Pleasureless Lake and a Snake .....

After much calender planning with the EPO's fully briefed & the weather even looking to play ball. it was off to Lakeview after a glowing reports from Cecil the Electrician and his son Clive on their last outing. " chub galore to 2lb, Carp to 3, and nets in...."

Peg selection was all about where your pole wouldnt be snapped by God rather than features and reluctantly we settled on 12& 13....Guess which i had.

The wind was circling lakeview in a mini rage but with the Sun touching us we set about the mornings work.

On the way down there this ( not so) little fella was enjoying a bit of the morning sun and didnt seem at all adverse to foul language, heavy feet, or aimless banter. Fair play

First put in Derek secured what was to be his only Carp with Nicholson getting silvers a chuck on pellet and very little at all on corn.

After an hour it was clear itd be a grueller with both anglers struggling to put anything of note on the net. Pellet of any kind produced Rudd and tiny roach and Corn produced a Carp for Nico but then nothing for a long time.....It got to the stage where it was a search for bites in the margins.....awful.....

Very little else to say. Pellet and Corn were the baits, 18 hook, Small floats and 7 metre out due to wind....left hand margin didnt produce at all.

Nico struggled to put more together and finally hooked a third carp of around 1lb or so....it was to prove the decider. Scales went Nico 8.95 Del 6.25

First ' win' at Lakeview for Nico for a while ( it didnt feel like it). ......

DNW - Utterly Butterley Bobbins....

Struggling for words.....

After a night of heavy heavy rain it was off to Butterley the mecca of local Bream fishing and latterley Carp hauling.....weather overcast....15 degrees in car...Derek checked in.....Code Green...

6.46 arrive in Car Park and off to the match winning pegs of the week before....( you're ahead of me)

Both anglers had prepared....the weather held.....the pegs were available.......

I can spin it out no longer.....7.45am until 11.00am......Method and Cage didnt produce a bite.....

On the plus side....Ducklings fed....Man fell in after his rod....and Preston Trolley a winner...

In brief it was SH*T.....

Where it all began.....

Bizarre but Enjoyable.....

The alarm went off at 5.30am and i discovered something had been sat on my spine all night....stiff as a board as i made my way for a cup of cha....

Kit retrieved from shed and the royal wedding maggots were still very fresh and the meat also just this side of fishable....with kit loaded i arrived around 6.39am and there were already three bivvies and another guy fishing. ( turned out to be the bailiff)

Yesterday a 18lb common came out and 70lb bream bag from road on side to feeder worm / dead maggot.

I perched on peg 15 knowing this would be a short session as the EPO was bringing kids down for a top three on the pole session for bits. I mixed green swim stim a 50g large feeder and cast towards the island with a few casts i was within 10 yards albeit a good chuck...

i cast 7 feeders to start and then baited up with a ringers shell.....the tip never moved for the first 45 mins.....maybe a liner but nothing more

A change to oily pellet brought a bite that steadily pulled the tip and finally a 2lb bream nodded its way in....phew.....it was looking grim for a while

I rolled lots of maggots between my hands a la Mr May and it worked!!! these then went on the hook and in the feeder....Casting was dream like with new line hitting the I fed the 4m line in anticipation of Sam and Rhys causing chaos on arrival

2 more bream of a similar stamp were landed as well as 2 roach that all took the dead maggots.

The Kids arrived and then i caught 4/5 roach with them very close in throwing cloudy bait and a few maggots.....

Bailiff came and had a look ( id ok'd the kids having a go)....you could catch roach and perch all day here.....

I should have fished shallow with cloud and maggot a la orfe....

kids each caught a roach as did Kerry....not all bad...

Back to basics and lessons learnt

This is where I fished at Lakeview. One of the first pegs, nearest the first car park and on the pleasure lake.



A place that I have ignored over and over again, until I fished the pleasure lake last year with PC as all other lakes were full.

Anyway the long and the short of it was, fished just three sections out under the trees. Caught around 30lb of small chub and carp up to 3lb. At points it was a fish a chuck. Eventually they were all up in the water to the extent that they were going for the end of my pole and pole cup!! Could easily have caught a huge bag full. Only fished in this peg from 10.30am-1pm. Started in a different peg but the wind was just too much, pole snapping a risk, so had to moved around the lake. Would liked to have had two swims across to the island and the margins for full bag up. All on corn. Only one other person on the lake - strange for a bank holiday.

Bottom line a day on the pleasure lake, without gale for wind, is worth a session. Caught crucians, rudd and as many chub as carp. Some really nice pegs on the lake which could be feeder to the island, defiantly too far for even a 16 metre pole. Belief is that the pleasure lake is not hit as hard as the match lakes, where larger fish are wising up - perhaps we have been going wrong for some time here! Also many of the pegs you need to have at least a 14 metre pole to reach the island so less pressured. Enjoyed it just needed some competition with nets in.

The proof of the pudding is in the taste.....

A good days fishing.

Ingredients
1. A carefully selected and well though through venue.
2. A variety of fish species .
3. A quiet isolated spot away from noise and pressure of other anglers.
4. A mixture of bait to meet the feeding habits of the different species.
5. Good company.
6. Warm, dull and slightly breezy weather.
7. A variety of different equipment to meet all scenarios.

Well at least one ingredient was in placed into the pot as the boys headed to Cudmore. Which one? But as usual high expectations were soon dashed, starting with the 7am call 'where are you?' - 'we are meeting at 7.30am?', ' there is a queue of 30 cars', 'yes but we are meeting at 7.30am?'. At which point perhaps we should have turned around and headed for a day watching Will and Kate.



Nico's blue elastic tested to the limit!!!



PC loving very second



Anyway the optimism flooded in, in fact it over flowed as we headed to pool 1. The catcher opting for the unusual choice of method feeder resulted in a bite a chuck and eventually the loss of a carp. Captain Nico and PC headed for tried and trusted poles. Soon all three anglers had a carp a piece. Then nothing. 3 hours past and apart from temperatures plummeting and the odd gudgeon - zip, nothing, zilch.



Anyway a fairly uneventful series of events unfolded. In short changed lake, ended up on Brewsters which has been emptied. Small stockies followed and then home. Disappointed and uninspired for this blog. We need more and plans were formulated on the journey home. Can't win them all or bag up every time! Until the next session OAO