Farriers 40

Thursday the 16th of April was the first opportunity I had to fish this year on Farriers, my syndicate water.  Farriers is a 20 odd acre gravel pit set in the beautiful cotswolds with some lovely clear waters dominated by Canadian pond weed and occasional spots of gravel and silt.

The drive to Farriers from my home takes about an hour and a half, this usually flies by but this journey was filled with nervous anticipation mainly fueled by my lack of fishing over the winter due to unavoidable work pressure.

I arrived at 7:30am and the nervousness faded and turned quickly to excitement as I did my usual routine of walking a couple of laps around the lake, scoping the areas around each available peg and noting any signs of fish activity.

I eventually settled for peg 14 because of the amount of fish activity I spotted close to the area.  Its a double peg with a relatively large deep and clear spot at 10 and a half rod lengths to the left of the peg.  This clear spot has a history of being very prolific in the past, it has produced many decent captures over the years, but in recent times has not been as productive probably because of the increased angling pressure in that area.

I had fished this spot a few times last year but never had much luck and it had never really produced for me, but my decision to pick the peg again was purely down to the signs of activity in front of me and I tried to be impartial and not let past experiences affect the choice (not always easy).

I spent an age leading around to find some potential alternative areas to the right of the clear spot. I eventually settled on a spot 12 and a half rod length to the right of me that was clear enough to present a bait.  I put a kilo of bait on each spot.  I am currently using RED BALL from First4Fishing.co.uk as its a quality product thats rarely failed me.

Regarding the rigs, I tend to stay away from complicated rigs and keep it simple.  My choice of rig was a 12” soft fluorocarbon and a half inch of supple braid tied to a size 8 gardener barbless mugger.

I put a bait on two spots, one on the main open area and another on the spot I found to the right.  I settled down on my bait bucket, looked out onto the water and thought to myself… I wonder if the Carp Gods will shine on me this session.  An hour had passed when suddenly my right hand rod on the new spot tore off.  Surely not I thought, that has to be a tench.  I ran to the rod, lent into it and soon realised that this was no tench.  After a good fight I managed to land a beautiful bar of Gold weighing in at a very respectable 32lbs.

I honestly could not believe my luck, I gave a shout out to Jason the bailiff to take some pictures and she was then quickly returned to the water and the rod put back on the same spot.  I remember feeling a sense of relief to be off the mark so quickly, the rest of the day flew by with only the occasional visit from syndicate members I hadn’t seen for quite a while.

As evening approached I applied another kilo of bait on the new spot and waited with some excitement as the area was once again showing signs of fish topping.  Around about 12:30 I had another run but after a short fight the fish ejected the hook and my chance had gone.  I quickly re organised myself and put another half a kilo on the spot as I had a good feeling that there were fish in front of me and another opportunity could come my way.

I put the kettle on and made a cup of tea (Yorkshire of course) and gathered my thoughts. I must have fallen asleep after an hour or so but was suddenly awoken by the sound of a screaming alarm which got me on my feet pretty sharpish, my heart was racing.  I once again lent into my rod, I was in.  It felt like a decent sized fish, I really did not want to lose it this time.  After negotiating a few weed beds and an angry fish I put my net under her and flicked on my head torch to get a better view in the darkness of the early morning.  My view was illuminated and I could finally see what I had landed, I could not believe my eyes, it looked like another stunning 30, she actually weighed in at 36lbs, what an amazing session I had. It was back to reality the following morning, I had to pack up but I couldn’t wait to get back to have another go at those amazing fish.

Farriers gold

It was another fortnight before I could get back to farriers, I’m not one for sentimentality but I did want to have another go on peg 14, so I grabbed  bit of luggage and went straight to the same spot only to find a friend of mine was already on there.  I asked him how his luck was and he stated that he had blanked over a couple of days and said I was welcome to step in after him as he was leaving in a few hours.

I dropped a bit of kit there and had a walk around the lake, chatting with a few friends I met while doing the lap, then it was time for me to get back to business.

I clipped my marker rod at 12 ½ rod lengths and had a few casts just to check the spot was still clear, which thankfully it was.  I did my usual kilo of bait on both spots and awaited the action, the day and night quickly passed with just a solitary tench to show for it.  Was I too hasty with my swim choice, I thought to myself.  I had one more night to go, I had to decide whether to move or keep faith in my swim choice.

By mid morning the weather had changed dramatically, the wind had picked up and the rain had set in. With the change in the weather I felt the odds had changed in my favour and so I decided to stay.  At about 11am I re did my rods and applied a little more bait.  As the morning progressed it became apparent that my choice to stay was the right one, there was clearly fish moving into my area, apparent by the number of shows.

Sure enough, at dinner time my right hand rod ripped off once more which produced a feisty 26lb male common and I quickly weighed it but didn’t bother to photograph it as it was still raining, I put him back in and re cast my rod to the magical spot once more.

A couple of quiet hours went by and bang! I was in again which resulted  in an 18lb male common which gave a very good account for itself.  It seemed like lady luck was with me I thought to myself.  A few more hours passed when around 7:30pm, Don the Bailiff turned up.  We had a little chat and he asked me if I had caught, I told him I had 2 fish and they fought like little demons.

As we spoke the bobbin on my right my right hand rod hit the top of the rod and just stayed there. My line tightened up and I could see the tip of my rod vibrating.   As I grabbed the rod I told Don that I thought it was probably a tench.  I lent into it and quickly realised… this was no tench 🙂

She fought for what seemed an age, I said to Don this must be another one of those crazy males.  As the fish got closer Don picked up my net and decided to do the honours.  She was bagged, he looked into the net and said “Bloody Hell… this is no 20lb common, Im saying nothing.”, he looked at me and grinned, in my mind I was thinking, could it be one of the big girls?

We quickly zeroed the sling and weighed her and sure enough it was a she was a beautiful deep bodied chestnut common at 41lb 10oz known as John Doe. I couldn’t contain my excitement and gave out a “battle cry” to alert the other members that I had caught something a bit special.  We did the usual photo taking and then we returned her safely to the water.  That evening I didn’t have any more action but I was still on cloud 9.  The following morning I had the laborious job of packing up, I had  to get back early but I couldnt complain as I had a dream of a session.  Once again I couldn’t wait to get back and my journey home was filled with thoughts of future adventures.

to be continued….

Anthony Tanti