After a pretty good season on Southlake in Berkshire the opportunity came up to fish a previously un-fished Berkshire still water.

The water in question is a 96 acre pit with fish up to 40lb+ that are known. In the water there are possibly a few surprises as well. For me going onto a pit of this size is something I have never attempted before and to say it was going to be a daunting experience would be an understatement. So a plan had to be hatched.

During the closed season March 14th – June 16th I made regular trips to lake in the hope of catching a glimpse of any carp and also to get a feel for the place. And what a place it is. Huge expanses of water combined with a number of bays and islands and enough natural food for any fish in there to not even look at anglers bait. Silt pockets, gravel bars and huge weed beds, also lots of places totally barren of anything no underwater features at all. Because of the lack of angling pressure the fish quite happily frequented the margins around the bays. This gave me plenty of opportunities to look at the quarry I was going to be fishing for. The fish sighted were in spawning mode coming up to the surface and then flanking left or right along the top giving me absolutely brilliant views of some of them. There were a number of swims that took my fancy so these were noted I just had to wait until the draw a week before the 16th to see where I would come out. Unfortunately I came out near the end and unsurprisingly the spots I wanted were taken. I opted for a swim at the back of one of the largest bays. Problem was is that either side of me were anglers so I was well and truly stitched up. This didn’t phase me though as I had 72 hours to see what happens. As the fish have never been pressured they seemed to get on with there normal routines, cruising on the surface crashing here there and everywhere during the day leading up to 12pm on the 16th.  Out went the rods on the spots, 1 to the left in the margins, 1 on the right in the, margins and the middle 1 about 60 yards in front of a weed bed. RSG was the bait of choice and this is what I was going will be using all season. The RSG having a unique flavour and also being food bait made me think that if it’s introduced on a weekly basis over time the fish would recognise it as a good source of food. 72 hours later not even a bleep yet I had fish crashing in front to the left and right. I wasn’t the only one either! Out of 40 anglers only a handful of fish had been caught to 32lb.

Some alternative action had to be taken they weren’t picking up boilies they were obviously bang on the naturals. You’d bring in a rod and the weed that was around the rig was absolutely alive with food. After the 72 hour session I only had the traditional weekend fishing available to me, no holiday left unfortunately. Only a small number of fish being caught and most people were on the boilie as I was. What could I do that would make a difference? The next weekend I managed to leave work a little early, I had been watching the weather over the last week and the winds was due to do a southerly and then turn to a south easterly. By looking on Google earth gave me a good idea of where I needed to be. It was one of the swims that screamed carp at me on my initial walk round, its at the entrance of a bay that is around 4 acres and one that I had seen a number of fish frequent, the good thing about this swim is it’s enables you to ambush fish coming in and out of the entrance of the bay so providing there was nobody fishing in the far corner I would have it all to myself there is another swim between mine and the bottom corner but its unfishable because of the steep slope leading down to it. Heart pounding after the long, long walk from the car park I got to where I wanted and YES it was free and the bottom corner was empty as well (That as I have learnt doesn’t really matter find out in future articles) although there was another angler to my left fishing into the smallest bay on the lake. He wouldn’t interfere in what I was doing though, and also if I did have anything there was always someone there to do the pictures. So the conditions were spot on there was no one fishing in the bay just needed to find something to fish to. Out went the marker to the far margin on my left, I popped the float up and found 8ft in silt but as I brought it back it hit weed then DONK, DONK, DONK gravel! Nice popped the marker up and its 5ft that will do me. The middle rod was cast to the far right I found the same type of features but the gravel spot was tiny maybe the size of a dinner plate. So I settled about getting some bait to the spots. As I said I needed to do something different as the fish were or seemed to be wary of the boilie. I still used the boilie (RSG) but over the top of hemp with a twist. My thoughts were that if you can get the fish pre occupied on a particle they are more susceptible to taking boiled bait. So Garlic was added to 2.5kg of hemp and 200 18mm RSG,s added to the mix. This was repeated on both far margin rods and spodded out. I put the left hand rod as I normally do long range on a chod with the RSG and a cork ball. Problem you have with that is you’re not sure what is landing in, I know the chod rig helps but as you will see from the articles to come the rig isn’t the main reason for catching!

So the traps were set time for a cider and a bit of grub.  It was about 11pm when I retired and a few fish were showing far out to the southerly part of the lake and the wind was turning to a south easterly brilliant! They may well be moving?

I was rudely awoken by a screaming Delkim at about 1am it was the left hand rod and I tell you what, hooking a carp that has never been hooked before is unbelievable this one went like a train! I’m thinking this is a good fish after the fight it put up. In the net and I looked down and I should have been disappointed because of what I saw. It was only 15lb 8oz but it wasn’t the size that was important (I bet you’ve heard that before). It was the fact that the fish was the result of thinking about your fishing, hatching a plan because of things YOU think is right. Not following everyone else.

I haven’t really discussed rigs because the fish in hear aren’t rig shy so you can use a simple set up. I think the bait and location is the key. See you soon.