Fishing the Small Lake

Yesterday we dragged the small lake and removed loads of silt, leaves, branches and weed. Today it was time to see how it fished. The weather was lovely for the time of year and we were in the middle of a warm spell. I hoped that the water had warmed up a bit and that the fish were biting. It didn’t take long to get there as the lake is just over the road from where I live and I was able to walk there in a few minutes. I was the only one there and decided to fish in the central swim which was the one that I always fished before because it was the only accessible swim!

I took two rods, a feeder rod to see if I could catch anything on the bottom and a float rod. As is my usual practice when fishing this combination of rods I set up the feeder rod first and cast it out into a place that we had dragged yesterday and which I was hoping was weed free. Then the time for a float rod, a small waggler dotted down so about a quarter of an inch showed and a red maggot on a size eighteen hook then it was time to sit down and take a look around. The water was looking good, the only thing that I was worried about was the sun as I couldn’t find any sun cream at home which was surprising as we usually have two or three bottles around. Over the last few years I have developed some non-malignant skin cancers which have needed to be operated on and which were caused by sun damage to my skin, probably when I was a child as we all used to go out in the sun and get burnt without really thinking about it, fifty years later it came back to bite me! 

Anyway, I digress, I moved my chair to the shade and carried on fishing. After a few minutes the float slowly went under and I was into my first fish, a small tench. I have caught these before and I know that there are plenty of them but nothing very large so far. I waited for about ten minutes and another tench slightly bigger bit nothing to write home about! The fish kept coming about every ten minutes although it did drop off towards the middle of the day which is what other people have posted on the club’s Facebook page. Three tench then a roach, which was a much more definite bite then another tench then the float shot under and I could feel something a bit different on the line. I was easily able to see it as I brought it towards the bank, it was a goldfish! The body looked in good condition but the tail was suffering a bit from fin rot, still it made a change and I expect that it had been released into the pond by someone from the housing estate across the road when they didn’t want it any longer! Another tench then a little carp, possibly a crucian or hybrid, then a couple more tench before I decided to go home for lunch. 

So, a reasonable session in which I caught four species of fish although nothing very big. The tench were interesting as they have a lovely dark green colour and a habit of curling up as you try to unhook them or take their picture! I had nothing on the feeder rod, not a twitch which made me think that it is still too murky on the bottom for the fish to see the bait but I will persevere, there have to be some bigger fish in there somewhere, otherwise where did all the little ones come from? Actually I can’t make up my mind whether these are young fish or stunted adults. The lake has been neglected and weed choked for so long that I rather think that the fish have not been able to grow to full size. I have not heard of any predator fish being caught and except for the occasional heron the fish have been able to live in relative safety. One other thing that I noticed was that the traffic sound, which is very intrusive at first, fades into the background after a while and you hardly notice it, which is a blessing! Anyway I enjoyed myself and will be back as this venue is just the job when I have an hour or two to spare.