For a change, and with the vague hope of getting my elastic bottomed-out, I decided to have a session on the Match Lake at Willows Lakes in London Colney (near St Albans). Although the unseasonably good weather was due to break, the 2-week spell of sun should have warmed up the water and so I hoped for a fish or two.
Willows is an odd place, on its day it is possible to put together a really big bag of fish, whereas on other days you would swear there are no fish in it. This is down the variable weather, water level and the sheer size of the place – the match lake is 22 acres in size and usually has a significant ripple as the prevailing wind often blows down the full length of the water (it's over a kilometer long). As such it is possible to be completely off the fish, so any trip is always a bit of a gamble. Many of the regulars like to feeder fish for the bream and occasional carp (which run large) but I prefer to attack on the pole line first.
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| View up the lake |
Anyhow, I arrived at 0645, got my ticket and had a quick chat with the bailiff (gates open at 0700) and was advised to head towards peg 4-8, where there was a decent depth, down the far left hand end. Overall the lake was about 3ft down, so this made sense.
I set up on peg 8 with a view to my usual strong pole gear – 0.20mm line to size 8 hook, 11mm expander and 22 elastic. Whilst this may seem heavy, I've found this a good opening gambit here. The fish are not very line or hook shy and with the carp averaging 8lb (I've had them out to over 20lb on the pole) it's not a venue for 0.06mm hooklengths to a 26 hook, if you know what I mean. Plus, I can always step down if needed should I want to chase the roach.
In went a medium pot of 4mm pellet at 11m whilst I tuned my rigs and plumbing up revealed a healthy 4-5ft of water on the pole line. I'd have preferred a little more, but that's ok for starters.
30 minutes later and nothing. Not a sniff.
This is not unusual for the venue, it can often take a little while for the fish to arrive (it's a big lake remember). So I set up a lighter rig to see if that would help – 0.14mm line to a 16 hook. After about 10 minutes on double maggot I got a liner, which felt like I'd brushed past a better fish just off bottom. 5 minutes later, exactly the same. Maybe the fish had appeared.
Back out of the 11mm expander rig. 5 seconds. Bite. A spirited fight and an immaculate 3lb mirror carp was in the landing net. This was news to me... that wasn't in the script.
Two more small mirrors of 2lb a piece followed in the next 10 minutes, then a skimmer, then another small mirror. Suddenly I was over 10lb and the biting wind from my right didn't seem quite so bad. Bites were steady, rather than rapid, but this was good fishing. An hour in I decided to pot in a few more pellets (I'd been loose feeding, but like to get a bed down with the wind and tow to contend with) when the bailiff appeared. He informed me that the mirrors were a recent stocking, but no other major fish moves had occurred. Apparently 635 mirror carp had been added over the winter, which sound like a lot until you realize that's just 30 per acre and maybe just 6 per peg. Hmm.
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| This was the stamp and quality of the mirror carp |
Back to fishing and the swim was stone cold dead. And so it stayed for 30 minutes. A flurry of bites produced a little run of fish, some bream, some more small mirror carp. The carp averaged about 2lb with some examples to 4lb, the skimmers ran from 8oz up to about 2lb on a good day. But they kept the weight ticking along. Soon I was at 39lb by about 1030, and this felt a good weight was on, especially if the proper bream and carp decided to join in at some point.
Then it went quiet. Again. The light rig produced nothing on maggot and one small skimmer on 6mm pellet. The big rig finally got some bites and another few fish in the net. This then became the pattern for the day, periods of activity followed by periods of nothing. Highlights were one proper 4lb bream (foulhooked), a 3lb koi carp and a 1lb roach that turned out to be a hybrid on later inspection.
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| 3lb Koi Carp |
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| 1lb Hybrid (shame it wasn't a roach) |
At one point I had 1 bite between 1230 and 1330 when I was up to 75lb, but then three or four fish could but 8lb in the net. There was no real pattern, but potting in never seemed to work.
I had a chat with a couple of regulars who were scouting for the match the next day, apparently this had been the way of things lately – activity then nothing. You just had to wait it out. However, they were impressed with my catch so far, the peg had weighed in just 28lb a few days previously.
I got my head down and wanted to hit 100lb for the day, however the wind was picking up and the periods of bitelessness were getting longer. Eventually, after a run of 8oz skimmers, a 2lb 8oz mirror took me over 100lb, then one more skimmer made it 101lb and decided to call it quits about 1515.
This was probably one of the hardest tons I've ever put together, difficult cold conditions on an exposed peg and watching a float against the choppy water. I went home pleased.
On a good day the skimmers would have been shoal bream (4-6lb each) and a few of the carp would have been proper lumps and I could have easily doubled my weight, but hey, this is what keeps us going back.
Catch list:
Mirror Carp – 25
Koi Carp – 1
Bream - 35
Roach/bream hybrid - 1
Total weight – 101lb
http://www.willowslakes.com/
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