Effort Equals Reward - Jake Bannister

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Effort Equals Reward - Jake Bannister

Our very own Angling Direct Lincoln carping legend Jake bannister talks you through a recent result in which all his effort was rewarded ....

After having a break for a month or so with being super busy in the lincoln store I was itching to get the rods out and try bag my first winter carp. Watching the weather in the run up to Wednesday and I must say it wasn't looking good, I contacted the fishery manager the night before to see weather it was frozen he said it was but I could still come down and see in the morning as there was rain due in the night which hopefully would of thawed the lake out!

I got to the lake at around 7am Wednesday morning and the rain that was predicted did in deed fall but unfortunaley the lake  was still slightly frozen. Not one to be beaten I came up with a plan to smash the Ice in front of the peg I was going to fish and that's just what I did.

After an hour out in the boat smashing the ice away enough to place 3 rods I was ready to get some rigs out! Brimming with excitement I baited up 3 spots only at around 20 yards range on the edge of the shelf with crumbed and chopped Trent Baits SSD and placed 3 Ronnie rigs over the top, I eventually got everything sorted and got the kettle on to warm myself up.

With the wind picking up and blowing across the lake the ice that was left was melting fast and it was looking prime for a bite. An hour or so past and the wind swung completely and started coming straight at me this caused a major problem as the rafts of ice that were breaking away were coming straight towards me which kept wiping my lines out and I wasn't confident that they hadn't moved my rigs of the spot, I made the decision to bring the rods in in the hope the majority would push past me and melt away. A couple more hours past and the ice had pretty much disappeared and this gave me chance to get the rods back on the spots and top up with a touch more bait.

With the light fading fast and not a show or liner in sight I laid in the bag not feeling so confident at all. I must of nodded off as all of a sudden the alarms started to sound jumping straight up, out the bag and to the rods it soon came apparent that the lake was freezing over again and the ice was pushing and moving my lines, again not confident with the placement of the rigs I made a quick recast and got straight back in the bag as the chill factor felt like -10.

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It was around 6.30am on Thursday morning now and I was laid under the bag scrolling on my phone when all of a sudden the middle rod peeled off . Totally unprepared I jumped straight out and lifted into the rod soon becoming apparent the lake was frozen I stood for a second with line peeling off the reel trying to smash the ice on front of me so I could get the tip under the water, with this not working I put the rod back down and quickly grabbed the boat and set off to smash my way through the ice to try and land the fish, struggling like mad as you can well imagine trying to play a fish in one hand and break the ice with the other I soon got close and saw the fish surface wasting no time I grabbed the net and stabbed it in the icey water infront of me and swooped the fish up, freezing but buzzing at the same time my only intention was to get back to dry land.

I eventually got there which left like an age, I quickly secured the net and the boat then set to getting the camera set up but disaster had struck the cold had zapped the remaining battery life and the camera was dead. A quick message to fishery owner chris and he was soon on his way with his camera.

While waiting I got the fish out unhooked and weighed, I could tell it was a decent fish by the belly it went 24.8 on the scales but weight was irrelevant as the whole process to catching that one is one I wouldn't forget in a long time. Chris was soon there and after a quick brew to warm up we soon got the photos done and slipped her back.  With the lake still iced over in places and myself freezing to the bone with being wet I flicked the rod back out and set about packing down once the light rose.

As they say effort equals reward and I was buzzing to kick of my winter campaign like that.

Tight Lines all Jake Bannister

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