The Season So Far... Steve Swan

This entry was posted on 30th June, 2016

After a slow start of the year I finally got into some fish down on Lodge Lake at Bawburgh, starting with a lovely fat common at 24lb 8oz I managed to wiggle out one Sunday after fishing the weekend elsewhere in the lake. The wind had just changed that morning and started to blow down one end of the lake into a quiet bay where no one had fished that weekend, so I had a walk around and found some sitting in the shallow water sunning themselves. I flicked out two stiff hinge rigs, one with a 14mm Northern Special on and the other with a Dynamite Baits Tiger Nut Red Amo 15mm pop up. After placing these out near to where fish were sitting I scattered about 80 to 100 free offerings around the general area and just sat back, waiting and watching the fish swim about. Only 15 minutes later I received an absolute screamer on the right hand rod with the Northern Special on. After a short but powerful fight I had the lovely common in the net. I moved quickly with the weighing and photos and then put her back, after that the fish soon left the bay so I decided to call it a day and go home.

The next time I managed to get down to fish the lake was a couple of weeks later, when I had a week off work. Arriving at the lake early Monday morning, just at first light, I decided to place myself in a swim they call Party Point. From Party Point I could see pretty much all of the lake for any showing fish. Four hours later after not seeing any fish show themselves I reeled in so I could have a good walk round. Doing a couple of laps of the lake I found some fish in the same quiet bay again so decided to have a stalk for an hour or two. Lucky for me I got the fish feeding quite easy this time, right at the bottom of the bay on some pellet, sweetcorn, and crumbed Tiger Nut boilies. After only five minutes or so I received a take .I could see that this time it was only a small one and after a short fight it was in the bottom of my net. One of the stockies at 12lb 10oz – a lovely fish with hopefully lots of growing still left in her. Once again the fish soon moved out and left me all alone at the bottom of the bay. After two or three more hours and the fish not returning I packed up and went to try and find a likely swim for the night.

I did another lap or two of the lake and I decided to set up camp in the swim called Glen’s as it had the odd fish showing at range (some carp, some tench). It look a good bet for a bite. The night came and went with no action so, in the morning, I decided to give tench fishing a try for a few hours. That was a good choice as the tench were on the feed. I managed ten mainly males up to 8lb (a good morning sport). Once the morning had gone the tench finished feeding, so once again I had a reel in and a walk round to try and find some carp – this time with no joy. Not seeing any fish later that day I stayed where I was for another night. A good choice that turned out to be!

At 6.30am the next morning just after waking up and putting the kettle I received a couple of bleeps on the left hand rod which was shortly followed by a one toner. Hooking the fish at range (approx. 130yds) the fish kited on a tight line towards a reed line to my right. I managed to turn it just before it reached the reeds, slowly making more and more line on the fish. About five minutes later it was in the net. Opening the mesh up, I could see that it was a nice big common. Lifting her up on the scales they whizzed round past 30 and settled on 30lb.8oz. It was my first 30lb common from the lake (to say I was chuffed would have been an understatement). I quickly took the photos and then put her back, no worse for wear. I received another take about half an hour later, this time on the right hand rod. I could tell that it was a smaller fish than before, and after a short fight another common was in the landing net, but this time only 18lb 8oz. Nevertheless I was still well chuffed to get another fish and popped her back in the water after the weighing and photos were done. After recasting the rod I went on to put out some more bait on that spot, this time having to use the spomb due to the strong northerly wind blowing into my face. Only ten minutes after put out about a kilo of bait I got an absolute ripper on the same left hand rod. This time it felt like a half decent fish and after a 20 minute fight it was in the back of the net. It was an aggressive stocky mirror at 17lb 10oz – a male, I think. Again after that recast the rod and put some more bait out, and again about an hour later the rod was off again but unfortunately this time the fish came off after a few seconds of being hooked. After that lost fish it went quiet for the rest of the session.

I managed to get in a quick overnighter in the next week and on this occasion I fished in an area I have been baiting for about two weeks with the Dynamite Baits Tiger Nut Red Amo boilies, putting in bait every third day with about two kilos of boilie a time. Darkness came and, with no fish showing in the area, I wasn’t very hopeful – although as luck would have it at midnight the middle rod screamed into life and shortly after a lovely stocky mirror was in the net.

The next three to four weekends were very slow: no takes for me, not much showing, and I didn’t hear much else coming out around the lake from other anglers either. The next time I got into some action was fishing in House bay of Lodge. There were lots of fish in the bay swimming around starting to group up ready for spawning. Shortly after setting up camp I started to flick a lead around to try and find some spots to fish. This was quite easy as there was only a small amount of silt weed in the bay so I decided to fish two rods at short range and one flicked towards the middle. This time I chose to only put about 40-50 baits round each rod. I was hoping for a quick bite and I didn’t want to spook the fish. I received a ripper of a take at 11.30pm which weeded me up straight away. Keeping the pressure on the fish, slowly it started to come with a huge lump of weed over its head. With this weed all over it the fish stopped fighting and came straight into the waiting landing net. Peeling back the net and clearing up all the weed I revealed a lovely lump of mirror carp. Turning the fish in the net I could see that it was the same fish that my good friend Paul Stevens had caught just six days before so I knew that it was another 30lber, as he caught it 30lb 12oz. The scales swung round to 30lb 8oz this time. I put her in the floatation sling to recover and give me time to try and wake up my brother Dave for him to have a look – this took some time to do!

The week after I had just got home from work and was settle ling down in front of the TV with a can of beer when the phone rang with my mate Dave calling to say that the fish were starting the spawn around the plateau in front of Party Point. I didn’t get chance to get down there to have a look that week and they had stopped by the weekend due a big rain storm hitting us, dumping a lot of rain in a short space of time. Since that 30lb mirror I have fished the last five weekends down at the lake but things have been very slow with no action coming my way.

Now you are all up to date with what has happen to me this season so far. I will be doing another blog later nearer the end and the summer.

Tight lines