church farm lake

[baitmaster]

well what a peasant session i ,ve just had and i enjoyed the water i ended up fishing .
so i,ll start again i decided to go fishing after getting things sorted for my boys education and felt i need to get out and have a session somewhere but i was undecided where to go .
so the car was loaded with my gear and shed loads of different baits as i still did not know where i was fishing .
so of i set with a couple of venues in mind if i one i heard about was a no goer .now when i arrived at church farm i needed to see the owner ,as this is a day ticket water £5 a day but he does allowed night fishing by a pointment only .
so after a polite conversation he allowed me to night fish it which i was hoping .
now the reason i wanted to fish it because it was rumoured to have some big fish in it and after now seeing the water i,m going to take it with a pinch of salt untill i actually see one but you never now in these little waters .

its a really unusual water and the above picture was taken up between the two islands and the water round into not very wide stretches that join up again after crossing itself forming other island with bridges joining then

as you can see from the picture there is some great ambush points where baits can be placed this was directly on my left where i decided to start .
i decided to fish all rods with flourocarbon d rigs but techniques where all diferent with one on a running lead one ona safty clip and the other ona inline set up .two rigs where i felt correct for the venues as the bottom make up was very soft again all set up had light leads on them .
once i had worked out where to place each rod i had done so base camp was set up andd the customary cuppa was done .
i sat back and watched the water and no signs where fourth coming and being esarly evening i was surprise not to see any fish but felt i was in the right area .
the evening passed uneventful and i retire to the bivvy and surprisingly fell asleep quickly and i did not wake up until 4 am just as it was getting light i was a bit disapointed that no runs had develope but i had not given up hope as i had another day to hunt out a fish .
this also indicated to me that my blarsay approach to the water on its appearance was wrong and a re-think and a move were in order this was done after a good breakfast .
by nine o,clock the move was done and i set about changing my set ups and my approach i decided to change all rods to an inline set up and mixed up some blanched pellets with my specials adddivtives in it which have got me out of trouble in the passed two rods where actually lowered into the margins to my right and left and the third was flicked over to a likely ambush point to the far side .
the reason for the change to the blanched pellet was that some time ago around the o3 /04 season he used to feed the carp on pellets but had stopped i was hopingf this approach might pay dividends .
i was not wrong as my right hand margin rod was of and a hard fight insued and i finally won this awsome battle and a cracking 15lb 8oz mirror was banked

now thew blank was out of ther way and i felt my approach was right i could now fish with confidence ,incidently what also help was the weather was warming up quickly and being in like a sun trapped area and being shallow the fish would hopefully respond to the change very quickly .
the rod was walked down and lowered back against the near side reed bed and i retreated back to my swim with rod and waited for developments.
next to go was my far bank rod and a sprightly hard fighting mirror was banked (excuse my lucky hat but pingu dave likes to take the mickey out of it so there you go dave )

this rod was soon sent back to the far bank and again i sat back and watched the water for more signs of activity .
another 45 minutes passed and it was getting hot and i got up to change my black heat absorbing t shirt to something more comfotable when i left hand margin rod was off and again i had an incredible fight on my hands from another fish i have to say at this point these fish are some of the most hard fighting fish i have come across ,
soon i won another epic battle and another very pretty common layed in the folds of my net this went 15lb exactly and i was now more than happy with my results so far .

i was now getting some attention of other who had not caught any thing and when at about 4 o,clock i got my fourth carp a nice 6lb common they started to ask what bait i was using and kept generally asking my question which although i don,t mind some times you just want ot chill but i suppose i can,t blame them really cause if i was struggling and some one else was gcatching well i would probably do the same .
again i lowered this rod back into the margin to my left and made my tea .
again it a gone quiet and just when you think the fish i not playing ball my margin rod to the right was off again and once again a hard fight insued and for a while the carp was winning this one but in the end i manage to get this good looking ghostie in the net

and it weighed 13lb 3 oz there you go dana new forum record .
once the pics were taken the rod was put out and i sat back and again a couple of angler had a chat with me trying to figure out what they were doing wrong but i just felt it was down to that i had located the fish and moved onto them more than they where doing it wrong but they felt it was down to my bait and persisted in trying to find out what was so special about it but there is nothing special and went about trying to explain in great length it down to location and presentation and again suddenly with out warning my far bank rod was away again and i fought this fish for a while again it went off on some mad runs and i could not get its head up it did not look overly big but it is very hard to tell and it did put up a very good account and then it finally made it escape .
again as i turned round there was now 5 or 6 people there wantingto see what i had caught but i had to sadly tell em it got away .
after making the people move out of my way i finally got to my bivvy to rebait my rig again i don,t mind have the odd person come to chat but as i seem to be the only one catching i was becoming very popular with the other angler or they just were desperate to see a carp .
soon they had gone back to there swims and all was quiet and it was getting now starting to get dark a brew was soon being gulped down before another run from my far bank rod this was brought under control surprisingly quickly and netted and at this point i wished it was a lot more tired as it would not behave for the camera so heres the best pic i got of it this 12lb common
again this was put back and the rod sent back acros to the far bank and now the night was becoming very misty and damp which also made it feel cold so i retired to the comfort of my sleeping bag where i fell asleep quickly but was rudely awaken at about 2 am by a one tooner again i quickly to my rod and a battle again started to develope in the darkness and i just could not get in under control soon there was a young lad who was fishing behind standing next to my and offered some help in landing the fish so i allowed hoim to do the honours .
soon a cracking common was on the bank (15lb) and he also took the photos so thank you to him (adam who is a regular on the water so thanks for your help adam )

soon this was returned and i sat up having a formal chat with adam over a cup of coffee and i have to say apparrently from his conversation there are som mid to upper twenties but no thirties that he know of and i told him i would be very surprised if there was .after he left i ewent back to sleep and sadly had a uninterupted night sleep as no more runs came my way but i really did not mind as i felt i had fish very well again on a new water and got a good result .so soon in the glorious morning sunshine i packed away a happy man and went home
i,m hoping to have a return visit to this little water in the hope of banking a tweny from here ias i feel this would be a good fight if nothing else

tightlines
kevin

[Norfolkboy]

Great report as usual mate, some lovely looking fish too. Well done

Looks a lovely water too, interesting islands and features by the looks of things.

[Rob M]

Great report Kev, well done on those lovely fish mate!

Rob

[gullyworm]

Well done Kev,great pics and report as ever.
Whos the bloke whp takes all the pics?

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Great read kev and fish

Thats it was going to go to work this evening but a post and fish like that means off for a bit of surface work

[pingu]

cracking report as ever kev



jealous of exmouth

[fishypaul]

as ever kev great report and some lovely fish.

WHAT ABOUT THAT HAT !!!!! wursel gummidge has risen and is living in norfolk

[baitmaster]

thanks paul
yes i,ve been a fan of wurzels for years and said i would keep his hat in the public eye
and as regards to your question about who takes my pictures gully well its terry tripod and he does not like to many people see him in public as he is highly embarrased by being mounted by colin camera but he was seen thinking about having a go on my childrens swing here is an exclusive picture of terry who helps me with my picture taken and he does not do a bad job of it



tightlines
kev