leads and taking the leads out of the equation as soon as possible after the rig is picked up are things that I shall be looking at for the next trip. Pick ups from these fish will be hard won and I can tell you it was very frustrating knowing I was indeed getting those pick ups but not converting them into fish on the bank!
Hopefully there will be more to report on the Match lake and Yateley in the coming weeks and months.
Part of being an angler is being more in tune with the changing seasons than most non anglers. If you are out on the bank regularly you will notice the more subtle nuances as the seasons ebb from one to another. In many ways I find this slows down the transition and allows me time to enjoy it more. It allows me to appreciate the natural beauty of things more readily and feel I am a part of it all.
We've now rolled over into October and where I live so far south we are probably a couple of weeks or more behind most of the rest of the country, but the leaves are beginning to fall nonetheless and carpet the ground in places. The daylight hours are shortening and the temperatures are beginning to show signs of waning. Bankside vegetation is coming to it's end for the year and wild flowers are going to seed. The aquatic life is at it's peak and the Carp are making the most of the abundant natural larder, building up their fat reserves for the coming winter.
Pretty soon this will all come to an end as the water temperature drops, the fish will form small shoals and settle into their winter patterns. This means more predictable feeding times and hopefully being able to pin them down in their favourite areas. If you hadn't guessed I prefer autumn and winter fishing over spring and summer. I guess you could say it suits my strengths as an angler, less bait, more precise location and tactics, a more delicate approach all round, and of course a quieter time on the banks.
This weekend produced a couple more fish for me from our current venue. The corking looking fish below and another smaller double.
Still having fun at this lake but yet to encounter any of the bigger fish, hopefully this will change as the temperatures fall and the smaller fish slow down while the need to carry on feeding drives one or two of the larger one's into our nets.
I think there will be one more session here and then we shall be heading off the following weekend for a long stay on a very special and famous water on the mainland. Whether any of the prestigious residents will be kind enough to drop their guard for us remains to be seen but as long as we have a bait in the water we have as much chance as anyone else! I am really looking forward to this one and all being well subsequent trips here over the next few months, it's somewhere I have always had a hankering to fish and I decided a while ago it was time to do something about it. In the meantime thanks for reading and keep catching!
Chris
So this weekend I decided to have two days fishing at the little local water, hoping to fill my boots so to speak! The best laid plans of mice and men however....
I started off well on the Saturday with a low double coming quickly to the bank not too long after casting out. I rubbed my hands together thinking, yes I'm in for a decent day!
It soon became apparent that this was not going to be as easy as I had anticipated, as for the next two hours or so I sat twiddling my thumbs. A south easterly breeze had sprung up whilst I was sat there twiddling and so I decided to keep an eye on the windward end of the lake, and after a while as I suspected, fish began to roll and show at that end of the lake. A quick move saw me positioning baits to showing fish and I swiftly connected with another low double. Once again I anticipated putting a few more fish on the bank. Despite continued rolling and showing the fish had other ideas! I really do think these fish are super spooky, and once you have caught one of them they go on red alert! It's bizarre because as I said in the previous entry about this lake they really haven't seen any kind of pressure and are present in fair numbers.
Anyway despite my trying very hard for the rest of the day no more fish found their way into my net.
I returned the next day to try again with my Son in tow this time. I chose to fish the first swim I had started in the previous day, even though the wind was still pushing up to the far end where they had been rolling. Son chose to fish the south east corner on the back of the wind. Once again I sat there twiddling my thumbs wondering what on earth I could be doing wrong! In the meantime Son had managed to extract his first fish from the lake having blanked on two previous attempts, to say he was pleased was an understatement!
The hours passed and still no fish for me, so I opted for a rig change on one of the rods with a shorter more supple rig and smaller hook and bait as it seemed to me they may be taking advantage of a glut of natural food in the lake and only seeking out smaller items of food. Son had banked his second fish, a lovely mid double common and was using 12mm boilies whereas I was sticking with my standard 15/12mm snowman setup.
The change of rig and bait and a change of spot eventually paid off for me and a scraper double made off with the 12mm single hookbait. I definitely feel that these fish are more oriented towards small food items as most of their diet is natural food with only a small amount of supplementary food from the owner in the form of small pellets.
We finished the day with Son banking his third and final fish, yet another small double. I guess you could say he showed the old man how to do it on this occasion!
I do feel that we should be getting bigger hits from the residents of this lake, the obvious answer being to pre bait several times a week, however I am reluctant to do this as I really like this little lake and don't want to burn out on it too quickly which is what tends to happen when I maximise on an opportunity. I know that sounds a bit weird but with only so many local waters to go at I still want to keep a little something back. We will be facing a huge challenge soon enough with our Autumn and winter target water but it isn't one we'll be able to fish as often as we'd like due to the travelling involved and the cost of said travelling.
In between trips will be spent at this little local water through the winter so I want to leave something to keep me going back. Hopefully one of the elusive larger residents will grace one of our nets on a fresh winters day!
Until next time, thanks for reading.
Life has been very stressful lately on a personal level and I have really been looking forward to getting out on the bank at the weekends. My fishing buddy and I have recently found a lovely little water where we live that is relatively unfished. The stock is nothing fantastic and is fairly high with lots of doubles and a handful, ( we think ) of low Twenties.
Nothing too serious then because the aim is simply to have fun and test our rigs and baits in preparation for a 'proper' challenge in a few weeks.
For now though this water suits my needs, it has beautiful views with open fields all around and a dramatic hillside backdrop in the distance that you can watch any developing weather fronts roll over the top of and cascade into the valley below. On our first session we were actually caught out by the effect that these 'downs' as they're known, have on the prevailing weather and we were caught in a torrential downpour with high winds and thunder and lightening crashing all around us for about 45 minutes while we both sheltered under a 50 inch brolly! It certainly adds to the flavour of the place...
The fishing you might think would be fairly easy as the water supposedly has an estimated 150 'ish fish in only a couple of acres and they don't seem to be fished for on a regular basis. However they do seem to present a challenge because they certainly aren't as forthcoming as you might imagine. So far we have applied little in the way of prebait, and to be honest I rarely bother with such extravagances these days, preferring a one to one approach on the day. The only concession to this is throwing in the remainder of the bait we have taken for the session which on a once a week basis makes little difference.
So far our efforts have yielded 13 takes over two sessions with 9 fish landed, there is a barbless hook rule on this water which we have put the 4 losses down to as the fish all came adrift during the fight which is a typical symptom of the skidding and eventual hook pull that barbless hooks lead to. The majority of the fish have been in the 10-13lb bracket with three of them reaching around 15lb. All good fun and still providing a small amount of satisfaction. We will continue to fish this little water for the next few weeks before we move on to the 'Big challenge' over the autumn and winter!
Check out the weather front in the background! ( above )
Thanks for reading and tight lines!
