After a short 4 days at work and the pressure set to drop, I thought a trip to a club water I fished most weekends back in spring was worth a return. Usually I do next to no night fishing between the end of June and end of August as I love my floater fishing, but mostly because I don't like mosquitoes as much as they like me! With the weather we've had this July it's knocked the surface fishing on the head on the venues I fancy most so a couple of friday nights have been spent in the bivvy swatting flies. I turned up to the lake on Friday mid-day and saw plenty of fizzers in front of the high numbered pegs. I quickly cast a few singles out with a light lead past the bubbles and wound back dropping beside them. One on a Scopex and Peach, the other on an MC Nut. I'd had success on a whittled Scopex and Peach earlier on in the spring with 2 of the 'A Team 30's' banked along with some of the other residents. With the fish still fizzing, flanking on the bottom and a few small fish showing, I was massively confident I'd get a take soon. 30 minutes passed and I saw another angler turn up opposite me psuhing his gear followed by his two dogs stopping in every other peg to have a look at the lake. I turned up to the lake with a plan for a particular peg in mind which is often a curse, but I'd fished one peg up from this swim the weekend before in the rain and had a couple of bites fishing the same overhanging tree. With only 2 other anglers on the lake I had a feeling that the guy that had turned up would jump in the swim I wanted to be in, so with that paranoia I wound in and legged it down to the swim to settle in for the night... I got the rods out, one on an MC Nut Special Hookbait bottom bait, and one on the faithful whittled Scopex and Peach pop up on a Ronnie rig. Both fishing up against an island with overhanging trees amongst a bed of pellet and 16mm GS Crab boilies. The depth is just over 3ft against the island so the darkness of the pellet and GS Crab boilies don't attract the eye of the coots or mallards so my bait and rig presentation stays set for any passing fish moving along the island margin. A few hours passed, 5 o'clock on the nose and with a few beeps and a crack of the bobbin hitting the rod I was into my first fish of the session, a nice 26lb 13oz common on the left-hand rod fishing the MC Nut hookbait on the bottom. After a few self takes I got the rod back out on the spot with another small helping of pellet and GS Crab boilies. A few hours later and the heavens opened and it began to poor down with rain, as promised with the low pressure we were getting. Just before 8pm my left-hand rod was away again with a heavier fish on the end, after playing it most of the way in under the brolly it decided to kite left hard along the margin. After getting a soaking, I slipped it into the net only to find it was the 36lb mirror I caught back in spring, so I unhooked her and slipped her back into the lake. Again, I reset the rod, put some more pellet and GS Crab back out and tried to get some sleep. After a rough night of fighting off mosquitoes, liners, raining heavily on and off and a 12lb ish stocky at 1am I wound both rods back in. I wasn't happy after I caught the stocky on the left-hand rod that it was presenting well, so I changed the MC Nut hookbait and put that back out on the spot. My right-hand rod hadn't had so much as a liner so I switched the Scopex & Peach pop up to an MC Nut Hookbait, still on a Ronnie rig as I've used this rig with wafters fishing over on Frimley and caught so I'm confident in the mechanics of the rig with more or less any hookbait. Within 10 minutes of the right hand blanker rod going out, it sprung to life with line being stripped from the spool. The fish kited right along the margin and then started swimming towards me pushing deep with a line of bubbles rising from the bottom as it tried to shed the hook. After a good scrap under the rod tip a quick rise and a row of scales along it's flank I recognized the fish instantly. It was one of the jewels of the lake and with wobbly knees, shaking hands and praying for her to stay on I managed to slip her into the net! Just that night me and a friend of mine Jack, who at the time was fishing another lake nearby were teasing each other about this fish. And I don't think either of us actually beleived it when I sent him the text saying it was in the net! He obligingly came round to do the pictures and he did a good job of it too! The big mirror was in the net and we were both buzzing as we looked into the bottom of it. The fish is ounces under 40lb at the right time of year but I'll more than make do with it tipping the scales at just over 36lbs any day of the week! After photo's and few texts went out as it was still before 7am I thought I'd get the rod back out on the right hand spot and see if my run of luck was still going for the next few hours. By this point I was scraping the bottom of my bucket to get the last few pellets and GS Crab boilies out as I had clearly underestimated the amount of bait I needed to bring! Less than an hour later my right hand rod was away again with a stocky common slipping up on the MC Nut. 9:45am and it was the left hand rods turn and after another battle under the rod tip a named 26lbs 4oz mirror swam into the block of the net. 11am came and I decided to head back home happy with the decision of moving off showing fish to make plan work.
6 bites, 6 fish and an empty bait bucket, it was time to go home...
2 Comments
Victoria
21/4/2019 01:44:15 pm
Hi, very nice website, cheers!
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