The Sessions - April 2016

PB’s starting to tumble

3 April – Cambs lake

I’d planned to do some Spring Carping on a local lake called Gingerbread and popped down for a walk round on the Saturday with a view to fishing the night. There had been some good fish caught and as a result it was packed so after a look I went home and changed my plans for the weekend.

I had enough bait for a morning’s Perch fishing so was up with the birds on the Sunday morning and drove over to the Cambs Lake. When I arrived it was empty so I dropped in the new area I’d identified on my last visit in March. It was warm at 10 degrees, cloudy with clear spells, perfect conditions.
I started with one rod and lowered a float fished King Prawn in by the tree and started trickling in red maggots and broken pieces of prawn.

The silvers were there in numbers but after 90 minutes I’d not had a bite so I moved to the hot corner swim and put two floats out and started baiting again with maggots and pieces of prawn.

This move proved a good one as I had three bites, one came off at the net the other two were Perch at 2-10 and 2-15. By lunchtime I’d run out of bait so headed for home.

5 April – Gingerbread lake

I arrived before dark at 19:00 hours and had a good look round, the Carp here generally tell you where they are with regular “shows” so looking is crucial to success. It was warm and sunny with cloudy spells and forecast to be cloudy through the night with a mild south westerly wind. I had a chat to one of the lads who’d not long set up and he said he’d only seen one when he was looking, I wished him good luck and carried on walking.

I stood in a swim called the point and after quarter of an hour I’d seen three subtle shows, that was enough and I set up in there. I know the swim quite well so didn’t need to lead around too much, just enough to get my distance on the spots right, once clipped up I was ready.

All three were set up on stiff hinge rigs with 2oz leads, hookbaits were my Fruit Special pop-ups Mark at Madbaits had made for me, they are a very pale pink and smell fantastic, these were fished over 15mm Pandemic, 15 freebies over each rod.

The left hand rod went over to the far margin on clean gravel in front of the reeds, the other two were cast either side of a channel that is described as an old road to the left of the swim.

My rig is still in the experimental stage and I’m hoping to get to the stage as with my Barbel rig, total confidence and don’t have to worry about it. It comprises of a fixed lead on a clip, a big eye swivel, my boom section is 25lb Korda N’Trap, to 25lb ESP bristle filament and a size 6 Gardener Choddy, nothing revolutionary but reliable kit, so far it hadn’t let me down.

6 April

The night passed with just a liner and the morning was chilly and the wind had picked up, it looked perfect for a bite. I was confident with the “drops” and this is a good morning water so I left them out. The rain started as forecast and carried on all morning and I was starting to fear the worst when I saw the first one show.

12:35 hours – it took a while and after seeing a few show I finally had a take on the left hand rod, at first I thought it was a huge Tench but one of the stocky Mirrors rolled into the net at approx. 15plus, but I was happy as it proved the rig and bait were working.

13:10 hours – I’d recast the rod back on the spot and topped up with 10 Pandemic when it went again, this was definitely bigger and put up a great fight and for a while I thought it may be a big fish but I wasn’t disappointed with a 26-08 Common.

I carried on until 16:30 hours without another take despite seeing them show all afternoon. I’d put two rods on the margin which may have proved a mistake, still a good start.

15 April – Gingerbread Lake

Due to car problems I hadn’t been able to fish but on finally getting it back I couldn’t wait to get back at it. The lake had been fishing well with big fish having been caught and it was quite busy when I arrived despite the rain. It had been raining for two days pretty much nonstop and continued while I was looking round.

I’d seen fish in the south west arm / bay just on dark on my last trip and just fancied fishing there despite it not being a popular area. It is deeper and with all the rain and a north easterly wind blowing into the area I felt fish could be in there so I started to set up in a swim called the steps and right on cue I saw two small fish show right in the corner.
By 17:45 hours I’d soon identified two areas and put one in the deep, left hand margin and the other two on gravel seam just away from the far margin. All on fruit pop-ups with 15 Pandemic over each.

19:25 hours – a drop back on the middle rod had me frantically winding in to catch up with it and I made contact landing another nice Common at 20-03, this one was well and truly nailed in the bottom lip.

22:50 hours – the rain had continued and it was horrible conditions but having just cooked dinner on my Ridge Monkey I was more than happy. The right hand rod went and another of the stocky Mirrors rolled into the net, this one was heavily scaled and very pretty at 17-13, again nailed and I had to use forceps to get the hook out.

It continued to rain all night and morning but I think catching the two fish had moved any others out of the area. I packed up at lunchtime with the intention of returning the following day.

17 April – Gingerbread Lake

The typical English weather was ever changing and after all the rain there had been a frost on the Saturday night. I arrived on the Sunday afternoon and spent 90 minutes looking for fish without seeing a thing, the lake was still busy and following my success there was an angler in the steps. The wind had swung round to a westerly, it was sunny with patchy cloud, with the wind in this direction the other side of the lake was a good bet so I drove round to find boom-booms vacant. This is a noted big fish swim, the wind was perfect for it so I dropped in there for 18:30 hours.

The left hand rod was cast down the near margin in a gully and the other two flicked out onto the plateau fishing in the shorter streamer weed. All three on stiff hinge rigs with the fruit pop-ups and a spread of Pandemic.

I fished until midday the following day, nobody had a bite and there were no fish showing in what looked like great conditions but that’s fishing.

25 April – Gingerbread Lake

Following a week of nights I had a week off to do some fishing so left work, packed the car and headed straight for the lake for a 48 hour session. The temperature had been cold but it was due to start warming up in the days ahead….allegedly!!
It was cloudy and warm at 10 degrees with a light north westerly when I arrived, I then spent two hours looking for signs of fish without success, eventually I saw a small Common show in front of a swim called carpets, that was taken so I went next door in the dugout which is a better swim.

Almost on cue it started to rain as I was setting up so I quickly got three stiff hinge rigs out on my spots, followed by approx. 15 pandemic around each. It was then time to get some sleep as I’d been awake for 26 hours.

The rain was really heavy and it soon got cold but I was fishing and as always, enjoying it. I had two Bream before midnight, one well over 8 pound so that gave me confidence fish were feeding.

26 April

The night was freezing and at first light everything was frozen which wasn’t looking good, but…

06:10 hours – just as the sun was coming up the right hand rod on the plateau pulled up tight and I lifted into a heavy fish. It was a slow a dogged fight but soon slipped over the net cord and was a big fish a clear English PB for me, it was the Clone at 41-10 and I can’t describe how happy I was, my texting fingers went into melt down. There was only one angler on the lake and he was leaving for work but fair play he still drove round and did the photos, thank you Chris Chapman

The weather during the day was ridiculous; there was sunny spells, rain, hail and snow showers. I’d unsurprisingly not seen any more show and spent a lot of time looking round. Having seen nothing better I stayed put for the second night.

27 April

Again the night was very cold with frost everywhere but the Jack Pyke thermals were doing the trick and I was lovely and warm.

01:25 hours – the middle rod dropped back and I lifted into another heavy fish, but it didn’t end well, it kited to the left and suddenly cut me off on the dreaded zebra mussels. I was gutted and leant the rod against the shelter and went to sleep.

I fished until 10:00 hours and decided to pack up and have a change of venue and species.

Secrets (Sturgeon)

I’d gone home, eaten, popped to the gym and showered, picked up some supplies and my Sturgeon tackle and bait and headed down the A14 and up the M6 (no more clues) to my Sturgeon venue.

I arrived at 17:30 hours and had the lake to myself so took a slow walk round looking for fish. It had been a nice day but was cooling down quickly and the wind was a cold north easterly, I ended up setting up in my favourite corner swim called “no fish corner”, this has always made me chuckle as it has always been kind to me.

I’ve covered my Sturgeon rigs before but will go over it once more, 1m safe zone leader, this is vital as they fight to the death and can get a lot of damage on their fins with mono and braid. A small 1oz inline running lead, 10” coated hooklink to a size 4 Gardener Talon Tip. I wanted to try some different baits, and had made up a paste bait, this was mounted on a hair rigged cork ball which gave the bait some buoyancy which was perfect.

That was lowered into the right hand margin. The left hand rod was a piece of liver straight on the hook and lowered into the margin. I then bait the area with 4mm pellets, the Sturgeon tend to swim round constantly hugging the margins so would definitely come across the baits.

My cool box was asking for a third rod so who was I to argue, so after dark a hair rigged piece of Spam was lowered into the margin a little further round the corner in a reed margin.
Once set up the Ridge Monkey was sorting dinner and again it was just great to be out.

18:25 hours – the paste rod was first to go and I landed a Siberian at 18-10, not big by any means but pleasing to know the paste worked.

It started to get really cold and by the time it was dark there was frost everywhere, you can just never predict the English weather.

22:40 hours – the Spam rod was next to go and this was another Siberian at 17-08.

28 April

00:05 hours – the liver rod went next, this was another smaller Siberian at approx. 16 pound.
The cold was getting silly as it was freezing the baitrunners so I had to keep getting up to loosen them off.
03:20 hours – the paste rod went again and this one felt better and fought really hard, running me all over the place, it finally gave in and was a Diamond Back at 27-04 and a PB of that type.

I was up at first light and wound in the snide rod, baited up the margin again and put fresh paste and liver on the other two rods. Despite the cold it was a lovely morning to be out and hopefully this photo captures how cold it was.

I got the kettle on and sat back watching the birds and just enjoying being of work doing what I love.

08:25 hours – the liver rod roared off and as I struck I knew it was a good one. There is one fish I really want from the lake and I was hoping it could be it but alas not, it was an old friend, the big Siberian and a PB weight for me at 46-09.

The sun came up and it was warm, clear and sunny. I thought about doing a second night but to be honest I’d caught enough and fancied a night in my own bed, so once the sun had dried all the gear I headed home.

29 April – Gingerbread Lake

I managed to fit in one more night and on arriving at the lake it was not busy. I spent an hour looking without seeing any fish so with a south westerly wind and a warm day I dropped in the dug out again.

It turned out to be a bad choice, most of the fish were in factory bay and everyone that set up in there caught. I saved a blank with a two Bream, one was 8plus and one of the stocky mirrors.

I packed up mid-morning and headed for home with the Barbel Society Annual “do” on the Sunday to look forward to.

What a good month April turned out to be with the Clone being the icing on the cake.

Tight lines

Julian Barnes