ESP’s Joe Forrester has had an enjoyable winter on an interesting little water in the pursuit of the lakes largest resident, a great big old grey mirror. Although the biggun evaded Joe, he caught a few of the lakes other jewels in prime winter condition. Their colours look stunning, made even better by the superb photo’s – Joe favours a fixed 50mm lens for the trophy shots for pin sharp focus on the subject. Well done mate!
This past winter has seen me doing a bit on a small crystal clear lake, in search of a big grey mirror and his scaley friends. The lake is very deep at one end, with depths down to 25ft, the other end being a lot shallower at about 6ft. I had fished the lake in 2008, and done reasonably well catching 13 fish. Most of my fish came on Tigers over tight beds of hemp and corn; although I didn’t have any of the bigger fish.
I’d decided to use pop-ups fished on Hinge stiff rigs or Chod rigs over a scattering of boilies this time round, hoping to tempt the bigger residents. My rigs were tied with the ultra sharp Mk2 Stiff riggers in a size 5 to the 20lb Stiff Bristle Filament, either as a Choddie or with a boom made from 20lb Strip-Teaze. On my 2nd night, at the beginning of December, I caught a lovely scaley mirror of 16lb 9oz on a Hinged Stiff Rig positioned behind a weed-bed in about 12ft of water. I did a couple more nights, but it was very quiet, and I decided to have a break over Christmas and have a few social trips with friends, planning to go back in February.
Unfortunately the lake froze over at the beginning of the month for a couple of weeks and I didn’t get back until the 17th. Arriving in the dark, I had a quick walk around hoping to hear or see something to go on. Nothing was seen so I decided to drop back into the swim I had fished before Christmas. This offered a good depth of water, being in between the deeps and shallows as well as being in the middle of the lake. Two rods were fished as single hook baits, bright white cork ball pop-ups made with the same attractors as my food bait, the third was on a adjustable zig with a size 10 Big-T hook, 12lb Double Strength and a small black foam hook bait.
Around midday, I thought I saw something roll over in the ripple. I quickly recast the zig, popping it up to 10ft, which was about mid depth. An hour later the bobbin registered a drop back. I picked up the rod, caught up with the slack, to find the fish had swam straight towards me and into the weed. A little pressure was applied and the size 10 hook unfortunately popped out. The afternoon was then spent huddled under the brolly as it lashed down with rain and blew a strong wind from the North West.
When this subsided at around 4 pm, it dropped flat calm, the last of the low winter sun was shining brightly through the tall trees behind me, and I noticed a couple of bubbles pop up about two thirds of the way across. I only had an hour left, but quickly wound in a rod and recast a single white pop-up out to where the bubbles had been and whilst feeling the lead down, I got 3 drops! The lead must of hit two carp on the way down before gently thudding down on the silty bottom. The carp must of been shoaled very tightly after the freeze and I had found their home. It only took about 15 minutes before I was in. After a dogged scrap, I landed a fish called the Sunset Mirror at 29lb 2oz. This fish had always being the second biggest in the pond, but his scaley friends were catching up quick.
The following Friday I was back, arriving in the dark after work. I dropped into the same swim as the week before, both rods were set up with two inch Chod rigs with size 5 hooks and the same white pop-ups. This time though I fished each of them over 14 of Oxford Carp Baits Mc Nut boilies. The night passed quietly, and whilst drinking the first tea of the morning, the bobbin smashed in to the blank and the line sprung from the clip, before dropping again. A liner?? I wasn’t sure so I left it 10 minutes before deciding to recast the rod. Everything was fine, the hook still pin sharp and the bait intact. The recast landed spot on first time feeling the gentle thud of the silty bottom. I slowly sunk the line and clipped on the bobbin, it was pulled from my hand before I could switch the buzzer back on. The fish turned out to be a repeat capture of one I had caught at 23lb in 2008, although it looked to be a lot bigger now. The fish weighed in at 30lb exactly and looked stunning in its winter coat. A new rig was tied on and it was recast to the same spot, a silty area about 9ft in depth, followed by another 14 of the nut baits. A few hours later I received another take on the same rod, this one was a jet black 12lb 1oz Common which looked beautiful in the late winter sun.
The following week I couldn’t wait to get down. The moon phase was prime, being just after a full moon, the weather was extremely mild, the big girl was due and I had found ‘The Spot’. As long as I could get back in to the swim, I was confident I could get a couple more, hopefully even the biggun. This was to be my last trip; I was keen to get back to my spring water before it woke up. Arriving at the lake I was relieved to find only one other angler on, and he was set up in a different area. So I jumped back in my swim. Tactics were the same, white cork ball pop-ups, on chods, over some of the Mc Nut boilies. The night passed without a beep. Around 8 am the next morning I lost a mid twenty scaley at the net. Strange because all my other hook holds were perfect. Maybe just bad luck? A new rig was attached; another white pop-up tied on with the excellent Super floss, and was recast to the same silty spot. 11 am and I was away again on the same rod, a cracking 27lb 14oz common was soon having her photos taken. This one was nailed, the size 5 Stiff Rigger wasn’t ever coming out. That’s more like it! The rest of the day past quietly, well the fishing anyway, the two idiots that had turned up and thrashed the water to a foam, were anything but.
Around 7 am the next morning, while my noisy neighbors were still tucked up in bed, I had the next bite. I leant into it, it felt like a big fish, just a dead weight moving slowly away from me. It then flat rodded me taking 20yds of line, it felt a good fish, maybe even her? Slowly I gained line, getting it back to where I’d hooked it from, it then just locked up solid. I couldn’t move it from the bank; the rod was left on the buzzer hoping it would free itself. No movement after twenty minutes so the boat was called for. Out in the boat, it was snagged solid, I just couldn’t move it through the rod, so I started to hand line it up. The line was at breaking point when a massive weed bed started to slowly rise, good old 18lb Syncro XT, eventually I managed to net half a ton of Canadian pond weed along with 28lb of Mirror Carp. It turned out to be a repeat capture of the Sunset Mirror from a few weeks ago, she obviously liked the bait! The noise from the hard boat had clearly ruined my swim, so I packed away shortly after. The big girl didn’t come my way and I later found out she had been lost the week before. Oh well, another time maybe….
Joe Forrester