Having earned some brownie points during the week, your truly was allows the day off on Saturday to do a little fishing. Target venue for the day was Wood Lane in Iver, Bucks – a small commercial type venue that has been going a few years. It has two pools a specimen lake with a few larger fish which I've tried a few times, and a match lake which I'd never fished. The plan was to fix this latter issue and hopefully bag up on some of the smaller carp that are supposed to be present. It's not cheap at £10 for a day ticket, but it is closer to home than most (it's easy to spend £20 on petrol to go elsewhere) and it doesn't get full of kids vaulting over your pole like some other local venues.
Arriving about 0630 I set up on peg 4 on the match lake. This was an east facing peg, so lots of direct sun to start with, but this would ease over time. I'd seen fish caught from this area on previous visits so it seemed like a good place to start. Early signs showed lots of fish movement in the upper layers throughout the lake, but not from large fish.
The pool is roughly circular in style, about 120 metres across with over 30 pegs – making it quite tight, there's also an aerator in the middle of the pool providing an easy reference.
Initial approach was 11mm expander at 11m on the pole line fished over 4mm pellets at full depth in about 5ft of water. Second put in and a small carp was on, a muscular little common of about 2lb. Next put in a little blade skimmer of about 4oz – a small fish for a large bait and hook, next put in a 1lb carp, and then iffy bites. Lots of bites, float not settling, expander going missing off the hook – that sort of thing. Then another carp and a few more skimmers.
Experimentation was the order of the day. Change the feeding pattern, try 8mm banded pellet, shallow, deep, on the drop. Nothing really worked, although the skimmers that did start to show were getting bigger. A change to the feeding pattern brought swirls on the surface, I tried to feed the fish back down but they weren't having it, so I set up a shallow rig with a size 14 pellet hook.
However I soon found out that the swirls were skimmers. I caught a fair few skimmers on soft pellets, but I was missing bites too and rebaiting was slow. However the fish were averaging 8oz a piece, with some approaching a pound, so this wasn't bad progress. I switched to banded 6mm pellet and the catch rate improved a bit, if I got the feeding just right I could get a hitable bite most put-ins , but every now and again they'd drift off and bites would go iffy again. I persevered in the hope that the carp would show, but after a good hour on the shallow rig and catching too many little skimmers it did not appear to be drawing in the carp. Just as I was about to try something new 12oz common did show, but this was no better than some of the skimmers that were showing.
If this had been a match I'd have change tactics at this point, probably partially inspired by what was going on around me and my target weight. (Given the skimmers at this point I was serious considering going to 6m pole to hand to up the catch rate.) However, I was pleasure fishing and as much fun as catching the skimmers was, I fancied a few more carp. No one else on the lake (about 6 anglers) were catching regularly, but they were mostly fishing close in or legering, so time to do something different.
So there I was stood on top of my seatbox with the Polaroids on scanning the surface. There were carp out there, probably at 30 to 40m out, black shadows moving around and breaking the surface from time to time. Out came the waggler rod.
A quick shallow set pellet waggler, size 14 pellet hook with hair rigged band set about 2 ft deep, a catapult and a load of 8mm hard pellets. Followed by 15 minutes of frustration. There were fish out there and there was knocks, but no bites. I carried on building the line up. Cast, wait, feed three times, reel in and repeat. In the second 15 min spell I picked up a couple of small carp (averaging 2lb each) and lost one more under the rod tip. This was more interesting than skimmers on the pole, but in a match it was a poor weight return.
Then in a moment on madness I put a dry expander on the band so it held up the weight of the hook and cast out. Instant fish. Alternating between expanders and sinkers on the hook showed that the expanders were by far the more productive so I carried on and flicked a few dry expanders out as well and the fish went into piranha mode. Three 11mm expanders hit the surface, three instant swirls, so that became the new pattern. Cast, wait, feed, wait, feed, twitch, feed, retrieve... unless some inconsiderate carp decided to ruin my rhythm. This started to be quite productive, although the fish were still small, but it was a little more productive. I'd could have fed a lot more - but with only one bag of expanders on me, I had to take things easy.
Then disaster struck. Pellet waggler went one way the rig another as the weight separated from the float. Poo. (Or words to that effect.) Unfortunately that was the only pellet waggler I had on me... what to do?
I briefly flirted with a controller float, this got a few fish, but it sank too readily, so out came a 2AAA waggler. Set 3ft deep with a 14 hook with hair rigged band I was back in business. It was hard work to cast, but once I got into the rhythm all was well, and the fish came back again. They were still averaging 2lb but there was the odd 3lber in there as well. And so it continued, lots more bites, feed, cast, and my estimated weight started to build. But it wasn't perfect – I lost several fish at the net (playing too hard, too springy a hook), and from time to time it would go quiet, so room for improvement should I go back.
I also caught three chub in the mix, averaging a pound or so as I was steadily adding 15-20lb of fish an hour to the catch. I tried feeding them closer, but the bites weren't as confident. Last hour (from 2-3pm) some slightly large fish showed, with a couple of 4lb fish, but it was still hard work to amass a decent weight. However I was quietly pleased... no one else was really catching on the lake... of the nine other anglers I reckoned I was probably outcatching them all, put together.
3pm came and the expanders ran out, and it was getting close to home time. So a last few casts, a last fish and that was that. Finished weight, about 150lb. Hard work given the small size of the fish, but rewarding never-the-less.
There were several lesson learned for next time:
(1) Bring more floating pellets
(2) Buy some more pellet wagglers
(3) Consider getting a dedicate pellet waggler rod
(4) Find a stronger hook for banded pellets
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