On my birthday I went fishing for a twenty four hour session with some friends to FLE Fisheries Top Lake. Late last year I helped net the lakes and knew they contained a lot of nice double figure fish. On arrival I took a walk around the lake, I headed to the climbing trees that they have and I saw a couple of fish circling around the island.
I got my kit out the van and set up in a swim called the Island Double. The weather was sunny and the temperature was quite mild for the time of year. I set up both rods with a micro Gardner solid pva bag’s full of 1mm pellets and repositioned them every half an hour. A few hours past and nothing happened, but as the evening came a few people started catching.
Suddenly my bite alarm screamed off and I pulled into a fish. When we got it in the net it looked like one of the larger fish and the scales read 18lb 7oz. I was very pleased as it was the biggest fish I have caught from the lake. We got some nice pics and then got her back. As it wasn’t a named fish, I was allowed to name it so I decided to call it Starburst due to the patch of starburst scales it had by its tail.
I caught the fish using a long piece of Gardner Tungsten Tubing and a 2oz Gardner Inline Flat Pear lead. My hook link was made up of two inches of Trickster Heavy in silt and a size 8 barbless Covert Mugga hook. I added a little bit of Covert Silicone Sleeve over the hook shank which was tied KD style. My bait hook bait was a homemade pop-up which I cut down a little bit. I put the rig in a Gardner Micro solid pva bag, which was cast tight to the island margin. The rest of the session was quiet, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped suddenly during the night. It didn’t look good for a bite so I went home early that morning.
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