Carpology

I haven’t had a great deal of time to fish recently. This is mainly because I got massively put off after having several major threats on my previous low-stocked water from the spring and early summer, just for catching a few quickly at the start of my campaign! Anyway, I can’t see myself going back it was so serious! This really put the wind up me, not only myself but a close friend of mine too, hence I lost my enthusiasm for a little while. I’d experienced green-eyed monsters in the past, but never any that went to the extent to threaten server harm on other anglers (including stabbing threats)! What’s even worse, the guy was over double my own age! The water in question I did several blogs on and I have to say, it was the only water to date that I seriously fell in love with! It was perfect and even when I left I found myself constantly thinking about it and if I wasn’t thinking about it, I was talking to my mates and the regulars about it! Rant over; I’ll leave it at that.

I did, however, manage a quick night this weekend. With the weather now starting to plummet and the wintery weather starting to kick in, I was really looking forward to it – I do love my winter fishing. I arrived at the lake with a mate of mine early Saturday morning and after a good look around nothing was seen. So I decided to set-up in an area with previous winter track record, which was near the back of the currently cold wind. Two Dynamite Baits White Chocolate and Coconut Cream boilies where presented on my standard Claw rigs, both tipped with tiny, trimmed down Avid Pink Zig-Lites. Two small bags of Tigernut Carpet Feed, maggots and worms where hooked onto the rigs before being cast to two firm silt spots in around 14ft at around 35yds range. 60 baits where then spread between the two spots in an arc to complete the traps.

The wind was cold and biting throughout the day and nothing was seen show until just after dark, when a couple where heard rolling in the near vicinity. At around 10:30pm the right-hand hanger pulled up and after a quick run down the bank to the rods, the fight was on. From the start I could tell it was a fairly small fish from the way it was handling itself. Before long the fish was wallowing in the net and it wasn’t quite as small as I first expected. On the scales she went 18lb 5oz and after a few photos she was returned.

The rest of the night was very quiet and the one fish was the only of the session, only one other was caught amongst the nine anglers on.

PIC1 - The Swim
PIC2 - 18lb 5oz mirror
PIC3 - Unknown to me, this would be my last session on the low-stocked water.