Keeping the Faith – Jason Hayward

Some of you may remember from the last piece that I wrote for Baitworks back in June, that although the Spring weather had been absolutely freezing, the fishing was slowly but very surely picking up.

I had diligently been applying plenty of Mark’s finest boiled bait to the lake every week in as many likely looking areas and nooks and crannies as I could which wasn’t always possible as I was mindful of other anglers, but this regular baiting application was definitely having a positive effect and the transition from the single bright pop ups to small patches of food bait was distinctly evident.

To give you a brief background, the lake in question is about 12 acres with one island two thirds the way up the lake. The stock numbers are very difficult to be sure about…..around 80-90 fish plus some very small stockies that had been dropped in a couple of years back. The slight ambiguity of the numbers of Carp comes from the fact that most of the fish (over 95%) are commons which had been stocked over 30 years ago or more, so although the fish were not by any stretch of the imagination unknown, they were on the whole pretty much un-named, as telling most of them apart was very difficult until the photographs of the fish were scrutinised.  The lake has been fished hard over many years and had rightly gained the reputation of being the “hardest” of the lakes on the limited ticket complex, which consequently meant it was slightly less busier than the other pits and more often than not only you would see some of the anglers for 2 or 3 weeks before they got fed up of motionless indicators and would disappear back over the river to the other lakes.

I arrived at the lake on the Sunday afternoon and as usual for this day in the week it was quiet, as most people had packed up and gone. I spoke to an angler on his way out as I was unlocking the gate and he’d said he had blanked for the 3^rd week running and the lake was dead!

I parked my car behind the swim I fancied, which was the same swim I’d braced the 2 x 40lb commons from earlier in the month, (well you would, wouldn’t you!) and went for a walk armed with my polaroid’s and binoculars. After an hour or so I found myself back in the same swim having seen nothing, so started setting up which unusually for me started with the bivvy instead of the rods! There were 2 reasons for this, one, it was absolutely Baltic in the strong N/E wind that was blowing from pretty much behind me and secondly most of the takes were coming in the depth of night or the very early hours of the morning. This suited me down to the ground as I had no rush and could take my time and get everything spot on and in place so there wasn’t any disturbance around the swim close to bite time, just how I like it.

The LHR was the “long rod” at 72 yards placed directly next to the biggest weed bed I could find, although the weather was obviously holding back the growth but this weed was fresh and lush and just had to be a touchdown point.      

The MR was cast at a big V in the tree line on the far bank, much shorter in distance but onto a very slightly raised seam of gravel that protruded from the corner of the island to my right, it couldn’t really be classed as a bar but a feature in a fairly featureless lake and the lead positively “rattled” as it was drawn back over the area…Finally the last RHR was cast a long way right, into the corner of a tree branch that protruded from a bush. This bush was a spot I had fished hard and caught from well last season and the knocking on the lead gave its location away. The main gravelly spot was a good rod length off the end of the bush and was strictly speaking in another swim’s water but the corner in the bush I was fishing couldn’t be hit from the other swim due to the branch sticking out.            

This wasn’t obvious but I’d found it by plumbing the area a few weeks earlier. I’d popped a marker float up in the corner of the bush and walked around to the other swim so I could see how it looked and get my bearings on exactly where the spot was.  When I walked into the swim that controlled the area I couldn’t see the float, so I walked back to my swim to pay out some more line but to my surprise the float was standing up like a flag, and when I got back to the next door swim I laughed as it was now obvious the float was upon the surface but I couldn’t see it due to the foliage on the branch! It just had to be a spot!

The night was again a cold one, the wind hadn’t abated at all and although I had caught I hadn’t seen a thing! I woke to the shrill of the alarm, unfortunately it was the alarm clock on my phone telling me to get up! As it was 4am!            

I dragged myself out of bed and shivered in the half light of the misty Spring morning and I quickly pulled on my salopettes and thick hoodie and fired up the Coleman for the first brew of the day. The piping hot tea was slowly sipped as I sat on my bucket next to my rods as the sun peeped above the horizon behind me and the mist rolled by on the water when suddenly the RHR leapt into action again and the rod pulled around sideways against the angry Carp that kicked and bucked on the end of the line. I pulled my waders on and trudged into the lake to keep the fish high up in the water away from my other lines as I could feel from the start it was a big fish and after a short fight when it emerged in front of me spitting water, I could see it was one of the lakes real bigguns. The fish was netted and heaved ashore onto the waiting mat. It was another massive common! The hook hold was again perfect and I admired her huge frame and immaculate condition. She was a very different colour to the previous fish being a much more grey in colour.    

On the Reuben’s she 45.08lb and I was made up! Again photos were again done on my own before slipping the immaculate creature back. After a new rig and hookbait were recast my mate Chris turned up and I relayed what had been going on to him. Chris then made his way around to his chosen swim on the other side of the lake which was out of my view behind the island.

The morning slowly ticked by and I was still very confident for another bite as 10am had been a very productive time last year, albeit later in the Summer. My confidence was well placed as at 8.30am the same rod tip bent round towards the bush. I jumped up and heaved and the Carp went mad and hit the surface with a loud whack of the tail on the surface, scaring the Coots and Moorhens as they squawked their disapproval to each other. A terrific deep heavy fight ensued, and I could feel every heavy lunge and angry shake of the head as the Carp made for open water.

I knew the main area in front of me was weed free so whilst keeping the pressure up I let the fish plod up and down until eventually the pressure told and the fish rolled over on it’s side defeated and I gently pulled her over the cord into the awaiting net. I already knew it was another good’un… and boy was I right as I had that “this will need two hands” feeling as I lifted the net and laid the beast down and unfolded my prize, she was an absolute lump! 

The fish was another huge common and had a faint but distinctive two-tone colouration that I recognized as a fish that one of the bailiffs had caught about 6 weeks previously at 43+, this time however, she looked absolutely massive!

I weighed her and the needle swung around to an amazing 46lb 12oz And not for the first time that session I was on cloud 9!  I phoned Chris and told him what I’d caught and he was gob smacked as this sort of thing just didn’t happen on this lake! I asked Chris if he minded popping around to my swim to take some pics as I wanted him to witness the fish and I honestly wasn’t sure anyone would believe me. Chris happily agreed to, as he wanted to see the fish as well.

We assembled the mat and water well back from the water as an angler had turned up a couple of swims up from me but he couldn’t see me unless he was stood by his rods. Thankfully he was sat in his bivvy and one very happy angler giggled and held the huge common up for the cameras as Chris snapped away….Absolute magic!  Chris commented on what an unbelievable session it was and that the fish was a new lake record, which was the cherry on the cake.

I really needed a cuppa and something to eat and just to calm down and take stock…

The afternoon slipped by quietly and the cold wind continued to blow but as the sun crept around the front of the swim and shone into the door it warmed my bivvy up lovely. It was bizarre, like 2 worlds, Inside was lovely and warm and outside the bivvy was freezing!

The evening came and dinner of chicken curry was scoffed down with a cold beer! I was absolutely knackered! No sleep and all the excitement had caught up with me and as the temperature once again dropped and I wrapped up in my thick sleeping bag I dropped off to sleep like a stone!