28/12/09 - Fishponds

Weight – 20lb 15oz
Catch – 2 Carp, 1 Roach
Weather – Bright & sunny. Lake iced over.
Water Temp – 4.5c > 4.5c

Well Christmas has gone and after all the beer & food, I needed to get out fishing, but most of the morning had already gone.

Therefore thought a short afternoon session at the club water would be ideal and with a recent thaw I intended to fish the lead into the deep water and the pole at 13m. Unfortunately the frost had returned overnight and on arrival discovered the lake was iced over. In fact it looked like the ice hadn’t fully thawed and what areas had cleared, except around the aerator (where the ducks had congregated) and iced over again.

Fortunately someone had left an ice breaker by the hut, so a 9m channel was soon cleared (the rope wasn’t any longer), which gave me 7ft of water. I didn’t expect any carp to fed, but hoped a few roach, rudd and skimmers would. A ball of match blend, with a small amount of green swim stim, mixed with some hemp oil to give it some activity and a few pinkies was cupped in.

Decided on 1 rig, 4x16 jolly with .10 bottom and 22 silverfish maggot hook. After an hour I had what I thought was a bite on single pinkie, but the float had hardly moved. Hopefully a few fish had finally arrived. 5mins later a slight dip on the float was met with a little more resistance than a roach and I hoped it was a bream, which would be easier to get in on a 5 elastic. Nope, it was a carp and 20mins later a mirror carp of 9lb 5oz was landed.

Feeling quite pleased with myself I shipped out again and the float had hardly settled before I was attached to another carp. This time it was 8/9lb common, which tend to fit a bit harder than the mirrors. At 1 point the carp came under the surface of the ice and tried to break though. Unfortunately the hook pulled just I was netting it, a quick lunge had ¾ of the fish in the net, but not its head and it made good its escape.

With a few carp showing, time to get the heavier kit out. A 4x16 chianti with .13 bottom, 18 B911 and 12 latex was soon set up, plus a tin of corn was opened.

A small ball of groundbait and pinkie was cupped in. 15mins later I had a few indications on corn and struck into thin air on what I thought was a nailed on bite. Wasn’t sure whether it was small fish playing around with the corn or carp just mouthing the bait. Another 15mins later and I was connected to another carp, which was much easier to land and weighed 11lb 6oz.

I was briefly attached to another carp, before the hook pulled, which seemed to upset the shoal, because I didn’t have another bite, despite trying double maggot, triple & quadruple pinkie. With the day drawing to a close and my channel starting to ice over again, I switched to the light rig and caught a roach straight away. It was obviously lost because I didn’t have another, although I did hook another carp which broke me.

Whilst packing up I fell in, which isnt recommended on a freezing day. Needless to say, by the time I got home I had a severe case of the shivers.