Jon’s Blog
Friday the 13th, unlucky for some maybe, but it was my next overnight fishing trip for me and the wife.
Originally a 30 hour session was planned, but due to unforeseen circumstances this was cut short to just 20 hours of fishing. I finally managed to get to the lake around 12.30 on the Friday afternoon. After a short walk round and speaking to a few anglers there was not a lot to go on. There had not been many fish out and also there was not a lot showing for me either. I decided to take a bit more time round the back of the lake. Normally the front half of the lake is more prolific then the back half, with numerous amount of fish coming out on a weekly basis, but today I thought let’s have a look on the back. Upon reaching the 3rd swim around the back again nothing had showed, suddenly 3 fish crashed out near the opposite island. That was enough for me, so back to the car I went and proceeded to load up and head back round and set up camp for the night.
I decided that I was going to cast tight to the island, as the fish are renowned for being in the snags of this lake, and then the 2nd rod I thought I’d place in the open water after seeing a fish crash after arriving with my gear.
Once I had marked out the rods I proceeded to place them into position. My right hand rod was going 5 wraps out with an IQ2 d-rig on, with a peaches and cream 18mm wafter (mainline) soaked in bumbleberry goo. The 2nd was 8 rod lengths out to the far margin island, I’d decided I was going to have a blow back rig on this rod with a raspberry and black pepper (big hit boilies) 20mm bottom bait which had been soaked in hempseed oil. I then put 5 spods over each rod, of raspberry and black pepper boilies which I had soaked in hempseed oil. The boilies were a mixture of 18 & 15mm, which I had crushed, chopped and left some whole.
A couple of hours went by and apart from a couple of twitches on the bobbin not a lot was happening. I was not convinced about the island/margin rod. But I stuck with it for an hour or so. Again after that hour there was still nothing.
I decided to bring the margin rod in and try down the left of me, there was an overhanging tree which I felt looked really good. I had to cast past the tree as it was really a no go situation in front of the tree (really snaggy and no chance of landing the fishing). I cast out about 3 rod lengths with the same blow back rig and then put some more bait over the top. Well suddenly both rods were getting line twitches and it felt really promising.
After about an hour of the liners it went suddenly quiet, I then started to think maybe the lake is not producing and Friday the 13th was going to be unlucky. But all of a sudden my alarm went into melt down (left hand rod) it had just gone 5pm. After about a 10 minute fight (no matter what size they are they fight like mad from this lake) a lovely little 12.13lb common had graced my net. Happy days, hopefully more to come.
After sorting the fish out and a few pics the rod went back out on the same spot with a fresh blow back rig on, this time I thought I’d try a 15mm and 18mm bottom bait (raspberry & blackpepper) to try and maybe encourage a bigger fish. I catapulted about 4 lots of bait over both spots again. About an hour and a half later I was soon to be rewarded with another rip roaring take on the same rod. Unfortunately this came off just at the net. It looked like a mid double and would have also been my first ghostie from the lake. But hey ho, these things happen and it made me more determined to get some more carp in the net.
After the lost fish it went quiet again, so on went the kettle followed by some dinner. It was getting to the time when I was thinking about introducing a bit more bait, but before I had time to get the bucket and catapult the right hand rod finally ripped off, it was a bit out of the blue as it had been very quiet for the last few hours, I was even considering changing the rig just before this as well. But I’m glad I sat and waited for this lovely looking mirror to finally grace the net. Again for a 15lb on the nose it gave me one hell of a fight.
Well after sorting out the last fish and putting some more bait out, the time was coming up to 11pm, more tea had been drunk and it was a lovely night with the weather being very kind and the temperature not dropping below 15c. Time was getting on and about 11.45 me and my wife decided to try and put our head down for a bit. Well we hadn’t even been in our sleeping bags more then 20 minutes before the receiver was going into meltdown, scrambling around trying to get my trainers on and also undo the mosi mesh, I finally got to my left hand rod which was still stripping line, I eventually got the fish under control and after another good scrap it finally hit the net about 15 minutes later, again the blow back rig was working wonders. It was another lovely looking common weighing 17.03lb. Again after a few pics and a fresh rig on, out went the rod again to the same spot. What happened next was unreal, I had just put the rod back on the rest and was tighten the line up, then suddenly the line just peeled off in my fingers and there was another fish on. I could not believe what had just happened, this fish did not give me much of a fight and virtually came in straight away, another little common weighing in at 13lb. Well I must say, it was starting to be a very productive session.
Once again the kettle went back and I started to reflect on how good of session this was starting to turn into, at the same time I also realised I couldn’t bait to much more as I was running very low, so I decided it was time to take a gamble and just sit tight again and hope there was still some on the bed and I would still have some fish in the area.
It was 2.30am and decided to try and get some shut eye, no longer had I settled myself down again the receiver had a few bleeps and then screamed off once again. Upon fumbling out of the bivvy again I was hooked into a hard scrapping carp once again. This one decided to try and take me on a merry dance wiping out my left hand rod. Eventually after gaining control it finally slipped into the net. Once again another stunning looking common weighing in at 12.4lb. After sorting out the fish with a few pics, I slipped it back and redone both rods and put them back out on the same spots. Again the kettle went back on and the tea bags were starting to mound up like Mount Everest. This was truly turning into a very good session. Again I chose not to bait up in the hope of one more before morning and then possibly put the rest of bait out then, a gamble for sure, but by now the confidence was sky high.
I finally gave in again at 4.30am to get some sleep, and this time I managed just under 2 hours before I was awoken to my receiver going into meltdown once again. I shot out the bivvy and struck into the left hand rod, its was going absolutely crazy, stripping line until I thought id got it under control, but unfortunately after about 10 mins it came off, I was gutted, I know they all fight hard but this one felt very different. But that is fishing and I can’t really complain of what has happened through the session. I decided to put the rest of the bait out at this point and hope maybe one more was due to my way. Unfortunately I had a few more liners but that was it.
On reflection it was one of the best sessions I’ve had on the lake, considering not a lot had been out of the lake building up to the session. Also it was the first time I’d actually tried the blow back rig, so in all a very good session.
I have to give my wife a lot of credit as well, she comes with me and takes the pictures and also helps out a lot. She is not very well and gives me so much support in my fishing, so I’m very thankful and grateful for that.
Hope you enjoyed my 1st blog, tight lines and look out for more of my blogs.
Jon
JP Tackle.
