After my epic failure at
Bluepool last weekend I was badly in need of a confidence boost and with that in mind I set off to
Roosthole hoping to redeem myself, the plan was to meet at my friends house at 07:30 and hopefully have our lines in the water by 08:00.
Roosthole is a few acres in size and the muddy water is home to many species including a large head of Carp most of which are low doubles. The water is owned by
Horsham Angling Club so I was fishing on a guest ticket, my friend who fishes the water regularly had assured me that he thought we would have a decent day....
Having never fished the water before I turned up with a selection of methods and baits at my disposal including maggots just in case things got desperate and I needed to avoid another embarrassing blank that probably would of resulted in all my tackle ending up on ebay. What I really wanted to do was fish as I had done the previous weekend to try and boost my confidence and prove I wasn't doing anything radically wrong. With that in mind I set my two rods up exactly as I had done at Bluepool with size 8 hooks on relatively short hairs fished bolt rig style, the bait of choice was once again Dynamite baits spicy tuna and sweet chilli 15mm boilies fished with a small PVA bag of trout and halibut pellets. Roosthole supposedly fishes well in the margins so with that in mind I dropped one bait close in and the other rod was cast to the middle of the lake where there is a deeper trough and I could see fish rolling.
Within 40 minutes of my baits hitting the water I had a screaming run on the rod in open water (man, do I love the type of run you get on bolt rigs), this was my first Roosthole Carp and it fought like an absolute demon which I think had something to do with the increased water temperature in recent weeks and the fact the lake had been closed for a while due to work parties. After finally getting the fish on the bank my new digital scales confirmed the fish to be exactly 10lb.
At that point the heavens opened and we were treated to a torrential downpour so I retreated under my brollie for 20 minutes and waited for it to pass.
Within 20 minutes of putting my bait out again in the same area I had another run which resulted in another Mirror of 14.5lbs (my biggest fish of 2009 so far). At that point I decided to bring in the margin rod and fish both rods in the deeper water in the middle of the lake which paid immediate dividends as for the next two hours the action was non stop with a further four fish. At one point my bait couldn't of even been in the water for a 30 seconds when I had a run whilst I was still setting up my alarm and bobbin, I'm amazed the PVA bag had completely melted in that time. The pictures really don't do justice to how thick and solid these fish were:
A few of the fish were showing some battle damage (split fins & mouth damage) from being caught so many times which was a little disappointing but the Mirror in the middle picture was fin perfect and one of the best looking fish I've caught all season.
Just as quickly as the action began it ended and I failed to add any further fish the remainder of the day but I was still more than satisfied, what a difference a week makes, six runs and six fish landed (5lb, 9.5lb, 9.5lb, 10lb, 11lb & 14.5lb). If I wasn't already a member of so many clubs I would seriously consider joining Horsham to fish this water as I'm confident over the course of a season I could catch one of the twenties that are present.
Despite fishing the same baits in the same areas my friend was unable to bank any fish, the only difference being he was fishing free running rigs as opposed to bolt rigs and unlike me he was fishing without backleads and tungsten weighted rig tubing to pin the line down. No doubt he would also be quick to point out the bites/runs he missed whilst busy photographing my fish (sorry Graham!).
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