By Anthony George Ron Potton
HENDRE LAKE- St. Mellons Cardiff
25th February 2019
As I arrive at the lake at 05:00 hrs, on quite a chilly morning, i was kindly accompanied by Shane Kitson whilst I set up my bivvy in the darkness of the railway bank , Shane being Shane thought he would chuck a rod out for an hour and see if he could nick a bite whilst i got myself organised. We had decided on taking the the end peg on the railway bank which is the one peg that commands the most water. This peg is also a large double so you can get away with fishing 3 anglers when the lake is very busy and is a peg that we know well. , I then decided to take the very end of the peg so I had the joys of casting into the out of bounds area of the lake where we know the carp like to frequent as they feel safer when the lake is pressured by anglers.
Whilst planning our session with Martyn we both decided on a 2 bait strategy so we could give them a choice and see what they would prefer on the day. I started with The Richworth Tuti Fruity on one rod but couldn't resist fishing a Solar Candy Floss 15 mm on a Simple Slip D rig occasionally switching to a Ronnie rig for a different presentation on a Solar Candy Floss 14 mm pop-up soaked in the matching glug for added attraction. As I fished through the day it started to become very warm for this time of year there was no signs of any fish in the area. It wasn't until later in the morning, when I settled in my bivvy, I started to hear some carp bosshing around in the no fish area. I Then baited up using a throwing stick from left to right across the swim and sat back to wait. It turned out to be a lovely warm day so I decided to sit outside the bivvy and put together few rigs and pva sticks made with grinded Solar Candyfloss boilies mixed with Solar Up and Down Mix and few natural ingredients. .
I give Martyn a text to see what time he thinking of arriving he told me around 3 pm so decide to stick with the plan and left my rods fishing whilst watching for any signs of where the carp could be. It was around 1.30 pm when I had a visit off Dean Curtis, fellow Club FAW Admin, who then decided to get a rod out for a couple of hours. Dean had also decided on fishing a tutti frutti bait placed very close to the island. Martyn arrived around 3:30 pm to start getting himself sorted for the same swim as it's a very big double swim, leaving Dean to his spot for a while whilst setting up his bivvy and home for the next 48 hr session. Once Martyn was ready we moved Dean to the middle of the swim, a bit tight but we managed as Martyn started of fishing his 2 rods short whilst Dean still fished the island. As the day progressed the lake remaining swims started to fill up so space was getting limited and angling pressure was high, Martyn decided to put a few spods out over each rod to see if he could get the feeding going but weather was proving difficult as it had become very warm all of a sudden
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After another two hours Dean decided to call it a day, bring his rod in and have a chat for a bit and a bit of a socialise, then Shane returned and decided to squeeze in on the end of the peg to fish the out of bounds area and centre slues channel around 6 pm and would to fish the night with us. Around 6.30 pm my left rod screamed off with my first action of the session, it kites to the left into the out of bounds area and gave a great fight, a lovely common but unfortunately for me it decided to head into a bed of reeds where there was a spinner hanging from someones discarded bit of tackle. As I Tried to play the carp through the reeds it headed for the one thing i was trying to avoid, the spinner and as soon as i tried to scoup it in the net the spinner caught on the line and , SNAP! the fish was gone😠.
The bite had come on a Solar Candyfloss bottom bait tipped with a Solar everlasting 8 mm popup so i re-setup my rig and got my rods back on the area. Still annoyed at loosing the fish it was time to sit back and had a socialise with a few passers by. As the night drew in was very dark and a sudden change of weather caught us by surprise as it went very cold rather quickly. It was at this time my left rod again screamed off so i grabbed the rod and i was in again. Now from the previous fight I remembered this time to lead it away from the reeds and by keeping my rod low i was able to make it come up in the water and it kited around the front of me making landing the fish much easier. It was small mirror weighing 9 lb 7 oz and was a welcome start to the session. I decided a slight tweak to the rigs was called for and a change of bait to Solar Candyfloss pop ups fished on a Ronnie rig would be the next coarse of action so i baited and set the rods.
It was kind of quiet night on the bite front with Shane having a couple of carp around the 13 lb+ weight and I managed to pinch another in the early hours at 17 lb nothing else came along. It was a very restless night as the Canadian Gees decided they were going to have some sort of party and would not stop screaming and screeching all night long. this coupled with railway works going on at the back of the lake meant very little sleep was to be had. Martyn decided to add a few more spods out the next day, over each rod, as he admitted he should have done it after each bite but was guilty of being lazy on this session so he grabbed his spod rod and started baiting. It was creating a lovely slick across the swims and will hopefully turn the carp on. After a few hours, once the mix had settled, we started to see some signs of feeding so I decided to have a go with the throwing stick to get a few Solar Candy Floss boilies out there hoping seagulls don't get to many of them.
It was turning out to be a really unusually quiet day. With all the bait out there the fish still didn't want to get their heads down to feed on the mix and the boilies. Nobody else on the lake seemed to be catching and there was very little sign of any action at all so we knew something wasn't right. As it was so quiet we sat through the night socialising till around 9 pm. We had a few more visitors being quite loud so maybe this along with all the line pressure on the lake and the amount of lines in our swim alone could have been the issue .
It wasn't until around 1 am the next day we saw any sign of action when Shane struck into a nice 14 lb 6 oz common. We decided we would try to get some sleep as nothing was happening for me or Martyn so I changed back to the Ronnie on my right hand rod with a Solar Candy Floss pop up plugged for a few hours during the night. It wasn't until early morning at 7.45 am I managed to strike into a 14 lb 8 oz common. The day then became quite a sunny day again slightly overcast at times. It was very strange weather, freezing cold and ice during the night and early hours then a hot spring day during daylight. Maybe this was what was putting the fish off from feeding.
Eventually Martyn started getting into his swing and after a couple of rig tweaks he landed 2 in quick succession first at 13 lb 4 oz common followed by another common at 15 lb 2 oz. It was great spending the session together on the bank as it gave me a chance to talk rigs and tactics and get to tweaking my own rigs so i now have more confidence in my fishing knowing that my rigs and bait are working for me. We had a great time socialising with friends as well as some good fishing and I can't wait until i get out again.
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