Well Spring has arrived and the next campaign is planned and nearly underway.  As I was looking back over my photos I thought it might be an idea to update my page with a roundup of the last few sessions of the winter. The first session I will tell you about was a freezing cold affair from February in which we somehow ended up at Linear Fisheries. I say somehow as it started off that Notters and I were going somewhere local and at the last minute Cully decided to join us. Well this was fine but a bit of a mare in a way as Cully lives an hour away from us in the wrong direction, has only recently passed his driving test and to top it all will not drive on the A38 on his own yet. The decision was made that we would pick him up and then travel back to our chosen fishery, long story short we picked him up and then drove back towards the A38.  However on route I made the decision that the weather was warming a little, was bob on for a fish or two to wake and have a feed therefore Linear bound we were.

On arriving at Linear we discovered both Brasenose lakes rammed as they had been fishing quite consistent where most the other lakes had been a struggle. We ventured down to Oxlease and had a look around. It was relatively quiet and on the way round we discovered why when we met Roy. The lake had only defrosted the day before and there hadn’t been a fish out for about 10 days. Rightly or wrongly I still felt we had a chance especially down the far end near Hunts and with the decision made we set about getting to the swims and getting the rods out.  As the darkness fell the temperature decided to plummet and we retreated to the warmth of our sleeping bags and hot water bottles half expecting to wake to motionless rods and a frozen lake.  As I drifted off to sleep I was thinking maybe I had made the wrong decision, well the next thing I remember was just on first light someone’s Delkim was screaming for attention and after a brief moment of ‘what is going on’ I realised it was mine. The P-Nut+ pop up fishing over the crumb and hemp was away.  After a surprisingly spirited fight (considering how cold it was) an easily twenty pound mirror was bundled in the net.  After the photos were done and the fish was returned a very happy angler set about getting the rod back out.

Now happy with the decision to fish Oxlease I sat with my cup of

coffee wondering if I should try some zigs as a bit of sun was trying to poke its head through the mist and clouds. About an hour later and just as I had made the decision to change to zigs my right hand rod (P-nut+ pop up again) tore off. Yet again this fish didn’t realise that it was freezing and put everything into the fight and as it neared the net I got the feeling this was a better fish. Well it rolled over the net cord and I could see it was another nice twenty and in fact went upper twenty on the scales.

The next session was on an intimate little local water that holds a couple of stunners that I wanted to see in my album. I had being going down and trickling a bit of Velocity NV-R and some P-Nut+ in for a week or two before I decided to have a go for them. My first session was literally going to be an overnighter after college so by the time I would get there it would be nearly dark therefore everything was prepared and in the van beforehand and ready to go. I turned up with just over an hour until darkness and barrowed all of my gear to the swim.  Through past experience I had worked out that the fish like smaller baits in here so I had brought some 10mm Hi/Lo boilies with me as they were the smallest I had at the time. These boilies are a lovely combination of a black fishmeal bait and a yellow pineapple bait, I put on two 10mm’s one black and one yellow and placed the rod on the spot. With this done I threw some crumb over the top and about 10 freebies and then set about the other rods, one with P-Nut+ and one with NV-R.  I had been there about ¾ of an hour and with all the rods set up I decided to get my home up for the night.  Just as I pulled it out of the bag the Hi/Lo rod was away and battle commenced.  After a spirited fight it rolled over the cord and on inspection I couldn’t believe that one of my target fish lay in the net, happy days.  Luckily Bob had turned up to say hello so some good photos could be taken of one of my target fish and a new lake record ghosty.

The next session was just a quick day session so I decided to go to Milemead again as it was close and my nemesis fish ‘Yogi’ still swims about uncaught by me. I had been trickling some bait in a few areas since the middle of December and the fish had really responded to it so I decided to go a bit heavier than usual (for this time of year) with the bait. It was a bit of a gamble as I was only on a day session but it paid off when my right hand rod was away and this lovely looking Linear was in the net.

This session was quickly followed two or three days later when I had a few hours spare in the afternoon on Mother’s day, I again popped down to Milemead and got the rods out for a few hours.  A few lads were on and after speaking to them and finding out nothing had been out in the last 48 hours I was not expecting much in the few hours I had. Well blow me down with a feather about half an hour before packing up this perfect little mirror took a liking to my Contrast hook bait and home I went with a smile on my face.

The last but not least session I will write about was a 24 hour affair and yet again it was a cold one with constant North Easterly winds. I walked the lake for about an hour trying to decide whether the fish were on the back of the wind or on the front of it in the deeper water.  With not much to go on I decided that they were probably on the back. I went to the van loaded the gear on the barrow and walked up to the lake to head to the far end on the back of the wind. Well it just shows that carp are fickle things because just as I went past swim one an upper double mirror rolled, I stood and watched for 5 minutes and it did it again tight to the far margin. That was enough for me and the rods were soon put together and dispatched to the far margin.   The next hour and a half was a bit manic as I managed to put 3 on the bank including a double take which was mad as I expected to struggle for a  bite. After the disturbance in the swim I decided to top it up with some bait and leave the rods out for an hour which paid off as not long after the rods had been put back out one was away again and another low double mirror was in the net.

Well that is it for now ladies and gents and I hope to have some more content in the near future for your good selves to read. I hope you enjoyed reading the catch up and until next time stay safe and enjoy it all along the way.

Regards

Arron Fisher