Three Island Lake, Stewkley, 10th May 2012

Having been frustrated somewhat with the poor weather of late, at the first signs of a dry day I decided to try and catch a fish or two.

Target today was a new venue that I'd found on the internet ages ago and always meant to have a go at. So Three Island Lake at Stewkley (near Leighton Buzzard) was the destination. Information was a little sketchy (bar that on fisheries.co.uk) but it sounded like a semi-prolific little commercial lake on a farm. Different to my usual haunts, so what the heck.

Arriving a few minutes after 7am, I paid the £8 day ticket and headed to the car park to find three other guys unloading carp gear. It was very wet underfoot, and the path to the lake was underwater, but the weather appeared to have broken, but there was a strong breeze blowing down the length of the lake. The three guys had set up opposite the islands with method feeder-type gear, so I headed towards the far end of the lake where the wind was less telling. This was not necessarily a great idea if the fish followed the wind, but if the rain came back, it might give me half a chance.

The lake is roughly oval, about 2 acres with about 30 pegs quite close together. The pegs are wooden construction, uneven, about 2 ft higher than the water level and absolutely lethal when wet (I set up extremely carefully). There are three islands on the lake, well set in the middle at 25-30m from the bank - well out of pole range, so I was happy to be fishing into open water with a little shelter. 

View down the lake

 

Opening gambit was 11mm expander and 11 metres over 4mm feed where I had about 4ft of water. This is my standard carp approach, if that doesn’t work I can go lighter / smaller, but if it works it deters the smaller fish that can be a problem on some venues.

After 20 minutes it wasn't working. I'd had a few knocks, but that was it. I was just pondering a switch to 6mm pellet when the float went under properly. A quick strike, firm resistance, and a 4lb common was in the landing net. Back out, same result but 2lb. Back out, bite 4lb common. This was starting to look promising. Bites were not instant, but there were fish present. Then, a baby common, maybe 6oz at a push. Then a quiet spell. Then a few more fish. 

5lb Common Carp

 

An hour in and I was pushing 25lb – which would be 40lb an hour if I'd caught in the opening 20 minutes.

I potted in some more pellets which killed the swim for 10 minutes. However, bubbles started to appear signalling the fish were back. Bites and fish continued to flow, mostly commons in the 3-5lb bracket, but the odd pasty that went 3 to the pound, but there were plenty of slow periods mixed in. 

 

What was noticeable were the swirls on the surface. Every time I hooked a good fish, another 3 would swirl, so there were clearly good fish up in the water too. I would try for them later.

I tried a few different things to try and improve the catch rate. Smaller pellet (no bites), shallow rig (one baby common), changing the feed pattern (nothing). Maybe it's just the time of year (given how cold and wet it's been lately).

One of the smaller carp

The fish kept ticking over, without ever really going crazy and after a little over 3 hours I was up to 70lb or so. The carp were typically 4lb, but a few smaller and larger examples to 6lb had showed. It was starting to slow down again, so I potted in some more pellets and fed a margin line as well and rested all the lined for 5 minutes while I made and received a few important phone calls.

Nothing really then happened for the next hour or so. A few smaller carp. The odd weigher, the odd foul hooker lost (from line bites). But whatever I tried, it didn't produce.

I plodded on. A few fish, but I never sussed it out. Shallow didn't really work (it was too windy to feed and fish properly) and when I did manage to have a go it produced two rudd and a baby carp. The margin briefly produced more baby carp. So I fed the main line heavy (two pots of pellets) and rested both lines for a few minutes while I grabbed some lunch and a few photos.

Eventually the 11 metre line started to bubble and a few bites developed. Not as fast as before, but steady. By 2pm I'd broken the 100lb barrier as the rain returned with a vengeance and by 2:30pm I'd made 110lb. At this point I decided to call it a day and go home – it's a fair drive and I really didn't want my gear getting any wetter than it already was.

Overall it's an interesting venue. I'm sure on the right day, if you can get the fish going, especially if you can catch shallow, you could put a really good weight together (at least 250lb). But today was not that day.

Catch list:

Common Carp – 40

Mirror Carp – 2

Rudd – 2

Total weight 110lb