Have Spomb will catch!

 

The second part of my week off begun on Monday with a trip to a venue I've not fished before, the very pretty Shearwater fishery in Wiltshire. I booked on using the very good Gocatch App and on arrival just 4 other anglers were on for the night with some very wet and windy conditions forecast for the next 48 hours. 

I opted to fish peg 1 at the far end of the lake and in the shallowest section of water. I could see a good few fish moving around at about 15-16 wraps so opted to target the area with a good helping of boilies, particle and a bit of pellet in the spomb. As soon as I started to introduce bait it was obvious that the fish were homing in on it! 

I put around 5kg of bait out and proceeded to cast all 3 rods onto the area just a few feet apart from each other. The action started within minutes and the bites came thick and fast! My first couple of fish were small commons around 8-10lbs and it was pretty obvious there were a lot of fish in the swim. 

My next run resulted in a very nice scaley mirror and then it went quiet. I decided I'd put some more bait out and bang! As if like flicking a switch, they were back again homing in on the spombed in bait. Around 6 fish then came again in quick succession before I had the same result again. 

Again I spombed another 5kg out and again the result was the same.....More fish, commons to double figures and a couple of scaley mirrors too. I kept the swim going all afternoon and then got a good helping of bait out just before dark in anticipation of a busy night. 

The wind by now had picked up to around 40 mph and the rain started to fall very heavily. I battened down the front of the bivvy, had a bite to eat and climbed into bed but only for a split second as I was once more away into a nice mirror. 

This was followed up with about 5 more fish before things quietened down enough to get a bit of sleep. I didn't bait up after 1am as I was starting to feel rather exhausted! 

First light saw me being battered byt heavy weather and a very incessant swine of a grey squirrel who seemed hell bent on eating everything in my bivvy! 

I ended up barricading the bivvy all round to stop him getting in! After attempting a little bit of shut eye 

I started the baiting up process all over again to receive the exact same result as the previous evening! Fish after fish fell to the approach! By late afternoon I was up to 35 runs and 33 landed! I was so worn out that my second evening I didn't bother to bait up in the hope 

I could get some well needed sleep. This wasn't on the cards and the bites continued throughout the night until 10am the following morning by which time I can honestly say I had caught enough fish! 43 runs and 37 landed. 

A very enjoyable yet tiring session! I still had 4 days of my holiday left and contemplated a trip down to Hampshire to fish a club water but to be honest I was so worn out that I took the easy option of heading home for a bit of sleep. 

I chose to do 3 evening sessions at the tail end of the week at my local club water instead and started out mid afternoon on the Thursday. in a swim that looked quite lively. 

I introduced my rig and bait with around 20 free offerings of Nutty bait crumbed up and a small amount of our Rod Hutchinson Mulberry Particle in the Bushwacker pole. It didn't take long before the weeks action was once again flowing at a fair rate! 

Bite after bite came and by close of play at 10pm I'd had no less than 19 takes and landed 15 fish! By far my best session on the venue to date! The next day I had to wait till mid afternoon before there was a break in the weather good enough for my old bones to tolerate! On arrival the lake looked very different and almost devoid of fish in comparison to the previous day. 

I didn't let that put me off though and dropped onto the same spot as the previous day. Same tactics were employed and it took about 2 hours to get the first bite. It then started to pick up once more and bites started to flow with a similar regularity as the Thursday session. By 10pm I was once again in double figures on the fish count at 11 with the biggest being a lovely common of 19lb 4oz. The last session of the week was a full day out on the lake on the Sunday. I arrived just before opening time at 6am to grab the same swim yet again as there were still clearly a lot of fish in that area. I got the rods out by 6.15am and my first take came at 6.50am from a very nice mirror carp of 20lb 3oz, a fish known as 'Drop scale'. 

My next chance was a bream at 11.45am and then I hooked into a really decent mirror at midday only to lose it due to a large amount of lost, snapped off monofilament trailing from a tree into the lake and tethering up on my fish. I managed to shake the very snagged fish off the barbless hook and then removed the line with the aid of my spomb rod and a large lead. I was gutted to lose the fish as I'm pretty sure it was one of my target fish. I got my head back into the game and started to catch a few by early afternoon and by close of play I'd once again had 15 runs and landed 14 of them! Another cracking day out. That wasn't the end of the results on the lake though as later in the week I returned for a brief evening session post work. 

Shit happens

After what feels like a millennium, I've finally got a week off work and the chance to wet a line. I started the break with a trip over to Farlows Lake near Iver in Bucks with my bestie Chris. The whole week had been planned out to precision with two venues linked up to spend a whole 10 days away. Unfortunately the day before we were due to leave I had a call to say that we had been double booked on the second usually exclusive venue and the week was out. Gutted but Chris and I made the best of the shit situation and left at 5am Wednesday morning for the 3 hour drive to London. 

We were greeted by a very busy venue with just a small handful of the least popular swims free. We spent 2 hours walking round and discussing our limited options. After lots of deliberating we decided to fish lake 2 and acquired swim 12 which is a large double occupancy swim with the most water coverage and the open water to a big gravel area mid lake. 

We had a chat with Fishery Manager and good mate Charlie before setting out. In all honesty neither of us were feeling very confident but we cracked on with things and got the van unloaded in the swim and started to get set up for the 3 nights ahead. 

We'd just got our bivvys up when Chris out of the blue told me he'd forgotten 2 ruck sacks which contained all his end tackle, head lamps, buzzers etc....What a nightmare! 

We took a walk round to the Tackle Shop on site and he had to purchase some new alarms and a few essentials for the week. The rest I lent him. We got some rigs tied and some bait out to the bar at 16 wraps with a spomb. 

A 5kg mix consisting of pellets, particle and boilies of mixed shapes, sizes, flavours and colours was carefully cast out to the spot and 2 rods each placed on the money. Chris and I also placed a rod in the nearside margins too. 

Chris was first up to get a run and his middle rod was away to the bar. A very strong take that unfortunately ended with not connecting with the fish. He was again away though a few minutes later on his margin rod and a great close quarters fight ensued with a stunning Colne Valley Mirror of 19lbs gracing his net. 

We both then had large bream before settling in for the evening session. We both spombed a good quantity of around 5kg of just boilie in at tea time after a few more bream had been on the spot. We decided to leave the particle and pellet out of the equation using a boilie only approach.

 

We settled in for a rather quiet nights fishing with nothing more than a couple of bream for our efforts. A recast was made around 9am and shortly after I had my first proper take of the week on the middle rod. 

A real screamer of a take.....The fish fought slow and heavy all the way in to the left margin where it spent a few minutes trying to snag me up. It finally left the area but the fight now felt rather stranger than before???? 

I was now attached to two fish rather than one! Chris netted the carp for me and behind it there was now a large bream attached as well via a rig it was trailing. It turns out that the bream had been snagged up in the margin and the carp plough through the area picking up the rig and freeing it from it's tethered trap. We dealt with the offending bream and then set our sights on weighing and photographing the lovely 26lb common now on my mat. 

A couple more bream found the net before another lovely long common graced the net around 5pm that evening. Chris was really struggling to get through the bream and it seemed like the only spot really producing the carp was my middle and left hand rod to the bar. This became apparent as at 18.30pm I had yet another strong take landing a stunning double figure Mirror carp. We had a bite to eat and sat back with a cider and some good banter watching the new series of Monster Carp on ITV with Dovey and Spooner.....I have to say, what a great production and one of my favourite TV shows of the modern era. Well done guys, excellent tv for the masses. 

Chris retired to bed around 11pm and we settled down for the night. Around midnight my left hand rod was away with a great scrapping carp yet again....Another scaley one found the net and I grabbed a few pics before once again settling down for some well earned zzzzz's. Sleep was not on the agenda though in the fishes mind as bream after bream ensued! At 2.45am I finally received a proper take and bagged one of the best looking mirrors of the session at 23lb 9oz. 

I slipped her back and tried my hardest to get some sleep amongst yet more bream for both of us throughout the early hours. I had a lost fish due to a cut off at 11am on Friday morning....I think this was almost certainly due to the huge numbers of very sharp swan mussels present on the bottom of the lake bed. The line had been damaged badly and I actually lost a couple of rigs on the cast due to snap offs. The last carp of the session came mid afternoon in near 30 degree heat and was again a very very pretty mirror! 

As the afternoon progressed the bream became incessant again and so did the amount of anglers and visitors to the venue! We had a party going on in the swim next to us with dogs, beer, loud radios and generally ruining the vibe behaviour going on. Vehicle after vehicle flowed behind us and endless people asking how long we were staying for. 

It got to a point where both Chris and I had literally had enough and we decided to pack up and head home a day early. 

A great shame to be honest as the fish in the venue are beautiful and only spoilt by the visiting hoards of numb nuts, many not even fishing! I'm looking at this weeks weather and formulating a few ideas for the weeks fishing and may mix it up a little with some varied types of fishing. We'll see what the week has in store! Tight lines all

Keith x