Autumn and Winter can be a difficult time on my local club water being in the Rhondda Valleys and the lake being quite deep in parts, I have fished the lake several times since I had the BIG COMMON which weighed 20lb 4oz in the Back of September without much reward only catching Bream mainly and the last Carp to come out of there was in Early October.  With me mainly doing nights only on there and turning up In Darkness my las few trips haven’t been that productive with the weather also being against me with pouring down rain big southernly gales which had ripped down trees, so it was time to decide weather to keep on at it in hope of a result or pull off till the new year. Confidence has a lot to do with my fishing and if I feel like im not fishing to the best of my abilities it was time to stand back and have a little think of what to do next. My confidence had gone from my last few sessions up the park no matter what I tried I still only managed Bream or a blank!! and then came the little thoughts that eat away at every fisherman, maybe my rigs are not presented correctly, maybe its the bait im using, maybe its the lake im fishing. All these things begin to eat away at you and its quite easy to beat yourself up and I think you sometimes end up over complicating things. My fiancée who has been with me for much of this season and is now as im writing this 37 weeks pregnant with my first baby boy suiggested we go and do a day only session over Caerphilly Moat to see if it was my rigs and to hopefully get some confidence back into my fishing for the winter months.

CAERPHILLY MOAT

The weather at this time of year is still very mild with Day Time temps of 9-10oc and overnight temps only really dropping down to jus above freezing, we decided that we would go and fish Caerphilly which has quite a few fish to go at. As we arrived about Saturday lunchtime the Sun was lighting up the one corner of the lake which had a no fishing area and a shallow margin to our right. At this time of year I believe its a lot to do with location and if you find 1 fish your likely to find them all. This swim we fished I knew very well so I fished the right hand rod fished jus at the end of the shallow margins, and my left hand rod was fished about the same distance but 40yrds to the left of it in slightly deeper water and between the 2 rods I scattered 30 baits with the throwing stick after sinking my line and chucking the kettle on my right hand rod roared off it took a moment for it to sink in what was going on!! I picked the rod up an was met with a Carp nodding its head and trying its best to get into the snags to its right, a little pressure resulted in the fish kiting out and into open water a few moments later my fiancée slipped the net under my first Carp since the back end of September and the relief and Confidence in my rigs had returned, it was a stunning low double Mirror which weighed 12lbs size wasn’t a concern for me because at this time of year Location is key and if you find 1 I believe you will find a few more, the sun was quite strong now so I think the fish were in the margins as this is the spot  it warms up fastest. The 2 rods were fished in very similar manner both with 2oz Inline leads and very long Braided hooklinks due to the silt in the lake.

Hookbaits were 15mm Viking Baits Monster Crab and Plum bottom Baits with the top and bottom Cut off so they sat flat with Yellow Rubber Corn to add buoyancy and tip the bait off with colour. Out went my right hand rod back to the spot about 60yrds out I then moved my lefthand rod closer to the one that jus landed me a Mirror as the fish may have shoaled together so I wanted 2 baits nearby as that was obviously where they were. About 20mins past by and the right hand rod was off yet again this time my fiancée who was fishing with me lifted into a little 8lb Common which she was over the moon with. Safely returned the right hand rod was pinged back out to the spot and the fish were obviously there sunning themselves so I decided to put out another 30 or so baits to hold them in this area, the next hour past with no fish then my left hand rod which had been very quiet roared off this from the start felt a better fish and gave me a good beating under my rod tips and then I seen it roll and new that this was one of the better Commons that reside in the lake a couple of nervy minutes later and I managed to slip the net under a stunning looking common the scales went around to 15lbs and I was well chuffed as the lake hadn’t been fishing really well for a few weeks and between me and my fiancée we had managed 3 fish already. The left hand rod was chucked back onto the spot which was out about 60yrds infront of me and fished with a single crushed boilie in a tiny pva bag which was tied loose to help my hookbaits flutter down and onto the silt. The left hand rod was off again within the hour this time Sam was playing the prettiest one we had which was one of the new stocking from VS the fish weighed 13lb. From then on every half an hour until we packed up the alarms were sounding we lost 2 fish with finicky takes but also landed another which was a stunning common, these takes were all on my left hand rod which was being fished into deeper water so the fish had moved out of the margins as the day progressed and into deeper water as the light faded. In the end we managed 7 takes and landed 5 of them with 4 being doubles, with the lake not fishing really well the las few weeks to catch 5 on a short afternoon session confirmed to me that in Winter fish where the sun is don’t be afraid to fish the margins keep active because if you find 1 you will find quite a few and don’t overfeed them. Find them Feed them Catch Them.