Wednesday5th.February 2020

Paddlesworth, Pollard, Peg 4

14.45
I had a recce trip to the lake on Monday and was fortunate to meet my good friend Nobby, fishing in Peg 4 on a 48 hour session. He Kindly agreed to a ‘handover’ on Wednesday as he was packing up, hence my late arrival.

Pegs 4 and 12 seemed to be the only two pegs on the lake producing fish at the moment and queues were forming to get in them!

The day did not get off to an auspicious start… Reversing off my drive at home , a car came flying round the bend on which my house stands taking emergency evasion action to avoid hitting me as I straddled the road and for a split second I thought I was going to take a ‘broadside’. I think the driver (who was an elderly lady) must have panicked and instead of hitting the brake - put her foot on the accelerator because she shot off, offside of me, mounted the kerb and ploughed straight through my neighbour’s front garden, taking out the boundary fence in the process! Still revving the engine she continued on through the next door’s front garden, narrowly missing a tree, the rear end of a parked car and took out the end of a low wall!

I felt so sorry for her as she was obviously in a great deal of distress but I was glad there was no-one hurt. Especially me!

Nobby had caught three fish to twenty-five pounds on Monday night but Tuesday night he had blanked so I don’t know whether this was a good sign or a bad one; we shall see.

I had previously spoken to several members about peg 4 - picking their brains as to where the best spots were! there was a general consensus that the two 'Dome Trees' were the place to put your baits although Nobby said that he'd had a fish to the left of the pitch too.
All baits fishing at 15 wraps plus 2 feet. Spod rod set at 14 wraps plus two feet using a marker float as a ‘target’ to get the distance right and allow for ‘swing-back’. Marks are the two ‘Dome Trees’ in the far distance and the baits are fishing within a few feet of one another.

17.30
Tea done. Very quiet. Conditions are cold and clear; we shall get a hard frost tonight!

Whilst I wouldn’t exactly say I am confident, I am certainly enjoying fishing a peg other than 30. I felt I needed a change of scenery and 4 certainly fits the bill. I’ve never liked fishing the same swims time after time and although catching fish is a good compensation, I do like a bit of variety.

Thursday, 6th.February 2020

10.20
There is not a lot to report carp-wise. The night was cold and clear with ice on the bivvy and in the puddles. The Bream started at about midnight, little lifts and knocks, followed by desperate attempts at imitating carp runs which only got as far as six-inch pulls, followed by fatigued drop-backs. Eventually one hooked itself and couldn’t divest itself of the hook and rig and I had to get out of bed and reel the damn thing in, release it, and send it on its way.

The 'Spodding Station' is one of the best things I have ever invested in. I get chronic back-ache at the drop of a hat these days and bending down to fill a spod from a bucket was absolutely guaranteed to bring on the pains. Not any more...

Had a bit of a spodding session just now with the ‘Wolf Spider Spod’. First impressions are that it does exactly what it says on the tin although claims that it opens every time are somewhat exaggerated. I found that if you over-filled it, it failed to open; this was because I was loading it with three of the case segments closed and only the one open. This was to ensure I got the greatest amount of feed in it in one go. Cutting down the payload slightly seemed to do the trick and by having the thing half open it was far more consistent although still not 100%.

Neodymium magnets hold the four segments together and seem to be very effective. Worth giving a go if you are not satisfied with your current spod or spomb. Very easy to retrieve and comes back through the water with only minimal resistance.

12.00
There’s absolutely nothing happening out there at the moment - I haven’t seen or heard anything and it’s not difficult to see why - the sun is blazing down and there is virtually no wind. Classic high pressure conditions which suggest a zig but I have other ideas…

Prior to the ‘D’ rig which I’ve got on:

My Fluorocarbon 'D' rig with a 'Carp-R-Us' Mouth Snagger. Total confidence.

I used my own ‘Simple Fluorocarbon Rig (SFR) with great success in France where I caught fish to 45lbs. with it. I started using it on here too and caught one or two but changed because the hair loop continually kept coming undone, necessitating a re-tie after every use. I’ve made a very minor addition which seems to solve the problem - a ‘blob’ on the tag-end of the overhand knot. This is my ultimate easy-to-tie rig which marries simplicity with effectiveness.

The Simple Fluorocarbon Rig. No frills. No fancies. Just a Chod hook, a hair, and an anti-tangle sleeve. That's it!

13.20
There’s a bit of a breeze sprung up and it’s blowing directly up the lake towards this end. I’m hoping this is going to improve matters somewhat as the clear, still, sunny conditions did not bode well.

Storm ‘Ciara’ forecast for the weekend so the air pressure is going to start dropping at some point.

14.50
The breeze has dropped and it is flat calm again. So that was a lot of good that was!

16.00
My main spodding session of the trip. Up to now I had been fishing over the feed that Nobby had put out and since he’d had neither Bream nor Carp on his final night there was a good chance some of it was still out there.

But now, I decided to put in my main effort. I have previously been convinced of the virtue of a lot of feed for the Pollard Carp so I spent a good half hour ‘blitzing’ my spot with Hemp and Boilies. Just to remind folks, these are ‘Maxinut’ boilies supplied by Ryan King and since there are at least twenty other members on the lake using it, it makes sense to use the bait with which they have great familiarity.

Although I am not what what you’d say ‘Confident’, the introduction of plenty of feed has maximised my chances (I believe). A good dollop of Confidence goes a long way towards addressing whatever other shortcomings there may be in the session.

Friday, 7th.February 2020

08.00
Awoke to a very thick frost coating the entire landscape. Not a bleep from any of the bite alarms; not a Bream, not a line-bite, nothing. The hoped-for bonanza this peg has conferred on some of those fishing it has simply not materialised and I believe there are fairly obvious reasons for this:

This morning, air pressure has been 1022 mB and whilst it is scheduled to fall as storm ‘Ciara’ draws nigh, it has been a lot higher than that. High pressure is never good for bottom fishing

Secondly, we have had several days of dry weather. The significance of this is that the underground springs have stopped running or have at least slowed considerably and it is the presence (or assumed presence) of a spring which has created the feature the Carp find so attractive to pegs 4 and 12.

Nobby has been talking to long-time members of the club with thirty years experience of the place who tell the story of these areas being the last to freeze and the first to thaw in the arctic conditions of the past. It would be difficult to prove explicitly without sophisticated technical equipment, but it would seem that the spring hypothesis is the most likely scenario accounting for the success of the two pegs…

[Endnote:

I had barely paid any attention to someone who moved in next to me to my left in peg three, but speaking to him as I was leaving he reported he had caught two fish during the night!… I couldn’t believe this! I believed I had fished peg 4 well and thoroughly deserved to catch from it and fish coming from next door completely confounded me!

I had fished all three baits together on the one known ‘hotspot’ and ignored the left of the swim. Seems I should have had a bait out there…]