(3) time fly's

its been nearly a month since i have posted on here so i rely need to get you guys up to speed. since the last post i have been to the lake 2-3 times for different amount of times, the 1st session was 48 hours in a swim on the new barge called the Rat's, for the 1st 24 hours i dident have any type of sign that the fish where even in there but on the second day at about 11.30am  the left rod stormed off, i dont no if it was skill or luck tbh but i did get some advice about the left margin before hand, next thing there was a 24 pound mirror called patch on the bank, lovely old fish and nice and dark due to the depth of the water, i did get photos but the flash was not working for some reason so thy wont be added to this post but if i ever have him again i will upload a photo for you guys, i wasent the only one on the lake that had one of the old beasts, Dave the bailiff had the shallows common at 28.4

the next session was a couple of weeks later, this time i was on the gap for 78 hours, at this point the lake had gone quiet, nothing had come out since the last session i had 2 weeks before, i desided to do what i can so i raked out 3 spots i like the look of and got them as clear as possible, by the time i had fished raking it was getting dark so i got the traps set and baited up, all i could do is wait, the next 12 hours where uneventful apart from the coots and the seagulls at 6.30am diving down and eating the blanket of bait i had put down the night before, this continued for the remainder of the session, least the birds eat well here.

the next time i was due to go to the lakes was a week later so before i left i took a walk around to work out where i was going to spend the week on the next trip, i walked round both the new barge and the big lake with my mate Micky and we ended up on the back end of the big lake where the water runs in to the old barge, as we where standing and talking about a hole that we be-leaved to be a feeding spot in the last bit of weed on the lake a fish desided to prove us right by lumping out right in the centre of it so my mind was set that i would fish this spot on my next session, we finished packing up and headed home, the following day i went up to pre-bait the spot but when i got there the hole had gone and so had the fish or so i be-leaved but 5 min later about 3 rod lengths out in front of me was a carp sucking up in the weed like a hoover, it was a no brainier to just hit the spot with bait and this is what i done for the next 6 days, in tho's 6 days i went to the spot there where more and more ppl fishing the bank and by the 6th day i dident see any movement in the swim at all, at this point i desided that there was to much bait/lines/madness going on on this one side of the lake, i also knew that it would still be the same when i come up to fish it as this is the deeper end and the tep had droped so i stoped baiting it up, when i turned up on the Tuesday i jumped on the boat house swim at the fare end to where everyone else had been setting up hoping that all the madness would have pushed them round to the other side of the lake, i took a nice walk around the side of the lake and once again i raked out some spots and got my rods on them with a couple of handful of freebies after this i had a play with the camera before getting my head down for the night, that night was a wet and cold one and i was already feeling defeated,

 this is something that i be leave allot of ppl that carp fish suffer from in the cold and wet and was something i had to shake off as fast as i could, at this point i got up reeled in my rods and desided to go on a fish hunt along the side of the lake you cant fish to see if i can see any type of movement at all, this walk was to take me about 45 min, pushing my way thru  bushes and over swamp land and up trees, it also took me back to the swim i was baiting up the week before, when i got to this swim i once again sat for an hour watching the water for some sort of sign of life, the only thing i noticed was a little bit of bubbling on the spot i had fed but this was all i needed for me to want to up sticks and head to that side of the lake, i trekked back to my swim and spent the next 45 minits packing up, i had to do 2 trips from the boat house to the gates that where between me and the other side of the lake, i got to the gates with all my kit, reached in my pocket for the key and !!!!!!!!! (nothing), bearing in mind i had a weeks worth of kit including food and water, i also had my boat with 3 spare battery's so it was not an easy task taking this lot to the new swim in the 1st place but to lose my key on top of this was starting to make me think if i should just head home, but i couldn't even do this as there where another 2 gates i had to go thru and i had no key, i desided to just wait for another member to turn up as thy come and go allot, i sat there on my own for about 20 minits before i sore any life and the person that turned up couldn't help in any other way but keep me company,

it was bob the lake cat, he dident leave my side from this point, about 40 minits later another member arrived and opened the gates, finally i was on my way again, the swim i was heading for is one i eyed up every time i went to the lake, its not a swim as such as its not numbered and is a real tight spot to fish from, every time i have been here i had put off fishing it and ended up somewhere else even after a weeks pre baiting i put off setting up there, i dont no why but it started to feel like i was always finding a resion why i should not fish this swim, in the end this just made me want to fish it more,

i arrived and wasted no time setting up and baiting up, this time i dident rake it out as i dident want to upset any part of the swim or the fish that might be lerking around, i went to sleep that night feeling hope fall  even after the bad day i had and the wet cold night the night before.

once again i hadent had any sign of life under the blanket of weed in front of me, no bleeps thru the night to show thy where there, so that morning i set about working out what i could do, at this point i realised how much of a tight spot i had got my self in on this swim and also how limited i was to where i could set my rods, the swim beside me was a bit of a mess so i spent half hour clearing the weeds to make some space for me to set up and after that the move was on,

i put the left hand rod back on the pre baited spot and had a lead about with the other 2 rods to see if any of the holes in front of me where clear but no luck, so i used pva bags and droped the lot in the holes just on the off chance that my popup would be found as the carp where searching around, i done this mainly as i dident want to be pulling the weed around with the rake as i knew this would upset the baited spot i had been fishing on but as another night went by with out any sign of life i knew something had to be done, i had already desided that i only had 24 hours left of this session as it had drained me, so the next 24 had to count, i took a walk around and spoke to a guy a couple of swims up, he had been there since Sunday and had 6 fish, this was a good session for him, i soon worked out that he was fishing the old river bed that was the deepest part of the lake at 6-8 feet, the corner i was in was 4-5 foot deepest, i had 2 options at this point 1 was to up sticks and move along the bank that already had 4-5 pll across it or to stay and try and make the best of a bad swim, i chose the wrong one as i stayed and raked out the swim, made some clear spots to fish and had nothing over the last 24 hours, but i had taken something from this 4 days and had learnt allot about the lake/my self and had an idea of what i needed to do when i return in spring, 

so antill then tight lines guys.