Estate Lake Common...

12:16 Lewis Gaukrodger 0 Comments

For the last couple of seasons I have been sat eagerly waiting to cast in to the Trent on the eve of the 15^th June, however this year I have done things a little differently.

Planning the session in advance with a good friend Richard we prepared 25kg of particle baits with the aim of targeting the unknown numbers of bream and carp in the estate lake. Having never been targeted before, over the last year we have introduced just natural particles into one swim in the hope of building their confidence at feeding in a certain area. Over a year has passed since we first pre-baited and we have finally got around to organising a session to see if the hard work before had paid off.

Splitting the particle up Richard cooked up 15/20kg of bird seed with a pigeon conditioner pellet to act as a bind to allow us to ball the bait in whilst I added 3/4kg of hemp, 2kg of sweet corn and a couple of litres of CSL into the mix as well. Arriving at the swim at 10:30am we started to ball in around 10/12kg of particle bait, in an arc from the centre of the swim. Under arming the balls out to around 15 meters, we knew the bait would be falling just off the main shelf to a depth of around 12ft. Leaving the swim to rest we returned later that night at around 9:30pm and set up the bivvy and rods. With the water gin clear we could see there was a covering of weed on the lake bed, standing 6-10 inches tall, we both decided to use pop up baits to overcome this problem. I used 2 pieces of ESP Big Buoyant Sweet Corn on a size 8 Korda wide gape hook, whilst Richard opted for a fake pop up boilie topped with a piece of fake corn.

With the light fading around us we cast the rods in together trying to create as little disturbance to the swim as possible. Sitting back in the bivvy and thinking about what could be grazing over the bait, Richard’s rod roared off, striking into the fish the line went slack and he had unfortunately been bumped off. I was gutted for him as he is the one who has put the most time in to feed to the swim prior to the session. Taking the opportunity to introduce more bait we balled in 5 more grapefruit size balls of particle over the top of each rod and the waiting game began again.

The next indication we received was at 4am when Richard’s rod once again roared off before abruptly stopping and this was clearly a liner, indicating fish were in the swim. Introducing a couple more balls of bait we sat back in the bivvy and went back to sleep. However this didn’t last long and a 6:30am my rod screamed off and I lifted into a good fish. Having never fished the lake before at this time of year the uneasy feeling I had playing the fish feeling the line cutting through the weed, but the lead finally released its self and I was able to gain control of the fish. After a short powerful fight a dark fully scaled back emerged to the surface and she was soon netted. Lifting the fish onto the matt I could see she had been perfectly hooked in the bottom lip proving the rig had done exactly what I intended it to. Hoisting her off the ground she tipped the scale to 15.09, a new PB by 0.01. Returning her to the lake she recovered quickly and soon calmly kicked off along the plateau and then disappeared into the dark deeper water. There is something special about returning a fish like that back to the water knowing they haven’t been gorging on man made baits, they are as natural as you get!

With the swim disturbed we took the opportunity to introduce more bait and i adjusted my other rig to match the rig i had received the take on which was popped up around 3 inches off the bottom. I also wandered down the bank we were fishing and whilst doing so spotted a big common rolling and disturbing the silt creating heavy clouds in the water. Balling bait over this area we waited to see if anything obliged to start feeding but they didn’t.

From the session it is clear that the fish feel confident feeding at dawn and dusk and this is something that I think we will target during the next session on the lake. Hopefully by introducing bait in a more regular pattern we are also able to bring the bream into feed. Overall it was a successful session and gives us a small insight into the possibility of the carp in the lake.

To say I am looking forward to the next session is an understatement and a big thanks to Richard for the photographs and putting up with my snoring!

(I will be posting a break down of the rig and how to tie it in the next week or so)