Frant Lakes. The Horseshoe. March 23rd, 2003.

Well today was a bit of a bonus as it wasn’t planned till Thursday night when Maria came home and told me that she had to work on Sunday.
Opening the curtains I was faced with a heavy frost & fog, not what the doctor ordered after the nice weather that we have had down south for the last week.
Anyway, nothing ventured nothing gained so they say, so after a quick spot of breakfast I loaded the gear into the car and set off for Elphicks Lakes,about an hours drive away.
On arrival at the lakes I was taken aback to find that the “LAKES FULL” sign was up, especially as the complex boasts 200 pegs spread over 5 lakes.
Popping into the fishing lodge the owner confirmed this, saying that he was amazed himself, citing the great weather as the probable cause.
Time then for Plan B, so jumping back into the car it was off to Frant lakes, to try and find a swim.

With 6 general lakes and a couple of specimen ones plus numerous small ponds dotted around the complex, there had to be a peg somewhere that I could fish.
Sure enough, although the complex was again busy, there were a few swims vacant on No6, the silver fish only lake, that would do for me.
This lake is horseshoe shaped and I picked the narrower arm as it is only about 3 feet deep, and I reasoned that the sun which had burnt of the fog would warm this up a lot quicker than the other arm which is much deeper and shielded by mature trees.

Now this lake is supposed to hold a good head of Bream up to about 5lbs along with Roach, Rudd, Tench and some cracking Perch. So I just set up 2 rigs on tops rigged with 6 elastic comprising of Preston series B floats (4×12)on ·08 to ·06 with a Preston PR21 in size 20 to finish things off. One set at dead depth (3ft) and the other about half depth.
The baits would be alternated between red maggot, sweetcorn and expander pellet over a bed of micro pellets.

Starting off by cupping in a small pot of micro’s and fishing a single red maggot, a steady run of small Roach & Skimmers were soon coming to hand. Changing to an Expander on the hook to try and find some of their larger cousins brought a lull for a couple of minutes , then the float buried and yards of elastic came streaming from the pole and a good 10 minutes later the culprit was revealed as none other than a Mirror Carp of about 5lbs.

Well for the rest of the day the pattern continued, a few small Roach and skimmers with the odd better skimmer to about 2lbs, and then another Carp that didn’t know it shouldn’t be there would put in an appearance. All in all I ended up with 9 Carp from the silver fish lake, all Mirrors.
A cracking session even if it wasn’t quite what I expected.

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir. March 9th, 2003.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well I have to say that the best part about todays club match at Hartleylands Reservoir was the Breakfast at The Little Chef beforehand.
The Reservoir at Hartleylands is situated at one of the highest points of the farm, and when the wind blows you can really suffer.

Long pole is the name of the game here 12mtrs+, but with the wind being so variable from flat calm to a howling gale all day, presentation proved a nightmare with just a few small Roach as my reward for sticking it out for the first 2 hours.

It got so bad that I sat it out on the feeder for the final 3 hours! Twice the tip went round resulting in a couple of plump 2lb+ Carp. Then right on the final whistle the tip went again and I carefully played a similar Carp to the net, but at the very last second it rolled on the hooklength and was off.
At the scales I weighed 5lbs 14ozs for 5th,but that lost Carp had cost me 3rd place, which just about sums up the way my season has gone in the club matches.
Just one more club match to go at Willow Park next month and then we can do it all over again!!!!!!!!!

Elphick’s Fishery. Sandwich Lake. March 1st, 2003.

Well as Maria had to work late today I thought I’d grab the opportunity of a few hours down at Elphicks, and see if I could catch another couple of species for the Maggotdrowning.com Fishing Race.
I had a leisurely drive down and after stopping for brekkie arrived about 10am.
A quick chat with the lads in the onsite tackle shop confirmed my worst fears, as it hadn’t been fishing well,and with heavy rain yesterday, and more showers promised for today + a falling barometer, things didn’t look too promising.
I drove up to Sandwich lake and was greeted with a howling wind and the first of the many showers to come. Comfort being the order of the day I chose peg 11 as the wind would be at my back.

The plan of attack was to feed a few micro pellets and a pinch of damp pellet crumb + 3 grains of corn every put in, to the left of the concrete overflow at 9 mtrs in about 5 feet of water using a rig consisting of an 8 elastic and a Preston 4×14 durafloat shotted with a bulk of 10′s on 0·10 to a 0·08 hooklength ending in a size 18 PR24 fishing a single grain of corn.
The three lads fishing the bank to my right were all on the feeder,but were only getting the odd small Roach.

Well it was a very slow start and after an hour without a bite I was beginning to think it wasn’t going to happen, when all of a sudden the float slid away, Strike! NOTHING……. MISSED IT!!!!!!
Back out and 5 mins later it went again, This time I connected and was relieved to feel a pleasing resistance, and a minute or two later there in the net was a nice Bream of about 3lb.
After that I didn’t look back as slowly but surely one after another came to the net in the course of the next 4 hours. The smallest was about 2lb while the largest may have scraped 4lbs.
All in all I had 28 of them.
A real nice session, given the conditions but the real icing on the cake was the 3 Tench that decided to add themselves to the mix.
Firstly this one at about 3lb spiced things up…………………


but the last one was the clincher in an already good session, My 1st Goldie of the year

So there you have it…….. 5 hours & 70lbs+ from what some may call a “Commercial Puddle”. A decent days fishing, given the conditions.