In search of the unknown.
I found myself looking upon 20-25 acres of untouched pristine lake surrounded by a moat and overlooked by a chateau.
This lake had been the haunting of my dreams since I first laid eyes on it, around 7 years ago, the lake is completely private and guarded day and night by guards.
However I luckily got a chance to fish it for a quick 48hr session after fixing the car of the previous head chef.
So here I was standing in front of the lake in the rain 2hours before I was due to meet with the owner for a run down on what I could and couldn’t do, where I could and couldn’t fish.
I arrived around 7am, the weather was lousy and it wasn’t due to get any better with 48hrs of solid rain fall, strong cold winds and high pressure. Nothing could take the excitement away so I marched around the lake with my umbrella in tow watching the lake like a crazed man on a mission hoping for something to give its presence away.. anything would of sufficed but nothing did show or happen.
Not deterred I found a swim I really fancied it was parallel with a bank full of snags and little bays and cut ins, it just looked the nuts!
Around 9am I had just finished my lap of the lake, as it’s very natural, trees have to be climbed over aswell as streams and marshlands navigated.
After talking with a friend he advised me not to fish on the chateau side as the owner would not appreciate it.. Of course the swim I wanted to fish was on the chateau side although out of sight of the chateau I wasn’t in the position to take liberties, so I gritted my teeth and took one of the only swims accessible which happened to be in open water near the top end of the lake.
Now this lake doesn’t get fished, it has in the past and the stories I know and have heard are the stories that haunt my dreams, so not much is known.. I spoke to staff of the chateau and they told me the silt was very deep. Apart from that I was on my own.
So I made longish soft rigs and tied it up in big solid bags with small flat leads hoping they would flutter down and the bag would parachute down landing on top of the silt as I didn’t tie the lead in the bag.
The lake wasn’t very deep averaging around 1.4 to 1.8 metres in most places with the occasional drop to 2 metres where I believe an old river bed ran through, and of course the swim I wanted to fish turned out to be the shallower end with ranges shelving up from 1.4 to just under 1 metres in most parts.
The shallower end was the only end untouched by the wind and having a session in a shallow lake the week previous with around 11 carp to show for a few hours fishing for three of us I fancied the carp to be in or visiting these areas.
My right hand rod was rigged up with around 10-11 inches of supple coated hooklink and around 4 inches uncoated and tied up withy pool style with size 4 sharp tackle wide gape hook and a blob of rig putty, around 3ft of heavy tubing, and on this I put a bright yellow pop up.
This was tied up in a solid bag with crushed UK Bait Company Pro Evo, flaked maize, corn pellets and some more crushed boilies to tighten the bag down so it exploded on the bottom.
My spod mix contained Allinpartikels hemp and mixes of tiger nuts, Maize (crushed, flaked and whole) and UKBC Pro Evo boilies crushed and whole.
This was all mixed together with a 2 tins of sweet corn and some syrups from the Tigers.
Now I was allowed as many rods as I wished, but not wanting to put unwanted pressure or let my presence too known I opted for 3 rods as I could fan these out without cutting eachother off.

My right hand rod was put around 100-110 yards towards the shallow end in 1.5metres of water and 2-3 spombs of mix. As it was the first night I fished for a bite rather than putting a bucket load of bait out, reason for this as I hadn’t found spots, it was as they had informed me, silty everywhere although not as deep silt as they had said.
So rather than fishing spots I found depths I wanted to fish and fished for a bite knowing that with no action I could try a different spot without feeling bad about having bait spots dotted everywhere.
Although it was towards the shallow end it was in no way close to the shallow end as the lake is fairly long and has trees and other obstacle kicking out from the margins stopping me from trying to go any further.
My middle rod was fished with again 3ft or so of heavy tubing coming down to a small flat lead and around 9-10 inches of supple coated hooklink tied blowback style with a small 1 inch section below the hook of uncoated hooklink and a small rig ring on a size 4 sharp tackle curve shank hook, with this I fished 2 large grain plastic corn and one small pink plastic corn with a split shot just underneath the plastic in between the hook.

This was also tied up in a solid bag and put out a short distance in front where I believe the old river bed ran through in around 1.8-2.0 metres of water. Accompanied with 2-3 spombs of mix and 20 free offerings of UK bait company pro Evo.
Now the left hand rod was roaming rod as I like to try it on all waters if permitted to use 3 rods especially in winter, so on this rod I fished a small flat lead again with 8-9 inches of coated hooklink with a single bright pop fished KD style on a size 4 wide gape.
This rod had a leader on for casting so finger stall on and I whacked it as far as my free spirit hi s ive er’s would let me, feathered it down and let it rest for the night!
I stayed up all day and night till around midnight sitting on my chair in front of the water watching the lake but nothing really showed until I got in the bag around 12:15 and something boshed right outside my bivvy in the margin, it sounded more predatory than carp but I kept confident knowing it could have been a carp and went to sleep.
Unfortunately the night was bleepless and a change was needed. I reeled in the rods at 11am as I like to take the rods out to let the fish move in unhindered for a few hours. I then dropped 10 spombs of mix on the Middle rods spot as Its the only rod that was on a feature.
In these few hours I moved up to the top bay with one stalking rod and tried my luck under a huge fallen tree for a but had nothing, so next I moved down to the shallow end and quickly dispatched a rod wig a solid bag into a likely looking area.
The shallow end was a different world with all the snags and bays for the first time since arriving I genuinely felt exceptionally confident in nicking a bite! Now there was no swims so I was using a little cubby hole inbetween and underneath trees. This meant casting was a near on impossibility.
Around 10 minutes after my rod was dispatched I watched 4 carp bosh in front of the swim I wanted to fish.. At least two different fish, a great big mirror and a mid twenty or so common. Unfortunately they were not as close to rig as I would have liked but being as the water was around 0.9-1metres deep I felt confident they were in the area at least.
I stayed there until around about 17:00 without a twitch but I did watch a further 2-3 bosh.
When I returned to the swim knowing this I really pushed it to the limits with trying to get a bait closer to them and put a bit more bait on the right hand rod hoping it would entice them as they clearly were up for a feed after watching fizzing and clouding all day.
Middle rod went back on the spot along with 5 more spombs of mix and the left hand rod was again whacked out with a single to a different part of the lake. No rigs were changed as I don’t feel it was necessary, the rigs have all worked very well in the past they were coming back untangled and not covered in silt, if it’s not broke don’t fix it!
Their was a certain feeling going into this night not so much confidence but the excitement had come rushing back since seeing carp and signs of feeding so sleeping was a difficulty and again I stayed awake till around midnight but didn’t see anything or hear anything.
The morning came around far too fast, the constant drilling of a woodpecker hitting my base camp tree thoughout the night and early morning had me in and out of sleep and the occasional bleep but nothing had changed, the lake was still calm in the early morning mist so I took out my binoculars and scanned the lake..
Everything seemed dead except the shallow end their was constant activity.. Movements under the surface layers, trails of bubbles, the place was alive so I wanted to make use of the half day I had left..
I quickly let the air out on my kampa bivvy which took about 60 seconds to completely empty and pack away in its bag. I packed everything away and onto the trolley except 2 rods, my net, my mat, camera equipment, some bait and some bags.
I ran everything to the car which was about 1km away and packed it all in then locked up and ran back to the swim with the trolley, once again packing the stuff on and pushing it though the forest until I entered the cubby hole in the shallow end.
Now one rod was simple, due to the shallowness and the silt I again did a large solid bag with the blowback rig and put this to where abouts the fish boshed the day before.
Now to the right of the swim I could see a big bar spitting about 20 metres out into the shallows, so I fished the side falling short to it with just a single pop up and a handful of bait.
I stayed their fishing till around 2:30pm constantly watching trailing bubbles and disturbance in the surface layers but nothing came of it and sadly I had to pack up and leave due to commitments at home!
This lake has got hold of me, unfortunately this time round i didn’t catch but it was a learning curve, and one that will ultimately make me better as an angler.