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| 627 drops of rain, and that was our 'downpour' |
The new venue is little known and tucked away in Bexley. It has been open since September last year and is now just beginning to flourish. The plants are all growing well, even in this weather with the help of the owner literally giving them bucket loads of water.
Today the weather was forecast as being warm with sunny spells. As I was loading the van this morning, the rain that did not appear yesterday, made an entrance. 627 drops (approximately) and that was it. Just enough to make all the cars look really filthy, The dust that has settled on them over the past few days was mixed with these large drops of water and then left to dry in the baking heat. Thanks a bunch!
I drove to the venue and was there by 06:50. Parking is a bit tight so I took the opportunity to turn the van around before the car park filled up. To my astonishment, when I left, the car park was empty. There did no appear to be anyone doing an all-nighter. This can only be down to lack of awareness. This place is ideal for the carp guys who live in South East London and Kent, and this time of year, the pleasure fishers looking for some dawn tench action...
When I arrived, the gate to the office and lake entrance was locked and a note saying to ring the number on the notice was followed. The code for the combination lock was given, and I let myself in. Apparently this number is changed frequently, for obvious reasons. I made my way to the gate into the lake where another combination (which is given as a text message, once the owner knows who you are) let me into the lake. It is a bit of a trek to the lake but it was all made so much easier by Sue (the missus). No, she did not act as my caddy, she suggested I took my little barrow. I had planned to carry my small amount of gear, but the barrow made light work of it as I negotiated the paths.
My 'minimum gear' therapy is obviously working, I had very little gear with me today but did not need anything else. This, I think in part, is down to having a plan for the day. That plan was to take just a float rod, a feeder rod and a tele-pole. I also decided to make up the rods on the bank so the cumbersome rod bag was not needed. The other big saving on porting gear was the insistence that only fishery nets, unhooking mats and weigh slings are used. None of these items are to be brought onto the fishery. Each peg is equipped with these items for use by the ticket holder.
The landing net is huge, but smaller nets are available if you need them. However the fish in the lake seem to be either 'swingable' or are huge, with only a few in between. At the moment there are a lot of fry about and an abundance of small, one-year old mirrors. I also caught rudd, roach and small crucian carp.
Today was all about pleasure fishing. I had a whole day to sit and fish at my own pace. As mentioned earlier, I had not made up any rods in advance. The first job, however, was to wet the ground bait. I was planning to use my own Two Dog groundbait, as a feeder mix, with the left over bits of Bacon Grill (left over from punching out my hook-bait) riddled in. The Two Dog does not need much water added, as it is already damp from the 'juice' from the hot dog sausages. You can find my basic recipe for the Two Dog groundbait HERE.
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| Two Dog groundbait and Bacon Grill - works every time |
I finished rigging the rod and riddled my groundbait while also adding some of the Bacon Grill trimmings. I loaded my modified method feeder and added a 9mm punched piece of Bacon Grill to the hair of my size 12 hook, on a four-inch hooklength. Knowing there are plenty of big carp in this lake, I was fishing heavy with 12lb monofilament line and 6lb hooklength of similar material.
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| Today's swim. The red oval is showing where there are some reeds growing on a submerged island. The lake is full of features to fish to. I think I might just go 'carper' next time and put a couple of lines out in the channel just behind that submerged island |
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| One of many (very many!) perfect little mirror carp |
At this point I was beginning to wonder why I had bought a two-rod ticket. The fish were going crazy for the Two Dog groundbait/meat combination (as they always do) so I put the feeder rod to one side while I tackled up my float rod. In an effort to slow down the bite rate on the feeder I baited it up with corn on the hook and recast. This worked, after a fashion, as the bites slowed down to about one every minute or so. This gave me a chance to get the float rod out on some lighter gear and a smaller hook.
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| My first crucian. They can only get bigger from here... |
I had only been fishing about half an hour and the fish were combing thick and fast. The feeder line was producing all sorts of variations of small mirror carp all morning. Then in the afternoon I put a couple of pieces of corn on the hook and cast the feeder out. It went quiet for the first time all day. Then after a good few minutes, the top swung around and the runner was screaming. I was into a bigger fish. After a longer tussle than I had experienced all day, I landed a nice small common of maybe a couple of pounds. It looked really small in the giant net sitting on the huge beanie mat, but I was happy.
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| The biggest fish of the day, looking rather small in the giant net |
And now the low point...
I did learn something today the hard way. I managed to keep a tub of lob worms alive at home for over three weeks. They were fine living in the fridge with a single feed of mashed potato. I had them sitting on my bait waiter with the lid off but resting on top. I had a small hand towel resting over them in an attempt to keep the sun off. By lunch time I had not got around to using any and noticed one had escaped and was laying motionless on the tray. It was dead. I looked in the pot only to find that all the others were also dead. The weather had been so hot, the tub had warmed up, even under the towel and done for my little mates, who I was getting attached to. I had no idea that such a relatively small rise in temperature would be so devastating to the worms.Sadly the worms were not the only victims of my bad care. Just after I had discovered the worms had died, I realised the maggots were rapidly expiring too. I have never seen this happen before and I have fished on some warm days but today must have been warmer than I have ever fished before. I moved the maggots into the shade of my chair and riddled them to discover that three quarters of them were dead. I know they are only maggots and worms and they were going to be drowned or cut up and fed to the fish, but I had not intended to cook them alive! If it is hot again, next time I go fishing, I will keep the live bait in a cool box. Lesson learned.
The better stuff
The lake has a good selection of water fowl including a family of mischievous ducklings that have not yet got the hang of fishing line and floats. One little fellow got the surprise of his life when the piece of sweetcorn he attempted to swallow just happened to be the tip of my float. |
| 'The Hump' peg No.6 - that'll do |
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| Say hello to my friend for the day - Lola |
All-in-all I had a most enjoyable day and I will be back very soon.
Ralph.
