Having been working with friends in recent months to set up a fund raising group called Anglers Against Cancer, we’ve been overwhelmed by its success and the speed of growth has meant that fishing has very much been in the back pocket. But now with over £6,000 raised in less than three months for the charity ‘Beating Bowel Cancer, a fully operational online store and vibrant Facebook group, I’ve finally been able to think about getting the rods out for myself.
My last blog talked about a new beginning, which lasted just that one session! This February and march I’ve received four separate syndicate invites through the post and deciding on which to choose has been tough to say the least. But my quest for peace and tranquillity meant that the one session I spent on that park lake was a very expensive 48 hour ticket and not really my type of escape.
Out of the offers, there was one for a small syndicate nestled in the heart of the New Forest surrounded beautiful countryside. With choices of staying on very hard but busy waters or choosing the tranquil surroundings of a 2 acre pond ringed with mature willows and plenty of pads, the decision became quite a simple one. It had to be sway lakes syndicate in the small New Forrest village called Sway.
The water itself is approximately 2 acres long and no more than 40 yards across at its widest point, there is a healthy stock of carp up to 35lb and the continued stock management by Sean, Carl and the team mean that there is a continued supply of healthy carp growing on through the ranks.
I’m constantly amazed hearing people moan about catching smaller carp. They have to realise these are the new future and stocking lakes with large force fed carp are not doing anything for the longevity of good quality carp strains in this country. If only these people would admire a young carp rather than treat it with the discontent some fisher folk treat other species with when they are carp fishing.
Anyway, having a little knowledge on the lake, and the permission of the owners to pop in a couple of times before my ticket started to treat the residents to some of CC Moore’s finest Equinox and XXX boilies.
With a Friday booked off work, I travelled straight to the lake on Thursday evening and on arrival saw just one car in the car park which I knew would be fishing where I wanted to be! I guess a lake with only 12 swims and 35 members, there’s a good chance this will happen I’d just hoped I’d at least get my first 72 hours on the lake on the spots I’d been feeding up.
After a brief chat with Jay, he said he was only on until 6:30am so we agreed to wake each other up for pictures of anything worthy of being woken for and that he would give me a call before he left so I could drop into a swim called ‘the stones’ after him.
With light fading I dropped into the next swim, quickly tied two Equinox popups and dropped them onto likely looking spots. A few handfuls of equinox were deposited and I made some dinner.
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My first take came at 03:10 and a short fight resulted in an old looking mirror pulling the scales around to 19lb15oz and about the worst matt shot I’ve ever taken – it had been a long week!.
After a few more hours kip, I was awoken by a beautifully deafening morning chorus at 06:07 and decided that rather than rolling over I’d pack up and get my stuff around to give Jay a nudge in the stones.
Having had a good mater with Jay whilst he packed up, I setup three rods with popups and flung the towards where I’d dropped some bait in earlier in the week.
Shortly after my white northern special popup had settle it was off! But with my back to the water by the time I struck into the fish it had wrapped me around an underwater snag and gone back under the willows Dave G 1 Sway 1.
An hour or so later the rod with an Equinox popup on was off! A lengthy battle ensued with me wrestling the carp away from the remnants of last year’s pads and into the net. A thick set old looking mirror carp pulled the scales around to 24lb and let me know its disapproval by slapping me in the face more than once whilst it was posing for the camera!!
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16 hours and a couple of tench later, I’m settling into the peace and tranquillity of the Forest and delighted with my choice of water for the season, I just can’t wait to see what else this session is going to bring.
With the usual Friday rush on the lake underway, every line that went in my confidence of more fish was drifting away. I took a bit of time out to meet the locals and share some fishy stories over a few cups of tea, but knowing they were celebrating one of their mates birthdays I didn’t hang around and after an early morning and the swim move I decided to get my head down before dark.
The alarms kept blinking on and off through the night whilst the roach picked and pecked at my bait, when finally the biggest roach I’ve ever seen tripped up on an equinox popup, the scales pulled around to 2lb9oz and broke my roach pb by over 6oz. I was going to see if one of the party boys fancied getting up to take a few pictures, but not knowing how they felt about photographing ‘nuisance fish’ and how their heads maybe, I opted for a mat shot.
But what a specimen and I’ve promised myself some sessions just after these beautiful fish.
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My second morning started overcast, with some mist in the air, you know the type of rain like spray that seems to get everything dripping wet. Having had very limited success so far I’ve decided to put northern special cork ball popups on all three rods for the morning and dropped one away from the baited area
After what seemed like an eternity, one of the Specials were off. The fish had taken itself behind a snag so a bit of gentle persuasion resulted in one of the ‘stockies’ hitting the back of the net. Unpeeling the net on the carp revealed a fin perfect broken linear with the proportions expected from quality slow growing carp stock. There’s no doubt this little stunner will break a few hearts when it hits top weight.
More importantly however, it was freely passing my bait on the mat so they had found the equinox I’d put out at the start of my session so the northern special popup were replaced with an equinox equivalent and put back on the spot.
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With no more action and the rain really coming in, I decided to pack up between the savage rainstorms and earn a few brownie points by going home a night early and watching the final of the Voice with Mrs G.