Although the autumn had started well for me on the big pit; things had started to slowly go down hill. Although I had managed some nice fish up 31lb 7oz, a few nightmares had come my way to. After loosing two very good fish from my baited area, perfecting the disappearing rod trick (thats another story) and two of my main target fish doing late captures, i felt a little lost.
A change in venue was called for but after doing five nights over there, I realised I was making a big mistake and would be better saved for early spring. So the following week I made my way back over to the big pit. Conditions were stupidly mild for the time of year and favourable for the area’s I had been concentrating my fishing over the last couple of months. To cut a long story short, the session resulted in a blank along with very few sightings of carp. I needed to have a rethink.
It seemed that a few of the captures had now spread around the lake rather than the bulk coming from a few certain area’s. After doing several laps on my bike, the carp were proving hard to locate. Moving swims every couple of nights was called for if all was quiet where I was fishing. I didn’t think the weather was helping either. Although very mild, conditions were also stale with winds coming from the east for several weeks. Looking at the weather forecast, we were due to receive south westerly winds for a couple of days so a move into a swim that would receive these conditions in readiness would be my best option. So I made the move and as luck would have it, the fish did start showing every now and then but just out of casting range. Out to my right was a long island at around 130 yards out which dropped down into twelve feet of water connectinting into a channel with another island. This seemed the perfect interception point if any fish moved through. As things were pretty slow around the lake, I decided to fish three single hookbaits along the channel at about 120 yards range which I managed to reach with the 18lb Syncro XT with ease.
In the early hours, I received a take on the right hand rod. After a very uneventful fight, a decent mirror went into the net. After getting everything sorted with the fish, the scales settled on 37lb 8oz. Result. I managed to sort a photographer so secured the fish in the net down in the deep margins. The rod was recast back to the area and within a short space of time it was away again. Now I was in a bit of a predicament as I had a fish on but also already had a 37lb mirror unhooked in the net. After a more spirited scrap, I had no choice and managed to guide another mirror into the net with one of his mates already in there! It wasn’t easy I can tell you. That fish weighed in at 24lb 4oz and like his mate was taken on the ever faithful hinged stiff link and size 5 stiff rigger hooks. Nailed!!
I’ve now decided to stay on the big pit for the winter months and hopefully the next fish isn’t in the too distant future… Fingers crossed!