Swim: Swim 14 (I think; far side second up).
Date: 26th October 2013.
Session Length: 26hrs 7am - 9am (+1 BST).
Weather: Based upon MET office data 16 degrees Celsius (day peak) & 13 degrees Celsius (night peak) winds up to 45mph & rain expected.
Party: Paul Weston & Richard Short (Me) with Tristan Hattersley, Mark Adams & Nic Haslem to follow.
Starting at 7 am prompt I arrived to see Paul was minutes ahead of me; just enough time to walk around the lake and drop a bucket in his preferred swim. I think I selected swim 14. We were fishing into the wind on the far end side of the lake at the deep end so had high hopes considering the potential weather forecast.
We were both baited up, swims were set up and were fishing with loose feed over before 08:00. Around 09:30 Paul had returned to his car briefly to pick up a couple more items with me covering his rods. His alarm hit monotone from the first indication; in a split second I was on his rod struck into the run, immediately Paul took over. I felt good momentarily and then kited across to the middle of the lake where Paul gained control briefly until a hook-pull decided his fate for that run. The Mainline Activ Maple 8 or Cell & Milky Toffee pop-up snowman rig was clearly drawing the fish in.
Upon discussing with the bailiff shortly after it was apparent that either the four anglers who had been fishing for 24 hours previously had not had a beep; we may be in the right place.
Paul continued to fish at mid water using CC Moore northern lights wafters as one hookbait and a Cell and milky toffee pop up snowman set up, on coated braid with last section stripped back to create a hinge against a weighted putty bead, size 6 Arma hook with a shrink tube kicker.
I, on the other hand had decided to fish margins and close to the bank areas, specifically local to either grasses / reeds. I was fishing 1 rod to my left 4ft from the ban and two rods to my right no more than 18ft out and within 4ft of each other.
I used minimal loose feed carp pellet over maggots and grated bechelan paste and fished all three hook baits with Mistral Bait 15mm isotonic rosehip and cell pop-up on a ringed blowback short soft length to bolt rig. I created a rough mix of krusha boilies and cell response pellet mixed with active hempseed groundbait to form a stick mix (tightly bound within stocking) and threaded the hook length through.
After a specimen roach appeared to have too much interest in a cell 10mm Cell hookbait around 11:00 Paul's middle stow bobbin flung off and line disappeared into the water resulting in a 10.5lb mirror on the bank; pressure off!
In my swim after getting a "lot of chatter" on all rods at circa. 13:30 my left alarm screamed off with considerable colouring of the water (quite shallow close to the reeds). After a commensurate amount of time the cracking mirror was landed and weighed in at 26.5lb
Shortly after Mark changed a rod to match the catching cocktail and within 10 minutes was satisfied to winkle a gorgeous circa. 10lb beauty.
Following the above, completing the session with a breakfast and cuppa ensures my return to this lake along with further use of the Natural Magic Isotonic Rosehip boilies.
Upon discussing with the bailiff shortly after it was apparent that either the four anglers who had been fishing for 24 hours previously had not had a beep; we may be in the right place.
Paul continued to fish at mid water using CC Moore northern lights wafters as one hookbait and a Cell and milky toffee pop up snowman set up, on coated braid with last section stripped back to create a hinge against a weighted putty bead, size 6 Arma hook with a shrink tube kicker.
I, on the other hand had decided to fish margins and close to the bank areas, specifically local to either grasses / reeds. I was fishing 1 rod to my left 4ft from the ban and two rods to my right no more than 18ft out and within 4ft of each other.
I used minimal loose feed carp pellet over maggots and grated bechelan paste and fished all three hook baits with Mistral Bait 15mm isotonic rosehip and cell pop-up on a ringed blowback short soft length to bolt rig. I created a rough mix of krusha boilies and cell response pellet mixed with active hempseed groundbait to form a stick mix (tightly bound within stocking) and threaded the hook length through.
After a specimen roach appeared to have too much interest in a cell 10mm Cell hookbait around 11:00 Paul's middle stow bobbin flung off and line disappeared into the water resulting in a 10.5lb mirror on the bank; pressure off!
In my swim after getting a "lot of chatter" on all rods at circa. 13:30 my left alarm screamed off with considerable colouring of the water (quite shallow close to the reeds). After a commensurate amount of time the cracking mirror was landed and weighed in at 26.5lb
Mark and Tris arrived and shortly after Nic arrived and managed quite a collection of decent size roach and perch on maggot and lobworm respectively before the evening set in. Tristan was pleased with a greedy perch which put a bend in his feeder rod.
The severe pre weather of St. Jude's storm rattled our bivvies through the night albeit I still managed to get interest on all three rods. Around 08:00 the next morning after a late night re-bait one of my close together baits (middle rod) screamed off to result in a 22lb mirror. On a role with the natural based boilies.
Shortly after Mark changed a rod to match the catching cocktail and within 10 minutes was satisfied to winkle a gorgeous circa. 10lb beauty.
Following the above, completing the session with a breakfast and cuppa ensures my return to this lake along with further use of the Natural Magic Isotonic Rosehip boilies.
