The first weekend in March saw me down in the Cotswolds for a 24 hour trip. The weather was cold with a stiff North-Easterly breeze, but dry with a bit of sunshine. I arrived at the lake around midday and after a good look around I had seen nothing. What was apparent, was a corner of the lake sheltered from the cold wind was also receiving some warmth from the sun. With nothing to go on I dropped in there.
I fished two rods on pop-ups and one on a bottom bait with a PVA bag of S-Core crumb attached. I had crushed up some boilie and mixed it with stick mix too, then gave it a little dose of the Serum to act as a carrier for the liquid, but without putting much food in. I put three midi Spombs of this around each rod.
My chosen bait, chopped and crumbed S-Core with some added stick mix, with the addition of Serum and a trickle of boilie dip.
It was a cold frosty night and by midday the following day I had still not seen a single sign of fish. I decided to spend the last hour doing a bit a marker work for future reference as I really wasn’t feeling it behind the rods.
My next trip out was the following weekend. I was planning 3 nights in Shropshire and with the weather turning a little warmer, it was looking more promising. I happened to be driving within 5 miles of the lake on Thursday for work so I put some bait and wellies in the car and stopped off on my way home for a quick wander round.
No one was on the lake which enabled me to put a few handfuls of bait in a few different swims. I ended up putting a kilo of bait in, spread over 4 swims commanding the shallower areas of water. When I was baiting the second swim I heard a fish top to my left. I quickly made sure to mark its location and put a few baits on its head for good measure.
On Friday I managed to get away from work early so I arrived late afternoon. It was warm and sunny and with 3 anglers on, I went straight round to where I had seen the fish the day before. I put a marker out and aligned it from several swims to be sure it was in the right spot. I fished a pink pop up on that spot with a PVA bag of S-Core crumb. The other two rods were on stiff link pop ups cast to the left, with a handful of bait spread around each.
Nothing occurred on Friday night and I was up at first light on Saturday looking for fish. I saw nothing so was feeling a little despondent. On top of that, the forecast was way off and the sun didn’t materialise on Saturday, and bearing in mind I was fishing 3ft of water, I really wanted that sun out.
Early afternoon I took a wander up to the shallows. With the aid of a decent set of polaroids, I was able to make out a small patch of coloured water. I then spotted two dark shapes in the area, which was good enough for me. I went back to my swim to fetch a rod, net, a couple of PVA bags of boilie crumb, my radio (as England were playing Wales in the Six Nations) and my retaining sling just in case I got lucky.
Stalking in the shallows with one rod. One in the right spot was surely better than 3 in the wrong spots?
When I got back to the shallows I couldn’t see any fish so I flicked out a rig to where I had seen the coloured water and dropped a back lead on, leaving the rod on the ground with a loose clutch. I decided I would give it until half time in the rugby, which would be 16:45, around three hours.
I spent much of the afternoon awkwardly standing on a tree branch that just got me two or three feet higher up. I could make out 2 groups of 3 fish milling around, and most looked to be small fish for the lake at around 20lb, but there was one really wide fish out there too.
As the afternoon wore on I saw 3 areas where fish had browsed and disturbed the bottom, so it was encouraging to know that they were browsing for food. Later that afternoon I saw a cloud of silt near my rig. I kept watching expecting my line to tighten up and the clutch start to purr. I saw my line briefly twitch but nothing more. When I reeled in, my braided rig had tangled, whether this was due to ejection by the fish or it was just the way the rig landed and then picked up when I reeled in, I don’t know, but it didn’t do my confidence any good.
I decided to fish a rig to that spot overnight from my swim; it was a good 90-yard chuck. I put about 10 baits over the top and then cast the rig in, having changed over to a hinged-stiff rig after the earlier tangle. The other two rods went back to the same areas I had fished on Friday night.
I recently ordered some of the new Mustad BBS hooks to try out that have an integrated D on the back of them with a rig ring attached. Tying a few of these up made life so much easier for me, as all that’s needed is a knotless knot to the hook eye and you are done – very impressive. I’ve found them to be very sharp, but as with any hook, I like to file them so that they are ‘sticky sharp’, with the fine burrs on the metal after sharpening making the hook stick once the point has pricked.
The hinged stiff rig made easy with the Mustad BBS hooks incorporating a built in D and rig ring. Simply tie a knotless knot to the hook eye and you are away.
Nothing occurred overnight but I did see a couple of fish at long range in the morning, more in the water the swim opposite commands than mine, which was taken. The forecasters had got it right for Sunday though, and by 9am the sun was up. I decided to rebait my rigs at 9:15 and get them in position, hopefully in readiness for a few fish to drift into the shallower water and enjoy the sun. It paid off, I was away off the spot I had seen them browsing on the day before. After a brief fight I slipped the net under a lovely 29lb 4oz Mirror.
A lovey chunky 29lb 4oz Mirror.
I put the rod back on the spot and shortly after it was away again. This fish felt much heavier and my knees started to knock! I eventually got the fish on a tight line ready for netting and could see that it was a similar size to the previous fish. I slipped the net under it, a lovely chestnut fish of 27lb 8oz. Not big fish for the water, but to get 2 in an afternoon was a right result. To put it into perspective, I had 5 fish all of last season and so far this season have caught 4.
A beautifully coloured mirror of 27lb 8oz.
I needed to go to the car to get some more water so wound in and put fresh pop ups on. I wasn’t going to fish the shallow area overnight as a frost was forecast. I fished one near where I had seen the fish on Thursday and then the other two rods I cast out towards where I had seen the two shows in the morning, the swim opposite was now vacant so it was fair game. I had decided to fish one rod on a two bait stringer, one on a single bait stringer and one as a single hookbait. I was using hinged-stiff rigs on all 3 rods now so when attaching the stringer I tie it to the leader or tubing rather than the hook. This casts better, but also allows the pop-up to settle as I want it to, and not too quickly due to the weight of the stringer.
The sun goes down and I can’t help smiling with 2 fish under my belt from the afternoon.
The night was quiet and I was up at first light watching the water for any signs. I had about 2 hours fishing from fist light so if anything showed, I wanted a bait on it to try and snatch a last gasp bite. Sadly the morning was quiet with no sightings, however, it was nice to be packing up with two fish to my name; I couldn’t wait to get back out but the following weekend was a family affair, my twin daughters 11th birthday.
I managed to get out for 24 hours at Easter and was back up in Shropshire for the night. I arrived on Sunday afternoon and had no sightings to go on.
I dropped into a favoured swim on the lake that gave a good view of much of the water. I found a couple of nice firm areas about 40 yards out and fished 2 rods there. The 3rd rod was cast as a single to an area where I had seen fish show in the past. I was really hoping something would show to cast to.
Nothing occurred in the day so for the last half hour of light I wound in the 3rd rod, and rebaited and tied on a 2 bait stringer. The rod was propped against the brolly ready in anticipation of something to show. It just looked right for a fish to top on dusk, but the light faded with no signs. At dark I clipped up to a spot I had marked in my book and cast the rod to that area for the night. The weather had been pleasant in the afternoon, but by 10pm the heavens opened and it didn’t stop raining until 8am. The side of the swim had flooded and with all the cold water that had gone in I wasn’t confident at all.
I gave it until midday and then wound in to go for a look up in the shallows. The water was very coloured around the margins where rainwater had run in from the fields, however, there was one area that seemed to clear the more I looked at it. I thought that fish could have coloured the one area and then moved on so it was now clearing. I decided it was worth a few hours so I took the rods up to the shallows and cast 3 singles across the area.
I spent the afternoon in the shallows until the 11th hour when a fish showed where I had moved from!
It was about 4:30pm and I was going to pack up in an hour, just as I heard a fish top and it sounded as if it was in front of the swim I had moved from. I legged it along the bank to catch a glimpse of the ripples and to mentally mark the spot. I then went to fetch the rods and move back to where I had started, casting 2 hookbaits to the area where the fish showed, one slightly short and one slightly past, and then put the 3rd back on one of the spots I had fished the night previous. It was now 5pm so I decided to hang on until 6:30pm before packing up. Sadly nothing occurred so I packed up and made the 2 hour trip home (oh I love bank holidays), which finalised my time on the bank in March – it had been reasonably successful so I was happy with that.
