The weather forecast looked the same for this week as for last, one bright day followed by clouds and rain and as I don’t like getting wet I decided to go fishing today. I couldn’t go back to the river as it is seriously in flood so it would have to be one of the club’s still waters and I decided on one which I haven’t fished for a while but where I have always caught something. The only problem with it is that it is about a five hundred yard walk from the car to the swim I like to use in the end lake in a series of three. It had been a clear and chilly night so I wasn’t in any hurry as I wanted to let it warm up a bit. This allowed me to make a quick trip to the tackle shop for maggots and a visit to Tesco to fill up the car, not that I had far to go.
Back home and thinking about what gear to take, in the end I decided on everything as I didn’t know what conditions would be like at the lake. On arrival I quickly saw, wet and wetter! I loaded everything on the barrow and splashed my way across the field to the swim. I must be getting old as I had to take frequent stops to catch my breath. Either that or the muddy ground was making it extra hard work pushing the barrow! When I got to the swim I could see just how high the water was, usually there is a beach which slopes gently into the water but there was no sign of it and instead the water was halfway up the vertical bank behind it leaving me nowhere to go but in the field behind. The wind was chilly and blowing from behind and anticipating this I brought my umbrella which I tilted and pegged down to give me some shelter. I know that you are supposed to fish into the wind but on this water that is not possible as that bank is overgrown with trees and bushes and there is nowhere to reach the water so I just had to make do. My feeder rod was already set up with a lead and was soon out with a red maggot on the hook. I then had time to set up my float rod, throw in some groundbait, cast out and sit down in the shelter of my brolly.
Time passed, I altered the depth of my float to try and find the fish with no result. It was nice enough sitting in the sun and admiring the view but I wanted to catch some fish! I usually fish in fairly out of the way places but wherever I am there are always sounds to be heard. Today there was some birdsong, but not a lot, a few aeroplanes, including a big dark painted passenger plane, maybe belonging to the military and a brightly painted biplane. A buzz saw was whining away in the distance and closer by the wind was sighing through the trees. When you are outside for any time you notice the wind, when I was putting the umbrella up it was quite strong and I had to stop it being blown away but it went up and down all day. Sometimes the float was bobbing through little wavelets while at other times the surface was still and quiet. After about an hour without any success I decided to change tactics and put a small method feeder on the feeder rod but as I was changing over one of the rings came loose and was rattling up and down the line so I decided to pack it away and get a carp rod out of the bag. There are three rods in the holder and I wanted the one set up with a method feeder, I couldn’t see which one was which until I undid them and took the tip protectors off, guess which one it was, you are correct, the last one I tried. I was keeping an eye on my float while setting up the rod and this time when I looked around I couldn’t see it so I put everything down and picked up the float rod and landed a nice looking roach of several ounces. I popped him back and put out the carp rod with a buzzer and cast out my float rod again.
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The afternoon passed, there was no carp action, not a buzz, not even a line bite to give me false hope. A blue tit came and sat in the bush beside me for a while, the sun started to go down, I got chilly and as there was no action I decided to call it a day. As I was packing up I heard the unmistakeable sound of a carp slurping from the direction my crusts floated but try as I might I couldn’t see it. It confirmed what I already knew, that there are carp in this lake and that they feed on the downwind side, still no hope of fishing there though! I gathered all my gear together and struggled through the soggy field back to the car park, pausing to have a chat with another angler in the first lake who had only caught one small roach, I had lost count but must have landed around fifteen and felt smug about it! So, another session, I didn’t blank, didn’t break anything important, didn’t get tangled up and didn’t fall in! All in all a successful outing and I am hoping for another dry day so that I can go again soon.
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