Monday 1st of March 2010
Back to the reservoir and blimey it felt almost spring-like, it had been lovely during the day but the forecast was for minus 3 again overnight. I arrived at about 3pm and then left again at 3.05pm after discovering that i'd left the barrow at home, back again by 3.30, typical of me.
Back into the swim I caught from last, I stuck 200 odd Moonfruit boilies out there last night but something told me i'd over done it a bit, there still hadn't been another fish out bar mine and so it was to be two bait stringers only for this session.
It was flat as a pancake and as i'd become accustomed to I had the place to myself, the evening was stunning, a big old moon rose from behind the hills and for a minute it had me puzzled, I thought someone had set alight to the hay in one of the cattle feeders up on the hill such was the glow reflecting from it.
All remained quiet and I woke to a very heavy frost though surprisingly no ice on the water, I packed up at 7.30 am, managed to sneak a few baits out past the damn seagulls and headed for home.
Friday the 5th of March
Back at the reservoir again, the times are changing, its getting busier and people are starting to take a lot more interest in what's happening and what i'm up to, one lad set up right next to me and another casting over from the far bank, admittedly into matey next doors swim! Time for a change of tack after this session I don't hold much hope in keeping a baited spot to myself, in fact the lad next to me told me what i'd caught, when, and from where, not all exactly correct but nevertheless...
Friday afternoon was nice in spells and I stuck a zig rig out for a few hours for no reward before dropping the rigs back onto the baited area for the night, nothing occurred again and I was away home by 9am on Saturday, sorry lads no more bait for you!
Thursday the 18th of March
Right now we are talking, the wind was pushing just where I wanted it to and so I was straight back up into the first swim I started in on Monday, I managed to squeeze in on the other side of the bank this time, downside of this is that your bed is about 12inches from every Tom Dick and Harry who walks past, not nice but needs must
The wind was gusting fairly hard, 18mph was forecast, and there was a fair amount of light rain on and off though the early evening but at 15 degrees C it was an absolute pleasure to stand with it buffeting me in the face, lovely, you could smell the spring rolling in.
All rods were going close in from this swim, one either side up the edge and the other just around the bank a little bit and an underarm swing out, the wave's really started to roll in at about 5.30pm and it was really starting to look very promising.
7.20pm - The brolly (no chance of setting a pram hood shelter up on these banks) was rattling around like a good un now and there I was just thinking it had to go soon when ten minutes later it did. This one did what many of the res fish do and went flaming berserk, I have never encountered that fightlike it and many a time i've thanked god for that because on a more feature filled water you'd find yourself in trouble far too often. Some people claim its due to the deep margins but i'm not so sure, you can have them fighting in the top few feet of water for ages just powering off again and again, mental things. So after far too long for a fish of its size i'd got a nicely coloured mid double on the mat, all's good in the world again, I thank you!
9pm - This is bizarre, I just took my boots off and was about to swing my legs onto the bed when I saw something crawling along the path, looks like a bloody lizard that I thought, on with the torch and oh aye, that'll be a lizard then! I've never seen one up here in my life and can't really see what it would want to be here for but bless it's cotton socks it came along to tell me that without a doubt spring had arrived.
Nothing else happened during the night although one fish was lost over to my right, up at 6.30am, packed and away to work
Back to the reservoir and blimey it felt almost spring-like, it had been lovely during the day but the forecast was for minus 3 again overnight. I arrived at about 3pm and then left again at 3.05pm after discovering that i'd left the barrow at home, back again by 3.30, typical of me.
Back into the swim I caught from last, I stuck 200 odd Moonfruit boilies out there last night but something told me i'd over done it a bit, there still hadn't been another fish out bar mine and so it was to be two bait stringers only for this session.
It was flat as a pancake and as i'd become accustomed to I had the place to myself, the evening was stunning, a big old moon rose from behind the hills and for a minute it had me puzzled, I thought someone had set alight to the hay in one of the cattle feeders up on the hill such was the glow reflecting from it.
All remained quiet and I woke to a very heavy frost though surprisingly no ice on the water, I packed up at 7.30 am, managed to sneak a few baits out past the damn seagulls and headed for home.
Friday the 5th of March
Back at the reservoir again, the times are changing, its getting busier and people are starting to take a lot more interest in what's happening and what i'm up to, one lad set up right next to me and another casting over from the far bank, admittedly into matey next doors swim! Time for a change of tack after this session I don't hold much hope in keeping a baited spot to myself, in fact the lad next to me told me what i'd caught, when, and from where, not all exactly correct but nevertheless...
Friday afternoon was nice in spells and I stuck a zig rig out for a few hours for no reward before dropping the rigs back onto the baited area for the night, nothing occurred again and I was away home by 9am on Saturday, sorry lads no more bait for you!
Monday the 15th of March
After a brief interlude roach fishing it was back to the carp and back to the ressy for a final fling before it closed at the end of the month, after my last session it was clear that i'd had my lot with the pre-baited area as everyone else had jumped in and so it was time for a bit of tactical manoeuvring. I'd been sticking a little bit of bait into a couple of spots that I knew full well wouldn't get fished up at the other end of the lake so I headed up there when I arrived at about 3pm.
You can see why I didn't attempt this bank when it was snowing!
Rolling out of bed wouldn't be a good idea
Trouble is I just couldn't settle. There was a nice warm westerly but it just didn't look right for the area so after a couple of hours I wrapped up and mooched down the bank a bit, eventually settling back onto my old baited spot! Nowt as strange as folk eh.
The lake had been very busy at the weekend yet nothing was caught, no doubt plenty of bait had gone in so in this instance I stuck to stringers only. On casting the first rod out and tightening up the line kept pinging slack a little bit, most strange and can't say its something i've encountered before but i'm pretty sure it was bumping off fish, quite a few liners on that rod during the evening seemed to back that up but nothing developed and the other two useless bean poles weren't much help either and so 6.30am saw me packing up with a dry net.
After a brief interlude roach fishing it was back to the carp and back to the ressy for a final fling before it closed at the end of the month, after my last session it was clear that i'd had my lot with the pre-baited area as everyone else had jumped in and so it was time for a bit of tactical manoeuvring. I'd been sticking a little bit of bait into a couple of spots that I knew full well wouldn't get fished up at the other end of the lake so I headed up there when I arrived at about 3pm.
You can see why I didn't attempt this bank when it was snowing!
Rolling out of bed wouldn't be a good idea
Trouble is I just couldn't settle. There was a nice warm westerly but it just didn't look right for the area so after a couple of hours I wrapped up and mooched down the bank a bit, eventually settling back onto my old baited spot! Nowt as strange as folk eh.
The lake had been very busy at the weekend yet nothing was caught, no doubt plenty of bait had gone in so in this instance I stuck to stringers only. On casting the first rod out and tightening up the line kept pinging slack a little bit, most strange and can't say its something i've encountered before but i'm pretty sure it was bumping off fish, quite a few liners on that rod during the evening seemed to back that up but nothing developed and the other two useless bean poles weren't much help either and so 6.30am saw me packing up with a dry net.
Thursday the 18th of March
Right now we are talking, the wind was pushing just where I wanted it to and so I was straight back up into the first swim I started in on Monday, I managed to squeeze in on the other side of the bank this time, downside of this is that your bed is about 12inches from every Tom Dick and Harry who walks past, not nice but needs must
The wind was gusting fairly hard, 18mph was forecast, and there was a fair amount of light rain on and off though the early evening but at 15 degrees C it was an absolute pleasure to stand with it buffeting me in the face, lovely, you could smell the spring rolling in.
All rods were going close in from this swim, one either side up the edge and the other just around the bank a little bit and an underarm swing out, the wave's really started to roll in at about 5.30pm and it was really starting to look very promising.
7.20pm - The brolly (no chance of setting a pram hood shelter up on these banks) was rattling around like a good un now and there I was just thinking it had to go soon when ten minutes later it did. This one did what many of the res fish do and went flaming berserk, I have never encountered that fightlike it and many a time i've thanked god for that because on a more feature filled water you'd find yourself in trouble far too often. Some people claim its due to the deep margins but i'm not so sure, you can have them fighting in the top few feet of water for ages just powering off again and again, mental things. So after far too long for a fish of its size i'd got a nicely coloured mid double on the mat, all's good in the world again, I thank you!
9pm - This is bizarre, I just took my boots off and was about to swing my legs onto the bed when I saw something crawling along the path, looks like a bloody lizard that I thought, on with the torch and oh aye, that'll be a lizard then! I've never seen one up here in my life and can't really see what it would want to be here for but bless it's cotton socks it came along to tell me that without a doubt spring had arrived.
Nothing else happened during the night although one fish was lost over to my right, up at 6.30am, packed and away to work
I know what you mean about not getting a swim to yourself. I have pre baited for days and found someone in my swim when i've gone to fish it despite trying to choose locations that are hard to access and seem featureless.
ReplyDeleteNice to see a Lizard on the bank though, it just adds a nice bonus to fishing that none anglers don't get to appreciate