First Session 2015

Saturday morning soon came around, there was an unusual warm spike in temperature for this time of year which was mixed with gusts of wind from the south. Winds strong enough to break and bring down the weaker branches of many a tree. 

Twitter had been littered with reports of anglers being out on the bank, battling the conditions for just one illustrious carp.

Temperatures of 13° were common place during the Friday night, and the carp fishing fraternity was feeling quietly confident.

Whether or not this unusually warm weather would produce a fish or two remained to be seen.

Sitting in doors, I could hear the gusts racing outside of the windows to the front and back of my home, the cat flap would donote a sudden gust with its squeaking hinges.

It was still dark, I had already loaded the car and experienced the wind first hand, and remember thinking, I would have to take my time during my journey. 

I just knew these winds could play havoc on the Motorway. 

The anticipation was already building, I knew today would be my best chance if a capture this Winter, but I couldn't go rushing into the first swim. I just hoped the rain would hold off long enough for me to get set up in a couple of hours time. 

I was already planning my assault in my mind, of how I was going to approach the two spots very quietly and keep any sighting of me or bankside disturbance to a minimum.

The wind would definitely help me to a certain degree, but I couldn't let my impatience spoil my chances, I had to stay focused and be methodical in my approach.

The cats were sitting, looking outside through the patio doors with a nervous glint in their eyes. I could imagine, to a normal person, the very thought of going out in this weather would be a ludicrous proposition, but only another fellow fisherman would understand the motivation of an angler, and in some way, maybe we are all lacking in sensibility some of the time.

However only another fisherman would understand the rewards to be had from such foul weather. 

9 am was now upon me and my departure beckoned, I just had to make a flying stop at the petrol station and I was away, lake bound.

The winds were indeed strong, every now and then I had to correct the steering through the open areas of the Motorway, mind you, Citreon Picasso's aren't exactly aerodynamically strong.

Finally I reached the car park and to my amazement the banks were totally devoid of anglers. The banks were littered with weakened branches, blown down from the night before. There was a nice ripple on the water and it looked like the sun would be making an appearance. 

I had a walk round the pool and settled for the northern end, right in the teeth of the wind. The sun shone down on this area, so it made perfect sense to pitch up as I didn't see any signs of activity, anywhere.

The wind had dramatically dropped, there was still the occasional gust but nothing to unpleasant. 

To my right was an inlet pipe that flowed in from the pool above, this was an obvious choice of spot. 

To my left was an empty swim, these swims are often occupied by match anglers and as they would fish no further out than a few yards, I deduced there may well be some bait left or at least this area would be known to the fish.

You'll find a lot of the match angler swims are a good starting point, no more than a poles length out, where the frequency of bait would appeal to all manner of fish.

I had decided recently to start using a soup bait style of approach to baiting, no real food items, just a big cloud of attractive liquids which would be placed out using a baiting spoon and a telescopic pole. My theory being that this would attract the fish in without there being a lot to eat, just the few bits and pieces around my baited hook.

Id previously read a piece by Rod Hutchinson on instant baits, who theorised, instant attraction only has a life span of 3 hours for the better part.

So bearing this in mind, I thought it wise to drop another spoonful of soup over the spots every 3 hours or so.

Everything was now set, id managed to creep in, get the baits on the spots and set up home for the day, relatively quietly. 

Now all I needed was a take, id just hoped id done enough and sat down to my first coffee of the day.

It was quite unnerving listening to the branches squeaking and grinding away above my head during the gusts of wind. 

The pool looked quite spooky as the sun drifted behind the clouds. The trees were nearly all devoid of leaves, apart from a few Conifers. The whole place just looked cold and drab. I could hear the faint echo of traffic in the background, a continuous hum, which only added to the ghostly feel.

Id decided to spoon in a little bait in the corner of the pool to my right hand side and then periodically visit this area to see if anything was feeding.
Not a single carp showed themselves at this point, there was the odd sprinkling of silvers showing, peppered around the pool but nothing of any significance to catch my attention. 

I had been checking the baited corner spot every 20 or so minutes, at around 2 o'clock I could see some clouding where I had put the bait.

This was it, this was my chance, I quickly got all of the gear packed up, grabbed a rod and lowered the rig Into position, keeping out of sight.

40 minutes later I had my first take, I scrambled for the net and grabbed the rod. I could tell straight away it wasn't big, although it gave a good account for itself. Darting from left to right putting a good bend in my rod, but it was soon coaxed into the net.

It must have been the smallest carp in the pool at no more than 3lb, I did laugh at myself, thinking, !!!Typical!!!

I plugged away for another hour in the corner, then decided on a move back to my original swim, where I would just flick out a couple of single pop ups and wait the last hour of daylight out.

The temperature had slowly dropped during the course of the afternoon, the sky had darkened and any chance of catching another was slowly dwindling.

I decided to pack up after just one more smoke, which turned into two and then three, but I really couldn't hang on any longer, I didn't want to upset the owner. 

I did bait up a couple of spots before i left, including the corner area with a handful of tigers each, ready for next weeks session.

Although it wasn't a blank session, it wasn't the best either, but at least id had a fish and gotten in some bait.

I was now already looking forward to getting back, and the sessions would only get longer and longer as the Winter progressed.


I hope you enjoyed the read, thanks for looking and until next time
Tight Lines