Bristol angler Lee Barter took full advantage of the unseasonably mild weather over the Christmas period to bag three 30’s from two different waters in the space of a week.
After a cracking session on Orchid, a change of approach paid dividends on a tricky day’s only lake. Here Lee takes up the story:
I have had a recent run of success starting with the day after boxing day at Orchid Lake resulting in 3 fish 2 being 32.8 and 32.9.
After that I had a day booked on a private lake that I had also been fishing through December (days only) the last few trips resulting in a handful of small stockies. So I thought I’d change my approach from my usual balanced bait rigs on in-line leads over a scattering of barrel boilies to a solid bag approach with a real short hooklinks of 2″.
But instead of spodding bait over the spots to avoid spooking these cagey fish in their very small home of just 3/4 of an acre I catapulted 6 small golfball sized ESP mesh bags with mixed CC Moore’s micro mix pellets around the area instead to try and trick up one of the better ones.
Hook baits were a pop up I’d knocked up myself previously for winter, this was attached to a size 8 ESP Curve-Shanx on the ESP Camo Sink Link and balanced up with a shot on the hair. This was then attached to a 4.5oz in-line lead and 12lb Syncro XT mono with several blobs of putty up it.
Two hours after the trap was set just 10yrds out I started to get a few liners. Knowing what these fish were like I sat on my hands and made a brew as it can be very frustrating watching them clouding up the bottom whilst turning you over in the shallow murky water. Then there was viscous pluck on my line which resulted into a stuttery take. Straight away I knew it was a better one! The fish fought hard in the shallow water, then before I knew it I had it tamed and in my net. Peering into the net it looked huge and I punched the air. After sorting myself out it went up on the wheel of fortune. It swung the needle round to 33.10. Well happy with that as it was my 3rd winter 30 in a week. I was buzzing!