I had a 48hr session booked in for mid-December with my dad, and it just so happened to be one of those lovely warmer days we experienced. We went to a water that we both know well and when we arrived at 3pm half of the swims were under water due to amount of rain we had in December. This put a slight dampener on the session as the swim I wanted couldn’t be fished. We set up in 2 swims with a deep gully in front of us, as the night temperatures were going to drop down to 1 or 2 degrees. With this in mind I put 1 rig in the deep silty gully which is 12ft deep and the other was cast to a gravel bar in 8ft, I wanted to have 2 different depths to see what the fish were doing and where they felt most comfortable feeding. The rods were out by 4:45pm both baited with glugged 16mm krill bottom baits. The baits were tipped off with a fleck of colour to help the fish home in to the hook bait, the gully rod was tipped with white as I feel it’s the better colour for deeper water and the gravel rod tipped with yellow. A handful of krill boilies were scattered over the 2 spots. At 530pm my gully rod was away and after a short scrap I landed a common of 12lbs. The rod was re-baited and back out in the gully and another 8 boilies thrown over the spot. At 830pm the bar rod was off and the fish gave a better account for itself than the last fish so I was hoping it was going to be bigger. It was a 15lb common lay in the sling.

Again the same process new glugged hook baits and freebies on the spot, by now the heavens had opened and it wasn’t due to stop until 5am. At 10pm and the bar rod was away again a short while later I had another common laying in the net, I was just about to break the net down when the gully rod roared off. Unfortunately after a couple of minutes it came off after checking the hook the point had been pushed over maybe the hook caught the bony part of the fishes mouth or it hit a stone in the silt who knows but a fresh hook link was attached and put back out on the spot.  Before I did all this with the fish was weighed and released, it weighed 14lb by this time I was soaked through as I hadn’t had time to put the waterproofs on.

11pm I heard an alarm but it wasn’t mine it was my dad’s I wandered down to the next swim to see how he was getting on and he had one of the lakes smaller fish it wasn’t weighed but I reckon about 8 or 9 lbs. I just got back into my sleeping bag and the gully rod was off again, this time the waterproofs went on and I was into a better fish after it going under the other line and back over the other way the rods were untangled I had it in the net within minutes. It weighed 16lbs I was made up with the session so far only been fishing for 6hrs and having a few on the bank. I don’t normally do this but due to this rain lashing down I decided to not put the rod back out but the bait was still put out on the spot to keep them grubbing about. 2am the bar rod was away and it didn’t feel that big as it kept shaking its head left and right normally signalling a smaller fish. I was right a 11lb mirror. Same happened to this rod I re-baited but didn’t cast out, I set my alarm for 530am hoping the rain had stopped it hadn’t so I just sat up watching the water for any signs of fish over the spots. 7am arrived and plenty of tea consumed and the rain stopped but I hadn’t seen any fish I put the rods back on the spots, the weather had warmer up a lot it was now 9 degrees at 830am. I kept looking for any signs of fish activity but none, by 9am nothing so the rods came in and I went for a wander around the lake as I knew the fish were in the shallower water by now making the most of the December sun. Due to the flooded swims all the swims that I wanted were taken so I decided to move to another lake.

I arrived at the mere at 2pm, you have probably read about it in my previous articles, I know this place like the back of my hand and I am after just 1 fish out of here the fully scaled called bullseye. Due the weather still being warm all day and night we set up in the middle of the lake with depths of 5 to 6ft in front of us. My rods were cast out on spots that I have been fishing this year. My rigs were 7inch -combi rigs with a snowman, the only difference here is that I use the Vor-Tex topped with the signature pop ups in pink and white. 20 freebies were put over the top of each rod.

The afternoon and night passed without any signs of any fish or bleeps on the alarm, I woke up at midnight and set my alarm for 530am to hopefully hear something. If I didn’t I was going to up sticks and move down to the shallow end. Around 6ish I heard some carp crashing out but as it’s still dark I couldn’t quite see where they were but I knew they weren’t too far away from one of my spots. I decided to fire out a dozen more boilies over both rods due to the amount of bream in this lake. At 10am the right rod that was near the crashing carp was away signalled a slow steady take, after guiding it away from the last remaining pads the mirror was safely in the net. It weighed 15.10 after looking at the scale pattern I realised I caught the same fish 3 weeks earlier from the same swim. After speaking to the bailiff this was the first fish out of here since I last caught this fish. A brew was made and I was scanning the water for signs of fish, I decided to put both rods on the spot where I had caught the fish from to see if they were held up there. After an hour or so after I moved the rod I saw a fish poke its head out over my original spot so the rod was wound in quickly and put on the spot where the fish had shown itself. 15 minutes later the rod was off and the fish was trying to head for the pads. Keeping steady pressure the fish was out of harm’s way and playing about under the rod tip. The mirror weighed 13.8lbs a few snaps were taken and it was released back. Shortly after that fish I decided that it was time to pack up, whilst packing away the rod was away again but this time I had hooked a tufftie.

Tight lines

Andy Lyon

Lyon’s Carp Tuition