Once again we had planned a weekend session down at our local syndicate water Lamby Lake in Cardiff, South Wales. This water is a new venue to both myself and Brian Chandler who is my partner in Fishing Adventures Wales and Club FAW. We had decided to join this syndicate so that we had a new challenge this year as we had heard it wasn't an easy water to take on but held some beautiful carp in the mid to high 30's. Our first visit resulted in a quick take for Brian and a new personal best for him at just over 32 lb. The session we had planned was just after the carp had spawned and the weather forecast was for overcast conditions with a slight shower meaning the weather would be perfect.
Much to our surprise, when we arrived at the lake , the sun was shining and the weather was rapidly heating up. Both myself and Brian had chosen swims next to each other at the start of the lake near a small walkway/bridge separating a reed bay from the main lake that the carp love to seek safety in. Our plan of attack was to fish balanced baits or pop-ups over a spread of boilies with a small stick mix on the hook for added attraction. We both set up our swims, got some bait out in our chosen areas and set our traps. Within 2 and half hours of casting out Brian was once again the first person to catch and he managed to land a lovely 13 lb 10 oz common carp that gave a good little scarp. What a great start considering it was so bright and sunny and rapidly warming up. I had decided to target the reed line with one of my rods placed in the margins just in front of the reeds and my other out in open water along side Brian's 2 rods. Unfortunately my rods remained quiet well into lunch and we were both wondering why it was so quiet but not much else was coming out around the lake.
One of the bailiffs managed a couple of nice carp early in the day and a guy set up opposite us managed a small carp but apart from that it remained dead. I decided to take a walk along the footpath/bridge and see if i could see anything and to my surprise there were loads of carp all sunning themselves in the shallow warm water. I had even seen a couple still spawning so they hadn't quiet finished. It was very tempting to move onto the fish and move the rods across to the swim at the edge of the bridge. Place a bait amongst the fish and see if i could pick a couple off but as i had seen a few still spawning i just didn't want to disturb them and we continued fishing the areas we had started at. It wasn't until early evening that i saw any action from the rods with my right hand rod suddenly ripping of with a screamer of a run but as i struck into the fish i could feel something was quite different and it wasn't very big. To my shock i saw a green flank flash in the water and the front of a Tench surface as i brought it to the net. A beautiful Tench at 6 lb 4 oz was my prize. What a beautiful fish and very welcome even though it wasn't the intended target. I hadn't caught a nice Tench for a few years and was very pleased.
Both swims remained quiet and the weather was very hot all day and into the evening making fishing very slow. Nothing else came out of the lake that evening and even into the next day it still remained quiet with only 1 or 2 coming out to one of the bailiffs and Brian lost one in the evening the day before. We had tried every thing we could think of trying to get these fish to start feeding as well as PVA bag along the reed line and even 5 ft zigs up in open water yet nothing seemed to tempt them. Sometimes that's just how fishing is and even though the fishing was quiet we still had a great session and can't wait till our next visit to the water. This is only the second time we had fished this venue and to be honest we didn't really expect many results until we got to know the water a bit better so managing a couple was a real bonus for us both.
Wet Nets & Tight Lines
