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Dave Coster - February 2020 - Part 2
For part of February, I had to go to France for a few days on business and just avoided getting held up by yet another storm. Returning back to the UK for the next big blow and near arctic conditions, the rivers were back in the fields again and I didn’t fancy sitting anywhere near any big trees, because quite a few had come down locally!
In the end, I arranged to meet up with Chris and his son Oliver for another go on the Small Carp Lake at Woodies. At least here you are guaranteed loads of bites and not just from carp. With a bit of an embankment behind, it was quite sheltered compared to the larger lakes.
Chris started on a small maggot feeder, a tactic that had seen him nearly empty this lake when we fished it previously. He was soon playing a carp, planning to let young Oliver have a go when he had got the swim properly primed.
As for me, I set up a waggler, which I planned to use with pellets and casters, switching about to see what the fish preferred. I also fed up a pole line with some chopped worm, because there are quite a few perch in this lake, and I fancied there might be a chance of some big ones.
Just like my last visit, the waggler caught fish almost instantly and it didn’t take long to get roach and rudd swirling on top for loose fed casters. I was also feeding a few pellets and a change to a soft expander on the hook saw me waiting longer for a bite, but when it came skimmers between 4 and 12oz resulted. It was a bite a chuck on the waggler but strangely, when I switched to the pole, only odd skimmers and tiny fish resulted. No signs of any big perch, despite having put a lot of chop in and trying a big piece of lobworm over the top.
Young Oliver was also catching well now. He hadn’t tried feeder fishing before, preferring pole and waggler tactics in his short angling carrier up until this point. However, after being shown how to cast a feeder out he was now performing like a top match angler, expertly playing fish in and netting them without any help. This type of fished-packed day ticket venue is the perfect place to teach youngsters on because there is rarely a slack moment and all the action tends to hold their interest.
The feeder didn’t score quite as well as on our last visit, with fewer carp around. But my light waggler approach was bringing loads of fish, including rudd, roach, perch, hybrids, skimmers and even odd gudgeon. There were not many places I could think of where the sport would have been this hectic in the current weather conditions.
A pattern emerged were some decent sized roach, rudd and hybrids were turning up just after my waggler had landed, grabbing my single caster hook bait on the way down. If a bite didn’t materialise and my bait had a chance to settle, normally a skimmer would result. As the session wore on, a few better skimmers around the pound mark turned up too.
Between them, Chris and Oliver caught a steady stream of fish and it was great to see the little man doing so well so quickly. Even when he wasn’t fishing, he appeared to love being out on the bank and watching all that was going on.
When I first started fishing, I can remember planning meticulously for every fishing trip at intriguing venues to explore all methods to try. I owe so much to the senior club members back in those days who helped show me how to catch fish.
As the month draws to a close, I’m now sitting by the sea in sunny Portugal watching locals fishing for mullet and bass. I’m certainly dreaming of getting back to the UK before the river season finishes and I am praying for no more rain!