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.