Round And Round The Garden - Lookout Lake, Angel Of The North, 13th May 2015

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.

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  !

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. 

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.

 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 ☺

Best Laid Plans - Friday 23rd May 2014 Angel Of The North Lakes

3 weeks on from my trip to The Oaks and I was champing at the bit to get on the bank, spurred on in part by a (nother) new pole to play with as the Grim Reaper had been superceded by a Maver Enigma Series 1 16m.

Due to family commitments time would be at a premium today something that despite being aware of, I never put into practice.

The weather had been glorious leading up to my session and Lookout Lake had actually had 2 matches on the same pegs on the Wednesday,  during the day and evening. Weights for both matches were very good but then the bubble burst.  20C plus on Wed had dropped to 10C on the thurs. The forecast for Friday was for more of the same, plus a blustery NE wind. Not a great portent for my trip ! In fact the temperature never got into double figures at all during the day.

Ann, the fishery owner confirmed the venue had fished hard the previous day. This meant I couldnt be sure if the carp would still feed, so I made a snap decision to buy some worm and casters to supplement my already bulging bait bag.

As usual I headed for Lookout, the slightly smaller of the 2 main lakes and a bit more exposed than Bowes lake. Because of this, and as there are no real west facing pegs on this lake to fish, I picked an area that had been quite fruitful a few days earlier and would hopefully have a bit of respite from the cold wind as it was slightly sheltered by the central island.

I picked peg 25/26.There was A closeish chuck to a cutback on the island for the feeder (which I didnt even set up in the end !) And a  floating bridge on the left of the peg to the island, easily in pole range. I also had decent looking margin swims on both sides, although depth tight to the reeds was about 18" on top of the shelf. I would have certainly preferred 2 feet plus here, especially with the sudden temerature drop. Undeterred I would ignore the margins until after 1pm.

Plumbing up gave about 6 feet off water after the shelf levelled out. So I decided on 3 areas to target. 

The first line was 10m at the 2 o'clock position. This would be my pellet line. I fed a couple of balls of groundbait with some 4mm feed pellets mixed in. I had a Nick Gilbert 0.4G gimp on 0.14 Middy Low-Viz to 0.125 Matrix Power Micron hooklength. The hook was my favourite B911 F1 18. I had a (huge) range of pellets to use and could fish with banded hard pellets or expanders. But started on some VDE 6mm Jellets.

At 10 o'clock I could use the same length of pole and reach the bridge, but decided to fish about 6 feet away and try and prise any fish out from under the bridge, rather than chasing them in. As I was unsure if any carp would feed I tried to cover my options here and cupped in a slop made from chopped worms and casters mixed with soaked micro pellets. I would fish here with a worm head, the line was the same as my pellet rig on a 0.4G DJK power pencil fished an inch over depth. The hook on this rig was a 16 Maver MT2 which is a heavier gauge than the B911.

I set up a NG XT mini-diamond .2G for the margins on the same line and hook as above.

Lastly and the rig I would start on was at 6m for an out and out silver rig. This would be casters loose fed by hand. Another NG Gimp but 0.3G this time. On 0.12 Lo-vis to 0.10 Preston Precision hooklength, with an 18 B911 F1.

After feeding the long lines I decided to let them settle and started on the short line. Sport was far from hectic but I started picking up some small roach and skimmers whilst feeding casters every few minutes. I tried the pellet line and had a better couple of skimmers  before moving onto the worm line. For some reason I felt this would be the banker line but after 10 mins I hadn't had a sniff of a bite. I decided to refeed using a toss-pot and within a minute the float buried and a spirited short fight led to an 8oz tench in the net. A beautiful little fish and my first tench of the year. Again the fishing was slow and I was getting some tiny fish, not a good sign for carp moving in. The next fish shattered that theory as 8 feet of yellow Drennan bungee shot off under the bridge.  A minute or so later and a nice 3lb common was in the net but turned out to be a one-off as the next fish was a mini-roach, and I didn't have any more carp on the long lines but the best fish was another tench around the pound mark. 

During this time the squally wind changed direction and blew my brolly inside out. Stupidly id left the seatbox bracket at home and had to stake it out with guy ropes. So when the wind changed I was effectively battling with a 6 foot kite and quickly ended up with a brolly spike shaped like a hockey stick. This lead to a great deal of swearing and attempting to rectify the problem was proving impossible. In the end the umbrella kept most of my gear dry but I was soaked through !

Trying to regain some rhythm meant I had 90mins left. I prepped the margins with loose groundbait and big handfuls of maggots and left for 30 mins before going over with 5 maggots on the hook. The float moved and bobbed before going undet and...I had another 1 oz roach ! It wasnt even hooked but just holding onto a maggot in its gob ! 10 mins later and I eventually hooked what turned out to be another carp that steamed off under the bridge.  But by burying the pole tip the middy 12-16 did its job and I had a 5lb common banked. Another scale perfect fish and a gorgeous bronze colour. Because of this fish I stuck on the margin swims until I packed up at 2.30 with only small skimmers and a crucian to add but painfully knowing that I was probably approaching the best time of the day as i was leaving.  but needs must.

I ended up with around 10lbs of silvers plus 8lbs for the 2 carp and felt that id spread myself far too thin today. I left feeling very despondent at my own fishing ability and certainly didnt want to write about it. However 24 hrs on and I have tried to think objectively about where I went wrong and writing about the day is almost carthritic.

As I was fishing with a new pole I hadnt even bothered with the feeder  despite seeing fish activity during the day near the far reeds, sometimes its best to fish methods to catch fish, not methods i want to use regardless. Id also gone with far too many ideas and baits to stick to a plan. The pellet line didnt work but id only fed it intermittently when not on it, so it was only used half-heartedly in truth. I could have certainly made life more comfortable by fishing the lower lake with a bit more shelter. I was the only angler all day on Lookout, so that tells its own story but also means I dont know how anyone else would have got on. On the up side despite a poor day I`d had carp,tench,roach,crucian,perch, ide and skimmers - so plenty of variety.

My final thought is this; if you look forward to something enough. If the weather is glorious for weeks before the day. Be assured that when the day comes round the British weather will have returned with a vengeance ! And never leave home without an umbrella bracket !

P.S. The new pole and Nick Gilbert floats were both spot on. I will probably review at a later date after a bit longer on the bank.

Thanks for reading.

Robin.

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