Last weekend my Son and I returned to the Yateley complex, upon arriving in the Car park after a two hour journey, most of which was taken up with the ferry crossing from our Island home, we found that there weren't very many other anglers on the complex, always a bonus and it meant that we pretty much had carte blanch when it came to choice of swim.
With it being so quiet it didn't take us very long to find some fish, and they were feeding in a quiet margin. I sent the boy shinning up a nearby tree to have a look and he confirmed that several good fish were indeed present and making the most of a natural larder. Being the generous Dad that I am I gave him dibs on the swim but we still continued round the rest of the complex to see if we could find any other opportunities. We toured all three lakes but the only other activity we could find was in a swim opposite where we had found the feeding fish on Match and so after much deliberation I decided to pitch up in this swim. And the lad pitched up opposite in the other swim where we had found the feeding fish on arrival. I actually found some pretty decent spots in my swim where fish had obviously fed previously and was confident that my presentation would be good.
Well the first night passed quietly for both of us though I did have several odd bleeps from the alarms, the feeding activity wasn't repeated the next day. I have often found that fish will return to a spot a couple of days on the trot to feed and I have successfully caught fish in the past on this basis but this time it didn't follow through and as we were keen to present ourselves with as many chances as we could to catch we wound in and went for a look around again. This time we found fish frequenting a couple of areas on Nursery and Copse and so we set up adjacently for the next night with me on Copse and the boy on Nursery. Now the problem with moving swims was that I had had a senior moment and forgotten the handles for the wheelbarrow! Not a clever thing to do on these waters especially for an old geezer approaching his fiftieth year! We were both shattered by the time we'd moved and I began to also realise that I wasn't feeling too good, and over the rest of the session I had a bout of man-flu come on which made me feel totally crap and certainly not in the right frame of mind for the task in hand..
Apart from a liner in the early hours for me it was another fishless night. When I checked the spot in the margin that I had the liner on it confirmed my suspicion that it had been visited by fish and they had eaten the small amount of bait I had put in and done the off and probably my rig with it!
Once again we both felt that our chance had passed and after another huge amount of effort we returned to Match but in different swims to the first night. both of us had large holes in the extensive weed beds to fish to and indeed fish were present in the adjacent weed. For once I was feeling quite confident, I found the clearer areas in the holes and wrapped the rods accurately and dispatched the baits to the areas. The boy did the same and we both settled in for the night. Once again morning broke without a fish despite my Son having constant activity in his swim. These fish really are some of the trickiest we are ever likely to fish for, add to that the constant merry go round of anglers coming and going, and the ever present thick weed and we have really presented ourselves with the ultimate challenge.
We are not however giving up, and will be returning hopefully in a couple of weeks time.
I think this time personally I will take a more static approach and work my chosen swim, the fish seem to get all over the lake and they always seem to be widespread throughout. Due to the sheltered nature of the lakes with all the tall trees around them they don't seem to be affected by the wind very much so it doesn't push them to one end or another. I think in any given 24 hour cycle fish will come past your baited area and most likely feed on it, whether they end up making a mistake and pick up your hook bait is another matter.
So in summary not the best session for several reasons not least the fact I was feeling unwell and probably made several errors of judgement. I felt I should have stayed in my first choice swim on Match, there were fish showing in an adjacent weed bed and time spent applying bait little and often may well have coaxed them out and onto the baited area. The Youngster felt the same, it's easy to get carried away and end up chasing the fish around, and there is no denying that sometimes this approach can work well but I think on these busy pressured circuit waters it can be a better proposition to sit on your hands and wait, apply bait little and often and let the fish come to you. My first instincts are normally pretty good when it comes to fish location even if there are no obvious signs. As always it's a case of fitting the pieces of the puzzle together and as we slip into autumn and winter things will become simpler rig and bait wise, the weed will die back and hopefully the picture will start to become clearer. It'll certainly be a bonus if I don't forget the handles for the barrow in future or contract a deadly man-flu virus while I'm fishing!
