Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. December 29th, 2006.

After yesterdays trip to Monk Lakes with the lads I had a pint of maggots to use up.
Well to be honest I’d forgotten them the day before and left them in the fridge.

The weather today had definitely taken a turn for the worst, with a drop in temperature, rain and a fair bit more wind. I was in two minds whether to go but had the car loaded and set off around 10·30am. The venue today was to be Hartleylands Farm, with The Reservoir and 6 other lakes and ponds there is always somewhere on the fishery where you can tuck yourself away from the worst of the weather and catch a few fish.

Arriving at around noon I had a look round and decided to fish Nick’s lake, settling on peg 35 for no other reason than it was only 10 yards from the car, meaning I could leave the rod bag and carryall in the car and save them getting soaked.

Just the 1 top kit with white Hydro was set up allowing me to fish at the bottom of the shelf about 5 feet from the bank into around 3ft of water. In summer the fish will come in closer on top of the shelf, but with the fall in water temp and a bit of colour dropping out I didn’t feel it would be a goer.

The main line would be to my left at around 10mtrs with a throwaway straight in front just fishing the top 2. A pinch of maggot, fed every few minutes with double maggot on an 18 completed the picture for the session.

A quick chat with Dave on the phone cheered me up when he revealed that those on the MD’s Fur & Feather up at Lindholme were experiencing even colder and windier conditions.

Sport was pretty continuous throughout the session, I rarely had to wait more than 60 seconds for a bite, with a succession of Roach, Rudd and Skimmers coming to hand interspersed with the odd pastie Carp. Every time I tried the top 2 line it was a bite every 5 seconds from the hordes of Pongo’s that had settled in…………

With the light starting to fade and the weather closing in once more it was time for just one last put in down the left hand side.
Sure enough the float slid away once more, only this time there was rather a lot of white Hydro streaming out!!!!!
A couple of minutes later the culprit surfaced and showed itself as it slid into the waiting landing net……

an absolutely glorious Mirror of around 6lbs+, the perfect way to end my fishing for 2006, making me glad I had forgotten those maggots the day before.