It has been nearly two months since my last blog, moving house tends to screw up all of that for a bit but it is good for earning fishing points that can be banked and used at a later date. I have done a few nights on the syndicate but it still continues confuse and frustrate me with its residents being virtually impossible to suss out. They rarely show themselves and when they do they are right in the middle of one of the large areas of lily pads, impossible to fish for especially with the club rule of no fishing within 4 metres of the pads. I did have one bite which turned out to be a pike but even that dropped off at the net! I’m told that now the pads are starting to die back it may force the fish to move around a bit more so hopefully they come across one of my baits but I probably won’t be back there til after Christmas now.

I have also done a bit of angling socialising of late (get me) most notably carping for Brian a well respected  angler who has been unwell and needing treatment in the USA. As always the carp fishing world pulled out all the stops and well-known anglers such as Frank Warwick, Derek Ritchie, Les Bowers and Ian Russell were all in attendance at Farlows lake to help raise much needed funds for Brian. I also bumped into some Welsh bloke call John Flewin who had a toy helicopter with a camera on it… It was a great event and as always new friends were made in the process of helping others in need.

Two weeks ago I managed to convince my wife that I had a severe case of decorators shoulder and that my doctor had prescribed 48 hours on the bank……… obviously she agreed without question (cough). I decided to go up to Linear fisheries in hope of some easier fishing…… what a disillusioned, foolish little man I am, no such thing is there?

I had decided to fish the Guys syndicate Yeomans lake which is about 16 acres holding 420ish carp up to upper 30’s and a lake I’d never even seen before. A quick chat with the balliff told me all I needed to know, nobody was catching and it was being quite moody but there had been fish showing on the other side of the lake. Good enough for me and half hour later I was in the swim fighting for breath and sweating like a Brummie on a spelling test (one for Lee Robbins, lol). A quick plumb around soon ensured I had scared every fish within an acre back towards the baliffs end of the lake but I did manage to find a cleanish area about ¾ of the way towards the island. I was hoping that the island would provide shelter from the cold easterly wind that had started and the carp would congregate there in the slightly warmer water. I spodded out half a gallon of maggots and 15mm Code Red boilies just in case I hadn’t scared all the fish away and put two rods on it close together with 15mm baits each tipped with an evolution maggot ball. The third rod was a single bag of pellets with a high attract 15mm pop up wanged out to the island. I climbed into my bag at 8ish and a thick fog decended upon the lake making it very eerie with only the sound of an owl hooting in the distance.

I Woke up after a great nights sleep with further dream of Ms Aniston in a real tree bikini (she will be mine). I hadn’t seen or heard anything in 24 hours and talking to the other anglers as they did the walk of shame I wasn’t alone. A change of scenery was needed for the next 24 hours so I did a reccy of all the lakes on the linear complex with pretty much the same story on each one, so much for the easier fishing! I settled on Brasenose one as it looked most likely plus I could park the van right behind the swim. A dozen spods of hemp, corn and pellet, 3 rods on it with pink evolution plastics/pellet bag combos and I once again settled down for a bleepless night. At first light I was up and looking for signs, the wind had changed and was now blowing nicely from my left. I saw a couple of shows about 400 yards to my left, then at 300 yards, then at 200 yards…they were moving with the wind towards me. I quickly spodded out a large amount of bait in hope of stopping them long enough to get a bite and sure enough the middle rod dropped back. I played it nice and gently all the way to my waiting net and just as I was about to claim my prize the bloody thing dropped off! 40 hours for a bite and that mid double mirror decided to make a mug of me, ah well, rod back out on the spot, a bit more spodding and it was away again. I got this one in and looking at the hook hold I could have probably played it all week and it wouldn’t have dropped off. As I was taking a couple of pictures I noticed the fish were still showing but now a hundred yards to my right, then 200 yards, then 300 yards, quite clearly they had come through cleaned me out and just carried on following the wind.. so much for stopping them.

So that’s it for now, got the Sandown show this weekend plus some pike fishing next week. I may even try and sneak over to the syndicate for a look round and hopefully add another piece to the jigsaw.

Cheers,

Poults