It doesn't matter how many times you have been fishing or how many years you have been doing it, you always get the nerves and excitement the day before your planned fishing trip. I always say "the day you don't get that excitement is the day to stop or give up"; but whilst it still makes me feel like a child i will continue to do the sport i love so much. Once again i had decided on doing my first long session around my birthday as a treat to myself and I also chose the local venue that i had joined for the season. Hendre Lake in Cardiff, Wales is a relatively old lake originally dug to drain the marsh lands around the area to make way for housing. Stocked with a variety of species including carp to over 30 lb, Pike to over 15 lb, Bream, Roach, Rudd, Tench, Perch and the occasional Chub, visiting from the back streams, Hendre Lake makes for a great course fishing venue and also a good water for new anglers to come along and learn the sport. Hendre is also classed among the carp anglers as one of the best "Runs" waters in Wales, This means you can drop by and be sure to get a bend in the rod.
The weather had forecast cloud cover with the odd shower and a possible storm in the evenings on the weekend with he sun coming later in the week. This looked promising for a few fish and made my excitement even more intense. I spent the evening preparing bait and getting everything ready for my trip. I am a firm believer in preparation equals success. The more i could do at home before the trip the more time i would have my rods in the water catching fish instead of messing about on the bank. As first light came and the sound of dawn breaking i couldn't contain my excitement and was dressed and ready to go hours too early. When my lift arrived i hurried to get all the gear packed into the van and off i went to the lake. After spending ages trying to put the wheels on my barrow, difficult at the best of times, I managed to get all my gear loaded up and ready to go. I decided to take a quick walk around the lake to see if there were signs of any fish. There didn't seem to be anything showing or any signs giving them away in their hiding spots , I talked to other anglers and they all said they were finding it hard and bites have been few and far between with very little coming out.
Upon arrival and at the star of the day i had noticed how clammy the weather had become and even though there was some cloud cover it seemed to be a lot hotter than what was forecast. this, along with the news that the lake was fishing hard, wasn't a very god sign to start a session on. I chose to ignore this and just look for the best swim i could get that would command the most water in front of me. I decided on my first swim on the railway bank on the left side of the lake if you stood in the car park. The swim i had chosen was the second from the middle outlet as there was already an angler on the very end swim. I proceeded to set up my rods and get my swim organised. Knowing that there was little sign of the carp and nothing showing or coming out i had decided on putting out 2 high attract baits that i have total confidence in so i could see what they were up to and if they were in the mood for a feed. I placed one rod on a wafter bottom bait at 14 rod length straight out in front of me and then the other on a running chod rig using a solar candyfloss pink pop up. The rods remained quiet for most of the day and this gave me time to get things ready such as my spod mix and sticks with stringers. The first fish didn't come till around Lunch time and was on the bottom bait wafter which showed me that they were dropping down in the water and were willing to feed.
I then proceeded to spod out a bed of bait at the 14 rod length mark using a mixture of particles, Pallatrax Maggot and Blood-worm crush and Pallatrax Gammarus Shrimps all mixed in with a selection of Solar candyfloss and mainline IB boilies in whole and halves. I then re-cast both rods on the mark and sat and waited. As the evening came in and the temperature dropped the fish came on the feed and i started to catch. This continued with a couple more fish into the evening and then after spodding out more bait over the top i set my rods ready for the night and settled down. I was then again woken at 2.30 in the morning with a one toner screaming run which resulted in a lovely 18 lb 10 oz common that didn't half put up a fight. I also managed to loose a fish at 4 am in the morning whilst half asleep trying to play the fish and stop it running into the reeds beside me i made a school boy error of forgetting my landing net and as i bent down to grab it , it saw its opportunity and dove straight through the reed bed tangling me up and managed to remove the hook from it mouth and plant it straight into the reed stem. How they do this is beyond my understanding but they seem to manage it every time.
The next day was much the same with the weather changing for the worst and suddenly becoming sunny , bright and very hot. This turned the fish off and they didn't seem to want to feed. I was trying Zigs, Surface baits, Wafters, Pop ups, Naturals and even maggots and still nothing. I did manage to pick a few bites up from the feeding spot as the odd carp was dropping down for a feed every couple of hours and i was picking them off one by one steadily. A couple of the other anglers were trying surface fishing with not much happening until the evening when it cooled down and then they started to catch off the top. I was about to follow suit and switch over to surface baits when the rods started to get action again and the bites began once more. So instead of following suit i continued to spod more bait over the top after each bite and continued to catch carp very hour or 2. It was then, the second night, when all hell broke loose and the carp decided to come in mob handed and feed on the baited area. My rods were non stop most of the night with several runs and fish caught including loosing 2 hard fighting fish and a complete tangle with the angler in the next swim. We think he had forgotten to turn his alarm back on after setting his rod as he didn't know he had a fish on. When i had one of the bites i was playing it and after seeing it about 20 feet out it dove down and suddenly became 3 times heavier, as i pulled the fish back to the surface to see what was going on i saw 2 fish surface together and they were all tangled. I managed to get them in and finish landing the second fish by hand-lining the fish in and finding it attached to the guys rod in the next swim.
The following 2 days were much the same as the others,, cool in mornings, roasting hot during the day and through lunch with the action picking up in the evening and the nights. As i had now managed to get my swim going and the fish were constantly feeding i didn't really want to change swims but as there is a max 72 hour rule on the lake i had to move so instead of going for a wander around the lake i decided to just jump one swim up and ended up on the 1st swim on the centre outlet that commands the most water in the lake. I then spodded out more bait extending the baited patch from the swim next door into mine and then concentrating the bulk of the feed in front of me. I placed my rods back on the mark and continued to catch and get plenty of action. Again most of it was during the evenings, nights and early mornings due to the weather being so hot. So much for overcast and a few showers. One of my friends then came down the lake to fish so i explained what i had done and where i had been feeding so he decided to join me and placed his rods on the spot where i was fishing before the move and that evening, with very little bait going in, he resulted in landing 5 fish during the night and 3 in the morning.
The fishing trip had turned out to be a great success and i managed a total of 32 carp with 19 of the being in double figures with 24 lb 2 oz being the biggest of the session. The rigs that were doing the business were the Solar Candyfloss bottom baits on a blow back rig done with a Pallatrax size 6 Gripz hook on Pallatrax Steam-link in 25 lb with an inch stripped back subtle section at the hook end. The other rig that was just as good was the whipped D Rig with a balanced bait or Mainline IB wafter done with a Size 4 Gripz hook and again the Pallatrax Steam-link in 25 lb this time straight through to give a stiffer rig presentation. The chod rig was a standard running naked chod with a 1 inch hook-link fishing a pink candyfloss pop up.
What an amazing session despite it being hard fishing when it was so hot, I still managed to convince them into having a feed and got plenty of fish on the bank. I can't wait for my next adventure now....
What an amazing session despite it being hard fishing when it was so hot, I still managed to convince them into having a feed and got plenty of fish on the bank. I can't wait for my next adventure now....
Wet Nets & Tight Lines
