Roosthole Pond - 25/06/09

Roosthole is rapidly becoming one of my favourite waters to fish so once again I jumped at the chance to fish it on a guest ticket with a mate from work. Whenever we've fished this lake before we've always arrived early and left by about 17:00, this time the plan was to meet at my mates a little later (10:30) and fish until near dark to see if the lake responded well in the evening.

Considering it was a weekday it was a little surprising to see six cars parked up on the side of the road that runs parallel to the lake, no doubt everyone had been brought out by the blisteringly hot weather that was gripping the country at the time. Thankfully for us a quick trudge round the lake revealed the swims we had success with the last few times (swims 18 and 19) were still free, better still both swims were kept nice and cool thanks to the shade of the trees.

Setup was the same as the last couple of trips, 13 foot Free Spirit X.S.E rods, Shimano Baitrunners, 15lb line, 2oz leads and short hair rigs fished bolt rig style, the bait of choice was yep you guessed it Dynamite baits 15mm spicy tuna and sweet chilli boilies which I noticed copycat Saddler no doubt in awe of my recent success was now also using. A small PVA bag of halibut pellets was attached for each cast.

In previous trips to this lake the action has been instant when dropping baits into the middle of the lake but it wasn't to be this time as I had to wait well over an hour for my first proper run, Graham on the other hand within the first hour had hooked and lost two Carp and landed a couple of snotties (Bream) which on the Carp gear needed to be within sight of the bank before we could be certain there was even a fish on the hook. Graham did manage one nice looking Bream that I generously agreed to be a 2lb fish although deep down I suspect it actually weighed 1lb 15oz and 15 drams, I just didn't have the heart to tell him.

As mentioned in previous posts whenever I go fishing with Graham our trips nearly always descend into friendly matches and by early afternoon the pressure was well and truly on as he had caught five Carp up to 15lb (the biggest fish of the day) and numerous Bream compared to my three Carp up to about 7lb plus a solitary Bream of just over a pound that had managed to pick up a 15mm halibut dumbbell boilie.

The Carp in Roosthole go like trains when hooked and at one point during the day Graham had to do an impressive impersonation of Superman whilst diving for his rod (complete with airborne chair) to stop a Carp dragging it into the murky depths. The fish took him all over the lake before managing to fight its way deep into a set of lillies and after ten minutes of trying various tactics without much success the fish became the first water skiing Carp in history as it was safely landed by hand-lining it over the top of the pads.

Despite running out of PVA (I grabbed the wrong tube when packing my kit) things picked up later in the day as I tried different things to get runs/bites, I made the decision to switch to bright visible baits to try and grab the attention of the fish and I was rewarded with two more fish on Solar 15mm pineapple and banana boilies including this pristine 11lb 10oz Common (my biggest fish of the day).

I also had a dabble on the float for about an hour with a worm and corn cocktail in the margins hoping to tempt a Tench or two but although it brought me a few bites I didn't catch any additional fish. My friend tried his hand at surface fishing with dog biscuits and came agonisingly close to adding a new personal best Mallard which if hooked no doubt the ultra competitive Saddler would of insisted on it counting towards his tally for the day.

Just as I was packing up for the day I had something happen to me that has never happened before in all my years of angling, whilst reeling in my rod at the end of the day it suddenly went solid about a rod length out, great I'm snagged, I gave the rod a couple of jerks hoping to try and free my rig and slowly the snag rose to the surface, only it wasn't a snag it was Pike that had grabbed my bright yellow bait on the retrieve. The Pike sat there in front of me for a few seconds completely dumbfounded with its big toothy grin and beady eye staring right at me, the fish was a definite double and I could see the boilie hanging from the side of its chops so it was hooked cleanly in the scissors, I might just get this thing in!. Sadly it wasn't to be as the Pike suddenly realised what was going on and took off, despite it being 'on' for the best part of a minute the hook finally pulled and I was left with nothing but a churned up swim.

By the end of the day I had managed five Carp and a solitary Bream compared to Graham's well deserved eight Carp and five Bream which meant the current score in the Seymour/Saddler World Championship Of Mediocre Angling now stood at 2-1 to the young challenger (me!) not that either of us is really keeping count.......honest.

Wilderness - 21/06/09

I had originally planned a session for Tench at Readers but because of a late night at the Dukes Head I could only manage to roll out of bed for 10am which meant a session at the ever productive Wilderness was a better bet.

By the time I got to the lakes it was midday and the car park was almost completely full, awesome, fortunately for me everyone was on the middle lake which meant I had the large lake all to myself. I wandered down to my favourite swim at the shallower end of the lake and took shade from the baking hot sun in the shadow of the viaduct bridge. I've fished this lake ever since I was a kid and for as long as I can remember it has always been a fantastic water for surface fishing so that was the plan today especially with numerous Carp visibly cruising around the lake.


Setup was nice and simple with my trusty 13ft Drennan Carp float rod, a Shimano reel loaded with 6lb line, a small bright red bubble float and a size 8 barbless specimen hook, the bait of choice was chum mixers held on the hook with bait bands but I'd also brought some 10mm pineapple popup boilies to try. I could of got away with not using the bubble float as I was only fishing a few rod lengths out but because I was fishing near lilly pads combined with the fact that the action is always hectic at Wilderness I thought it best for instant indication.

I don't think my bait had been in the water for more than three minutes before I hooked my first fish of the day and after a spirited scrap I was rewarded with a small Mirror of about 1.5lbs which is typical of the sort of fish in this lake.

Needless to say it was non stop from that point on, I fished for a further two hours and managed five more common Carp with the biggest being about 2lbs. My only issue was with my new batch of dog biscuits as Pedigree has loaded the new ones with so much meat for the benefit of our canine friends that after a short while they tend to sink, I had to resort to tipping my bait off with a bit of fake corn to keep it afloat, it didn't deter the suicidal Carp of Wilderness but it may be an issue elsewhere.

I had less success with the 10mm pineapple boilies which I tried by super gluing onto the shank of the hook, I even chucked a couple of freebies in to see if it was my presentation but they weren't interested in those either, as soon as I switched back to dog biscuits the water would start bubbling again like a jacuzzi as the Carp fought amongst themselves to get to bait.

Bearing in mind Wilderness is the stuff of legends when it comes to anglers tales about Carp being caught on bare hooks or being scooped out the water merely with landing nets I'm amazed I'd actually managed to find a bait that they weren't interested in.

Roosthole Pond - 07/06/09

After our successful trip to Roosthole in Horsham a few weeks back another trip was in order to try and catch that elusive twenty that is rapidly becoming an obsession for me, the plan was to meet at Grahams at 07:30 and hopefully be fishing by 08:00. The weather wasn't great when I left Grinstead as it was chucking it down with thunder and lightening (very very frightening!) but by the time I got to Horsham twenty minutes later the weather was almost tropical with blue skies and sunshine.

When we arrived at the lake it was a surprise to see only a couple of other anglers present so we jumped straight into the swims we fished last time. Setup was exactly the same as I've been fishing the past few trips (3.25lb Free Spirit X.S.E rods, 15lb line and bolt rigs with short hairs) and as usual I opted for the old favourite Dynamite 15mm spicy tuna and sweet chilli bollies (I might have to start buying these in bulk) fished in conjunction with a small PVA bag of trout and halibut pellets. Roosthole supposedly responds well to margin fishing but last time we were here I caught all my fish from the channel that runs down the middle of the lake so the plan was to do exactly the same.

To say Graham is competitive would be the understatement of the century as every time we go fishing our days rapidly descend into mini matches, all good fun and worth the banter, both of us pretend we don't care but I think both of us are secretly desperate to better the other. I hadn't even managed to get my second rod setup before Graham (or should that be Bob Nudd?) was into his first Carp of the day so the gauntlet was definitely down and the pressure on!. The first couple of hours were pretty frantic with both of us catching two Carp, none were huge but all fought like demons and then just like last time the lake suddenly went quiet for a couple of hours.

Around about 13:00 whilst chatting to the bailiff I had an absolute storming run that not only stripped took line via the baitrunner but also pulled the line clean out of the bobbin, after a good scrap I was rewarded with this cracking looking 13lb Mirror.

Throughout the rest of the day we both managed a few more fish including a couple of the oddest looking Carp you could ever seen, they had no length whatsoever and were as deep as were long. Originally I thought they might be F2's but they guys on maggotdrowning.com seem to think they are normal Mirrors of the 'Simmo' strain. My fish didn't weigh a lot but it was the shape of a saucepan lid.

Graham's fish was a much more impressive 13.5lb and he did well to keep the dustbin lid shaped Carp out of the pads in his swim, no doubt the beast had been drawn into his swim by the PVA potato sacks of pellets he had been using all day. With about an hour to go and despite a monster tangle that meant I had to setup both my rods again we had both managed five fish a piece so a diplomatic draw looked on the cards not that either of us was really keeping score.

I'm a firm believer in quality always shining through and two more runs on my rods resulted in two more fish on the bank to give me seven fish for the day up to 13lb, Graham managed five fish but his 13.5lber was the biggest and without doubt the nicest looking and toughest fighting fish of the day.

Overall an excellent days fishing in the sunshine with good company and plenty of laughs.

Thorpe Lea - 05/06/09

I've been itching to fish Thorpe Lea ever since I read about it on maggotdrowning.com, I'm relatively new to Carp fishing and still trying to catch my first twenty and this place supposedly has stacks of them. With that in mind I'd arranged to do a 24 hour session there with a mate from work immediately after we finished our shift on Friday afternoon.

When we arrived at the lake we had a quick walk round and chat to the bailiff who confirmed the fish had spawned but that it still wasn't fishing great, we could see plenty of fish rolling in the middle of the lake close to the bar that runs between the islands so my mate opted for swim 11 and I went for unlucky 13...

Thorpe Lea might be a lovely looking lake with a reputation for great fishing but it has far too many swims and a lot of them are angled towards each other which makes casting a nightmare, my mate was fishing straight out of his swim but his leads were landing in front of me two swims along!, not good when you are fishing at night and expecting big fish.

The setup was exactly as I had fished at Bluepool and Roosthole (3.25lb Free Spirit X.S.E rods, 15lb line and bolt rigs with short hairs) the baits of choice were a 10mm Mainline pineapple popup on one rod (a tip from the bailiff) and a 15mm Dynamite spicy tuna and sweet chillie bollie on the other, I've caught so many fish on the latter recently that it's rapidly becoming the first bait I reach for.

Just as I was baiting up my second rod my mate wandered over for a chat and managed to trip over my line which buried the barbed size 6 hook I was holding deep into my finger, my reaction was more of shock than anything else as there was no pain and no blood.

I managed to pull it back to the barb but despite much tugging there was no way I was getting this bad boy out of my finger which meant a visit to the hospital was in order. To cut a long story short my mate dropped me off at the hospital and returned to the lake to carry on fishing (I insisted), two hours later with the hook removed, a tetanus shot and much laughter from the girl in the hospital reception I got a cab back to the lake to see my friend had already managed a 12lb Mirror out of my swim on my rod, the cheeky poacher!

By this time the guy in swim 15 who had been kind enough to keep an eye on our gear whilst at the hospital was packing up so I decided to jump into his swim to give me more casting room. I whacked both rods out to just shy of the bar where the water was bubbling like a jacuzzi with fish activity and started to setup my bivvy.

I don't think I even managed to get my bivvy ground sheet down before the rod with the pineapple popup screamed off and after a fantastic fight I was rewarded with this new personal best 16.3lb Mirror.

In the next four hours I managed four more Mirrors of 16lb, 12.5lb, 12lb and 12lb all of which fell to the tuna and chillie boilies, at this point I thought I was in for a hectic night but it wasn't to be as the only bites I got during the night were from the mozzies and by the morning I had enough bites on my face to be mistaken for the elephant man.

To say Thorpe Lea is popular at the weekend would be an understatement as gradually throughout Saturday morning more anglers turned up until practically every swim was taken, the result was multiple tangled lines and heated conversation involving my mate and someone who was fishing three swims along. With that in mind combined with the lack of runs anywhere around the lake and rapidly increasing rain we decided to call it a day after 22 hours.

We finished the session with 14 fish up to 16.3lb but I don't think either of us will be in a hurry to return to Thorpe Lea as not only is the swim layout poor but a lot of the Carp we caught were in a sorry old state with tatty fins and bad mouth damage. I may consider another trip there but it won't be until October at the earliest and it would have to be in the middle of the week.