4th.March 2020

Paddlesworth, Pollard, Peg 49 (‘The Royal Box)

14.00
In view of the current panic surrounding ‘Coronovirus’, I decided to ‘self-isolate’ and go fishing!

I have a bee in my bonnet!.. All through the summer months I became convinced that zigs were the way to go. Not only would they defeat the armies of Bream but it was a more appropriate way of fishing over the very deep water.

A trip to the lake yesterday to collect bait from my ‘guru’ ‘Ryan-the-Bait-Man’ saw us in discussion concerning the current state of play. Few fish had been out, certainly not by bottom fishing and with Spring only just around the corner and the prospect of the upper layers beginning to warm, zigs once again seemed to be the preferred choice.

Opposite me is peg 30:

'The Royal Box' looking across to P30 from where I have had success previously. At 12 ½ wraps in this direction I have found 23 feet with the marker rod, letting the float rise up to the surface. With the spod rod set at 11 ½ wraps I am bang on the range; who would have thought a whole wrap of distance is enough to account for ‘swing-back’?

My left-hand rod is my ‘Banker’. This is the rig which has caught me all the fish so far but today I have substituted the usual ‘Helicopter Lead’ system for an in-line arrangement. One of the things I have noticed is that most of my friends and acquaintances use this system on Pollard - it’s a system I personally favour since I am especially a fan of solid bags and like the instant resistance this method confers when a fish picks up the bait. The ‘Fluorocarbon D Rig’ is identical to that which I have used previously and see no need to change.

On the centre rod I have one of two zigs. This is a simple setup involving a ‘Running Rig’ with a ‘Fox Bolt Bubble’ (small size). It has no function other than to provide something to stick the dissolving foam to, into which my yellow zig aligner is nicked. This is set at 30 inches long and is deliberately this length following a) previous experience: I have caught fish at this depth off the bottom on other waters in the past and b) Korda Underwater videos:

Underwater footage shows carp swimming off the bottom over baited areas without necessarily going down and eating food items. This zig is deliberately set at this depth to intercept them.

Fox 'Bolt Bubble' and swivel-bomb. The Bolt Bubble has no function at all other than to provide something to stick dissolving foam to for tangle prevention in-flight.

The right-hand rod is a conventional adjustable zig set to fish a black zig aligner 8 feet from the surface. Over the top of this I have spodded what is affectionately known as ‘Monkey Sick’ - this is my own version of a sloppy spod mix comprising ‘Sticky Baits Manilla Active Mix’ and white crumb. It takes a surprising amount of water to induce the requisite vomit-like texture to the mix and is best introduced into the spomb by hand rather than the scoop. For those who adore mess - this is a dream come true!

15.00
Rain showers at the moment. Air pressure is 1007 mB so it’s on the low side; this should mean bottom fishing should be better but who knows?

17.00
I’m keeping up a regime of spodding the slop every hour and on this latest session also spodded the usual Hemp and Boilies over the bottom bait.

I like the idea of a column of cloud mix in the water over my spot; at the very least it gives the carp something to home in on without actually feeding them. Alerting them to the fact there is something to eat nearby can be no bad thing.

17.40
It’s really raining now; looks set in for the evening; glad I got my spodding done when I did. What a miserable February it has been. Record rainfall, flooding, not to say oceans of mud everywhere. It’s got to stop at some point but when?

18.30
Don’t you just hate it when it’s absolutely throwing it down and you have to get out and have a pee?..

20.00
The rain has stopped at last and it’s deathly quiet out there. The banks are a sea of mud and I’m trying to restrict my activities to avoid stomping around in it - but there are some activities that simply must be undertaken!..

Thursday 5th. March 2020

07.30
Awoke to the sound of rain on the bivvy. It’s bloody raining again! When will it ever stop?

Nothing during the night. Not a bleep, line-bite, nothing. There’s a kind of depression beginning to set in - I don’t know whether it’s because of the weather or what it is but it kind of feels like it’s going to be another blank. Not an unusual occurrence in winter fishing, but this feels different. There’s a kind of ‘darkness’ that’s come over me this morning. It’s so difficult to explain - it amounts to just sitting here enduring the session rather than enjoying it.

08.10
Outside, the peg has turned into a quagmire, making moving around extremely problematic as well as dangerous - it’s a skating rink out there, one slip and at the very least it’s plastered from head to foot!

After a whole day of horrendous rain it became a quagmire out there... Water was running down the paths in rivulets! I managed to get both sorts of spod mix out. Doing something active has injected a bit of positivity into the session. Instead of sitting here moaning about the weather (which I will do anyway) the introduction of bait has at least enabled me to feel I’m doing something to get a bite. There’s a time for waiting and a time for doing stuff.

08.30
My peg choice.

There’s nothing much being caught anywhere at the moment and only the flimsiest of reports of showing fish (at night at this end of the lake).

Bites from pegs 4 and 12 have slowed right up although some fish are being caught which, given the frequency with which they are occupied is bound to happen. With Spring approaching the fish will eventually start to move away from their winter quarters and become more spread out. Sooner or later they will become resident in ‘Sandbags Bay’ from where they will be catchable from ‘The Box’, ‘The Brambles’, and peg 30.

But it looks like this is not quite happening yet.

08.45
Session break. Off to the toilet.

10.00
Session restart…

Back from toileting, thoroughly wet through and soaked to the skin. The rain continues and there is nothing for it but to sit the conditions out.

All baits re-cast onto their spots. I’m glad I got some spodding done before the rain really set in as it would be a complete nightmare in this rain.

Casting my zigs involves the use of dissolving foam, fixed to the body of the zig float. Doing it effectively in the pouring rain is horrendous! The session feels very very tough right now.

12.15
The deluge has intensified if anything; I see there is a weather warning out for this area for rain - “danger of flooding!” What a session!

12.30
Line bite on the bottom bait rod… there’s something out there! Air pressure has fallen to 989 mB.

I did the stupidest thing… opened a tin of chicken soup for my lunch and spilt it right on top of my stove! I mean it was submerged in chicken soup! I cleaned it up as best I could and managed to get a flame out of about 30% of the burner; the rest, nada. Sometimes I am so clumsy I surprise even myself.

13.00
Can you think of a situation where you don’t want to get a take? In the middle of a pee? When it’s raining really really hard?

It’s raining really really really hard!

Another line bite on the bottom bait rod; or is it Bream?

14.00
More line bites… is something going to happen?

22.15
Finally the rain has stopped… I thought I’d take the opportunity to introduce the spod mix I would normally have put out earlier in the evening. The third cast and the ‘Spider Spomb’ opens on the cast, flying off to the left in the darkness, driven by the strong right to left winds - straight into the trees! Unbelievable! Unretrievable! Bang goes £15 worth!

Bugger it!

Friday, 6th.March 2020

08.00
I’m fishing again.

Ever since the horrendous conditions started it has been very much a matter of survival by ‘battening down the hatches’. Yes, I’ve had bait out in the pond but the emphasis has been on getting through the stormy conditions in good order. So I’m up and at it again.

The last of the spod mix has gone out over the spot (with the aid of the spare Spomb); this represents a good feeding of it and has elevated my confidence no end. Bottom bait withdrawn, checked, and cast back out. Two foot zig cut down to eighteen inches and changed for a simple semi-fixed lead arrangement; this is now the rh rod.

The zig on the adjustable setup has been withdrawn altogether and replaced with my standard Helicopter rig setup with a Wafter on the Simple Fluorocarbon ‘D’ rig.

It was unwise to have so many speculative rigs on the go all at once and I very much fear I have paid the penalty (once again) for over-thinking things through. Not for the first time I am left with the knowledge that ‘if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it’!

Nothing further. Packed up at 11.00.

The walk of shame back to the car was a very tough, wearisome, arm-aching barrow-push. I was glad to get off the lake and get on my way back home - I think for the first time ever on the fishery.

[Footnote:

I think it was one of the worst sessions I have had on the lake; not just because of the awful weather but because I just didn’t enjoy it like I normally do.

When I reeled in the eighteen inch zig aligner I found that the foam had been completely crushed by the water pressure down at 23 feet. Now there’s a lesson learnt. I’ll use a pop-up next time. There are rig trials I want to undertake, particularly the in-line lead arrangement; I want to compare results with the Helicopter Rig. Burrows is probably the best place to do that. I also want to trial a coated braid rig and compare it to my standard ‘D’ rig to see if it catches as well. I have a sneaky feeling the fluorocarbon is a bit too stiff for the in-line and might result in the hook-length sticking up at an awkward angle.

That’s for next time]