After taking the easy option of a night indoors on Wednesday, I was determined to go on Thursday if the weather permitted, and thankfully it did! Despite being full of cold, and feeling distinctly below par, I dashed home from work, threw the gear in the car and headed off to the lake.

I arrived just as the light was fading, and assessed the conditions. With clear skies and a nip already in the air, I knew a cold night was on the cards. There was only a slight ripple on the water but it was blowing in totally the wrong direction for the swim I’ve been concentrating on. Since the lake is of an even depth almost throughout, I feel the wind direction plays a lot bigger factor in where the fish will be. With this in mind, and the fact that on my last visit I managed 3 recaptures(!), I opted for a different swim at the opposite end of the lake in the hope of landing on some fish, some different fish too hopefully.

One rod was placed on a relatively clear patch in the margins, the other was cast about 25 yards out in front of me to a patch of bubbles. Both rods were baited with Ocean Fresh Red Shrimp and Garlic 18mm boillies, that had been soaking in a home made glug. The rigs were kept pretty basic, 3-4 inch ‘Stripteaze’ hooklengths coupled with a 3oz lead and a Fox lead clip - why complicate things if i’m landing every fish I hook?

I’ve found that, at this lake, baiting with particles and pellets only encourages crayfish, Tench and Bream into my swim. So for the first time (and with half an eye on having to work the following day) I decided to bait each rod with 15 boillies, and nothing else. Obviously I’m aware that the pellets and hemp draw the Carp in as much as they do the Tench, but i’m so confident that the Carp are well and truly switched on to my boillies I had few doubt that they would feed confidently over boillies alone…if they were in the mood.

After getting my head down to try and rid myself of this cold, I woke up to cook tea at about 8pm. I hadn’t even lit the stove, my margin rod indicated a take - dragging the bobbin quickly up to the top. As I stepped towards the rod it dropped to the floor. Before I even had chance to curse my luck, the bobbin twitched. Lifting the rod of the rest, the rod assumed a steady curve signalling a fish on! Then came a sickening grating on the line - snagged I knew there were a few loose branches floating around the lake last time iIvisited, and it seemed the breeze had blown one of them into the margins of this swim.

Keeping the pressure steady enough to hold the hook, but holding the soft rod gently enough to allow a lunge if one came I waited…it didn’t take long for the fish to thump and pull the line free from the branches. It moved out into open water, and after a few lively runs, I slipped the net under a pristine 14lb mirror. I was pleased to notice that the lead had discharged, and that was almost certainly what freed it from the snag - thumbs up for the Fox leadclips from me.

After snapping a couple of quick pictures, the fish was returned and swam away strongly into the cold, murky water, and I got back to cooking my dinner

That was to be my only fish of the night, and my buzzers remained almost perfectly silent for the rest of the session. Obviously, this wasn’t a good thing, but the one positive I can take from it is that I didn’t draw the usual hoardes of crayfish into my swim. Perhap i’ll stick to boillie-only baiting from now on…perhaps not though, I only caught the one fish after all.

Even though it was a largely quiet night, I still feel as if it was a small triumph. After all, all my previous fish had been from one swim to spots I had been pre-baiting. So to roll up in a new swim, locate feeding fish and bag one was more of a result than it might first appear.

The night was indeed very cold, and when packing up early in the morning I noticed a distinct ‘crunch’ as I rolled my unhooking mat away. Frosty nights here we come!

Till next time

Stumble it!