A Day Priory Lakes, Ruskington, 20th Sept by Joe Pell

Introduction

It was a bright sunny morning and everything was looking very good for a nice warm day. I was thinking that as I have nothing planned for the whole day, what is better than to go fishing? I planned to go to Priory Lakes as I won’t be able to use the car in the afternoon; Priory Lakes is only a mile walk from me. In the morning, I was able to use the car, so I went to Dave’s Peg in Sleaford to get my maggots ready for a session at Priory Lakes. I thought about what I did wrong at the last time I was at Priory Lakes and I couldn’t think of anything, so I decided to try a new peg and get a good bag of fish catching more than 4 species in the process.

Target Species: 4 Species must be caught, doesn’t matter what.
Net Weight: Doesn’t matter, this will be a target net weight IF I fish that peg again.

Pre Session Plans and Rigs

Once I had loaded all of my gear onto a trolley, I was thinking to myself that I use the pole a lot and maybe it’s a good idea use the rod and line for this session and just use the pole for the margins. I left my house at roughly 9:30am and I just couldn’t help thinking about what a nice day it was. It wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too cold. There was a tiny breeze which helped me decide where to fish on the lake before I even got there, that was Peg 1. The best peg in the lake and the peg that wins the matches. I was thinking about the fact that I should use the rod and line more often, the only method I could use perfectly was the waggler, I had maggots for this and thought, I’ll start off with the maggot waggler casting to basking carp to see if they’ll take the bait. If that fails, I’ll have to think of an alternative method. I had a bite alarm and a straight lead, but I didn’t want to use the bite alarm due to the fact that they are noisy and it’s a place that usually has other anglers on it. I had to think of an alternative and the best idea I could come up with was to use a maggot feeder, but I had a light carp rod which is suitable for multiple casting over a long period of time. I wouldn’t be able to sense a bite very well, so I had to fix the feeder on the line so when I get a bite, the rod tip flies around as it would do for a method feeder.

The minute I arrived at Priory Lakes, I immediately went for Lake 1 and checked to see if Peg 1 was free, it wasn’t as it was occupied by what looks like an angler teaching a young child to fish. I did see my friend fishing on Peg 41, which is the second best peg in the lake after Peg 1, this was close to Peg 1, so I thought I’d set up next to my friend and share a good few banter with him as I was fishing. I set up on Peg 40, which is a very dull looking peg in my opinion, the most attractive feature I have to say would be the reeds in the margins on the right, I was expecting a bad day’s fishing, but anything can happen.



As you can see above, this is my margin swim, please excuse the rod, I took this picture whilst waiting for my rod tip to wrap round. I loved how the reeds actually go out into the water by a fair bit because in my mind, I thought... this is asking for fish, a great fish holding feature. I had a good look at other spots where I could fish on the maggot feeder. I noticed that the majority of the lake was pretty much flat and featureless, so I opted for another tasty looking feature on the far bank.



I have plenty of options on the far bank and I thought it would be a good idea to fish near the reeds and around that area. On went the straight lead and I casted out to the feature and lifted my rod high up and slowly reeled in keeping my eye on the tip to get an idea what the bottom was like and to see if there were any other features nearby. Turned out that the peg was roughly 2ft deep as it seems to be in every margin swim around the whole lake, and then it slopes down all the way to 6ft.



In the depth picture, it has a shelf which is where the reeds are sitting on and I aimed to cast every time onto that shelf as I feel that most fish would rather feed there because of the fact that they have protection in form of reeds to try and snag me up against.



The picture above pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the swim. Its 2ft deep on the shelf and slopes down to 6ft into the open. I aimed to fish in a small gap near the reeds on sweet corn.
A cross section may explain clearly as to what my tactics may be.



I planned to use a maggot feeder onto the shelf, with the first few hours casting every 5 minutes to get a good bed of feed down there, then less casting during the final few hours. As you can see, the it goes straight down to 2ft deep from the island, then slopes down to 6ft. If my feeder ends up down there, I will leave it there anyways to get a good feed on the shelf, the slope and at the bottom of it. This will make up for any casts that come up short.

The gear I used for the maggot feeder was a Leeda reel, which I would recommend to anyone because it’s very strong and durable, this was connected onto a Browning Hot Rod Commerical Carp rod. The line I used in the spool was a Drennan 6lb line due to the fact that the biggest carp in the lake is about 10lbs, although a few 12lbers have been seen cruising on the surface. The hook length was 5lbs hook length with a size 16 barbless hook from Preston Innovations. The feeder its self was just the average plastic maggot feeder I have had for years.

In the margins, I had a top 2 kit rigged up with grade 16 elastic, 6lbs Preston Powerline straight through to the hook which was a Preston PR21 size 18 hook, the set up was a Drennan Choppa float and the shotting pattern was a bulk of no 8’s near the hook to get the bait to the bottom quickly.

The Fishing

I loaded up the rod and line rig with a waggler fishing 12 inches shallow, I used a clip swivel to put a self cocking float with a double red maggot to cast towards the basking carp to see if they were feeding. After roughly 10 attempts at 10 different carp, only 1 took the bait and gave me a good strong scrap. I landed this carp after a few uncertain moments as it veered pretty close to some marginal snags. It was a rough looking Mirror Carp which I unhooked in the net, then took a photo of it and released it. To me, it looked to be about 2lbs.



The next cast proved to be an exciting affair with one of the best battles ever! I casted out a few metres in front of me and the float sailed away and I lifted into the fish. It felt like I missed it so, I decided to reel in and to my surprise; there was a small Perch on it!
Quite possibly, the smallest Perch I have ever caught, but it was welcome none the less, by this time, in about half an hour, I had already caught 2 species and needed to catch 2 more species to achieve my target.



I felt happy about this and re-rigged the rod and set up the maggot feeder as explained earlier. Then put the rod down to have a bash on the pole in the margins, the reason being the fact that I saw some of the reeds move about. It didn’t take long for the float to register some activity and within the first few seconds, the float sailed away and I struck into some solid resistance. I saw the tail slap the surface before the fish made a run for the open. It was a carp and a good one it was too, it was fighting like train. It didn’t take long for the fish to tire out and it was netted. Proved to be a 1lb Carp, 1lb... and it fought like a train, god knows what they have been feeding these fish.

The next put in, yielded a small Tench which added up my tally to 3 different species, all I needed was just 1 more fish, and only an hour has passed.



I felt it was time to go onto the maggot feeder and to stay on the maggot feeder because no matter what happens, I had a good time and that’s all that matters. Going onto the maggot feeder proved to be the best choice of the day because the first fish hooked was a small Crucian Carp which met my species tally to 4, thus meeting the target.



The maggot feeder at Priory Lakes is just devastating because virtually every cast there was; a Carp was on the end of it. My overall weight was getting higher and higher as time went on. I’m very sure that they are queuing up for the feeder in the swim because I had no time to sit down, break wind and enjoy the sights because the tip kept flying round the minute the feeder hits the water. This happened for roughly 2 hours. Then it started to quieten down and then eventually went dead, finally, I could relax and break wind. In this time, I also took photographs of the swims as shown earlier in the report and I notice the tip was tapping, it wasn’t flying round, it was tapping. So I reeled in and a good looking Rudd was on the end of the line.



The silver fish moved in and Roach and Rudd were biting bringing my tally of overall species caught to 6. I was catching and landing Roach, Rudd and the odd Perch for the next 2 hours. By this time, 5 hours have passed and I was out of maggots and I thought it was time for me to go home. But, I noticed some activity in the margins. I went over to my mate and asked for a loaf of bread because I wanted to try something. So I dropped a small chunk of bread in the margins and laid down on my jacket which wasn’t used and got my phone ready to take a picture. SLURP and SNAP were the next two sounds heard and this is the end result.



A pristine looking Common taking the break off the surface, I enjoyed watching the fish taking the bread off the top and I didn’t want to try and catch one, no matter how tempting it was, just watching them take the bread was good enough.



I was about to go, and I notice a big white shadow appearing and I thought, wow, this looks great, so I went to get ready for a photo, it disappeared, I wanted to get up and pack up to go home, but instinct told me to keep watching. I trusted my instinct and the shadow came back and snap, got the fish on camera.



A beautiful looking Ghost Carp at roughly 5-6lbs.

Summary

Reflecting back onto my aims, I achieved it easily, I caught 6 species surpassing my target by 2 species. Yet again, the fish were pretty much biting and taking the bait all day and a lot of sport to be enjoyed. Although, I really enjoyed catching the fish and it was a lot of good fun, I fear that if every peg delivers a lot of fish like this visit and the two other sessions before, I feel I may get bored of Priory Lakes easily and venture elsewhere for a better challenge.

Species Caught
Carp: 60+
Crucian: 1
Perch: 10
Roach: 30+
Rudd: 10+

Net Weight: 130+lbs

From this session, I taught myself how to use the maggot feeder rather effectively and improved my casting skills as pretty much every cast landed within inches from the reeds. I hope to take these skills from this place and hope they work at a more challenging venue such as Burton Pedwardine or Haverholme Park.

A Dawn Session at Burton Pedwardine by Joe Pell

Introduction

It was 5am and I was awaked by my dog running around barking at the Milkman, woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So, I thought, I’m due to go fishing this afternoon, why not have a early morning fishing session, which would be a first for me in a long time. I jumped out of bed and checked the weather, it was really good conditions for fishing, it was slightly overcast; barely any wind and the temperatures felt good, not cold, but not warm. My last session at Burton Pedwardine saw me select Peg 12 and catch a PB Carp of about 12lbs and the target Tench of 2lbs. I felt very ambitious this time and decided to focus on catching a bigger Tench, with the minimum acceptable weight being 5lbs. So, I loaded the gear in the car and went to the local 24/7 and got some sweet corn, as it’s my favoured bait for Tench.

Target Species: a 5lbs+ Tench
Net Weight: Doesn’t matter

Pre-session Plan, Rigs and the Peg

On the way to the venue, listening to Guns and Roses and ACDC on the radio, I remembered something I saw on the TV series, a Passion for Angling, this prompted me to make plans to rake the margins with my bank stick to kick up the nutrients in the mud in the margins. Apparently, this drives Tench crazy and thought it was worth a try. When I arrived at the venue, it was empty and not a soul around. Below is the view of Burton Pedwardine fishery from the car park.



The time was 6:30am and I decided to have a walk around the place and look for signs of activity. From instinct, I wanted to walk over to Peg 17 which is a big double peg and fish the margins there; the only problem was that the possible swims looked dead and full of snags. The best peg in my honest opinion which showed a lot of signs of activity out in the open in the form of bubbles and swirls was accessible by Peg 11. By this time, the sun was rising.



After unloading all the gear from the car and deciding what rigs to use. I remembered the raking of the margins idea. So, I realised I won’t be able to reach with my bank stick, and I don’t fancy having a little swim. So, I used my landing net stick and poked the margins and scraped the end of the stick on the bottom and made sure I kicked up a lot of dirt. As the dirt was being kicked up and settling down again, I plumbed up my swim and found out that the margins in a cross section looked pretty much like the picture below.



I thought about fishing tight to the margins and I found it was only 1ft deep. It is possible to catch from that deep, but it won’t be as prolific. This meant I had to settle for 2.5ft and 4ft respectively. Whilst sorting out a shot pattern for one of my rigs, I notice Tench bubbles coming right up where I raked the margins. After seeing this, I chucked in a handful of sweet corn to keep them interested and there whilst I sort out a shotting pattern.



In the picture, you can see what my rigs were like, as 2ft is pretty shallow, I felt that there won’t be as many silver fish like Roach, Rudd and Bleak in the vicinity. After that feeling, I decided to have a spread out pattern in rig 1 so the bait just drops onto the loose feed with a natural looking presentation.

Rig 2 was there in case the fish were deeper in the water, as you can see, all the shots are in a bulk roughly 6 inches away from the hook. This is to get the bait to the bottom quickly through the silver fish.

I was happy with my selections and I felt it would catch me a few fish. In both rigs, the line used was 6lbs Preston Power line, Preston PR21 hooks, both were size 16 and all the shots used were no 8 pole shots. The floats used in rig 1 was the average looking margin float, a Drennan Choppa margin float. As for Rig 2, it was more or less in deeper water, so I used a float that had a longer tip and a more round body as there wasn’t a lot of wind to disturb the water.

There was a small problem before I started fishing properly... my keep net doesn’t sink, so for the fish’s welfare, I decided to not bother with a keep net and use it as a makeshift unhooking mat. It was a soft wet material, so why not?

The Fishing

I started off using rig 1 and the minute the float went in the water, it disappeared under the water and I duly struck... into nothing. I wondered if the float was too heavy, so I put the rig out in the open to see if the float was overshot. It wasn’t so it was a promising start. As I put the float back in the margins, it didn’t take long for it to go back under and I struck... into nothing again! What is going on I thought. I gave it another go, and this time... it stayed up for about 5 minutes before bobbing along... then straight under and struck! This time I connected into a fish!

This fish didn’t seem to know it was hooked, so I played it slowly and carefully without putting too much pressure on it, and within a minute, a 6lb carp was landed.



The carp was a fantastic start, even though it is not what I am after, but any fish is welcome because I love to catch fish. After putting the rig back in the water, I hooked a small Tench of about 2lbs straightaway. I didn’t take a picture of this fish because the swim was literally bubbling with Tench bubbles and I didn’t want to waste time with pictures just in case there was a big Tench of 5lbs or bigger in the swim.

When I put the rig back in the water, I hooked and landed a few more Carp to about 4lbs and some Tench to roughly 3lbs. After that, the swim died and out in the open, a pristine looking Carp of roughly 8-9lbs surfaced and swam along the surface.



This prompted me to change my rig and fish the 4ft deep swim. This proved to be the best decision of the day as it appeared that the fish in the swim decided to go down deeper into the water. The first fish from this swim felt like a good one as the fight took me all over the peg. I was secretly hoping that it was the Tench I was hoping for. Whilst playing the fish, my phone rang and that signalled that it was time for me to start packing up ready to go home due to the fact that I had plans for dinner. It didn’t take me long to tire the fish out after hearing my phone ring. It was a Tench and it looked like a good one. I landed the Tench and immediately took it to my keep net which is being used as a makeshift unhooking mat.



On first impressions, I would guess that the Tench weighed about 4lbs, so I decided to find out what its actual weight was. The result surprised me as it meant that I have been under estimating the actual weight. The scales stopped at 4lbs 13oz, just 3oz short of my target. I was happy to have caught a good Tench, but slightly annoyed about the other 3oz. I released the Tench and started packing up, loaded the car and drove home after an enjoyable and relaxing 4 hours fishing.

Summary

Fish Caught:
Tench: 5 (Biggest 4lbs 13oz)
Carp: 6 (Biggest roughly 6lbs)

I felt that it was a good day’s fishing and overall, I reflected how I caught the fish. I have to admit that I felt the idea of raking the margins made the difference and could quite possibly be the reason why I had a good catch of Carp and Tench. Also, sweet corn did the business for me yet again and because of this, I felt that it was unnecessary to use different baits.

The venue itself is fantastic as most of the pegs are easy to get access to, however, the main concern is the fact that some pegs are in due need for repair, such as Peg 12 where the front of the peg seems to be crumbling into the water and Peg 1 has no platform at all. The biggest plus of this venue is the fact that its perfect for pole fishing and the fact that it’s a natural pond, not a commercial. The fish in the water are in very good condition, close to perfect, but sadly some of the fish have marks on them which suggest there are some pike in the water. Some of these marks are on the mouths which, suggests poor handling by some other anglers.

Overall, I would give the venue a 9/10 because it provides a good challenge to catch some fish, despite the fact that it needs maintenance work on some of the pegs.

A Tench Session at Burton Pedwardine by Joe Pell

Introduction

Firstly, this session was planned the day before after realising that all year, I haven’t caught a decent sized Tench. All the Tench I have caught before were roughly half a pound all caught from Priory Lakes in Ruskington. So to get a better stamp of Tench, I was thinking back to last year where I had a fantastic Tench session of roughly 40lbs, see picture below.



According to my knowledge, Tench feed at dawn and dusk. As I share the car with my mum who was at work in the morning means that I had to settle for a dusk session. I liked this because it meant I can be lazy and have a lay in; after all it was Sunday anyways. Bait wise, due to financial limitations and other commitments, I was unable to make a visit to my tackle shop to get some maggots, so I had to settle for what I already had, sweet corn. I wasn’t too bothered about sweet corn because I know I have caught a good sized Tench at Burton using sweet corn, but I would have liked to have different baits that I know Tench like such as maggots, prawns and even some worms.

This allowed me to set my targets for the session which is explained below:

Target Species: Tench (To beat my yearly best of just under 1lb)
Net Weight: 20lbs would be nice, but not important as I am after a good sized Tench.

Pre-Session Plans and Rig

Before setting off to Burton for the fishing, I made 3 rigs on what I thought would be suitable for catching a good Tench, but I was aware that there will be Carp and maybe a few Crucian Carp in the vicinity, so I ensured I had a good strong set up to pull the hard fighting Carp and hopefully Tench away from the lily pads as I shall be fishing close to them. After all, I want to hook a fish and net it, not hook and net lily pads. As you can tell, I planned to fish the margins next to the lily pads so I would need 6ft line maximum as I don’t know how deep the margins may be yet, but shouldn’t be more than 6ft from surface to bottom. Below is my idea of rig:



From the pole, which is a Preston Innovations Red Carp Power margin pole, fitted with grade 18 elastic, I needed a strong elastic to be able to play the fish strongly away from the lily pads and also not too strong so I can play the fish properly without bullying once guided away from the lily pads. The line I used was Browning Cenitan 6lbs line which is 0.165mm diameter, straight through to the hook which is a size 16 Preston PR21 as I find them perfect for hooking sweet corn, in fact, I would urge anybody to use this hook when using sweet corn because I haven’t missed a bite using this hook. About 3 inches away from the hook are 2 small size 12 pole shots to ensure that the hook bait is kept over the feed and that if the hook bait moves, it still looks natural, half way down between the float and the hook is another size 12 shot, this shot is to make sure that the float sits perfectly in the water only showing 1cm of its tip.

As I had 2 shots 3 inches from the hook, this meant that when I plumb the depth, I have to make sure that when the plummet hits the bottom, the float’s tip must be roughly 4 inches out of the water. Now, it was time to go to the venue.

Arriving at Burton Pedwardine

Most anglers I have noticed just look for a peg that is suitable for themselves and hope to catch fish from whatever there is in their swim. The best thing to do if you want to catch Tench is to inspect the pegs where the hotspots can be, such as reeds, lily pads, over hanging trees or even tree roots. The trick is to look for small bubbles appearing on the surface, these are caused by Tench hence the name, “Tench bubbles”. I couldn’t see any bubbles when I inspected the place and the peg I fished on where I caught lots of Tench in one session wasn’t available, so I decided to settle with peg 12 because the wind was blowing towards it, and the lily pads looked very Tench like.



As you can see, they are very Tench like lily pads and I felt I stand a great chance of catching a decent Tench from there. I had a good look at where I’ll fish and the bailiff came a long and I paid my day ticket of a fiver, and he informed me that the place was fishing very well at the moment. Advised me to go to the lily pads, which is what I planned to do anyways. I got my pole out and got the rig out, so I decided to plumb up first before deciding what float to use.



The red dot in the picture shows where I plan to fish and it was about 3 and a half foot deep, so I decided to use the float shown in the picture, which is a 50g Drennan Choppa float. The small stem, the small tip and the oval body made it perfect for that swim as there was a fair bit of wind.

The weather was mild, with the odd moment of sunshine with dark clouds indicating that it’ll rain later on in the session. As I was about to get started, a friend of mine arrived and as I was on a double peg, he decided to fish next to me and help me take photographs of some of the fish I catch, hopefully, a Tench.

Once everything was rigged up and loose fed, it was just past 3pm, and I started fishing. The first ten minutes was very quiet in terms of activity in my swim, but the wildlife wasn’t. I could hear pigeons cooing, a woodpecker trying to knock itself out... well that what it looked like it was doing. Also, I could hear a few ducks quacking, fish jumping about in the distance, generally, it was a very peaceful surrounding and I could just relax and not care if I blanked.

Then the float moved... but didn’t go under, so I slowly grabbed both hands on my pole as I was resting it across my lap using my elbow to support it. “Come on...” I was whispering under my breath and the float did a Paul Daniels... it disappeared so I struck and connected with a good sized fish. It was fighting more like a Carp, but in my mind, I was hoping it was a Tench, the fish gave up pretty quickly and surfaced, it was a small carp. I netted the Carp and slipped it in the keep net; the Carp was roughly 3lbs.

After putting another grain of sweet corn and gently placing the rig back in the margins near the lily pads. Everything went quiet with the odd Carp breaking the silence by leaping in the water. It started to rain a little bit, so I shipped my rig back in and set up my umbrella, which is a Preston Flat Back, which did a tremendous job of keeping me and my equipment dry.

An hour passed and I was thinking, this is a difficult day and I had the bailiff’s words “It’s fishing well...” ringing in my head because it was difficult and at the moment, I just couldn’t buy a bite. SO I had to go back to the drawing board and rethink of another idea. Whilst I was thinking of an idea, I managed to catch a good size Carp of about 7lbs which went straight into the keep net.

Straight away after rebaiting, I hooked into a small fish and it turned out to be a Crucian and I thought, I better take a photo of this fish, so I asked my friend to do the honours. Then the swim went dead for a very long time.



I had a brilliant idea and thought about what anglers do after their session, simple, they dump all their bait in the margins next to the peg. So, I got another rig out, which had the same set up as the rig I was using for the lily pads.



The idea was to fish 6 inches out of the peg and 6 inches away. This turned out to be one of the best ideas I have thought about doing, the depth was roughly 2ft and Tench bubbles appeared whilst I was putting the sweet corn on the hook. This was very promising indeed. So I lowered the bait gently and within minutes, the float started to dip, for minutes, the float never buried, but dipped gently, it was really testing my patience as I want to strike at every dip. So I waited, and waited... I looked at the float and gave it a cold stare; I must have scared it off because it said “see ya” and shot straight under!

I lifted into the fish gently as there was no need to strike due to the nature of the take. The fish headed to the lily pads on the right and I felt my pole tip shoot towards the fish as it took me by surprise. This wasn’t a Tench, but a Carp, and a big Carp too. After lots of struggling and pulling, I finally landed the Carp and it was a beautiful fish, scale and fin perfect. It turned out to be my best ever Carp I have landed, a good healthy 12lbs, a new personal best. Turns out the Guinness advert is right, good things come to those who wait.

As it had been raining, the ground was wet, so I took it up the bank with my friend and unhooked it for a photograph. As 3 hours have passed, we thought about the other fish in the keep net and decided to take a net photo of my fish after 3 hours.



The picture above doesn’t do the fish any justice at all, but it was possibly, one of the hardest fighting and leanest Carp I have caught. The picture below is the net after 3 hours, the 12lb Carp being at the top, the first fish of the day at 3lbs in the middle, the 7lb Carp on the bottom and of course, the Crucian, not a true Crucian, but a hybrid.



I thought that I could have done better, but I was happy after my 3 hour catch, but it didn’t feel complete, because the aim of the session was to catch a good size Tench at 1lb minimum. So far, they have proved to be elusive. There was roughly just over an hour of daylight left and I thought, I came here to catch a Tench and I won’t give up, not just yet.

The heavens opened again and I put my bait in again, I was running dangerously low on sweet corn, so I had to be careful with my loose feeding and rebaiting. As the heavens receded, the float started to move, it went left, right, up, then down and I struck into it. Nothing, but it wouldn’t stay up in the water, so I brought the pole in and it turned out a small skimmer was attached to it. I unhooked it and unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture at the time due to fish’s welfare as it was deeply hooked and it was a pretty difficult struggle to unhook. I’m happy to say the fish was returned unharmed and released.

I was pushing it a bit because it was very close to darkness and I was out of sweet corn. So I set my phone’s alarm to go off on the hour, so I can fish right till the end because I came to catch a Tench, and I refuse to give up easily. Within 1 minute to go before my phone alarm goes off, the float goes under without any warning at all and I strike, nothing. The minute I put it back in, it goes and hooks itself and gives me a good long battle. It was pretty dark at the time, and I could only just see and I thought, once I landed this, I’m off.

When the fish surfaced, my heart raced, it was a Tench and a good one too. I was nervous in landing it because I waited and worked hard for this fish, and after a few nerve shattering moments, the Tench was finally landed!



It was just less than 2lbs, which means I succeeded my aim of catching a good sized Tench with 1lb being the minimum acceptable weight. I felt very happy and to me, this is what fishing is all about, fishing turns us men into boys because the excitement of catching the fish I desperately wanted rivals the excitement of getting what I wanted for Christmas as a young boy.



Summary

Fish caught:
Carp: 4 (Biggest was 12lbs, new PB)
Crucian: 1
Skimmer: 1
Tench: 1 (Just under 2lbs)

In summary, I achieved the aims of the session, but I felt I could achieve more if I had more varieties of baits. The lily pads I felt were stretching out pretty far into the lake and I was pretty much fishing near the deepest, flat point of the lake. Perhaps I should have picked a different peg where the lily pads were closer and more aligned with the margins so I am fishing shallower than 3 and a half ft, maybe in a part where its 2ft deep, maybe I would have had a few more Tench there. The only way to find out is to visit the place again and test the theory myself.

I feel I know what to do to catch a Tench at this venue and will be fishing this venue for more Tench, and hopefully land a good bag of Tench and Silvers next time using maggots, maybe on the pole in the margins or with a maggot feeder, I would use a feeder but groundbait is prohibited, so a maggot feeder may have to do.

A Session at Priory Lakes, by Joe Pell

Priory Lakes, Lake 1

Date: 27th August 2008
Bait: Just sweet corn
Tactics: Waggler using corn as bait or pole fished the margins
Peg: 32
Target Species: Bit of everything

Introduction

I woke up at 5am specially just to go fishing yesterday (Wednesday 27th August) at Priory Lakes in Ruskington, originally I wanted to fish Haverholme Park, but it was a Wednesday and usually there are matches on, my second choice was to give Burton Pedwardine a go as it has been quite a while since I last fished the place, but due to problems with my car, I had to settle with a mile long walk to Priory Lakes.

There was a sighting of a big black cat at the lake just less than 2 weeks ago. It was scary to think about, but it wasn’t enough to stop me from fishing so, after my breakfast and getting dressed and all that, it was 5:30am and I got my tackle ready and made sure everything was packed and strapped onto my trolley snugly. By the time this was done, it was just gone 6am.

The first impressions after setting off was looking at the weather and it was pretty much a perfect morning, there was no wind and the temperature wasn’t warm and it wasn’t cold, so it was pretty much perfect. The skies had the red tint from the rising sun and it was a nice sight. After the mileish long walk to the venue, turned out the gates were locked and that the place opens to fish at 7:30am. I was a bit cheesed off to admit, but I did walk all the way and there was no way I was going to walk back, so I waited for an hour for the place to open.

Whilst waiting, I saw a way to get in the place, just walk around the fence, I only did this to have a quick peep at the two lakes and to make a decision where to fish, after a half hour of inspection, it was decided that Peg 32 on Lake 1 would be the best peg as there was a lot of activity in that peg. Normally Peg 1 is the best peg in matches, but I was there to enjoy myself.



Above is a picture of the sunrise on Lake 2.

Preparation

After waiting half an hour after inspecting the place, the gates opened and it was time for me to walk to peg 32. Prior to setting up the equipment, which were a waggler and a pole line to the margins. I decided to take a few pictures of my swim and explain what my tactics were for you guys, consider yourself lucky!



As you can see, there is plenty of overhang coming from the reeds with a bunch of lily pads not too far away, I guessed that if I went to fish the lily pads it would be a struggle to get the fish out into the open due to the plentiful options of snagging me in the reeds or into the lily pads. I felt that the fish may feel safer under the reeds and less chance of me getting snagged, so I decided to fish just there, just on the edge of the overhang.



In front of the tree in the picture, there were Carp leaping about and also there are lily pads too so I suspected there may be fish in there and felt that it was a good idea to fish just in front of the tree not too far away from the lily pads.

Now it was time to set up, I used my trusty Preston LERC 13m pole as always and it was rigged with grade 14 elastic with 6lb line, as it was a margin swim, I needed a small float and sometimes, the fish take the bait on the drop, so a small oval shaped float would be ideal in my opinion, so I selected my Maver black ice durassic dibbler float as it was the closest and best choice out of the floats I had. I set the rig up with a 2 size 8 pole shots about 8 inches from the hook to get the float down through the silver fish if there are any in the swim, and then 2 more shots about 2 inches from the hook so the float is just sitting perfectly. The bait was sweet corn which will weigh the float down more, but I planned to fish 2 inches over depth so it sits perfectly. The hook in question was a spade ended Preston Innovations PR21 size 16 and I felt it would do the job pretty well.

The waggler rig was set up ready for backup in case the bites dried up or slowed down from the margins. I used my Browning Commercial Carp rod which is a good light rod for continuous casting and it was strong and stiff with a bit of bend to play the Carp in the place and some of the small silvers in question. The line I used was 8lb line with a 6lb hook length; the hook was size 16 and again, Preston PR21 which has never let me down when using sweet corn. I noticed the Carp were leaping near the places I wanted to cast my waggler to, so I felt it would be a good idea to fish shallow, so I settled with 12 inches shallow. The waggler I selected was a pre-loaded Preston Pellet Waggler which should do the trick.

Now to start fishing!

The Pole Swim

The minute the float first went into the margins, it started dipping as if to say, something is there. It was a very positive sign. Before the 10 minute mark, the float buried under and I struck and met with a positive resistance, it wasn’t a big fish, but it was a satisfying Tench of about 1lb. I was too focused on my fishing and getting the fish back into the water that I forgot to take a picture of it.

Shortly after, I hooked into another fish, which had a good strong resistance on it; I felt this had to be a Carp due to the way to was fighting. After a good lengthy battle, a tired 2lbs mirror Carp came into the net.



Not the best of pictures, but as I was on my own, I had to settle to take pictures of the fish in the landing net.

After a few small Tench to about 1lb and some small Carp to 2lbs, I hooked into a fish and it went off like a steam train. I struggled a lot to keep it under control and the grade 14 elastic was streaming out of the end of the pole. I managed to prevent the Carp from going into the lily pads and under the reeds, but it managed to go on another run towards the lily pads on the far bank! Surprisingly, the Carp made it and snapped my 6lb line clean off right next to the hook.



The picture shows you were the lily pads were and I reckon it’s a good 25 yards to those lily pads and on grade 14 elastic, I can only wonder what it could have been.

I felt a bit lazy and satisfied that I had a good bash on the pole line after 4 hours of fishing down there, so I decided to pack the pole up and have a go on the waggler.

After 4 hours on the pole line, I ended up with roughly 70lbs of fish, mainly Carp, but I did manage to get 3 crucians and 10 Tench. The crucians and Tench were only up to 1lb which is not a surprise as the venue is only 4/5 years old.

The Waggler Swim

Where can I start?

The first thing I did was casted nothing over there, just the waggler in order to clip up the line so I don’t end up catching a new PB tree. The first few casts were short, and eventually, I managed to get it right in front of the tree. So I clipped up and reeled in and put a sweet corn grain on the hook.

The first cast over there, the float buried under on the first cast and met with a strong resistance, stronger than any fish on the pole line and not as strong as the one that got away. As I was only pleasure fishing, I was in no hurry to get the fish in, I played it about until it was tired and after a good 5 minutes of playing the fish, I was able to slip my net under a pristine looking Common Carp.



The Carp proved to be the biggest fish of the day and I would guess that its weight would be 4lbs, as you can see my trainer in the picture; I am a size 9 so you get an idea of the size. Not the biggest Carp I have caught, but one of the enjoyable ones as it was the biggest I have caught using the waggler.

The waggler proved to be not as effective as the pole line, but I was still catch Carp to 2lbs with the odd Rudd every now and again.



One of the many Rudd that was caught on the waggler.

When I was about to give up and pack up for the afternoon, I hooked into a small silver looking fish and when I slipped my net under it, it looked too lean to be a Roach or a Rudd or even an Ide. First instinct confused me at first, then I realised that it was a Chub, my first ever Chub! I was happy about that, a new PB Chub of about a few ounces. Personally, I would prefer to catch a Chub from a river, but it was welcome anyways.



Not a big Chub, but I hope to get a few bigger ones from a river in the near future.

On the waggler line, I caught plenty of Carp up to about 2lbs with 1 exception which was 4lbs, plenty of Rudd and a small Chub. Altogether, I would estimate that I caught roughly 40lbs from the waggler line.

Summary

After reflecting on what seemed to be a successful 7 hours of fishing, 4 hours on the pole and 3 hours on the waggler, I would guess that I caught 110lbs at the most. I planned to get a mixed bag and below showed what I caught:

Carp: too many!
Tench: 10
Rudd: 20-30
Crucians: 3
Chub: 1

I am happy with that result and hopefully next time I get on the bank, I’ll have stories of bigger fish and maybe more pictures of the fish. Maybe even catch the one that got away if I decide to fish Priory Lakes again.

Venue Review

I would recommend Priory Lakes to anyone who is learning to fish as you are pretty much guaranteed at least 20lbs bag every time you go. I am unsure about the winter, but anyone can catch in the summer.

The pegs are very tidy and plat formed, but the major criticism I have of a few pegs is that there is a huge patch of lily pads about 3-4 yards in front giving the angler no room to play the fish. Also the ground is dry and very stony which is not good for pole anglers, so a roller is essential.

Out of 10, I would give Priory Lakes an 8.5 mainly due to the sport and mixed bags you can catch.

A 36 Hour session on the prolific Yately complex Split Lake...A report from Ashley Tappenden

How do I begin this one eh?


After kindly being invited by Adrian Ellis..."Elli" ( the conservation manager for Cemex), my uncle and I were off to do a 24 hour session at the famous yately complex.


The plan of action really was to get the carp rods out and try as best we could for a fish basically.


My uncle was planning on picking me up at around 12 midday, to meet Adrian at Yately angling for a brief chat and introduction before we headded off to the lakes. This sounded easier than it actually was, as with me and my uncle's navigational skills, we were alright for the majority of the motorways, but then we went doo-lally at the B roads!!!Eventually, we met up with Adrian, and introduced ourselves before having a quick chat to him about where's fishing etc...we came to a conclusion that the split lake would be the best lake of choice! Away we were on a very short car journey to the complex.


We got out and thankfully Adrian had provided us with a barrow as we would have had a lot of trouble transporting our gear without it! Before we started fsihing however, we were given a guided tour of the lakes and complex. The place is HUGE let me tell you that. We saw the famous car park lake, home of "Heather the Leather" and various other lakes, before entering the split lake. The lake itself is like two huge pools of water surrounded with an abundance of foliage and wildlife, with a split in the middle. Basically, two 12 acre lakes joined together with a split where they connect!


We had thanked Adrian for the tour and he guided us round to a good spot where he then sat with us for a bit as we set up. Bait and tactics for me for the day was:


Mainline Pulse 18mm boilies for the cats,
Dynamite baits 15mm tiger nut boilies for the carp.
And maggots and corn for the float.


Rigs used were a semi fixed bolt rig with 15lbs mainline tied to a leadcore leader and 25lbs braid. Double baits were going to be used on each. My uncle however was using a shokka rig on one rod, with bolt rigs on the other two rods, with mainline activ-8 boilies and richworth crab and mussel. With the added extra of hi viz frank warwick squid and octopus pop-ups.


Here's the view from my swim...








And the view from my uncle's swim (bang on the left of me)...













To start off, me and my uncle had a play about with the marker rod he had set up, to find patches of gravel or any underwater features in our swims. My uncle had started up while i was setting up the float. He had cast out his baits with PVA bags and came to my swim to have a play about with the marker rod. He found a hump about 25/30 yards out just to the right of me with a patch of gravel on it and some clear spots about 60 odd yards out to the left of me...as the lake was pretty weedy.





The day started off slow, not many fish were showing to be honest with you...the odd splash from small fish and that was it to begin with really. The float was producing the odd small fish on maggot, fishing on a small drop off i found by an overhanging tree, the rudd were ravenous and the roach and perch were showing too.





Adrian had then left us, so we were at it solo, trying for an elusive yately specimen fish. To keep me occupied while waiting for the carp rods to do something, I put a nightlight on the top of my float and started going again for some tiddlers to pass the time...After having a few, a bit of food was in order before going to have a chat with my uncle. We were discussing tactics and how he had been pleased with a "perfect" cast, tight to an island he was fishing to, clipped up. As things got darker, my uncle had a couple of blips on the clipped up rod, his left hand rod was cast to the very left of him towards some snags, and the right rod to the immediate right of him to some gravel...with the middle one clipped up. He struck, but nothing on the end. It was to dark to get an accurate cast in but he stuck a load of bait in a bag, along with his rig (to avoid hooking the weed), and made a blind cast straight out. He seemed happy with the 70 odd yard cast out in to open water and put the rods on the rest...before going off to sleep!





I then returned to my bivvy pondering on what to do, but i sat tight as i knoew that i had potentially good spots in this vast array of water. I didnt have a bedchair, so i opted for the floor of my bivvy, laying on the groundsheet, using my rod holdall as a pillow (that's right...i can improvise!!!). After a little kip, with the masses of wildlife providing me with musical entertainment during the night, I hear my uncle shout out..."Ash, are you awake!?" I called back...."yeah, I am mate, are you in!?" ... "yeah!!!"





I got out and ran towards my uncle, where I had got up so quick I got a head rush and started stumbling about a bit. I regained my bearings and got to his swim...he asked me to reel in his other rods for safety reasons and get the net ready if he got it within reach. He tightened his clutch up to the fullest, as he plays the fish on backwind. Even so...his rod was doubled and the clutch was spinning away, the fish was going off like a steam train. A few minutes later, Tim had regained control of the fish and he told me to turn my headtorch on so he could see it...IT WAS A CATFISH!!! In excitement he got me to net it, and I got it on the bank..."god it this feels heavy" was my immediate response to it... it was on the unhooking mat and my uncle tried to unhook it, but in the excitement of it all he wasn't able to and handed me the forceps, and i unhooked it. We set the scales and the fish weighed in at 20lbs 8oz...









"I've caught a catfish!!!" was all he was saying for the rest of the session!!! As it was the first ever catfish he had EVER caught!


He rebaited and recast, as did I, and we both went back to our bivvies after a little chat. Went back to kip, in hope to have a fish out for myself. The next thing I know, it's morning, and the rods still haven't been touched...much to our disappointment. But, a big fish had still been caught, so there was nothing to be worried about! After a quick bit of breakfast and a spot of floatfishing, resulting in an abundance of rudd...taking any bait they could fine...Adrian came back. This was about lunchtime.

We told him about the moggie and he was pleased to hear it....we were planning on leaving just after 6:30pm that day to aviod the rush hour traffic. Unfortunately, neither of us had anything else for the rest of the day.

Nonetheless, it was a great day and night....and day, spent by the both of us and I'd like to thank Adrian for giving us the oppertunity on fishing a brilliant bit of water.

Well done again to Tim, who once again, outfishes everyone around him! Thanks for catching mate! We always have a laugh....it was just that much better seeing him catch something like that! Well done again. And well done on him catching his first EVER catfish! Not a bad size for his first one i might add!

We then packed up and went home...happy...but extremely tired! My bed looked like heaven!

Thanks for reading everyone!
Tight Lines,

Ash