Long Nights & Dark Skies
Winter Ramblings Part 2

By
LEIGH HEMSLEY

Hi and welcome to the second part of my winter blog.  First off I would like to congratulate fellow Nash man Jack Brown on his recent brace of English 50’s, and a mirror and common to boot, well done mate top angling.

Well since last time I’ve been really busy both in my fishing and the angling world, first up I’ve just signed my new contract with Nash so I’m now officially a full bait and tackle consultant.  I’m really looking forward to helping bring new ideas to the table and testing new gear to make sure its spot on for you guys to go out and catch a whacker without any teething problems.

So to my own fishing, I’ve just started on a lake I used to fish 20+ years ago before it was closed to water sports.  My good friend Pete got a winter ticket for the lake so I went to see him one evening and instantly fell in love with the place, so I spent the next few days ringing round all my contacts to see if I could find out what was still in there and found out that a good friend of mine and top pike angler Mick Brown had been on their for several years.  We think there is between 25 and 50 originals and 10 stockies.  Test fishing over the last few years has seen some good fish on the bank to 32lb 12oz but 2 very big fish have been seen with 1 of them been lost and all in agreement the biggest looking every inch 45lb+.

My first session was to be a 3 day one with Pete so we arrived early doors and started our first lap of this forty acre lake, the first thing I noticed was it was now mid to end October and the weed was still very visible and in places so thick to the surface it looked like you could walk across it, this was going to be a challenge.  Nothing was seen on that lap around the lake even though we took a good few hours and looked in every edge and hidey hole we could find, so I set up on the wind ward bank with Pete next to me about 10yrds down the bank, and we were quite central so we could see as much of the lake as possible.

You can use a boat on this lake which will be a great help but until I get mine I’m using a friends boat which is much bigger than I’m use to, and without an outboard Its hard to manoeuvre with normal oars and with the wind blowing quite strongly into this bank I had to make do with my marker rod.
With all the weed present I found the Nash dumpy weed marker perfect for the job and with the way the line goes though the float and the extra large run ring the float came up every time.  It was already evident that clear spots would be hard to find so I used my knowledge from another large low stocked lake I fished that was also very weedy.  So I went in with very long hook links and light leads so my bait would sit on top of the shallower weed if a clear spot could not be found.

I was lucky enough to have a few new bits of kit with me for this outing so I would be using the new Nash NRDX 12ft 3 1/2 tc rods and the Titan Brolly would have their first outing.  My rigs were to be size 8 Fang Twisters fished knotless knot style to 20 inches of 25lb silt Missing Link, along with a Nash 1 ½ oz dumpy pear lead connected to a Nash weed safe bolt bead on one of the new 1.5 metre diffusion camo leaders.  Bait would be a mix of Nasbaits Scopex Squid plus and Amber strawberry and hookbaits would be critically balanced snowman rigs so they would settle on top of the weed,  and my hooks would be protected with the new chain reaction dissolvable disc’s. My rods were positioned 1 down the left hand margin in a 8 ½ ft hole I found under the edge of a bush at the end of a 6ft silt run, then the other 2 were out in front at 15 and 25 yrds at the front edge of a thick weed bed.

We sat up till the early hours listening and hoping for one of these unseen lumps to give away its position and while we talked, dreaming of banking one of the fish that inhabit the lake.  We also made the most of the Nash bbq that I take everywhere with me, once we had finished cooking our burgers and sausages we spent the rest of the night feeding twigs and wood on to it keeping well warm all night.
The next 2 days went past pretty uneventful apart from a big pike chasing one of my rigs in on winding in, and late on the 2nd night trying to photo the lightening coming from a storm that passed close by.  Pete also was quiet for the 3 days but I must mention another bit of kit I used this time out and that was the Nash Thermal underlay, if you use a Nash Air-lite bedchair this underlay is to prevent any unwanted drafts coming up from underneath.

My next session was to be the following week, again for 3 nights and this time with my other close friend Ron who I met in France several years before and became close fishing companions.  2 days before we were due to go I went to bait up and after looking at the weather on the internet I knew the wind would be in the north west for a good few days.  So I walked round the whole lake and again nothing showing so opted to bait the south east corner into which the wind was blowing.  My baiting strategy would be boilies when not fishing, and just before my session I would put in a kilo of boilies and a kilo of soluballs that I had rolled in matching food dip then fired out before they start to break down.

We arrived around dinner on the Tuesday and settled straight into the corner swim, with this been the first winter ticket season and only 15 members so far, and it looks like most have given up already, so baiting up and dropping into swims looks like it’s not going to be a problem.  This swim also has a few sandy patches and rods were quickly sorted and dispatched to their resting places with the same rig set ups as before.   I woke about 2am to a couple of bleeps on the Sirens and was quickly up and out of bed and stood next to the rods. The sirens have been faultless in the 10 months I’ve had them and have had no false bleep so I knew something had happened down there . On reeling in the next morning I noticed that the small piece of tubing I had placed on the shank of the hook had moved back slightly.  ( A change I had done to my set up this time round was to add a small piece of tubing to create a blow back rig )  Had I been done!!

Most of the next day was spent roaming the 40 acre ski pit looking for signs of carp.  After about four hours searching I was just returning to my swim and decided to look over the reeds down the margin to my left and there slowly moving along the reed line was a very large dark almost black mirror.  All that time and there it was right in my swim.  I must have stood so still for what seemed an eternity before it melted back out into the lake, I quickly rushed back to my swim and informed Ron what I had seen and quickly sorted 2 of my rods.  One was positioned along the reed line where I’d seen the beast patrolling with a single 15mm Scopex Squid bottom bait with a small Gardner PVA bag with a 6 crumbed boilies as freebies, the second rod was put slightly further out at the edge of the weed bed but on the same patrol route, this was baited with a 15mm Amber strawberry bottom bait tipped with a 10mm yellow Rainbow amber pop up, I then lightly bait along the weed bed with about 15 to 20 15mm amber boilies.  The third rod was put back out about 30 yards out at the end of the weed bed run but with the thought of a fish in the vicinity I baited with about 3 kilos of Scopex Squid along with a handful of Amber strawberry mixed in.

The night went very quietly even though I sat up to the early hours just willing that carp to come back for a munch...Then it happen!  I was tying some rigs and Ron was stood looking out at the lake when out of the blue the left hand bobbin hit the deck I nearly fell of the bed, rig bits went flying everywhere I picked up the rod and struck nothing just slack line I quickly reeled down and struck again fish on!  It had swam towards then all of a sudden a big fish swirled right under my feet and then it was gone the hook had pulled!  I was gutted it had all happened so quick, it had picked my bait up and come straight down the margin towards me then when I struck the second time the fish was on its way back out and bang hook pull and from the boil and vortex it left, it was a very large fish. .Later that night I kept going over what might have been was it one of the big girls I’d just lost. Ron tried to make me feel better by saying I was getting close and must be doing things right to get the take, but all I could do was think could I have done things differently as this was my first hook pull with a Fang Twister for as long as I can remember but it was gone so time to start again.

Then out of the blue the phone rang It was Oli Davis from Nash, he had to do a feature last minute and could I help, of course I could I jump at the chance I had to think of a venue to do a 12 hour session on and it was to be on how I go about a day session on an open access water. I apologised to Ron that I would have to be away early but he totally understood and wished me well. 5 am and the alarm woke me to the heavens raining down what a start by the barrow was loaded even with my water proofs on I was soaked, so with the car loaded and a quick change of clothes it was off to the next venue for the feature.

It was about 6.30 by the time I pulled into the car park and it was still raining this is one of my regular local venues so I knew where I wanted to be so I grabbed my Titan Brolly and dashed round the lake to find the swim free so I quickly put the Titan up and went back to load the barrow. From this swim I can see all the lake and it gives me several options to try different methods. So with the rods out with single zigs on for that quick bite it was time to dry off again and put the kettle on. So let’s look at tackle and tactic’s, first for my zigs I use either size 8 or size 10 Fang X and ultima power zig line in 12lb. Oli rang to say he was running late so if I bagged one if possible put it in the Kaptive retainer till he got there. I kept moving the zigs about every 20mins or so but after an hour or so I knew that quick bite wasn’t coming so 1 by 1 I changed my 3 rods over to bottom baits. I chose 3 different approaches the 1st rod was placed to my left along the reeds the rig was a simple size 10 Fang Twister knotless knot to 9 inches of 15lb Missing link in gravel brown hook bait was half a Nashbaits classic scopex in 20mm with a pink 10mm Rainbow pop up to counter balance the hook this was fished over a few handfuls of Fishing Wizards mixed particles.

The second rod went out to the right to the edge of an Island under an overhanging willow, the rig was the same as the first but fished over about 25 15mm boilies and 25 matching soluballs. Oli turned up while I was doing the 3rd rod and after a quick cup of tea Oli began to take his photos and while he was photographing me tying the 3rd rig the rod against the island was away. Not wanting to mess it up I took my time and after a good short fight I was holding my prize up for the camera, a scraper double perfect pressure off and after putting on a fresh bait it was dispatched back out to the island and the last rod was cast towards a small fountain feature with a small PVAof crumbed boilies and crushed soluballs in amber strawberry and the rig its self was this time a size 8 Fang twister tied to 12 inches of Ultima 18lb ultra stiff. While talking to Oli and putting the feature together( which by the way will be in Maximum Carp) the reed line rod was away and straight away I knew this was a better fish and again I was soon holding my prize all 15lb of glistening mirror for the camera job done. The rod was once again cast back to the reeds this time with the new Chain Reaction on the hooklink, then just as we were putting the last bits together and photographing my rig tying the rod was away again but this time it came off after a few seconds but never mind I’d caught 2 live for the cameras. So I thanked Oli for giving me the chance to do the feature and he thanked me for coming up with the goods, so It was time for home after nearly five days on the bank and changing venues last minute I was knackered and needed a hot bath and some good food.

So that’s it’s for now It’s going to be busy over the next 6 to 8 weeks so I’ll do a couple of smaller and more regular blogs I’ve just got time for a couple of nights on the ski lake before I go to Holland with Nash for 5 days for the Utrecht show and we will be fishing the nights on a 2000 acre lake with Flexible carping Holland.

Hope you enjoyed it this time round and hope there was a couple of idea’s in there to help so till next time,

Hook a hippo

Leigh.