Monday. I decided to try the specimen lake at Wood Lane Farm in Iver, I've fished it a couple of time before but only in early spring so I was keen to see what it would produce. In theory the lake contains a mix of carp to a decent size (20lb or so), but a stocking of smaller carp meant that it might be more variable.
The lake itself is roughly rectangular (40m by 150m) with a single large island in the middle, which is in pole range of just one or two pegs. Typically it's 5-6ft deep, slightly shallower in the margins and lined with reeds.
Getting there early, I grabbed one of the pegs near the island and set up to fish the pole at 11m. The peg was in a distinct hollow, this was comfortable, buy made shipping back a little challenging, especially when cupping in. This put me close to, but not on, the island (I'd save that option for later). I cupped in 4mm pellets and planned to fish an 11mm expander on the bottom on strong gear (0.20mm line, size 8 hook, 22 elastic).
First put in and I started to get some indications. So I struck one, hit nothing and lost my expander. Back out again. A repeat. Grrr, suddenly this felt like the last session here – lots of bites but not lots of fish. Third put in and I made contact, a little yellow elastic and a short battle later and a 2lb common was in the landing net. Out again for much the same, missed bites, rebait, missed, hit, fish. And so it continued for about an hour, typical fish was 2-3lb with the odd smaller and larger carp putting in an appearance. After the first hour I'd made it to the 30lb mark without really getting into an efficient rhythm – lots of rebaiting, the odd foulhooker and iffy bites had seen to that.
Towards the end of the hour I was starting to see swirls on the surface as I fed, so I thought I'd try a shallow approach for a little while. Out went the 2ft rig with a size 10 hook, and as soon as it fell through the water – bang. Better fish on. This put up a real fight and turned out to be a 7lb mirror hooked in the dorsal fin. So I changed my feeding pattern for the upper layers and kept with this for a while. This produced lots of bites (most missed), but the pace was steady. Switching to an 8mm (shop bought) expander improved things, the bites were slightly slower, but the bait stayed on for a few strikes. The fish however did not keep up with the size of the first one, and at the 2 hour mark I was at 60lb. A brief experiment with a floater was tried, this produced a quick fish, but a strong breeze from left to right made feeding and presentation was too difficult to keep going.
Back on the bottom for the third hour and the fish were happy to bite at full depth providing I fed accordingly. Next followed a period of better fish, a couple of 5lbers an a 9lber that broke the landing net (out came the spare) but still the iffy bites continued. 3 hours gone and 90lb caught, then it went difficult.
I can't put my finger on it exactly, but whatever I tried I got a few fish, lost a few and then they'd dissappear on me. I played with the feeding, depth, hook size etc. but the next two hours were hard work. Small carp continued to show but at 5 hours the pace has slowed and the total stood at 110lb.
I decided to take a short food break and dropped in on the margin (I'd been feeding it for 30 mins). The float went, I made contact but the fish shed the hook. Back in and the bites continued, they were iffy like on the far line but I couldn't hit them. I finally made contact and was just about to swing the culprit in when it shed the hook, a tiny mirror about 4oz. Maybe this was starting to explain what was going on.
A change of tactics was called for. I changed the shallow rig down to a 14 hook, dug out some 6mm expanders and started feeding little and often at 12.5m. Compared to the previous 2 hours the change was dramatic – 3 put ins, 3 fish, about 8lb in total. Clearly the fish were pre-occupied with the smaller baits, dropping down to a smaller bait got confident takes on the drop, often the fish hooking themselves. The downside was the far side reeds – many fish made a dive for cover (and a few made it which meant pulling for a break) but overall the method was productive. The wind was still a problem, both for feeding and presentation, but it worked better than any other method at this time. (Revisiting full depth was not productive). The fish weren't huge, the odd fish to 4lb or so, but the average was 2-3lb but it kept things ticking over nicely.
3 good (but tiring) hours followed. I was going to finish at 3:15pm with a target of 175lb, but the wind dropped and the fishing improved so I pushed on to 3:45 with 203lb. Just in time for the heavens to open just enough to soak everything. Still, not a bad session, the switch to smaller bait had made a big difference, which was welcome, I now need to work on sorting out the bigger fish.
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