Onto a still water

To a still water it is then. I am fishing on a friend’s lake who has kindly allowed me to fish a 3 night session. The lake is around 3 to 4 acres with a good head of carp running in to the 30s. The approach was 2 rods on a lightly baited area and one rod out on a single. After walking round 3 or 4 times with nothing showing a got one of the rods out and had a quick lead around, I soon found a very likely spot on the edge of some overhanging trees. The area was almost clear just a light amount of weed in 8 foot of water. The bait was to be particles with a few boilies, I only baited very light the first afternoon and put 2 rods on the spot, one with a pop-up and one on bottom bait. The other rod was put out to another area with light weed 60 yards to my right with a chod rig. The first night was a bloody cold one with no action but I woke up to a beautiful sunrise and three quarters of the lake frozen, luckily the areas I was fishing were free from ice.

The sun continued to rise with a clear sky and the day turned out to be lovely. I re baited my area with a kilo of bait to try make something happen it doesn’t always work but with this sun warming the water nicely if they were going to have a munch I wanted to have plenty there for them. I started the day off using zigs with no joy so just after middy day I swapped back over and was fishing over the baited spot. Mid-afternoon and the middle rod ripped off, I ran down the bank to the rods and lifted in to a fish already kiting to the right away from the tree. After a good little battle I slipped the net around the first fish of the session a mirror of around 16lb.

A couple of snaps and he was back to his home, it was only 10 minutes till the same rod rattled off again this time the fight was a lot shorter and a low double common was in the net. After 2 quick takes I was confident for another but unfortunately it didn’t happen, the next take was at 7 in the morning on the right rod, the weather had changed for the worst with rain and strong winds. So it was a cold few minutes playing this fish until another common grazed the net. This one was another upper double at 17lb. As midday arrived I decided to re bait my area with another kilo but I never got another take so the next morning I did a move for the last day. I found a couple of likely areas and settled down for the day. Unfortunately I had no more action, I have really enjoyed my time on the bank the last evening I was lucky enough to have a barn owl land no more than 10 yards away from me on a post, what an experience to get so close I just wish I had the camera handy may be next time…..