I think where I left off last time it was raining, well it’s still raining and we haven’t had more that one day without some rain since April, Ok its not been that bad but it feels like it. The only good thing about the weather is that the fishing has been excellent, in my last article I mentioned that the close season was coming to an end and that we were due to up sticks and go onto our main summer water Southlake.

I had 2 more sessions to do on Redlands and then it was opening night, I just love the anticipation! Well I suppose all anglers most love the anticipation it’s what is about. I did well on my remaining sessions with three fish banked 2 nice unusual almost leather carp and old spawned out common.

I look miserable but it was due to lack of sleep, the mid week sessions were starting to get to me.

And this 21.5lb mirror.

Both fish fell to the RSG and the springy rig I touched on last article.  I scattered about 50 baits on each rod and sat back and waited. The rewards were not to far away.

The following week I was set up ready to catch a few again from the same swim when Doug came down for a quick social, rods out and ready I joked to Doug that I would be in a minute, with that the right hand rod melted away and the rod took on a decent curve as I leant into the fish. I tighten the clutch a little as it was smoking away a bit and I thought I was connected to a real good carp. Then something happened that had not happened to be in a while, the rig failed and I was slack. I wound in a closer inspection revealed that my knot between the trigger link and the soft braid had parted. Totally man made error, I was gutted, it happens but I cannot afford to loose fish and the head went down a bit. The fish felt really good which made things worse.

I sat back down and Doug sensing my disappointment went off to do his round of the lake checking permits and dropping in a few carp sweeties. I pulled myself together and re-tired the rig and made sure I had sufficient turns on both knots that form the combi part of the rig. It’s fiddly but attention to detail is so important and something I will come to learn even harder as you read on.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I don’t sulk for long and am always up for a bit of camaraderie when ever possible.  By the time Dough returned I was fishing with both rods again and made the statement that I would be in again soon. The kettle went on and a full rig diagnosis was carried out by Doug, he uses similar rig but with a different knot. I still haven’t learnt that knot but have made sure my knot now gets eight turns every side.

Beeeepppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp I was in again this time the left hand rod, being ultra cocky seemed to work for me this session and as I predicted I was in again from a spot I always fancied but had never really fished. Doug had put me on to it and even walked round and dropped a few freebies on top of my baited rig for me. It again felt like a decent fish and knew what it was doing, so much so by the time I realised what it was doing it was too late. Straight In the snags of the willow, locked up bollocks!!!!!!!!!. Doug was on hand to jump in the boat but when the he traced the line down the fish had gone along with the hook link again. Ok so it wasn’t the new rig it was one I had caught on before but there was a problem. I re-tired the rig again but instead of using two eight turn grinners against each other I put a small swivel in between them and tied to that. Putty round the swivel and sorted back out again and fishing.

I got my head down as it was getting late and work loomed. I was woken at about five o’clock with the familiar sound of the LXR screaming for attention. I was up and came to thought I should have put my boots on as I was standing on a big pile of swan shit that had worked its way through my toes….nice way to wake up. This time I wasn’t letting any fish get away from me. After a good clean fight with no dramas I netted a ropy spawned out common of about 19lb. I popped it in the sack and thought I may as well get the last hour in bed and wait for the light to improve before doing the photos.

At about six am I heard someone walk past with some gear ready for a day session. They went three swims down and I saw what was only typical of fishing in England a lead fly over onto my spot right over my line. That was it really I thought I’m going to pack up and go as my chances of another fish were thwarted. I wound down and retrieved the rig that had been cast over and unsurprisingly picked up the other anglers rig. Usually I would have gone round and told them but I wasn’t in the mood so I just wound quicker and chuckled to myself as I heard the scramble for his rod. As soon as I saw the line chase through the water I informed him it was me by just shouting at him. Not very sporting but that’s tough shit. That’s how I felt.

I wasn’t too bothered about the last session really as I was now really looking forward to opening night on South lake, I was unable to take part in the draw as I had a wedding to attend that I wasn’t going to get out of. Lucky for me as it turned out Mark pulled out of the hat first in my absence he managed to get the Bay swim. The bay is without a doubt the best swim on the lake as it has only one side that can be fished so it is a haven for the fish and they feed confidently in there all year round.  On the Monday after the draw I baited the swim with 10kg of pellets and about 2.5kg of Squid and Octopus boilies. I want the fish to have good feed on the small items and get used to picking up the larger boilies every now and then.

Open night fell on a Friday and I was down at the lake for 8pm with Mark as we had decided to both get in the bay. I have to thank Mark for this as one I wouldn’t be able to fish there without his invite and secondly he gave me the left hand side of the swim nearest the island and the Pads defiantly the more productive side of the bay.

Hang on the carp wanted to give me a kiss, so I thought. Obviously he loved the bait and wanted to say thanks. Your welcome!

20lb something, suffering from no sleep I didn't care about weights any more of these carp it didn't matter, the bait was working well and I was on roll.

I lost 5 fish so you can imagine how busy I was, it was literally a fish a cast. The losses were mainly my fault and I have toyed whether to write about it and decided to share my problems with you to prevent you making the same mistakes as I dit.. I lost two fish to the island margin cutting me off and the remainder were hook-link breakages, 12lb Trigger was just not strong enough. Lesson learnt I have switched to 15lb now with no problems.

Thight lines Timbo