By Martyn Russ, Trish Lloyd & Brian Lloyd
After a spur of the moment decision, due to it being hot and not having a full days fishing, to go fishing at Peterstone Lakes in Newport i have to say it turned out to be a great days fishing (even though mine was a bit stressful). When we got to the lakes the sun was already trying to burn off the mornings haze and it was already warm. We chose swims close to each other and i decided to fish the swim directly opposite my mother and Brian on the next lake (The Swan) as they wanted to fish the Pencil Lake as it was full of a lot more silver fish as well as Carp where as the Swan is more angled towards to Carp fisherman but still holds a good mixture of other fish as well but the Carp are a lot larger. The swim i had chosen had a huge patch off lilies directly in front of it and at the time of setting up i really didn’t think about it but it was the turn out to be the biggest mistake i made.
Brian was the first to catch a nice little common carp around 3 or 4lb. on a fake bait along with strawberry ground bait we got from Total Outdoors that seemed to do the trick at attracting the fish. We had all decided to fish the feeder method for the day using open end and cage feeders on a running rig. Brian was using the CAMOU camouflaged from Carp Force and my mother and myself was using the Fluorocarbon Fishing line also from Carp Force.
My mother was the second to follow up with a nice Bream, a couple of pound in weight, and then a nice little Mirror Carp. Brian was continuing to catch Small Carp for most of the day ranging between 2 and 6lb. in weight with a couple of nice Bream thrown in for measure. During the mornings fishing Brian decided to do a bit of floater fishing in amongst the reeds and under a tree;s hangover and managed to get himself a lovely Carp at 14lb. That was a chunk and a strong fighter and didn’t half give him the run around.
my mother also continued to catch all day and managed a few nice bream and some tidy Carp. It wasn’t hundreds of fish but it was non stop action and steady all day long. The lake i was on seemed to be a lot quieter as there was a few coming out but not many. I had actually had three bites right at the start of the session and actually bumped each bite. This got me annoyed and thinking it was the hook link and hook i changed over to another type also using an hair rig. I was using the Krill Match Bait Set, from Dragon Carp and to be honest on this water it just wasn't working. So i ended up changing and using other baits that i had brought with me just in case such as meat in halibut glug and green Betain feed pellets also a blood worm bait sausage that you can cut up and hair rig. This changed my fortune and the lake came to life.
The first carp i hooked into was quite large and after a 15 minuet battle i ended up loosing it to a hook pull right at the end when trying to net it. As i bent down for the net the carp saw it and dived down into the lilies that are in front of me and twisted itself up. Then when having to apply a bit more pressure to get it back out TWANG the hook came flying out and i lost the fish. You could say i was more than annoyed and didn’t talk to anyone for quite a while after that. The second fish i managed to get was only a small carp at around 3 or 4lb but gave up a good fight and i was just happy to get it on the bank, Due to the heat and sun my head was pounding and i just couldn’t get into my rhythm. The next fish i hooked was again also only a small carp but yet again when trying to reach for the net it got itself into the lilies and the hook actually snapped this time. I rigged back up and started to fish again.
The next 2 fish i hooked where again bigger carp and gave a good fight and yet again when about to net the lilies managed to get the better of me. I tried to clear a small patch in front of me with out damaging them, as you are not allowed and have to respect the fishery, it still didn’t help and they still managed to get their heads down for that last final dash for freedom. I did manage to get two small bream towards the end of the session but by that time my energy was gone and my ego deflated so i packed up and headed off. We did have a nice time out and the weather was great even though i burnt my fore arms again. Although i just couldn’t seem to get my act together i still had fun and that's what its all about. I can’t wait for my next fishing adventure soon so watch this space.
Tight Lines and Wet Nets.
