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.