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.

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