The Sessions - April & May 2020
Covid-19 ruins our Spring fishing…..
I signed off in March after having an awesome last week of the season with a big catch of flood water Barbel, I was looking forward to my Spring fishing with a proper go at some Tench and a new Crucian water, how things changed dramatically……
April 2020
Covid-19 arrived and changed the world landscape overnight, I’m sure we all thought it would go away pretty quickly in a similar way that Sarrs did in the early part of this century but not this time. We all watched China from a far and nowhere really reacted quickly enough and before long it was everywhere, we went into lockdown in the latter part of March and any thoughts of fishing were gone.
Working in the essential services I was working right through and unfortunately caught Covid-19 on 25 March and was pretty ill and off work for two weeks, it took another three to recover fully and another few weeks to get my training strength back up to some normality. Work was crazy and I was doing long hours through April and like everyone else wondering how our future and lives would change.
I’m as always a look forward person, so renewed all but one of my tickets, dropping the expensive Carp syndicate and luckily picked up a tip of some big local Crucians, after a bit of investigative work and a phone call I managed to get a ticket. I still long for a Cambridgeshire 3 pound plus Crucian and hoped to new ticket may give me one.
20 May 2020 – Fields End Fishery
Boris gave us the go ahead to start fishing again on 13 May, unfortunately for me I was on my long 10 day stretch at work so didn’t get chance until the 20th. May for me is about local Crucians and trying to get my local 3 plus, I’d made some minor changes to my rig and wanted to try it somewhere where I knew I’d get plenty of takes so drove up to Fields End for opening time at 07:00.
Fields End is a caravan park with lodges out in the fens at Doddington, it has two fishing lakes that are day ticket and can be fished by anyone. They are both full of fish with mainly Carp to mid-doubles and loads of silvers, but the bigger lake has a good stock of true Crucians that can give you a great days sport if approached in the right way. It was a warm, clear sunny day at 26 degrees with a light south westerly wind, I paid my ticket money, dipped my nets and went round to my favourite swim full of excitement after two months of no fishing.
I’d changed my mainline to 6 pound Maxima and set both up on 25g inline method feeders. I changed my hooklink from the braid to 3 pound Supplex super soft mono to a size 18 Guru MWG hook with a small piece of buoyant fake corn on the hair on one and a fake caster on the other. I wanted to go finer on the hook and hooklink and be confident with it before going back to Johnsons. I put a little hemp on the spot and mixed up my special method mix and swung two rigs out for 07:45.
It soon became evident that 3 pound was too fine, the slightest kink and the line was parting on the take so I upped it to 4 pound which seemed to do the trick. I was recasting every 10-15 minutes and topping up the hemp every hour. The fishing was brilliant and my best day on the fishery, I finished with 4 Carp to low doubles, 3 Rudd, 9 Roach and a brilliant 25 Crucians, with 12 being over 2 pound to 2-10.
I was happy with the rig and confident to move to the new lake with it.
21 May 2020 – Fox & Fields, Cambs
The new club ticket held four lakes but the one I was interested in was Fox & Fields as it held Crucians and if rumours were correct they could be what I was looking for. I’d seen photos of four in a Carp cradle, they were not weighed but the guy thought one was well over 3 pound, it was difficult to tell from the photo but was encouraging.
I went for a look round with the leading rod a few days before and found two areas I thought would be best, the weed had not come up but it was quite low being a farm reservoir. I arrived for a 07:00 start and went in a reedy corner to start with, the Carp were spawning like crazy so I fished away from that area fishing two rod lengths out on a soft bottom in approx. 3 foot of water.
I put four pouches of hemp in and fished the method feeders with fake corn over the top. I topped up the hemp every 90 minutes and recast the feeders every 15. The fishing was very different, there are no silvers so you’re just waiting for a Crucian or a Carp to pick up the bait. I had a very pretty Mirror of about 4 pound quite quickly and that was it, I didn’t get another bite all day. The Tadpoles were a pain as they were impaling themselves on the hook nearly every cast which made it very frustrating. With no silvers present I thought maggots would be a good approach so planned to bring them on the next trip.
25 May 2020 – Fields End Fishery.
The weekend had been much cooler but it had got warmer again and was forecast to be 26 degrees again with a light south westerly wind.
My sister-in-law was mad keen for fishing so I took her to Fields End for the day, we got there nice and early and got the swims I wanted. Jane wanted Carp and maybe a Crucian so I set one of her rods up the same as mine with fake corn and she put her other rod out on a pellet.
I fished my swim in the same way as previously and straight away had a double take on the first put in, I called Jane over and gave her one rod, they were both Carp so a great start for her. As it got warmer the Carp started spawning all along our margin, this definitely had an impact on the fishing as everyone was struggling. Jane had a 2plus Crucian and another Carp, I managed 6 Crucians with three being 2’s along with 5 Carp and some Roach and Rudd. Although not great fishing we had a good day out and Jane learnt lots on rigs and approach.
30 May 2020 – Fox & Fields, Cambs
Another very warm day at 26 degrees, the Carp had finished spawning so I went closer to the reeds hoping the Crucians would be there. I decided on a maggot approach and set both up on 25g maggot feeders and helicopter rigs, 4 pound supplex hooklink to a size 16 hook with two white maggots on the hook. I put four pouches of hemp and four of maggot on the spot and then recast every 15 minutes.
The fishing was again very slow, the bailiff came over for a chat and told me some had been caught but not many, he didn’t know the stock level but thought they were big, he then got a photo of a 4plus up on his phone, on inspection it was brown Goldfish, if I hadn’t seen the previous photo I may have gone home there and then.
I kept at it and then out of the blue at 14:00 I had a take that got the heart racing and another small Mirror at 4plus popped up, quickly followed by a 1-10 Crucian on the only red maggot in the tub. That was it, I fished until 17:00 without another take. Obviously I planned on red maggot’s next trip. There clearly is not a big stock of Crucians but having caught one they are there.
Until next month tight lines and be lucky 😊
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