Return to Buttonhole Lake 10-06-08

Wandering_Angler · #1 06-14-2008, 07:46 AM

It was a little cloudy when we arrived at Buttonhole lake, near Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, at just after 7am. There were already a few fishermen set up and catching as Martin, John and I wandered around the lake to choose our swims and soon after we were settling into a corner at the far end of the lake.

I was very happy with my swim, I had reeds to my right with a platform that extended out over the water far enough for me to be able to get a waggler tight in fishing to hand. It was my intention to use this session to do some filming for the second DVD in my Four Seasons series and a flat bank next to my platform was ideal for the tripod.

By now most people know that a waggler fished on a match rod is my usual tactic and this was again my choice for this session. The day before I had fished up in the water but this swim was perfect for putting a bait on the deck and was confident of a good mixed catch.

Martin set up to my left, starting with some speed fishing using a heavy waggler set up in the water using a whip and had 20 nice Rudd and Roach in no time at all.

John was to my right, completely surrounded by reeds and chose to fish up in the water using a pole at about 8 or 9 metres with no float. He was catching Rudd to a good size from the off and didn’t stop the whole session.

My tactic was double maggot on a size 16 hook to 4LB line straight through with an insert waggler set very fine, the tip barely above the surface. From the first cast the bites were coming regularly with small roach and Rudd coming to hand on almost every cast.

After about 15 minutes John gave a cry of joy as his pole went round and the elastic stretched out across the lake, what ever it was it was big but as I stood to go and video the fish being caught, alas the hook pulled.

I was next in line for a better fish, but with horror as the it went on a long run toward John I realised I hadn’t set the clutch and as I messed around trying to remedy this the hook pulled. I didn’t have to wait long for another chance though and this time I was properly prepared and soon had a Common Carp of around 2Lbs or so in the landing net, not massive but great fun to catch :)

Martin then lost a couple before I was in again, this time a very nice Tench, followed soon after by the first of my mirror Carp.

The day was starting to really shape up as by now all three of us were bagging up and then as the sun appeared from behind the clouds my Dad turned up with my Granddad. 99 in September he is still attracted to water like metal to a magnet and we were all very happy to have him with us and even happier to entertain him with a continuous supply of fish to admire.

Martin now finally started to land the bigger fish with some nice Tench, Bream and Carp coming to the net.

Sadly we had to be off the water at 4pm for a match so with time running out it was over to Martin for my first ever lesson on the pole. We started with a quick run down of the tackle and a demonstration of the basics such as shipping and unshipping and then I was in the hot seat. We had decided to start me off with a top section set for silvers and as beginners luck would have it my first fish was a nice Skimmer of around a pound. I soon got used to the method and was bringing Rudd and Roach to hand with every cast.

So then it was over to the end section setup for Tench and Carp, I baited with a pellet and again beginners luck, on my first cast I was into a Tench. I want to thank Martin for an excellent lesson, I won’t be giving up the Waggler but I certainly will be having another go on the pole :)

With only around an hour left I returned to my swim and continued pretty much from where I left off with a couple more Carp, one only hand sized and a rather nice looking brown Comet Goldfish :)

In all, by the end I had 170 fish made up of Tench, Carp, Roach, Rudd, Perch and Bream. Between us we had well over 500 fish and yet again we had managed a day filled with hilarious banter and fun filled sport :)