A midweek day off and a chance to give some new pole rigs a dip. I'd decided to stay local and go to The Angel for the first time this year. I quite fancied a go at Bowes Lake but with the open match on I headed back to Lookout.
I picked peg 22 in the lee of the island. The water here was a bit more sheltered than the rest of the lake and I had at least 2 spare pegs either side for some room. The far bank to the island was about 35m away and my peg had a cutback section between reed beds that looked carpy !
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| Water Craft ? Life jacket preferable |
I picked peg 22 in the lee of the island. The water here was a bit more sheltered than the rest of the lake and I had at least 2 spare pegs either side for some room. The far bank to the island was about 35m away and my peg had a cutback section between reed beds that looked carpy !
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| Lookout Peg 22 |
Plumbing around the swim gave me a nice even depth around 5.5 ft past the near shelf. There wasn't a traditional margin as the reeds meant fishing at 45° from me and it was quite deep at around 3ft but id leave that for later in the day.
As usual I tried to cover as many options as possible. I would have a line straight in front of me on 5m. This was fed with around 50 maggots and the same quantity of hemp.I would feed here by hand every 5 mins or so. I then had 2 lines at 13m at 10 and 2 o'clock angles. I fed one quite positively with a big pot of groundbait with some 4mm fishery pellets. The other side was fed a bit more negatively with chopped worm and caster. As the depth was virtually the same in my different swims I could fish the same rigs on each line but I still gave myself a few choices. The water temperature had dropped over the previous few days so I wanted to cover all bases. I had set up a DT Pencil - primarily for the shorter line but if the water didnt tow too much I could use it longer. For the 13m line I had probably my favourite most versatile pattern; a DT Open Water Tear with a bulk and 2 droppers for fishing near/on the deck with a bit of stability and lastly for the open water lines another DT Floats pattern, this time the Slim P with strung out shotting for searching through the water column.
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| Pole Floats Left To Right :All from DT-Floats - Pencil, Slim P;Open Water Tear; Margin Diamonds |
With all lead rigs having to be free running and a minimum hooklength length of 12", that rules the method/pellet feeder out. I could fish the straight lead and feed 4-5 6mm pellets over the top by catapult. Id clipped up about 18" off the island and planned to fire bait in every few minutes for at least an hour before fishing, to let the fish settle.
Despite being cool first thing the sun was out and it was turning into a lovely spring day and I really fancied the lead line for some fish as it warmed up. I started on the groundbait 13mm line and after about 10 minutes had my first fish, a 4oz skimmer on double maggot, (I did try banded pellet here but it didnt really work). The bites weren't prolific but were all coming after the bait had fully settled on the bottom. After another 3 fish I fed some more pellets through a kinder pot (well MAP but you get the idea).
I moved to the chopped worm swim and had some nice ide up to 1lb on a worm head. Again the action was sporadic but enjoyable and after an hour I'd had 12 nice 'silvers.'
The short maggot line gave me a few roach and a small ide but by now I was itching to fish across. I put an 8mm bloodworm pellet in a band and hit the line clip. 10 mins later and I hadnt had a touch or any liners so fired across about 10 pellets and went again.
This is where the wheels came off ! I hit the line clip but a few feet to the left into reeds. The only option was to pull for a break, losing the entire rig in the process ( Island 1, Robin 0). Never mind, re-rig, rebait and re-cast. This time I was far too cautious and dropped way short. So another cast, another excursion in the bushes and a lost hooklength (Island 2, Robin 0). Combined with this the line on the reel was now under the spool and in the gears. I'd never got on with this reel line and had wanted to change it. Now I was experiencing tangles like I hadn't had for 30 years of fishing ! The frustration and language levels were through the roof. To add insult to injury the wind had sprung up out of nowhere from the north and from a warm spring day getting a slight tan was now turning into a really cold one.
The real issue though was the strength of the wind. I now couldn't hit the island with catapulted pellets and the 13m lines were pretty much unfishable as I didnt want my pole back in pieces. I'd now started to lose my head a bit and easily lost an hour fishing time. I needed to stop and take stock, I'd been cupping in groundbait and hemp every 30 minutes from midday into my margin, about 6 sections out on top of the shelf. I decided to add a big cup of chopped worm and maggots and go for a walk.
The real issue though was the strength of the wind. I now couldn't hit the island with catapulted pellets and the 13m lines were pretty much unfishable as I didnt want my pole back in pieces. I'd now started to lose my head a bit and easily lost an hour fishing time. I needed to stop and take stock, I'd been cupping in groundbait and hemp every 30 minutes from midday into my margin, about 6 sections out on top of the shelf. I decided to add a big cup of chopped worm and maggots and go for a walk.
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| Bank Walkers |
Bowes Lake sits downhill from Lookout and the open was well underway here. Watching for 15 mins the fishing seemed very slow here too. A few guys were catching carp but generally most were saying it was dire. The way around my feeding issue on the lead was shown by one of my mates fishing the match, using a PVA bag of pellets meant getting bait accurately near your hookbait, but that wasnt something I had the option to try. Plus I'd decided that today wasn't the day to persevere with the feeder rod ! I need some new line and plenty of casting practice in case I started catching mammals.
Going onto the margin swim with a 0.2G DT Margin Diamond and a whole worm caught me my first tench of the year.Only about 14 oz but is there a more stunning looking coarse fish ? Eventually a carp took the worm bait. It plodded about a bit before trying to dive into the reeds.To try and stop it I used the puller and gave it too much stick and the hooklength snapped. It probably wasn't bigger than 5lbs but it would have been a nice fish to net.
That was it on the carp front for the day. I continued fishing the margin line and tried a variety of baits but worm was the best. I managed a few more chunky ide and skimmers to 2lbs along with a load of small roach, before my last fish of the day, a golden flanked crucian carp of about 1lbs.
So a steep learning curve again. A day of extreme frustration at times, but when I did have a bait in the water, I caught some beautiful and healthy fish.( Its funny how fishing has changed since I started over 30 years ago. C.25lbs of 'silvers' and its a hard day ! )
Onwards and upwards then. With a bit of luck my next blog will come around a lot sooner this time and im going to give a different venue a go for some variety.
Until then, tight lines
Robin
P.S. No squirrels were harmed in the making of this blog ☺
