| 15th - 22nd of November 2008 |
Now the gates are closed but our work carries on! We have had a very busy year with many PB's for our guests. Now is the time for Dad and I to watch our lake while maintaining the banks and swims and maybe... get a bit of fishing in, if we feel the time is right. We have to feed the fish ready for our guest next year!!! We decided to bait two areas every winter with our winter boilies, Bananas Royales, half a kilo in each area every morning and the same late afternoon, trying to fish two hours a day, two rods each in separate swims. This helps us to keep in tune with the water and our fish. Over the following winter months I will keep you updated with our progress. Thursday, 20th - 3 to 5 pm, Dad had one of the Twins at a new weight of 51lb. Friday, 21st - 11.30 - 1.30 pm, Dad (again!!!) had another take and landed Slate Grey at 58 3/4lb. Friday afternoon - my turn, 3 - 5 pm, I managed a fish that was transferred from the little lake - 49lb! Saturday, 22nd - 9 - 11 am, Dad had another one at 38lb. |
| A week in March 2008 |
In two hours fishing on Saturday of March between 4:30pm and 6:30pm, my biggest brace of carp came out – Foxy Lady at 49lb and Slate Grey at 53lb!! Both these fish have gained weight over the winter period. It all started on Friday 29th of February. Dad and I decided it was about time we started to put some bait into the big lake. As the weather was becoming settled 4 kilos of our winter bait was put into six different swims; this we will continue every day until the anglers take over. As always we decided to fish only two hours in a swim, two rods each. After baiting up I thought it would be rude not to fish for a couple of hours. By the time my baits were in the water it was 2pm and by 4pm I had four fish, two doubles and two 20’s. Not a bad start! On Saturday, 1st of March I moved to another swim, same time span, two rods, one fish – a 29lb mirror – and one hook pull. Not very happy about that. Sunday Dad joined me and he had first a 34lb common, than in quick succession two mirrors at 39 ½ lb. And me, two doubles and lost two in a trot. That was it!! Spat my dummy out, packed up and went back to the house. Something was very wrong, time to change hook size from size 8 to size 10. On Monday Dad had one fish, 23 ½ lb, temperature dropped from 9 – 15° the day before to 3° with an easterly wind. Tuesday back in the game, we changed our swim, moved right in the teeth of the wind. The move proved correct as we had four fish in two hours, two 20lb and two 30lb. Wednesday, a cold north-easterly wind and a heavy frost over night, baits on the spot and by 4pm three fish landed and no losses. New hooklinks and small hooks all good! Thursday horrible weather, we fished two hours in one swim and then moved and done another two hours – tally zeeero, not even a liner. Friday, as Thursday, two swims, two hours each and scored as the day before. Cold in the morning, wind drifting round in the after-noon. Saturday morning as we relit our fire in the forest, we looked at each other, a southerly wind, 9 – 10° with a nice chop on the water. I forgot to tell you, every day we have been coppicing our trees and burning the branches. Be patient… time 3:30pm, two blank days under our belts, we have got to try. We opted for the middle of the lake due to the wind. Baits in the water on the spots, time is ticking away, 5pm, a slow but deliberate run. I picked the rod up and realised I was in a big fish by the way it just lumbered off to the left taking about 40yards of line, past the swim on our left. I was using 2 ¼ test curve rods and size 10 hooks. The rods were a Christmas present from Dad and Magda so this week was the first time I have tried them on the big lake. Nice and slowly it came, plodding left and then right under my feet, the first forty of this year, I was thinking, as the Foxy Lady rolled beneath the surface in the net. Yes! She looked big, 49lb, her biggest weight so far! We still had three more rods on the spots, Dad’s right hand one tightened up, he was in, a fish of 18lb graced his net. Two runs in under an hour, only two left to go. While I was playing the Foxy Lady, Dad had noticed a bubbler, 80yards off to my right and there it was again… Quietly I removed the remaining rods, rebaited again and cast them both in the area of the bubbler, which by then stopped. 20 baits, was I right or should had left my rod for another three quarters of an hour in the same place, I asked myself. Too late. 15 minutes later bubbles appear over the right hand rod and then nothing. Half an hour goes by, time to call it a day, well almost. Left hand rod’s tip bended round, I was in. Just in two hours. Only a small one, was coming straight towards me and then it stopped and kited off to the left. The rod slowly curved round – a big fish! Twenty minutes later Slate Grey was wallowing in the bottom of my net – and turned to my Dad – “and it looks bigger than the last one”! 53lb, say no more!
A PB of 49lb also the first 40 of the year and to top it all my first 50lb. What more can I ask? |
