Spring is in the Air

Part One

By Darren Wilson

2010 is a year in my angling that I would rather forget for numerous reasons in that I did not get to spend as much time on the bank as I wished I could have. For one thing or another - such as the unimportant tasks as moving house twice in 6 months, getting married to a very understanding woman, ill health, etc, etc - every minute I spent on the bank was sacred and for most of the time very uneventful.

Moving to the East Midlands was a big drawback to my angling as it is not the hot bed of carp fishing that my previous abode of Cambridgeshire was, and finding a venue that suited my style of angling proved to be difficult. That was until I came across a small, intimate and mature pond on the Leicestershire/Warwickshire border called Spring Pools. The complex is home to three lakes, two of them being match style commercial fisheries but situated inbetween the two match lakes is a piece of natural beauty that is home to a stock of approximately 30 carp from mid-doubles to over thirty pounds.

The first 5 sessions during 2010 that I done on the lake were truely uneventful other than a lost fish on a zig which was my own fault as I done my normal trick and forgot to switch the buzzer on and I was on top of a high bank about 10 feet away from the rod, looking for my hookbait that was just under the surface, when I heard the spool clicking away!

The first session of the new campaign starts in the first week of March 2011, where I decided it was time to start putting a bit of time in on the venue. The weather conditions looked perfect on the forecasts with mid-high single figure temperatures, overcast skies and a moderate westerly wind blowing.

On arrival at the lake, I took a look at the 5 swims on the lake. I didn't see any fish which surprised me a little as they do like to swim about just under the surface sticking up two fin rays at any anglers present, so I decided to sit on the end of the wind in the first swim.

After catapulting out around 150 x 10mm CC Moore Live System boilies onto an area just to the left of a rush island on the front of the far margin shelf, the first rod consisting of a running Chod rig baited with a home rolled Live System 18mm corkball pop-up was making its way out the 30 yards to the far edge of the baited area. It may seem strange that putting the hookbait further out than the loose offerings, but at the recent Carpin'On show at Five Lakes in Essex, I picked Nigel Sharp's brain about what I had been experiencing at the venue and he said that on waters such as this, most people tend to feed too close to the margins and the fish don't come out as far, just picking off the odd bait on the edges of the baited area. So with this in mind, I thought I had nothing to lose in giving it a go.

After putting the kettle on and making my first bankside coffee of the day, I was just baiting up the second rod, when the alarm bleeped a couple of times. As there had been a couple of ducks diving over the baited area I thought that i was one of these catching the line, but when the alarm sounded at a steady pace and the spool on the reel was spinning, it was evident that a fish had picked up the hookbait.

After a uneventful 5 minute plod around the swim, the net was slid under the first fish of the campaign - and my first fish on the bank from the lake! I was trying to figure out which fish it was whilst on the mat and at first thought it was the smallest of the main fish in the lake which weighs in at around 17-18lb on average at this time of year. A quick call to Steve, the owner, to come down and take some pictures for me, and it was confirmed that it was the "Ghostie". I had seen this fish in the water several times during my previous trips and I was surprised to hear that it very rarely goes over the 20lb mark.
On the scales, the digital display flicked up a weight of 19lb 10oz - which is one of the heavier weights that the fish has been out at. On the unhooking mat, the fish looked nothing like I remember it to appear, but when it was placed back into the clear water of the lake, you could tell instantly that it was indeed the "Ghostie"

After checking the hookbait, making sure the hook was still sharp and recurving the rig, it was cast back out to the same spot again, where it hit the deck with a light donk. The second and third rods followed suit to the areas that I had also put some 10mm Live System baits onto. With all three rods now out, I finished my coffee (and made another) before getting on with the photography for the reviews that I had to do.

A couple of hours later, I had a single bleep on the same rod again, and as the wind was blowing relatively strong, my first impressions were that it was that. A second bleep soon followed before the alarm again burst into a slow tone and the spool was spinning. On picking the rod up this time, it was almost pulled from my grasp as the fish decided that it didn't like the size 5 Atomic Chodda stuck in its mouth. The rod was bent over through its full curve almost as the fish went from side to side, powering along the far shelf hugging the bottom. This carried on for about 10 minutes before it succumbed to the pressure of the rod, and after a brief margin scrap where it tried to get under the willow tree to my left whilst picking up the left hand line at the same time, the fish took a gulp of air before giving up. After a few minutes to get my breath (and take painkillers!), the fish and net were removed from the water and placed onto the mat. The hook was firmly embedded in the centre of the bottom lip - nailed perfectly! After doing the usual unhooking, the fish was placed on the scales where the LCD display of the Reuben Heaton Digitals showed a weight of 21lb 05oz.

Once again Steve the owner was summoned to check the fish over and take the obligatory photos (thanks Steve & sorry for interfering with your work!), the fish turned out to be one that goes by the name of the "Dumpy Mirror" or "Good Looking Mirror" amongst other names that anglers have mistaken it for after capture.

That was it for action during the session, and the next 30 hours went without seeing another fish even cruising about.

The next session was a couple of weeks later, and the weather had taken a turn once again. The wind had got up and the air pressure was like a yoyo, and to make things worse, I found out the day before the session that two of my target fish had been out the week previously once the conditions had been setled for a few days, and over the areas where I had put bait onto before I left the last time! Oh well, at least the fish are eating the CC Moore Live System baits that I have been putting in. The two target fish that came out were both Mirrors, with the lakes largest inhabitant "Two Tone" coming out at a slightly lower than usual weight of 31lb 1oz, and the same day, the "Big Linear" also made an appearance at a slightly up on usual 27lb. At least the main target fish "Flower" had not been out yet, and is thought to be bigger than "Two Tone" now from sightings in the water.

After getting sorted out on the bank, I was quietly confident that I would see some action this session, but the fish were more interested in cruising around, 6" below the surface, drifting with the wind, with their mouth's shut!!!!

Seeing the fish cruising around near the top, I decided to go with a three pronged attack; one rig on the tried & succesful "Chod" with a 18mm hand rolled CC Moore Live System corkball pop-up that had been left to soak in a 50/50 mixture of CC Moore Feedstim XP and Live System glug. The second rig was a balanced Tiger Nut on a 9" Korda N-Trap coated hooklink with an inch stripped back at the eye used with PVA sticks filled with ground tiger nuts, CC Moore Milkimin pellets (ground down in a Krusha) and some Live System boilie crumb. The final rod was setup with a zig rig that was adjusted around during the session from depths of 24" through to 48" to try to seduce an oppurtunist fish that may yawn as it drifted past the baits.

Unfortunately, I would have loved to say that I landed another couple of fish from this tricky little water, but my alarms stayed silent through out the session - yes I did remember to turn them on! - and left me thinking that I had been beaten.
In reality though, I had learnt from past experiences that during the weather conditions experienced, and gathering the weather conditions when most of the other fish have been out over the past couple of years, it is almost guaranteed that the fish will not feed at Spring Pools when it is like this.

The only action from a live animal was feeding a brave Robin that would come right up to the groundsheet and peck at it to say he was hungry!

One good thing came of the session in reality and that was watching the wife practise her casting. It won't be long before she has a fish on the bank with her accuracy - she managed to hit the same branch on the far bank every cast!!!

Now that the weather is starting to settle a bit and get a little warmer, roll on the next session where I am going to get even with the fish (well, try my best anyway!).

Keep an eye out for the next part of Darren's Diary coming in the next few weeks.