Mill Lake at Stubpond - 03/05/09

Thanks to it being a bank holiday weekend I could afford the luxury of a days fishing and after meeting my mate at 9am we made our way to Stub Pond, upon arrival the decision was made for us with regards to where we would be fishing as the specimen lake was packed out and Plantation was hosting a match. Mill Lake might not be anything to look at but I've been meaning to give it a go for a while thanks to the recommendation of one of the regulars on maggotdrowning.com. The lake is almost made for matches and pole fishing as its a long thin lake with an island in the middle that you could probably almost jump half way to. After a quick walk round and a chat to a couple of other anglers plus some serious cynicism from my mate we decided to fish two swims on the far bank which have access to the end of the island nearest to the car park.

Setup was nice and simple with my Carp float rod and small waggler fished straight through on 6lb line to a size 14 hook. I also had a sleeper Carp rod with a 15mm cherry boilie fished tight to the end of the island, I wasn't optimistic of any action on this rod considering the size of the water and the average size of fish present but I'd paid for two rods so I was going to use two.

I started the day fishing maggot on the waggler close to the island and the 'far' bank and was rewarded with a small Roach every cast, not exactly what I had come for but welcome all the same. I continued tiddler bashing for maybe 45 minutes until I noticed Carp on the move in the small bay/ditch to my left where water enters the lake which meant a change of tactics was in order. At this point I decided to switch to small soft hooker halibut pellets and feed a handful of sweetcorn every cast in an attempt to bag some of the lakes resident Carp and Tench. After 15 minutes of fishing just under the rod tip my float shot under and I was rewarded with this fin perfect Mirror of maybe 4lb.

I persisted with the same tactics for the next few hours and was rewarded with two more slightly smaller Carp (one of which looked heavily spawn laden) plus a small Crucian and Tench (my first of the year). By now the clouds had cleared and the sun had made an appearance which meant the Carp were cruising the upper layers and thrashing around in the reeds in the ditch to my left so I decided to have a go at trying to catch a few off the top (my favourite type of fishing). Setup was about as simple as it gets with a size 8 hook tied straight to the line, bait was chum mixer held in place with the aid of a bait band. Now Stub Pond is about as strict as it gets in terms of rules but I still wasn't aware dog biscuits are banned there which probably explains why the Carp were so happy to oblige with a further three fish in just over an hour of fishing, all of which fought like demons in such a small area of water.

I know some waters ban surface fishing because you get idiots striking and damaging the lips of Carp which is completely unnecessary, part of the thrill of surface fishing for me is seeing that line zip away on the surface as Carp take the bait and hook themselves.

By the end of the day I had finished with six Carp (the biggest being 4lbs), one Crucian, one Tench and a selection of small Roach, not a bad days fishing and I even managed to catch the sun a little, I was a little disappointed not to have caught on of the lakes stunning Ghosties that I could see cruising the lake. My mate who was fishing the feeder (aside from a little surface fishing late in the day) was less lucky, he managed one Carp, one monster Perch and few other bits and pieces but he was also snapped up by a bigger fish.