The Sessions - May 2015

Things don’t always go to plan…

07 May – Ginger Bread Lake

For people that haven’t read my April blog I was looking for a big English spring Carp and hopefully a good bonus Tench. This lake has a good stock of 30’s and three known 40’s so I felt I had a good chance of a good one and it has the added bonus of big Tench that have a liking for boilies.

I was up at the crack of dawn and walked round the lake for an hour looking for signs of showing fish. I saw one good one while everyone else was still in their bags but unfortunately the spot was taken. It was warm and cloudy with a good westerly wind blowing down the lake, I thought the channel might be a good ambush spot to catch a fish moving through so set up in there.

After a little leading around I found a clear channel off the far margin about 5 feet deep, the margin was tree lined and looked promising so two stiff hinged rigs went on the spots with 15 baits around each. The third rod went in the near margin on a balanced tiger nut with a couple of pouch full’s over it.

I’d only been fishing an hour when on of the pop-ups rattled off and I landed a Tench at 7-13, this gave me a lot of confidence in my rig and bait so out went another straight away.

The same rod went again about 90 minutes later and I had another Tench, a male this time at 6-01. I carried on trickling bait in through the day and did have a few liners, so fish were moving through but I didn’t get any more pick ups. I packed up at 19:30 hours happy with my first fish from a new venue.

12 May – Ginger Bread Lake

I was back at the crack of dawn walking round looking for signs, when your day fishing it’s crucial to locate them before you start, you can’t catch what isn’t there.
I found fish showing over the plateau and no one was in the swim so I dropped in the “dug out”. A few casts with a bare lead showed me the weed had still not come up, so two stiff hinged rigs went out 70 yards followed by 40 freebies. The sea gulls were becoming a real pain and baits had to be fired out every 10 minutes or so when they had flown away, but I soon realised they were sat on the pylon wires watching me pick up my catapult, it was like a dinner bell…….nightmare.
I found a nice hard clear area at approx 30 yards and put a snowman on there with 20 freebies. My snowman set up was a shorter version of my Spain rig, lead clip, 2oz lead, 7 inches of 15 pound Suffix Camfusion to a size 6 Korda Krank hook, the coating on the hair peeled back to create a hinge.
My stiff hinge rig I’m still playing with…….

The preparation paid of and at 09:10 hours I had my first Carp from the lake a Common at 19-06, not big but very pleasing as it showed everything was working.

As I was slipping it back the snowman was away and I quickly landed a 5+ Tench.

I carried on trickling bait in and at midday I had another, a small stocky Mirror at 8+. While I was dealing with that a guy next to me was playing a good fish and I went to help him and was very pleased to slip the net under one of the target fish for many, Moonscale at 39-06, he was so pleased he was shaking, something I never tire of seeing and I was real happy for him.

Almost immediately I had another take but this one managed to shake the hook before I got to the rod. An hour later the other guy had another good one on but unfortunately the hook pulled as I was getting ready to net it. Then it was my turn again and I had another Tench at 8-00. We carried on till dark and had no more but it had been a good day.

15 May – Ginger Bread Lake

This was one of those days, I saw fish rolling and got in the swim and got my rigs out full of confidence. As the morning wore on the fish were rolling further down the lake so I reeled in and went to look for a swim only to find them all taken.

I carried on all day and no one had a touch.

20 May – Ginger Bread Lake

There had been loads of rain over the last couple of days and I had a feeling it would have cooled the water and knocked the fish off the feed for a bit. It was a chilly, clear morning with a little broken cloud, I arrived at dawn and spent an hour looking, the only sign of fish was bubbling in the Carpets swim so I went in there. A little leading around identified clear areas with sparse weed at 50 yards so two stiff hinged rigs went on there with 40 freebies.
The third rod was set up with balanced tigers and put under the margin tree to my left with two pouch fulls of tigers.
Almost straight away one of the pop-ups over the area of bubbling went resulting in a Tench at 6-00.

I carried on in this swim until 11:30 hours without seeing any fish. The wind changed to a strong westerly so I moved to the original channel swim in the hope I would catch one moving through on the wind but I didn’t see anything and packed up at tea time.

22 May – Fenland Pit

Another of my targets this season was a big Eel. I’d fished for them in the past and always caught plenty but the 5 pound plus fish has always eluded me. A good friend of mine Jon Hill is a member of a Fenland Carp syndicate that holds some good Eels and has done them over 7 pound in the past, so when he offered me a guest night I jumped at it and we spent a week like excited teenagers planning the session. Phone calls and emails were made planning rigs, bait and BBQ food and I soon arrived at 16:30 hours really looking forward to it.

The pit is old, mature at approx 4 acres and in the middle of nowhere. Its tree lined with a few in the water, fairly uniform depth and no weed.

My plan was to fish three rods up to 15m from the margin and work from there. Two were set up with running 2oz leads, 12 inch quicksilver hooklinks to a size 2 ESP Raptor hooks, both were baited with fresh Roach sections and flicked out. I fed dead red maggots over the baits.

The third was set up on a Dyson Rig fished 18 inches of the bottom, the hooklink was the same only it was 6 inches long with the same hook, bait was two big Lobworms.

Once we were all set and fishing Jon put on an amazing BBQ, he certainly looked after me and we ate like kings. The locals were all very friendly and all had stories of big Eels so confidence was high.

Almost like clock work we finished eating at approx 21:30 hours and the bites started. We both caught Perch on the Dyson rigs and then I had a Pike at 14+ on a Roach section.
As it got dark the Eels started to feed, a few were hooked, lots were missed. I soon worked out that the baitrunner on a very loose setting was better than a drop off and open bail arm as they seemed to like the constant pressure.

They fed until first light and then stopped, I managed to land 8 Eels but no biggies with the best just over 2 pound, Jon faired the same but it was enjoyable and I learnt lots and will definitely be back for another go.

We were standing chatting in my swim in the morning while Jon had the BBQ going cooking breakfast, luckily we were up on top of the bank as I noticed the BBQ smoking a bit and commented that he may be burning the sausages. His saunter soon turned into a sprint as the BBQ was on fire, with the gas bottle right next to it only 2 feet away from his nice new Aqua bivvy and Fox Flat liner bed chair. Fortunately we were able to laugh about it after numerous tubs of water put the fire out. Another point worth making to syndicate owners is bark in the swims, it catches fire quickly, trust me and gravel may be a better option. The BBQ will survive another day and Jon only lost the back of it.

27 May – Ginger Bread Lake

Another one of those days when I really should have caught but didn’t. I moved onto showing fish, got the rigs and bait out quietly but didn’t get a touch.

As the title of this piece says “Things don’t always go to plan”, but I enjoyed being out there, learnt lots and it makes the successful days more worth while

Tight Lines

Julian