This month I visited a several different venues, starting with my second ever trip to Rookley Park on the Isle of Wight. I chose to set up in the Woods swim one, an area I fished during my first session on the venue. After having a quick cast around with a bare lead, I put one rod towards a dog bin on the far bank and one rod down each side of the margin.
Unfortunately I didn’t have anything for two nights, but on the third day I packed my rods into my Dad’s van and made the short journey to a different lake called the Isle of Wight Fish Farm. After a quick walk around, it was soon obvious most of the lakes stock were on the surface. I soon had my surface kit ready and in a few hours fishing managed to stalk six fish off the top, the best an upper double and a nice fully scaled too. I caught these fish using a size 10 Covert Mugga with a Gardner Latex bait band on the hook just bait banding the dog biscuit on and putting it in front of their noses.
After an enjoyable few hours fishing, I returned to Rookley and got all 3 rods back out on the spots. I decided to position my right hand margin rod further up the tree line, where a few fish had showed. The rigs on all three rods were the same, comprising of a flat 2oz Gardner inline lead, a size 8 Covert swivel and a blow back rig tied using 25lb Trickster Heavy, a size 6 Covert Incizor and a large Covert Rig Ring positioned on the shank of the hook. At dawn the following morning I was woken to a one toner and after a good fight I slipped the net under a lovely 19lb 4oz mirror.
The following weekend I returned to my local syndicate for the last session of the month. After finding a few fish, I set up in an area close by. I put one rod on a deep clear spot out to my left and the other two rods went straight out in front on another clear spot amongst the weed. Each rod received several spods of particles and boilies and I sat back happy that I was on the fish.
At 5:30am my middle rod was away and a small tench was the culprit. After getting the rod back out, I was confident that it wouldn’t be long until a few carp turned up. I resisted going back to bed and sat watching the water. Ten minutes later my right hand rod was away and after a great fight, I slipped the net under a good fish. After parting the mesh, I instantly recognised it as a fish known as Pablo and the scales registered 31lb 10oz. The fish fell to my Pro XM main line, which is great using in weedy conditions and an ever faithful combi-rig tied using CamFlex leadcore, various Covert end tackle components, 25lb Trick-Link, 25lb Trickster Heavy and a size 6 Covert Incizor.
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