Having had a couple of carp off the top in my previous session, I pencilled in a dawn start two days later with the same set-up. On arrival, I headed straight to the far side of the lake and began feeding freebies in my chosen margin swim. After 10 minutes the odd carp was slurping under my feet, unfortunately, the seagulls had also clocked the freebies and were all over the bait, which in turn was spooking the carp. I carried on feeding tight into some reeds where the gulls couldn’t get to the bait. Eventually, after two missed strikes I hooked and landed a low double figure common.
10lb 4oz May 2017
The seagulls were wiping out any freebies, so I upped sticks and moved to a bay at the far end of the lake. This area was flat calm and had some tree cover, which I hoped would keep the gulls from finding the bait. Although the odd carp was taking the floaters, they were easily spooked. After an hour of chasing them, I managed to hook and land a common around the 6lb mark.
It was time for another move into the next corner of the lake. I began feeding the reed line to my left, which soon had a few carp competing, it wasn’t long before fish number three was on the mat. It was another low double weighing 11lb 15oz. After landing that fish I landed another two smaller commons before they spooked.
11lb 15oz May 2017
The final move of the morning session was a peg up from where I’d started and despite the seagulls being a nuisance, I managed to hook and land another small common. With the sun high in the sky, I decided to call it a day and headed home for an early lunch.
Dawn, a lovely time to be by the water’s edge
The following week the weather was due to change bringing in some mild air and some much-needed rain. With this in mind, I decided it would be a good opportunity to have my first session on one of the bigger lakes in the area after bream and tench. I’ve fished this lake a few times in the past, so had a rough idea of where I wanted to fish. Arriving just before sunrise I was surprised to see no other cars in the car park considering the conditions were favourable, in my eyes, for a fish or two. I headed to the windward bank on the lake because I’d caught well here the last time I fished it, although that was seven years ago! I set up a simple ground bait feeder down to a hair rig on a size 10. I had also brought a heavier set-up which would be baited with a 15mm boilie to be fished on the outer edge of my baited area.
For the first two hours, I cast the feeder regularly whilst feeding ground bait via the catapult. I had no bites on either corn or worm, so I changed to an 8mm pellet. After a couple of liners, I connected with the first bream of the session. However, it must have been in a shoal of its own as I fished the swim for another two hours without a bite!
It was now mid-morning with nothing to lose; I loaded the barrow and headed off around to the opposite side of the lake to a peg that had a chuck to the island from where I have caught in the past.
By now there were a few other anglers on the water; I walked around and I had a chat with a couple of them. It was nice to hear that some big tench and bream had been caught over recent weeks. The peg I wanted was free, so I set about getting some bait in my chosen spot. Again regular casting of the feeder and ground bait was fed via the catapult. Although this time my other rod was cast with a single ‘half & half’ toward the island with no other bait over it.
4lb 15oz May 2017
For three hours the tip didn’t move despite trying different hook baits. By now I was losing confidence and thinking about packing up, when a single tone sounded as the boilie rod was away. After a short scrap, a 4lb 15oz male tench was in the net. I decided to give it another half an hour so I recast another ‘half & half’ bait. When I was packing away the feeder rod the boilie rod was away again, this felt a little heavier and after a short fight, another tench was on the mat. Camera and scales sorted, this male went 5lb 10oz. Not one of the monsters of the lake, however, it upped my PB for the species so I was happy.
5lb 10oz May 2017
Fish Tales From The Riverbank 