Roosthole Pond - 24/09/09

In my opinion when it comes to fishing there's not a lot better than a lazy midweek day in the summer sunshine, not only do the fish usually respond but you normally also get the lake to yourself. With that in mind I had arranged a day at Roosthole on a Thursday and with the forecast predicting sunshine and mild temperatures I was hoping for a cracker.

We arrived at the lake to find it completely deserted, other anglers would turn up later in the day but it meant we could jump straight into our two favourite swims; 'the aquarium' (swim 18) and 'no fish corner' (swim 19).

I decided to start the day using the soft halibut pellets that I had so much success on last time but as always I had also brought along a variety of boilies just in case, as usual a small PVA bag of pellets was attached for every cast. Since the Pike season was now upon us I had also brought along a few Mackerel deadbaits to try a bit of cheeky Piking for an hour or two if the Carp action was slow.

For the first couple of hours it didn't matter what bait I opted for I couldn't get a run for the life of me, I even tried a popup boilie which is a rare tactic for me. My first fish of the day came in the form of a small Pike that snaffled up my margin fished Mackerel deadbait, the fish only weighed a couple of pounds but being so small was awkward to unhook so I decided to abandon the Piking for the day after returning the fish to the water. My friend on the other hand had managed a couple of Carp on tuna and chili boilies but it was definitely slow by Roosthole standards, we suspected the lack of rain might be having an impact as the water level was visibly down from a few weeks before.

A quick wander around the lake revealed a few fish showing themselves on swims 12 to 14 and there was plenty of feeding activity on display in the form of bubbles and silt clouds, they were probably from Bream but by now I was in no position to be picky so the move was made.

I dropped my baits in the area where I saw the silt clouds and eventually after an hour I was rewarded with a run that eventually resulted in a small Mirror Carp of approximately 5lbs being landed. After a few more hours I had failed to catch any further fish from the middle of the lake so I decided to drop my baits as close to a big overhanging tree on the far bank as I dared, not exactly an easy task considering the limited casting room the trees in my swim afforded me.

Within 10 minutes of casting the bobbin on my left hand rod fell, climbed half way and then stopped, rather than waiting for it to move again I decided to hit the bite and connected with something that initially felt like a Bream. It wasn't until I got the fish within a few rod lengths of the bank that it started to use it's big rudder to go on a series of surging runs. After a thoroughly enjoyable fight with the fish staying low and plodding I eventually had her lying on the surface and beat as my mate slipped the landing net underneath what I thought would be a new personal best. I didn't think she would go quite as high as the magical and elusive twenty but I was pretty sure she would be the biggest Carp I had caught, how wrong I was. Sadly for me the fish had the size but she didn't have the conditioning and with her big saggy hollow belly she could only move the needle on the scales to 16lb.

I finished the day with just five Carp and one small Pike, my friend on the other hand managed a much more respectable seven Carp. It definitely looked like the Carp were feeding in spells as more often than not me and my friend would either have fish on at the same time or within a few minutes of each other. Not exactly the best day I've had at Roosthole but I can't really complain, it certainly beats working.

Readers Lake - 29/08/09

Readers is rapidly becoming my second home this season and after arranging a days fishing with Graham I had no hesitation in choosing this lake as the venue. We arrived at the lake just after 07:30 and eventually decided to fish the far end, an area where over the years I've caught most my bigger Carp from. The weather forecast had predicted mild temperatures and sunny spells but unfortunately for us the sun spent most of the day behind the trees at our back so it was actually quite chilly. Our swims also appeared to be directly below the flightpath out of Gatwick airport so if nothing else we were in for a noisy day.

The plan was to fish the method feeder tight to the island just as I had done on my previous few trips to Readers. As the weather was still warm (allegedly!) I opted for Envy hemp and halibut method mix in the feeder with three grains of sweetcorn fished on a hair. Just in case the fish weren't having the corn I had also brought along some strawberry luncheon meat and soft halibut pellets as a backup.

I didn't have to wait long for my first bite and I use the term bite loosely, anyone that fishes the method feeder knows that bites from Carp are usually savage with the tip wrapping right round and the rod being nearly ripped out of the rests. Within two minutes of the first cast I hooked my first fish but unfortunately because I was talking I was slow to react and it made an immediate beeline for the island reeds and the hook pulled as I tried to turn it back into the open water, nevertheless an encouraging start.

Within fifteen minutes of recasting I was into another fish and this time I made no mistake, after a brief but spirited scrap I was rewarded with a small but perfectly formed Ghostie. Unflattering photo alert!

At that point I was expecting to have a good day but even though I kept catching throughout the day the action seemed to happen in patches with a couple of fish followed by a lull of a few hours, something I've experienced at Readers many times before. I did manage to catch a small Skimmer of about 4 ounces but how it managed to get two 11mm soft halibut pellets into it's tiny gob I'll never know. Another distraction was provided half way through the day when two bailiffs from the environment agency turned up and checked my rod license for the first time in ten years.

My friend Graham was having even less luck, by midday he had managed a small Bream and an even smaller Carp from the shallower water by the edge of the island. With two hours to go he decided enough was enough and moved swims so he could fish against the island like I had been doing, the move certainly paid off as he went on to catch four more Carp and the jammy git even managed a catch a Tench of approximately 2lb.

Now if you follow this blog regularly you know how competitive myself and Graham can get so at this point his Lazarus like comeback was getting me a little worried and only a single Carp now separated the two of us.

With just a few minutes to go Graham hooked into another fish but unfortunately for him he had wandered from his rods to try and wean the fish onto chickpeas with half a ton of them going into the lake as loose feed, by the time he'd ran back to his rod the fish which was obviously a lump had already taken enough line to swim to Fiji and was lodged in a set of pads only to be lost seconds later when the line snapped.

I finished the day with six Carp plus a Bream and a Skimmer, Graham had managed five Carp plus a Tench and a Bream with most his fish coming in the last two hours of the day. I definitely felt like lady luck was on my side, had Graham started the day in his second swim I have no doubt that I would of been destroyed and he would be the one gloating.

6-2

Roosthole Pond - 22/08/09

I've had some fantastic trips to Roosthole this year but when I agreed to fish there on the 22nd of August little did I know I would have one of my best days in 15+ years of angling.....

After arriving at the lake at 07:45 it was a relief to see there was only a couple of other anglers on bank, very strange considering it was a Saturday and the weathermen had predicted glorious sunshine and toasty temperatures.

I was even more pleased to see the now legendary swim 18 was free, this swim had recently been dubbed the aquarium by my friend because of it's ability to provide big weights of Carp despite being completely featureless. Being the diplomat I offered the swim to my friend but he politely declined and instead set up just ten yards to my right in the next swim.

I've always had success at Roosthole fishing boilies on semi fixed bolt rigs so the plan was to do exactly the same, the only difference this time I planned to experiment a little and opted for a much longer piece of tungsten rig tubing to pin the line near the lead down. I attached a Dynamite Baits spicy tuna & sweet chili 15mm boilie to both rods as well as a small PVA bag of trout and halibut pellets and dropped both rigs into the deeper water in the middle of the lake.

Neither me or Graham had to wait long before both of us were into fish and by 10:00 both of us had each caught four Carp with the biggest being around the 8lb mark.

It was at that point that the action began to slow a little so I decided to try something different by switching my baits, I swapped my boilies for two 11mm Sonubaits soft halibut pellets. I figured that since temperatures were still high the Carp would still be keen on fishy/oily baits plus considering the amount of halibut pellets I've put into this lake over the summer via PVA bags the fish probably regarded them as natural food by now. The change in bait paid immediate dividends as I was rewarded with run after run and fish after fish, something I'd never seen before in 15+ years of fishing. The action became so relentless that it got to the point where I couldn't make up enough PVA bags to keep up as my rods were screaming off every five minutes, worse still the bottle of beer which I had opened an hour before but hadn't had time to drink was now warm!

I filmed this clip on my mobile phone to show how fast the runs were happening:

The fish continued to be caught right up until we called it a day and by the end I had managed twenty one Carp for an average size of about 8lb with the biggest fish weighing in at exactly 15lb, definitely one of my best ever days and only the second time I had managed to catch a ton. Despite fishing the same bait and tactics just ten yards to my right my friend Graham could only manage ten Carp which is still well above average for Roosthole.

Other than changing my bait I think the key to my great day was nailing my cast as I managed to drop my rig and therefore PVA bags in the same spot each time without clipping up.

Whilst walking back to the car I had a quick natter to another angler who revealed that he had caught a couple of Carp, even though I was desperate to I refrained from telling him about my red letter day for fear of looking like I was gloating.

Even more importantly it meant I took another point in mine and Graham's 'match series' to give me a 5-2 lead even if it meant my shoulder was now aching from playing so many fish.