Pole Fishing at Lamby Pond, Cardiff

Fishing Location –” Lamby Pond “(opposite Lamby Lake) 

We had a nice break in the weather and was forecast for a sunny day so we decided to pay a visit to Lamby Pond in Cardiff. It’s a pretty little pond just on the edge of an industrial estate and is stocked with a range of species of fish. We found out that the pond was poisoned 5 years ago and has been struggling to revive itself over the last couple of years but has slowly started to come back to normality.

We arrived early with the sun shining but a frost on the ground and a mist on the pond. It soon lifted within the first 20 minuets of us getting there. We set up our poles and off we went. Brian was the first to catch with a lovely common carp around 5 or 6 lb. in weight. I first tried fishing pellets but there didn’t seem to be any interest as nothing was biting. I then decided to change rigs to a more fine set-up. I was using 5 lb. Fluorocarbon Fishing Line that i got from Total Outdoors with a size 16 wide gape barbless hook from Carp Force. I then fed the swim with ground bait and started to fish the maggot. I was soon hooking into some lovely Rudd, not very big but still great fun and very feisty.

Shortly after Brian struck into his second fish of the day a nice chunky common of around 7 or 8 lb. in weight whilst i continued to catch smaller fish. It wasn’t too long before Brian was landing his third fish of the day, a pretty looking mirror carp. Little did we know at the time this was going to be his last fish of the session. I continued to catch a couple more small Rudd and then we decided to take a break and soon it was lunch time.

After lunch we fed up our swims and continued to fish but with no success, All of a sudden the pond had gone dead. Nothing seemed to bite not even the small skimmers that we could see passing us in the shallows. For some unknown reason the fish just didn’t want to play anymore. We tried everything, we adjusted depth, we adjusted bait and we even changed tackle but still nothing wanted to play anymore. So it was around 4.30pm we decided to call it a day. We had had a great day out even though the fish didn’t want to play in the second half but that's how it goes. I can’t wait for this little pond to get back to the way it was as there used to be some quality fish being caught from this venue and i am sure as soon as the weather gets a lot warmer the fish will be back.

Tight Lines & Wet Nets……….

Cefn Mably Lakes–Cardiff 2nd March 2013

Fishing Location – “The Carp Pond”

With the end of the winter and the start of spring just around the corner we have been lucky to get some mild weather before the season really begins. We chose Saturday as it said that although there will be a cold start to the morning it should turn sunny by lunch time. We had decided to give one of our local lakes a visit and see what the fishing is like this time of year.

It wasn’t as cold as i thought it was going to be at the start and there seemed to be very little wind. When we got to the venue there were quite a few fishermen already scattered around the lake. Although the weather was mild the water was freezing cold and way too cold for the fish to be feeding. As we know most fish will feed less in colder waters as their metabolism slows down so they tend not to eat as much as they would in the warmer months. This was beginning to show as no one seemed to be getting any bites.

Brian had decided to fish the open end feeder on STEALTH Fast Sinking Camo-line that we got from Total Outdoors and it seemed to do the trick. It was only about ten minuets into our fishing when Brian struck into a nice size common carp around 8 lb. He managed to catch it on maggot witch turned out to be the main bait of the day. Not content with hooking the one it was only about an hour or so afterwards when he managed his second fish of the day just as big as the first hitting the 7 lb. plus mark.

I had decided to fish one rod on a Chod Rig backed with the Fluorocarbon Fishing line from Total Outdoors with a Peppermint Pop-up and another rod on the Waggler. I did start off with a method feeder but thought better of it when i saw how much weed was in the water. The waggler turned out to be spot on and i started hooking into small Roach and Bream after spending half the day trying to get the swim going and the fish feeding. The carp rod had a couple of knocks, where i think the bait was being picked up but then dropped again, and then on the 3rd nock the line zipped off and i struck into my first and only carp of the day weighing 7 1/2 lb.

My set-up on the carp rod was simple, i was using 45 lb. Core Zero leader  that i got from Taska in a competition online and i was using a running Chod system with a size 10 Choddy hook with a peppermint pop-up. This with the Fluorocarbon fishing line gave it the perfect presentation and it worked like a charm. All in all we had a brilliant days fishing and considering the cold water temperature and the fact that none of the other fishermen were catching, I think we did very well and I, for one, can’t wait to pay this lake a visit when the warmer weather comes. It’s now time to start preparing for our next adventure! Tight Lines and Wet nets…