Friday, 16th March Twin Lakes, West Ashby
I signed off last time promising to visit this venue to target its Bream and Tench. To be honest I wasn't really looking forward to it. The lakes are part of some old gravel workings (the others form another fishing complex to the west). The other complex also has some big bream and I've fished the big lake there many times which more often than not resulted in a blank.
My only previous experience of Twin Lakes was a short spinning session for perch a couple of winters ago. "Any pike in the lakes?" I enquired to the owner as I handed over my fiver. "No, no Pike in either" came the reply. No need for a trace then I thought as I wandered over to the smaller pit. First cast in with my favourite jig and a Pike appeared from the depths and bit it clean off! I did see a perch that day but I think it was just trying to make friends with my jig as it was about the same size. Probably glad of some company I thought as I packed up and left.
Fast forward to the present and I decided to just try and catch something and then go from there. I took a couple of pints of red maggots and some worms. Since the addition of some shredded paper and about 50 egg shells from the cafe at work my worms are really thriving in my recycling bin. Anyway I set up near to the golf clubhouse and had a cast with a small maggot feeder while I set up my pole. To my utter amazement the tip went round after about 2 minutes! Missed it but it must have been small because only one maggot on my size 14 was damaged. Out again and a bite came straight away. A tiny roach came to hand and I got the keepnet out. Another roach quickly followed but again only small. On went a worm. I'd nearly got my pole set up when it wrapped round again. This is better I thought as I struck into something more substantial. A Perch! Bloody hell, I can't go anywhere without catching a stripey. I was fully prepared for a blank and I couldn't believe it was so easy.
Another worm went out and I cupped in a big pot of maggots at about 4 meters in readiness for a go on the float. Bloody deep even at close range I thought as I plumbed up. Depth sorted and on went two red maggots. I swung the rig out and the float disappeared before it had time to settle. A small roach was the culprit. The next couple of hours were hectic with bites coming thick and fast on the pole. The bailiff Gary appeared and we had a quick chat. He fishes it all the time and I have seen pictures of him with a big bream and tench so I bombarded him with questions. It wasn't all good- in all the time he has fished it he has only had the one bream, 11lb. The Tench seem more prolific and he's had them to 9lb. He did say though that he often caught big roach on 15mm boilies! "Dunno how big, never weigh em" he said as he sauntered off back to the clubhouse.
I got back to my fishing and had a couple of decent Roach on pieces of worm and as the light faded I vowed to return with some hemp and corn to try and target the bigger ones properly .
Thursday 22nd March Twin lakes , West Ashby
Bit of a family trip this one as I was accompanied by Mrs P and our two seven month old Labradors aka the chaos twins. Fishing isn't all about results, sometimes its just nice to get out. I knew it wouldn't be a serious attempt to crack this new venue but anything was better than the never ending renovation of our lounge.
I was a bit disappointed to see the lake. It was very choppy where I had fished the first time and the whole of the near bank was out of the question. Luckily Gary let us drive around to the back of the lake and I set up in relative shelter while Mrs P walked the chaos twins.
I cupped in a load of hemp and liquidised corn just off a near bank tree and set up my rig. On my first three put ins I came back with three branches! Bollocks. I always do this. I must get in the habit of plumbing up before I put a bed of feed in. Fishing slightly further out from the tree was better and I started catching small roach again. Mrs P appeared with dogs and sat behind me. After a while I tried some hemp and got a bite straight away. Unfortunately it seems Twin Lakes is one of those annoying venues where even the small roach love hemp. After more small roach and a few missed bites I tried corn but to no avail. By this time Mrs P was getting restless.
With some persuasion she took over the fishing duties. A good angler Mrs P. Annoyingly so. She fished maggot which was cheating in my book. Roach after roach came swinging in. "I could beat you in a match" she claimed. Not if you accidentally drown with my foot on your head I thought to myself. One of the Labs, Daisy became fascinated by what she was doing.
A better view?
I'll watch the float then!
I did manage the best fish of the day on the tip and corn. A roach of about a pound came in stubbornly as Mrs P and Daisy messed around with their little tiddlers. Kudos restored.
PS. She is wearing my XXL Jacket which is not very flattering!
Tuesday 27th March Twin Lakes, Horncastle
Hottest day of the year so far! Mrs P was at the races which meant I had the chaos twins. We got to lake at around 1pm with the intention of catching some bigger Roach. The dogs were reasonably well behaved all day although there was nearly an incident involving Daisy and a grass snake. As for the fishing? I'll let the pictures tell the tale-
Footnote
Doing this blog has meant trying to catch something worthwhile to show you. Hence the reason for trying this new lake. Whilst I haven't caught anything that will make the angling times I have found a wonderful place that I wouldn't have tried otherwise. Winning matches, catching PB's is nice but sometimes just being out there is more than enough. So thank you. Rob Thompson, Rob Mastin, Tony Gunson and everyone else that is following me but keeping quiet! Till next time. Phil.
No comments:
Post a Comment