Calm waters on a windy day

Banana Steve · #1 12-30-2007, 11:00 AM

Friday saw, both Claudia and me fishing Todber fisheries in Dorset again. As I set off towards the fishery it was obvious that the day was going to difficult with the strong winds. As I drove to the fishery I thought about which lake we might fish, as all the lakes are very exposed and my original plan was to fish the top lake of the Whitepost lake, which is a smallish lake but very productive but is shallow, but with milder weather we had been getting it might be ok. So whilst on my journey I decided that the top lake at Whitepost Lake was a good option. On arriving nearer to the fisheries I took a small detour to the lake to see which way the wind was blowing. To my utmost disappointment the wind was straight into the lake and with only being able to fish on the permanent pegs on the lake, this meant that the wind was going to be in our faces and with rain forecasted for later in the day, I just did not fancy that idea.

I continued on the main fisheries and the Tackle shop at the Fishery, where I met up with Claudia at 7:45am. We discussed which of the remaining lake might be worth a go as the top lake at Whitepost would have been a nightmare, but knowing the other lakes on the complex I didn’t fancy any of the lakes as they are all very exposed. Whilst get ready by putting on my Boots and Bib and Brace, I had a epiphany, I remembered that last January both Mike, Claudia and Me fished Whitepost but the Bottom lake, which I remembered being very sheltered with trees and the Permanent pegs being on the opposite side to the top lake, which meant that the wind would be at our backs and being in a small gully maybe protected from the wind completely. On informing Claudia off this she agreed that this sounded like our best plan of fishing the day, especially as the wind was becoming stronger.

After spending a small fortune in the Tackle shop and purchasing our tickets for the day, we proceeded on towards the Whitepost lakes. On arrival we noticed that there were fish topping in the top lake, I was tempted at this point to fish it away with wind in my face, but thankfully Claudia talk me out of that and kept us to our plan to fish the bottom lake. With all the kit loaded up we tramped our way down top the bottom lake, what we found was fantastic, the lake was like a mill pond, and there were fish topping as well, above us the wind was blowing a complete huly but down the gully it was amazingly calm.

We choose our pegs and we decided how we were going to fish, my plan was to fish the waglar with wag & mag style. Claudia decided to fish two rods on the feeder.

My Basic rig.

I like to use this set up so that lighter shot controls the drop of the float and helps to catch on the drop as well. The tip of the float should not be exposed any more than 2-3mm so the finest bite is noticed.

I set the float depth so I was on the bottom so that I was covering the whole water from top to bottom. The depth was only 2ft so covering the depth should be ok. I started to feed with a few maggots in the catapult every cast, which I was doing every 30 – 40 second. To get feed into the swim and to attract any fish with the sound of bait going in. after the 4th cast I hooked into a rod bender a lovely hybrid {common/crucian} about 12 to 14ozs, next cast produced the same, and the third. The next cast and subsequently the next hour produced some nice Roach, Rudd and Perch.

After an Hour Claudia, was still fishing the feeder, for which she had borrowed one of me, as she forgot something, for which I will let her tell you all about. Whilst fishing the feeder she was not getting the fish and was struggling, she spoke about fishing the waglar, Claudia made her mind up and swapped over, for which I helped her set-up. With in 30mins Claudia was into her first rod bender, a carp of 5lb, she too was fishing on light tackle like myself and it was a joy to see her play a good fish. I total Claudia caught 3 good carp all around the same stamp.

Not to be out done, I too caught a nice carp of 5lb and good quantity of Silver fish as well. As the day progressed the wind started to get stronger and the rain started, even though we were sheltered the wind started to find us. We fished to about 3pm and the conditions were becoming very rough, so we called it a day and packed up.

Over all it was a nice day considering that the weather was horrible, but at least we found a haven to fish in. I think Claudia enjoyed fishing the Wag and Mag style of fishing, and as usual I enjoyed her company.

Here are the pictures of the day.

twiddler setting up

Hybrid

Twiddler still setting up

My 5lb Carp

Twiddler Playing her Carp

Landing her carp

Claudia 5lb Carp

Heres to next time

fishypaul · #2 12-30-2007, 11:18 AM

nice fish,well done both of you

mithrandir · #3 12-30-2007, 12:23 PM

Well done to both of you, and nice to see some detail of your rigs, thanks for sharing the knowledge.

Twiddler · #4 12-30-2007, 12:40 PM

As per usual, a great day in great company, although Steve keeps terrorising me and scaring me to push me in to the water lol.

I'm so use to fishing two rods that I sometimes I find it hard to compromise to fish only one.

But soon I changed my mind and decided to fish the waggler too, as I had no luck on the feeders.

To Steve lending me one of his rods.....well.....the thing is

......I packed the wrong rod, tackle tart as I am I think I have too many....my carp rods are DAM but my feeder rod is also DAM.....yes you guessed right....I picked my 2.5 TC rod up, instead of my Avon quiver tip, which also has a 1.5TC top to go with it.

Lucky Steve is as much of a tackle tart and had a spare feeder rod with him, which I used to float fish with.....he saved my day.

I also lost a good fish....I'm not sure if I foul hooked him or if it was just a biggun.....it went of like a rocket and I just couldn't stop him, he snapped me off in the end...oh well....still a great days fishing with lots of rudd, micro perch, baby roach and the odd good carp.

Thanks Steve for yet another great day.