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.