With the autumn season upon us & the banks getting a little quieter, I decided to set about the task of selecting my winter water. Historically a lot of the waters on my ticket tend to fish rather slowly during the colder months, but last year we acquired a Cheshire estate lake so I thought I’d give it a go. The lake itself holds some really old warriors that are around 40 years old & go to mid-thirties in weight, so the thought of landing one of these historic carp really gets me going.
Having made a few trips to the lake, I noticed that the two swims at the end of the lake seem to be the most popular. The reason for this is they have access to the out of bounds area, where the fish show quite regularly. With my angling time limited due to family commitments I thought I would choose a less popular swim to guarantee availability & begin to trickle some bait in on every occasion I visit. This will hopefullyattract a few fish into the area & get them feeding confidently.
Locating the spots on the far margin
Particle & boilie spread over a 10×5 yard area
Doing shift work & being on nights gave me the opportunity to finish work then go straight to the lake for a short 6 hour session. With the rods already clipped up & me knowing where I was heading this would save me a fair bit of time. Arriving at the lake in darkness & full of optimism I quickly but quietly began to set up, looking for signs of activity whilst completing my naked chod setup. With my temporary home setup & my rods put on the spot at the first time of asking, I settled in for a few hours sleep hoping my delkim alarm clock would ring that glorious tune.
Rods out on the spots, time for a little shut eye
Never a more welcome sight
With there been quite a strong wind blowing I was receiving a few false indications on my alarms, so I turned down the sensitivity which seemed to do the trick. In what seemed no time at all I was awoken by 2 single bleeps, I jumped out of bed extremely startled with my heart pounding. I was fixated on my right hand rod for signs of motion on the bobbin, nothing so I thought to myself “must have been a liner”. I then turned away to return to my bed, as I did I heard another bleep. I quickly turned back around to see my bobbin slowly lifting with more bleeps sounding, at this point line was very slowly coming off the spool. I rushed to my rod & lifted in to what I hoped would be a chunk of a carp, within a matter of seconds I realised it wasn’t a carp I had on the end of my line. As the fish came closer to the bank I could see it was a bream, I dipped the net & slid it over the net chord. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement, but it shows there have been fish in the swim & where there are bream there are carp. I quickly weighed the fish at 10lb 2oz then returned it to the lake.
10lb 2oz Bream
The session ended with no other occurances, so it was time to pack up & head home. There is unfinished business on here for sure & it will be only a matter of time before I get my reward, so until the next time take care & tight lines…. Ben….