The new Season was upon us and it was time for the draw at Southlake. The draw takes place 1 week before opening night. This gives you a chance to bait you swim and have a lead around before you start fishing. More bait was being applied to most of the lake, but with swims secured there was more precision to our efforts as we knew where we were going to be.
Opening night was upon us, the 15th June. We were not allowed to cast out until 00:00 so there was plenty of time to get set up. I decided not to fish my picked swim as I had been feeding some large carp in the margins and wanted a crack at them. I was convinced that it would be easy, so was Mark as he had seen the fish in the swim and how hard they were feeding on the bait. There were times when you could get in the water with the fish as they were so close to feed them, I mean all I really needed was net. The fish were so preoccupied with the bait that they would be banging their tales against my waders!
The fish were still there as it went dark so I just kept putting small PVA bags of pellets in with one or two boilies in to keep them interested. This is how I would fish for them so I got them used to the little pile of pellets and two boilies. A British traditional thing is to let off a loud firework to start the season and then with a jump as the loud bang echoed the lake it was time for me to set the traps, in they went, all around the lake you could hear leads hitting the water and buzzers being set. The wait was on!!!!
At about what seemed to have been ten minutes a buzzer sounded next door, a swim that was being fished by a another member that was very close to my swim obviously on the same patrol route as my feeding fish. It was a nice low thirty, I had a quick look but was keen to stay on my rods as I was sure I was next.
Nothing happened until 3am. One of my buzzers sounded a fast take and I was out of bed in a flash. I hit the rod only to be met with a knock knock knock. Tench…….. It went back with a disappointed splosh and I was starting to scratch my head a bit as thought it would have been a carp but no. I reset the trap and climbed back into bed. I had to be at work the next morning so I needed some sleep. I woke up at 5.30am and looked at the rods in disbelief, nothing had happened. I stuck the kettle on and went for a look through the bush all the bait had gone except my hook baits. Dam I thought, I sat back down and made a cup of tea. I could not quite work out what had happened when the left hand rod went into melt down, I hit the rod and was now playing a carp, it was stripping line from me with what seemed like little effort and I was sure it was one of the better fish I had seen feeding. The scrap went on for quite a while until ping the hook pulled. Silence I stood there totally gutted as it was time to pack up and go to work and I wasn’t sure when I would get another chance.
On June the 19th Archie Jack Athey was born at 8lb 12ozs. Not quite a double but very welcome.
My fishing sessions were going to have to be different from now on. Short overnight sessions were the way forward. Having two dogs that needed extra exercise and a baby meant I would have to be home back in the morning early.
G fished his three days but blanked and to be honest I think as soon as the leads hit the water on opening night it sent a signal to all the fish that it was time to put the guard up. And that’s what they did, I managed to get round the lake quite often with the dogs but I couldn’t get the fish feeding in the margins any more. They just didn’t visit the spots.
Towards the end of July things had settled down a bit at home and Michelle let me get out for the odd night, It would mean getting back first thing but hey at least I was getting out. The initial pressure of the first month on Southlake had died out and there weren’t many anglers fishing mid week as I had planned to do.
It was on one of those nights that a managed my first fish, staying in the same area of the lake as the bait had been going in and also giving me an opportunity to cast to the spot I fished on opening night. It was about 3am a one note alarm beep that woke me with a start, fishing was becoming my way of catching up on sleep I like my sleep but not as much a the screaming noise of my LXR’s . The fish had managed to kite left a lot, I mean I real lot which made me think that I must have been a really deep sleep before I hit the rod. I could feel the line grating in something then I noticed the line was caught in the margin tree and the fish was underneath it pulling at the tree branch. I must have gone so far left that when I stuck the line got caught in the tree that was the grating feeling! The fish was getting pissed by now and was braking the surface and splashing, my knees were trembling and I was praying for the line to keep intact, it did and the fish pulled the line out of the tree and out it went into open water. After that the fished played ball and I slipped the fish over the net cord….YeeeeeesSSSSSSS. I sacked the fish and text messaged Mark to let him know the blank had ended. Mark said he would be down early to help with the pictures. |
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