I have had a great years fishing this year catching ten thirties and my first UK forty. I have been concentrating on a syndicate water in Ringwood and this is currently my second year on there but this year I have managed a few special ones.
My first memorable session was during the middle of March and I decided to setup on the ‘woods bank’ which is an area I hadn’t fished before. I found a spot by casting a bare lead and got settled settled in for the night just before darkness fell, hoping a busy morning would follow.
At 5am in the morning I awoke to a screaming take! I was bivved up on the top of the bank behind the swim as it wasn’t fishable without waders. I quickly slipped them on and after a 5 minute battle I slipped a 21lb 8oz mirror in the net. An hour later I had another take and after a few minutes I landed my second fish on the session, which weighed 23lb 2oz.
An hour and a half later I had another take and after a great battle, which lasted for a good thirty minutes, I landed a 36lb 14oz mirror called ‘The Football-Lin’. This really was the ‘one’ we were all after. I was absolutely buzzing and couldn’t believe my luck!
After a few pictures and getting the fish back safely, I reeled in to have a walk around the lake, still buzzing like hell. There wasn’t much coming out anywhere else on the lake, so when I got back to my swim I decided to put a little more bait out. I put ten spods out on the area and clipped all three rods up to the spot. I had to wait until the following morning before any action occurred and at 6am I had a take, which resulted in a lovely scaley mirror weighing 19lb 10oz, which rounded the session off perfectly.
Another session I want to talk about is the capture of my first UK forty. As it was a Bank Holiday weekend, I was keen to get down before the Friday rush. As luck would have it I managed to get back into a swim I had fished the week before. There were still fish in the area as I had seen a few showing out in-front of the area that morning. I found the same spot that had done a few bites on my last session, which was about the size of a brolly and was surrounded by weed. I cast two rods towards his area and my third was cast to the main spot in the swim at sixteen wraps. I knew the fish were likely to respond to a bit of bait, so I put out eighteen spods over the area I had two rods close together and fifteen over the main spot where I had my third rod.
At 2:30am the following morning, I had a take on the right hand rod and after a short fight I slipped the net under a 17lb 8oz mirror. After a couple of pics, I got the rod back out on the spot and grabbed some sleep. At 4am I had a take on the rod on the main spot, but after a fish slowly plodded around unfortunately the hook pulled. I was a bit gutted, but pleased to have bagged one on my first night. I recast the rods that evening and introduced 24 spods over the top of each spot. There were plenty of fish in the area and I hoped during the early hours they would get their heads down.
The night passed quietly and I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t had a single bleep. The fish were in front of me, but I wondered if I had put too much bait on each spot. I kept the baiting to the minimum that night and got the rods sorted for what I hoped would be a busy night ahead.
At 2:30 am I had a take on the right hand rod but unfortunately lost it in a thick weedbed. I was a bit gutted, but got the rod back out and headed back off to bed. I was awoken at dawn by a nice steady take, one of those that you know that a big fish is responsible for before you pick up the rod. The fish instantly flat rodded me and was almost unstoppable before it weeded me up. I kept steady pressure on it for a few minutes before it came free of the weed, only for it to go into another weedbed nearby. I kept steady pressure on the fish again and after 25 minutes I could feel the weed bed slowly breaking up. On the misty surface I slowly led a weedbed the size of my bivvy slowly back towards the bank. I had no idea at this point whether the fish was still on. As the weedbed got closer, I knew I wouldn’t be able to scoop the whole lot up in the net. With my waders on, I put the rod back on the rest and went in. As I broke away the weed from the leadcore, a big fish wallowed next to me and then shot off. I quickly grabbed the rod and my mate that I was doubled up with woke up to all the commotion. I slowly played the fish back in and within a few minutes the beast was safely in the net.
I saw it was decent one and it had a big single scale on one of its flanks. I said to my mate it was a fish known as Single, but he didn’t believe me. The scales shot round to 44lb 8oz, which confirmed it was Single and a new PB to boot! I got some great shots and whilst doing some returners, my right hand rod ripped off! After a 10 minute battle, I slipped the net under a lovely 28lb common. A couple of hours later I rounded the session off with a 22lb 10oz mirror, which finished my month off perfectly!
The last session I would like to talk about is the capture of my PB common. I arrived at the lake around 3:45pm on Friday and managed to secure a swim where I had seen lots of activity during the previous weekend. I quickly found two spots on the edge of a weed bed and got the rods out for the night. I awoke the next morning without a single bleep. I had seen a few fish that morning about 30 yards past the weed bed which I was fishing to. After bite time had finished I got my spod rod out and my Gardner Weed Rake and started the task on raking a channel through the weed, just enough to sink the line and get a fish through easily. After an hour I had cleared a channel and made a couple of casts with a bare led towards where I had seen the fish showing.
I found a spot out at 16 wraps and put eighteen spodfulls of boilies and particle out and five on the old spot, which I kept the third rod on. The rods were soon out for the night and ready for tomorrow morning’s bite time.
At 4am the following morning I had a screaming take from the new spot. After 20 minutes I had a decent sized common in the net. I unhooked it in the net and got the rod back out. I knew it was close to my PB common, so I got it on the scales and it went round to 36lb exactly! I was buzzing!
The other rod on the new spot was the next rod to roar off. It was just getting light as I struck into the rod and it turned out to be a very lively 22lb 6oz mirror. It was soon in the sack next to the common and the rod was back out on the spot. At 9am I got the trophy shots done and they were soon back to fight another day. Unfortunately no other fish was caught that session but I couldn’t complain.
All of my fish were caught using the super strong 15lb Pro Light Blend main line, a length of Gardner CamFlex leadcore spliced to a Covert Kwik-Lok swivel, a Covert Lead Clip and Tail Rubber with a 3oz Gardner Distance lead. My rig consisted of 25lb brown Sink Skin brown 25lb and a size 6 Covert Incizor tied blow back style. I had a lot of these fish using a double 18mm Tuna and Garlic boilie by Urban Baits.
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