Out on the bank again

Well, I went to the speccy lake a few weeks ago (11 Apr) and set up in.......yep, the LH point swim! Vic was set up in the middle swim and things looked ideal.

The weather had been cold the previous few weeks but it was supposed to be changing to warmer times. Just what we needed. I marked out a spot and spodded out a few spods of particles and boilies. While I was spodding out, I noticed that my marker float had disappeared from view.  Thinking that a clump of weed or twig had caught the float I continued to cast out a couple more spods of bait over the area. As I went to reel in the marker float I saw that the line was moving! How strange. As I continued to reel in it became apparent that something alive and extremely angry was on the end of my line!! I managed to get my gear into the margin and discovered that a pike of around 8-10lb was attached to the line. It must have been chasing a fish for dinner when it came into contact with my marker line. I managed give the rod a few shakes, undo a couple of twists until finally the pike fell off the line and back into the lake. Whew, maybe thats a good sign!!
Anyway, I put both rods over the mix and waited.

All through the day I had a few knocks and liners and an aborted take (or a run I missed!!!). I tried changing baits, casting shorter, even changing rigs but to no avail.

Vic packed up around 7 pm and I settled down in my bivvy. I had an undisturbed night, with nothing to show for my efforts. On reeling in my baits in the morning, however, I discovered that my LH rod was missing its pop up and the RH rod had been nibbled down to hardly anything - and that was a chod rig with a piece of foam that had very little foam left and hardly any pop up! Bloody crayfish again. Think I'll stick to solid plastic baits from now on, at least I'll know there will still be a bait on in the morning.

I packed up at around 13.00 and went home fishless



John

January session Thorney Weir

January 9th and a much awaited trip to Thorney Weir. Arrived at the lake late on Thursday morning with the water seemingly well up on normal levels. Indeed, some swims were unfishable so I decided on a swim on the road bank with plenty of water to fish. All set up and ready to go, I'd fished this swim before so I cast to areas I  had caught fish from in the summer. I was fishing maggot on one rod, a snowman on my second rod  and a pop up on the third, so all options covered.
Well sort of !!.
I had brought one of my converted baitboats to test and the first two rods were boated out with the help of the internally fitted fishfinder onto clearish areas, there was still large areas of weed about.
All rods out and everything set up so time to relax. There were very few people about so all was quiet. I had not seen any action out  in front but I was looking all the time. One or two more people arrived and I had a chat to those that stopped to ask the usual stuff.  I didnt have a lot to offer them just told them about a few of the swiims that were still available. Unbeknown to me there had been an article about the lake in one of the carp mags, hence the new people coming round.

       Friday  morning came with nothing coming to my rods. I was leaving them out most of the day only renewing the areas with  bait   in  the morning. Having said  that, the rod  with the popup was changed about a bit to find a spot - or not as it happened. The lake seemed to shut down, no surprise really I suppose,  just very changeable weather always seems to confuse the carp as well as us anglers, it has to be said !
       Saturday came round and a few more anglers turned up. I spoke to a couple of the bailiffs that I had got to know and was informed that a few changes were being made to the lakes which unfortunately involve a big hike in sindicate price - £270.00 to £450.00 per year, obviously the recession hasn't hit this part of Uxbridge yet !! Oh well we shall see,  still a cheap day ticket though so all is not lost.

          Russell and Tim came round to see me sunday morning  ( two mates that introduced me to French carp fishing bless em )so we spent the morning chatting and then the boys looked round the lakes and I packed away in all a typical winter session. Lots of promise but no action, still a few more sessions to get an elusive  winter carp