by Martyn Russ
Well with a very quiet year last year due to hospital appointments and a very slow start to the season this year its nice to see that the other members of Club F.A.W. have been out braving the colder weather and winds and managing to catch some lovely specimens.
Its been nice to watch as 2 club members Anthony and Shane decided to take on a new water whilst waiting for the main lake to re-open after being closed for spawning. Pentwyn lake is a small lake situated in the centre of a small park in Pentwyn in south wales and as a lake it has suffered over the years. Firstly someone drove a car into the lake a few years back and the fuel spilled out of the car poisoning the lake and killing nearly all the fish.
The lake recovered for a while and then last year it suffered from white spot that wiped out 90% of all fish in the lake leaving a few good size carp and some smaller little silver fish which are slowly recovering. Anthony and Shane decided to target the carp that were left on the lake and started fishing it this Winter into Spring. It wasn't long before they both noticed that all the fish seemed to have very small mouths and that they were feeding off the bottom due to the silt containing a lot of rotten vegetation and smelling foul.
They noticed they were able to catch the carp in certain areas and on certain baits and rigs such as double or triple corn over a small scattering of freebies, small zigs just under the surface about 1 ft down and so on. It was nice to see the 2 of them go through the process of working out the baits and tactics over a period of different sessions and how they worked out what times of the day and night they would feed and where they could be found in the lake. That's what water craft is all about.
I couldn't complete an update with out mentioning the other members who have also been out hard at it trying to catch those new personal bests. Scott Whiting and his son Bobby B has been hard at it visiting different venues with some great results and also many a blank session, but it paid off in the end resulting in loads of stunning trophy carp on the bank.
Also out newest member to the club , Ashley Butler, has been hard at it up at Riverside Fishery in Caerphilly in Wales and managed to get himself a couple of lovely carp including a stunning ghost common weighing in at 15 lb.
Its nice to see the members getting out and catching those stunning carp and i am looking forwards to when our local lake re-opens for the new season and i can get out and get some fish on the bank. All the members have been showing how much they love the sport and i look forwards to seeing what else they catch this year.
Wet Nets & Tight Lines Guys!
