First session at new water

[Droppenfish]

we recently moved premises at work, and the great news is that the unit we have moved to is a converted farm building right next to 4 lakes and a private 1.5 mile stretch of the Severn. The lakes can be fished on a day ticket but the river is members only so I will be joining before the season starts. Today though was my first chance to fish one of the lakes. As I couldn't start till after work I picked the nearest lake to our unit which also happens to be the smallest lake. I didn't have a chance to get to the tackle shop, so bait was a tin of sweetcorn and a french stick. I'm a great believer in fishing hard into the margins and so started off by feeding a good handful of corn tight into the bank which was lined with reeds. nothing much happened for the first 40 minutes but at least I knew I was concealing myself pretty well as a Heron flew in and started fishing on the other side of the pool. On a whim I decided to switch to bread flake on the hook and was soon rewarded with 3 small but lovely rudd in quick succession. I had also started flicking some peices of crust a little way out and beofre too long the occasional fish started sucking them down. It was difficult to judge how big these fish were (although I presumed they were carp) as the were doing a pretty neat and quiet job of it, but i took my end tackle off and tied a size 8 barbless straight onto my 4lb mainline and cast out a bit of crust. After about 5 or 6 minutes a mouth very deliberately opened and sucked down my bait and once I could see the line moving off I struck into a powerful fish. A good 10 minutes later I landed a beautiful full scaled common of about 8-10lb.

(click to view fullsize)

things went quiet for about 30 minutes and I started fishing the margins again, lo and behold first cast the float slid away and I hooked into another good common a good deal fatter than the first

(click to view fullsize)

well as I was basking in the glory of a succesful first trip and enjoying a spectacular air display by a couple of bats chasing moths as the sun set over the lake when another fish started sucking down crusts in front of me...off came the float and another crust was cast out, this time it was sucked down by a very welcome stillwater chub that must have easily gone 2'5 lbs. unfortunately it was really too dark for photos by now as I only had the camera on my phone. what a way to start off my relationship with my new home water...I just can't wait to get at the River...bring on JUNE!

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Nice carp mate and having a lake just round the corner from work is going to make some lovely evening fishing in the summer

[Vagabond]

Originally Posted by Droppenfish

I'm a great believer in fishing hard into the margins ...... feeding a good handful of corn tight into the bank which was lined with reeds.....I knew I was concealing myself pretty well as a Heron flew in and started fishing on the other side of the pool.

Way to go mate. If you are not spooking the visible wild-life then its a fair bet that you are not spooking the fish.

Good report on a good session.

[perch_king]

well done mate nice carp there

[pingu]

sounds great a job with fishing well done

[Twiddler]

I'm sooo jealous now....lake right next to work....I'd bivvy up...who needs a house


Great report/pic, sounds like you had a fab first session on a new swim