Well I was down again for just an over nighter on Southlake. It was mid July so a month into the season. I took a half day off of work so I was down the lake by 1pm. First thing I did was have walk around. I went straight to the duck pond to see if there was any fish sunbathing out of the way of any angling pressure. Well I was pleasantly surprised to say the least as there must have been 20+ fish in there and the wind was blowing straight into the duck pond from the deeps bank. After another walk down the other end and seeing that at that point in time there was know one else on the lake I was spoilt for choice.

For me there were only two options 1 was the cut out and 2 was the bay after a call to Bonnie to get his opinion the bay was chosen. You see the fish have to come out of the duck pond at some point to feed and the bay, as long as you are in the right areas offers the fish more sanctuary. By the time my home was set up and the rods ready to cast it must have been 3pm. Bonnie came down for a chat and while there we saw a few shows over the pads. Good news even though this end of the lake had the majority of the pressure since the start.

So out went the left hand rod in between the Island and the far bank which is lined by lilly pads about 90 yards. I was using a helicopter set up with a clear TF leader and Hydrolink as my hook length and along the length was blobs of putty just to sink it all down nicely. Rounded off with 18mm OF SO boilie on a line aligner fished with piece of rig foam to keep it off the blanket weed and the hook point clear. The second rod was again helicopter style but using a 3inch chod on a D-Ring with an 18mm pop up same flavour, this was cast around 130 yards to the middle of the pads. I decided that with the amount of fish in the duck pond it would be best to put a good amount of bait out initially. So out went 2kg of the old faithful across both areas. Just had to sit and wait!

After everything was sorted and the rods back out on the same spots it must have been 8.30pm. I scattered around 200 baits over the spots and settled down with beer. Doug and I chatted about what had just happened when the left one was off again, this one came in pretty much straight away and was near the net when! Well yes you guessed it the right hand rod was off. Unreal was all I was thinking. So we swapped the rods again and Doug sorted the third fish out while I landed the forth 26.2lb mirror and a 24.6lb mirror.

Well we settled down again after the pics and getting them out again. Same procedure top up both areas and sit and wait It must have been around 11pm by this time and I was 1.elated and 2 in need of some shut eye.

To be honest I could go on and on about each fish but ultimately we had no sleep from 3am till 9am one after another. I ended up with 10 fish which one was a double and 9 twenty to 29.14lb. That’s what it all about when it all goes right and you can’t do nothing wrong.

I had another around 10am after Doug went so I had to do the pictures on the mat. 23.9lb on the chod! It slowed down to nothing after that but I still baited and re cast every couple of hours. Ian (eBay) called and said he would be down around 3pm Saturday and I said he was more than welcome to drop in with me in the bay on the right. Again 2 is better that 1 especially in a swim like the Bay. He set up and we talked about the previous night’s action, I had seen fish show in the middle and said to eBay that he has to get a baited rod out there.  So baits out freebies scattered. It was around 7pm when it started again a proper one toner on my left hand rod. But as an experiment I swapped rods so the chod was the left and the hydro was on the right. I think that at the start of the session if I had been using chod on both the tally would have been a lot more. Anyway another fish was on the bank, only a small one at 17.4lb but a fish none the less. After pictures and sorting stuff out it was time to get the left one out again.

It was dusk and I cast to the spot and it was bang on the money. I walked back gave the rod to Ian and walked back out to stick out some bait. While doing that the rod I had just cast was off. Like some sort of wild man from Borneo I waded back to the rod that was screaming. I was in fish on it fought like a demon and at 25.6lb was another result. Pics done out with the rod. Now this is a good one, there’s me wading out and had chucked to the edge of the pads. I was sinking the line when a fish crashed over the spot I had just cast to, cool there still there I thought. As I walked back I could see the line darting in and out as if there was something on. Well I thought no this aint happening. So I wound down and struck, well would you believe it a fish was on. It wasn’t just on it must of taken the bait on the drop so I had not even walked the rod back and I was into another one. What a fish as well 27.12lb on the drop, rock on the OF boilies!

It carried on like that all night I ended up bagging a total of 7 fish that night till about 8am again no sleep but was I bovvered I don’t think so! To sum it all up yes I was in the right place in the right time, but I could have fished the cut out (Incidentally the person that fished the cut dropped one and had a tench) but I didn’t and by introducing the initial 2kg and keeping it topped up made it all come together.

17 fish 2 doubles and 15 twenties. av that!

Big up the OF boilies they’ve proved themselves as top bait.