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Well the last eighteen months has been a real roller coaster of a ride for me with family and business issues. Unfortunately the fishing had to go on hold until I was in a better position to come back again. Well twelve months later and I’m back on form I have a new business and more importantly more time on the bank to chase those illusive carp in that lovely lake that I will refer to as its alias DuPont’s Pool out of respect to the acquaintances I made along the way who are still fishing there.
The lake is pretty low stock, about five acres in all with around thirty carp in; one being a thirty pound mirror which has evaded my net! It has about fifteen twenties and a lot of old single figure fish that were stocked from a local canal about ten years ago.
The end of June saw me grasping my rods in one hand and bed chair in the other. I had a new lease of life and a full freezer of bait (the awesome crab and oyster from saebaitdevelopments.co.uk). Yes I was off fishing, the gear was loaded in the van and I was off. Its funny how the buzz comes back just like a light switch being flicked. I turned up at DuPont’s pool at 5.30pm Tuesday evening straight from work. I had a quick walk around and decided to drop into a swim called the pads. This swim was a good area this time last year and dominated the lake with most of the fish being caught from here. By 6.30 I had my rods out and sat back for a chat with a few of my old mates watching the odd carp crashing out but nothing was forthcoming, so after every one had gone back to their swims I hit the sack.
It seemed like I had been a sleep for ages when I was awoke by the sound of my Delkim I jumped out and hit in to what felt like a carp but it soon weeded me up and came off. The rod was recast and I was back in the land of nod. The next morning came too soon and I had to be off at 5.30am to get home and ready for work. I returned the day after, but nothing came of that session or the next two sessions.
I was adamant that I was on fish as I had seen them over my bait and crashing over my areas that I had been pre baiting with boilie only, this was the norm for this lake as catching two fish a year was doing well.
I decided to have a rethink on my rigs and decided to go back to using my chods. Little did I know that this was going to be the best decision I had made all year as that very first time back on them I had a lovely old looking 22lb 4oz mirror.
22lb 4oz Mirror
Nothing else came of that session but I felt I was taking a step in the right direction. It seemed like a month before I was back on again but it was only three days! I had worked my socks off the previous day to get a bathroom finished that I was fitting so I could get to the lake earlier.
After walking around the lake for about three hours and climbing every tree I could. I couldn’t seem to find any fish worth having a go for so I decided to set up in a swim that receives little pressure. I had been baiting this swim for a couple of weeks now and had my first fish of the year off it. I couldn’t settle for some reason though, it just didn’t seem right. After about an hour of being in this swim I was sitting on my matt and saw a good fish crash on the far side, so being a bit of an opportunist I reeled the rods in and went to investigate.
When I arrived in the swim I could see a lot of good fish there so I took off my hoodie and hat and dropped them in the swim and ran as fast as I could to get my gear from my other swim. I just threw all my kit on the barrow brolly still with poles and pegs attached!
I arrived back at the swim to find someone just coming from it he had asked if I was planning to fish it. Now given the state I was in gear strewn all over my barrow and sweating buckets you would thought he would have guessed that!
It turned out he was looking at fishing the same swim but decided to fish the pads. I was all set up in about thirty minutes after sorting the carnage out. There were fish everywhere in the swim so I decided to leave the rods out and trickle some bait in from up a tree to a hole in the weed. I must have spent three hours up that tree feeding the fish and as the fish didn’t show any sign of moving, the time had come to get the rods out.
21lb 8oz Mirror
I tied on two cork ball crab & oyster pop ups on and some light 1oz leads. Nothing happened that night until 4.30 am the next morning when the right hand rod roared into life. After a spirited fight I had it in the net it went 21lb 8oz another twenty pound mirror I was on a role.
The next six weeks saw me catch another eight fish - one of which I lost at the net and caught the following week! This was one of my target fish being a lovely old looking linear at dead on 26lb.
Big Lin at 26lb
I also had a lovely common at 26lb and ounces. There were only three fish I caught that were single figures which were all characteristic fish in their own way. The big mirror evaded my net once again I suppose that’s just fishing for you, you can’t decide which fish takes your bait and I had a blinding few months on DuPont’s pool.
26lb Common
I made some good really good friends and reacquainted myself with some old ones too. Maybe one day I’ll go back when all the hype on there dies off. I’m currently getting my teeth into a big old low stock estate lake with a couple of big fish in. despite finding them on my first visit I don’t seem to be able to find them anymore but that’s another story!
Until next time keep at it and keep hauling.
Tight lines
Tony Cope
January 2011
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