With no customers on Rouge this week, and having watched it fish steadily for the past three weeks, i was gagging to get down there and have a few out myself. The lake holds so many surprises, and has a real character, even though i’ve fished it countless times, i still always look forward to wetting a line there.

Saturday Night

My first session was taken on Saturday night, and proved to be spectacularly successful. I had been walking the lake all week and was set on fishing a tight peg on the dam wall that give access to a couple of prime fishy areas. However, on my walkabout late saturday evening i spotted a group of fish congregated near the water inflow at the opposite end of the lake. Immediately my mind was changed and i was charging back to the car to get the gear out before the light faded.

My left rod was fished in the margins right where i had seen the fish, and required a precise cast - fortunately my luck was in and the lead plopped down in prime position, with the line just flicking the leaves. The second rod was fished with a chod rig and baited with a bright yellow pop-up. This went over to the far margin, and before i could attach the swinger had rocketed off! This resulted in a nice catfish of 24lbs. In the middle of that fight, my margin rod roared off too, although by the time i had the cat in the net, the fish on the other end had taken me to the other end of the bay and shed the hook just as i picked up the rod. What a start.

With both rods in need of re-rigging, I quickly set about getting things sorted, and soon had the rods back in their spots. I didn’t have to wait long before the margin rod signaled another take, and this time after a lovely scrap i banked a cracking 16lb mirror that i recognised from one of my sessions in March. The fish were clearly holed up under the trees in some number, and it took another branch flicking cast to get things set before darkness truly fell.

This time, when the rod burst into life a few minutes later it was clearly a bigger fish that fought unlike an other big carp i’ve known. It charged around on the surface, lunging fiercely and even showered me in spray at one stage! After a good 10 minutes i slipped the net under a huge pair of shoulders. A stunning fish, with bags of potential to go much, much larger pulled the scales round to 33lbs 2oz, before a quick photo and being slipped back. unsurprisingly, it took a couple of minutes nursing in the margins before she had the strength to swim off strongly.

After this fish, I noticed my rig was well and truly mullered, and after a long day i decided to reel in my other rod and get some sleep.

Waking at first light, i bunged the rods back in the same spots and re-baited with just a handful of boilies. After a scorching day, the morning that followed was cold and dewy, and as i result i felt the fish had moved out of the area so out came the rods, and all the gear was moved 20 yards up the bank to give me a bit more water to go at. Noticing that the bream had begun to spawn in the far margins, i put one right in the middle of the commotion, and the other in the lilies to my right.

It was the spawning bream that seemed to have captured the carp’s attention as three more small carp followed within a couple of hours - the biggest going 16lbs, but the prettiest by far a scaley-linear that just pushed past double figures.

Monday Night

Monday brought a change in the weather and the area i had such success in on Saturday seemed devoid of life, so in the absence of any other signals, i opted to fish the spot on the dam wall that i had passed up two days earlier. With one rod roving, and another fished to a drain which always holds fish, I felt confident of some action.

However, as Rouge has a tendency to do, it kicked me in the arse that evening as all I managed was a single savage liner, before packing up and heading home at around 9.30. Such is fishing i suppose, it wouldn’t be fun if we caught every time!

Tuesday night

I had been promising my landlord a session on Rouge for a couple of weeks, and so we headed down early on Tuesday evening for a bit of sport and hopefully a catfish or two. I gave nick first choice of swims, and when he chose the double swim, i settled in next door in peg number 3. I felt with the mixed weather conditions the fish would likely be moving between their holding areas, and this might be my best bet to intercept one or two. One rod was tight to the far margin and baited with a handful of boilies, whilst the other was put at the base of the island’s marginal slope in amongst some soft silty goodness. The was baited very heavily with small oily pellets to try and hold anything that might be passing.

After a couple of hours, it was the island rod that roared off, and after a superb fight a 35lb 2oz catfish succumbed to my net. My biggest of the season, and it somewhat rekindled my affection for a species that i had previously spent most of my time trying to avoid.

At darkness rain set in, and did not let up until early morning. I had only one small dropback during the night that i struck, but did not connect with anything. The far margin rod remained untouched all night. i was surprised, if not shocked, waking at 7 and just contemplating packing up, when that rod roared off. After a long fight over a fair distance i had just got the fish to within about 10 yards when a yellow flank rolled at the surface and the hook popped out. A good sized fish…

Nick was plagued by bream attacking his halibut pellets intended for the catfish. I think he had a bit of a sleepless night…

Thursday night

Last night i fished behind the island in the shallower water as the air temperature felt warm and the sun had been heating the water for most of the afternoon. I plumped for both rods into the far margin where i had seen the bream spawning previously, one baited with pellet, one with just a few boilies. It was the pellet rod that roared off at dusk, resulting in a fat little bream!

I re-baited and sat out enjoying the warm evening and a lovely dinner of lamb stew followed by bananas and custard! There was lots of bream activity, but the only carp i saw were to my right in the midst of the lilies. Still, i persisted with the rods where they were.

Between 11pm and 1am the bream were messing with both rods, giving little nudges and dropbacks, but nothing carpy. So when on swinger dropped like a stone i wearily got out of my bag to tighten the line, but before i could do so, the spool started fizzing. I lifted in a good fish, that was instantly recognisable as a cat. It took off on several awesome surges before plodding around under the rod tip for what seemed like a lifetime. When it finally came up, i was surprised that it wasn’t bigger, but gratefully netted it all the same. I didn’t weigh this one, but would have said it was about the same as the mid thirty from earlier in the week, if not a little heavier.

Later on I lost another on the same rod, which again felt like a small cat. I just don’t think i was where the carp were..

All in all it’s been a great week. I’m off on Saturday to fish the river for the first time. I’m a bit nervous, so wish me luck!

Stumble it!