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Dave Coster's Fishing Diary - September
I thought things were going a tad too well until I tried plumbing the depth. I could almost see the short hook length on my pole rig when my plummet hit bottom! I quickly changed to a much shallower rig and cupped in a couple of helpings of micro pellets, along with a few larger 4mm offerings (groundbait isn’t allowed).
It didn’t take long before my baited area was fizzing with bubbles, quickly followed by a busy spell catching 8oz to 12oz skimmers. However, this looked like roach territory to me, so I started catapulting casters regularly to the right of my pellet feed line, slightly closer in. My reasoning being that roach don’t always go for pellets.
It took 30 minutes before fish started to swirl on top for my casters and as the skimmer sport was slowing, I switched to a light on-the-drop rig with just three spread out number 13 Stotz weights. I proceeded to catch a flurry of 4oz to 8oz roach until the shoal backed off.
For the rest of the session it was a case of switching between the pellet and caster lines, catching better sized skimmers on soft hooker pellets and eventually some bigger roach on casters. Towards the end I tried increasing the feed, but that resulted in two trashed pole rigs thanks to carp moving in!
My mate Andy fished the next peg along and had a similar good double figure catch of silver fish, along with one bonus carp. It had been an enjoyable day’s fishing with loads of action, plus it was surprisingly peaceful for a late summer caravan park. Worth every penny of the £6-day ticket fee. (If you visit Willows, bring plenty of pound coins as you need to purchase your day ticket in advance from a machine in the first car park).
After a couple of visits to Priory Lakes at Ruskington back in August, I decided to give Lake Two another go, as I thought there was a lot more to learn there. This time my plan was to concentrate on wagglers tactics, feeding a mixture of 4mm pellets and casters by catapult, over a 3AAA peacock insert float. By using smaller baits, I was hoping to avoid the carp, to see if I could put a decent bag of bream and other silver fish together.
Big carp were cruising everywhere but they didn’t seem very interested in what I was doing. Soon I was catching decent skimmers and odd bream to 3lbs. But there are lots of small stockie carp in this lake and I caught a lot of these fish in the 8oz to 12oz category. I took the risk of trying to feed these off, putting in more casters and pellets, resulting in a good period catching bream between 2lbs and 3.5lbs. This was only interrupted twice by big carp, but both came off, probably because I was only using a size 16 barbless light wire hook.
Towards the end of the session better roach moved in – up to the pound mark, along with odd rudd to 12ozs. I had been carefully keeping track of all the fish and estimated my haul was well over 70lbs, 40lbs of which were bream and skimmers, the rest roach, rudd and small carp. Nice fishing using a traditional 13ft float rod with a 0.12mm hook length.
After speaking to some anglers I met at Priory Lakes, I discovered there was another day ticket fishery just along the road: Whitehouse Farm at North Kyme. The main lake looked to be stuffed with carp and I found an interesting looking snake lake next door. There were quite a few anglers around the main lake, so I opted for the snake - Lake Louise - because it looked like I would have the whole place to myself. I had heard mixed reports about this venue and it was as bit strange to find the first narrow arm of the snake pegged on both sides! I played it safe and picked a peg at the end, where nobody could sit opposite. It looked very fishy with a long stretch of overhanging cover to my left and lots of open water out in front.
Plan A was a 10m pole rig with a 0.10mm trace and size 18 barbless hook for the open water. Plan B was a much stronger 0.15mm dibber rig with a size 16 forged barbless hook for fishing tight to the left-hand cover, using a top kit fitted with black Hydrolastic and a puller kit.
I went out with my light rig first over a mixture of groundbait, casters and pellets and found it totally dead for the first 30 minutes. But suddenly my pole float ducked under and all hell broke loose! My number 5 pole elastic stretched out across the open water in front of me alarmingly, and all I could do was hold on, expecting a big twang at any moment. But amazingly my rig held and after an epic struggle a double figure carp surfaced by my waiting landing net. Then, disaster, my tiny hook lost its hold and the fish sank back out of sight.
Next comes the bit I love about fishing. I re-baited, dropped my rig back in the same spot and my float went under straight away. A heavy weight came in like a wet sack, straight into my landing net and I’m certain it was the same carp I had just lost! It was cream crackered this time and a good double figure fish to land on such light gear, even if it did take two attempts! My next put in resulted in yet another nail biting scrap, from a different double figure carp this time, which I also just about managed to land.
I decided to have a cup of coffee next to ponder what to do. Should I risk my light open water rig again, or step up my tackle? I went for the risky option and stayed with the 0.10mm rig. Things became more sensible after that and I started catching skimmers and crucians, enjoying a nice spell of action with fish up to the pound mark. But after a couple of hours the sun was getting high in the sky and the action tailed off. Time to try my heavy rig, tight to the cover where there was still some shade.
First put in and a one-pound skimmer lived up to its nickname, hitting my landing net before it knew what was happening. Second drop and my black Hydrolastic shot out a long way, but not the big carp I expected as a 3lb tench was quickly tamed. Only smaller fish after that, so I finished the session back in open water, catching skimmers and crucians spasmodically. Enjoyable for the price of a fiver. They do hot food and drinks on this fishery too.
I continued my quest for big bream on Denton Reservoir, deciding I will just have to keep putting plenty of hours in to try and track the fish down. I fished the deeps on the dam wall again, not wanting to spend all day tangling with weed in the shallow water. I was occasionally pestered by small perch on the feeder, between long spells of sitting there biteless. During one of these periods my concentration must have wandered. I suddenly I felt my rod being pulled off its rest and for a couple of seconds I could feel a heavy, ponderous weight, but whatever it was came off. I was gutted!
After eventually packing up I did spot the carcass of a dead 3lb bream in the margins, so this species is definitely resident. Maybe the tales of big double figure slabs might be true after all.
After a week away in Portugal (to keep the wife happy in the Algarve sun!) I had one more chance to get out in September. I had planned to give Denton Reservoir another visit, but there was some sort of bike rally going on when I got there, along with loads of walkers, so I opted to give Lake One at Priory another go. This is completely different to Lake Two I fished a few weeks before, being a lot more overgrown and having many more features. I also wanted to see if I could catch more chub, after catching one last time and being told by the owner that bigger specimens are in there.
Thinking about chub, I picked a swim with lots of overhanging tree cover on the island opposite, setting up a waggler to fish tight to the trees. I kicked off loose feeding casters directly in front of me and occasionally pinged a few pellets out several yards further along the cover. It didn’t take long before the caster line came to life but I was pestered with loads of small roach, rudd and skimmers. This led me to try the area where I had been feeding Dynamite’s meat flavoured pellets, with a soft hooker over the top. This resulted in a carp straight away, then a few slightly bigger skimmers and roach, but no sign of any chub.
I think loose feeding casters might have been a mistake, because there are loads of small fish in this lake and after a couple of hours they all seemed to be in my swim! I had to give up on both far bank feed areas to try and salvage the day, changing tactics completely and targeting the skimmers by cupping in balls of hard groundbait - heavily laced with casters and pellets, on the long pole. I used a bulk rig, set over-depth, to try and get through the bits.
It only took a few minutes before my new pole line was fizzing with bubbles, mostly better sized skimmers I suspected. Caster on the hook was a waste of time because I couldn’t get it through the small stuff. I switched to a dark red 4mm pellet, dumped in for a fast fall through the water and this did get down to the deck. I only had to wait a few minutes before the float sailed away and indeed, it was a better sized skimmer. A few smaller ones followed before roach and rudd became active again, mainly in the 2-4oz bracket. This would have been okay in a match, but when pleasure fishing it can become a bit tedious, so I cupped in more hard groundbait. Interestingly this brought back the better sized skimmers straight away. For the rest of the session I found I could get skimmers around the 12oz to 1lb mark straight after feeding, then smaller fish would take over, or if I upped the pellet size on the hook to 6mm, occasionally this found a bigger fish. This trick pulled me a bonus crucian carp, a torpedo shaped mirror, a couple of better size roach and rudd as well.
In the end I caught loads of fish but didn’t feel I had made the most of the swim. I hate having to change tactics midway through a session, plus I made life difficult when I did go on the pole by fishing too far out. There was a big mound behind me so I had to double unship my pole each time I brought it in. When lakes are packed with fish like this, the further out you go, the slower you can make things! Having said that, the water is a bit shallow to comfortably fish with whip tackle so I suspect the secret here, to find bigger silver fish, might be to wait until the weather turns colder. Apart from killing off small fish activity, the first frosts should also slow down the 2-3lb carp, which I’m not really that interested in. I like this place and will definitely be going back.
