Redeye Baits Catch Report

Redeye Baits backed junior angler, Sam Finch, has been amongst the fish during the first real cold snap of 2012. Redeye Baits have passed on the below report from the session by this up and coming young angler.

For the last two years i've been concentrating my efforts on a local 3 acre low stock water near to my home called four seasons lodge lake. Its a difficult water with most of the fish being 20lb+ and alot of angling pressure through the summer months. The lake is known for being a real hard winter water and so far one fish had been out through the cold months.

"On Saturday the 28th of january i had a chat with a friend and decided to do an 24hr session as this was the first few cold nights of the year and we thought that maybe the carp might get their heads down. I arrived at the lake around 1pm and the lake was flat calm with ice over the shallower margins. knowing that it was a main holding area for the fish throughout the year I decided to drop in to swim no.4 and drop two baits in open water on the softer lakebed.

I have been testing a new, black boilie by Redeye Baits recently and have been impressed with the quality of them so that was my chosen bait for this session. I tied up two sticks and threaded them on the supple hooklinks which were attatched to 3oz pears on leadcore helicopter rigs. I used long hairs and sharpened hooks to finish the setup. By 3pm I had two traps bang on, having felt them down on a softish lakebed, dropped a handful of freebies over each and slackened off for the night. My mate came round and we sat under my brolly had a brew and watched nightfall. Around 10pm I hit the sack and it was a cold one.

6.30am the right hand rod let off a sharp series of bleeps, followed by another. Me, being all curled up in the bag struggled to awake and as usual missed the shoes on approaching the rod. I stood there in my socks, on the frozen floor, playing an angry carp in -3 conditions as it kept plodding away in the clear depths. Just as the fish started to look beaten I went to pick the net up, only to find it frozen to the floor, and it took a good pull to get it off the floor. Anyway, it popped up and I scooped it up, on first thoughts I thought I’d landed 'single scale', but upon peering into the mesh i soon noticed it was a fish called 'spot' - usually a low 20 mirror.

I got it out and unhooked it, noticing the hook buried in the centre of the bottom lip an inch back, really good for my confidence, I placed the fish back in the net and lowered it in the edge, securing it before walking round to get my mate Kalan. first light was only 20 mins away so we decided to do the pictures then, me and him and his carp dog sat and drank tea, watching the morning rise. 

On first light i cleared the ice off the mat before picking spot out for some pictures and weighing. It went 21lb 3oz and after getting some shots i lowered her back into the water, watching her waddle away into the depths. After countless cups of tea and some bacon sarnies, I barrowed the gear home to defrost in a hot shower."

For more information on Redeye Baits, please click the logo below to visit their website.