Can't believe I didn't catch more!
Whistley Mill - 31st August to 2nd September 2012
I arrived at Whistley around 3pm on the Friday. A quick walk around the lake, there was only one other angler who was in the oak tree swim. He didn't seem to want to talk, you just know that feeling? When someone avoids eye contact or makes out they are busy doing something? So I left him to it and didn’t disturb him.
As I continued to walk around the lake I noticed a lot of algae was being pushed to the right hand side of the lake, I could only see about 1ft, through it, into the water. Normally you can see around 3 to maybe 4ft at Whistley. Now if I was a carp would I want that clogging up my gills? On the back of the wind I noticed it was much clearer so decided as the wind wasn't that strong to fish on the back of it.
There wasn’t much showing until I got almost all the way around. In the swim next to the double gates 2 fish showed as I scouted the swim, not big - but a carp is a carp. I took the short walk left back to the car park and loaded the gear onto my barrow.
As I continued to walk around the lake I noticed a lot of algae was being pushed to the right hand side of the lake, I could only see about 1ft, through it, into the water. Normally you can see around 3 to maybe 4ft at Whistley. Now if I was a carp would I want that clogging up my gills? On the back of the wind I noticed it was much clearer so decided as the wind wasn't that strong to fish on the back of it.
There wasn’t much showing until I got almost all the way around. In the swim next to the double gates 2 fish showed as I scouted the swim, not big - but a carp is a carp. I took the short walk left back to the car park and loaded the gear onto my barrow.
On return to the swim I cast the marker to the showing spot, a little weed around half a foot from root to top I would say. Depth was shallow, only 4ft. I made two rods as quickly as I could with simple blow back rigs (my take anywhere rig) on lead clips and got them out to where I had seen the showing fish. It was an easy cast of around only 50yrds into open water. I then catapulted a good pocket full of boilies over and around the area, a good 2x2 square rod area roughly and hoped I would get a quick bite.
I decided to have a chod set up on my 3rd rod and move it around.
I decided to have a chod set up on my 3rd rod and move it around.
About an hour or so later the bivvy was up and I was comfortable. Whilst I started to relax, with the kettle on, more fish began to show over my baited area. I was surprised after another hour and several more shows that I hadn't had a run. I wanted to keep these fish in the area so decided to get some spod out. Not many spods, only half a dozen. I didn't want them to only concentrate on small spod particles or scare them away with a pounding of spod rocket. Another healthy size pocket of boilies also went out.
The swim went quiet for half an hour and then once again more shows.
Still no runs!
Other than a few single bleeps on the chod rod I had nothing through the night.
6am woken by the middle rod alarm….. Damn birds! I made another rig and put it back into the area along with another pocket of boilie scattering. One hour later fish started showing again.
I decided to re-cast the left rod, I couldn’t understand why I hadn't had a run. Maybe my rig isn’t laying right or maybe the birds have had the bait without me knowing?
The shows stopped around 9am. At 10am I whacked another 6 spods out. After another hour of no activity I decided to change the chod rig. I changed it to kind of a mini zig 1 and bit feet off the bottom. Hovering a couple of inches above the weed was what I wanted the bait to be doing. A Yellow pineapple 10mm barrel pop up was the bait. In deeper water I would opt for a piece of dark foam when zig style fishing, maybe with a light/bright top piece, but in shallow water I think small bright colours such as yellow work better and the yellow pop up barrels I have in my box were perfect for the presentation I wanted. I cast this short right of my area to try and get a bite of any fish coming in on the feed from the edges.
11.10am no wind now, calm water in front of me. I can see fizzing in the left side of my area.
11.35am a big mirror splashed out over the top of the pineapple.
11.40am again, maybe the same one, this time back left of my area.
11.55am the water 40yds past my spot is also calm now and I can see at least 2 or 3 fish out there mulling around near the surface. Going for these could ruin my chances of my current area. It would mean lines straight through it. I decided that if they move to the left or right I'll chuck a zig at them.
1pm more fish near the surface to my right, only about 3 and half feet of water there. The afternoon sunshine was obviously lifting the fish in the layers now, so I made up a 2ft zig (so about half water depth and chucked it out in hope. I'd leave it there for a few hours, hopefully without any birds finding it.
Some big splashes coming from the quicksand corner to my right caught my attention, but a bush on my right side of the swim prevents me from getting there with a cast. I managed to get a marker float near (ish) but there's only 2ft of water. With the swans and and other birds in that area it’s too risky even if I could get there.
5.30pm, still no joy on the zig, a small snowman rig is sent out to the right edge of the main baited area in its place. Not seen any signs of fish for a couple of hours now. “Got to hope they return in the night or morning. If I have nothing by 9am and no signs of fish I may pack up early and get a Sunday roast in down the pub” I started saying to myself.
The swim went quiet for half an hour and then once again more shows.
Still no runs!
Other than a few single bleeps on the chod rod I had nothing through the night.
6am woken by the middle rod alarm….. Damn birds! I made another rig and put it back into the area along with another pocket of boilie scattering. One hour later fish started showing again.
I decided to re-cast the left rod, I couldn’t understand why I hadn't had a run. Maybe my rig isn’t laying right or maybe the birds have had the bait without me knowing?
The shows stopped around 9am. At 10am I whacked another 6 spods out. After another hour of no activity I decided to change the chod rig. I changed it to kind of a mini zig 1 and bit feet off the bottom. Hovering a couple of inches above the weed was what I wanted the bait to be doing. A Yellow pineapple 10mm barrel pop up was the bait. In deeper water I would opt for a piece of dark foam when zig style fishing, maybe with a light/bright top piece, but in shallow water I think small bright colours such as yellow work better and the yellow pop up barrels I have in my box were perfect for the presentation I wanted. I cast this short right of my area to try and get a bite of any fish coming in on the feed from the edges.
11.10am no wind now, calm water in front of me. I can see fizzing in the left side of my area.
11.35am a big mirror splashed out over the top of the pineapple.
11.40am again, maybe the same one, this time back left of my area.
11.55am the water 40yds past my spot is also calm now and I can see at least 2 or 3 fish out there mulling around near the surface. Going for these could ruin my chances of my current area. It would mean lines straight through it. I decided that if they move to the left or right I'll chuck a zig at them.
1pm more fish near the surface to my right, only about 3 and half feet of water there. The afternoon sunshine was obviously lifting the fish in the layers now, so I made up a 2ft zig (so about half water depth and chucked it out in hope. I'd leave it there for a few hours, hopefully without any birds finding it.
Some big splashes coming from the quicksand corner to my right caught my attention, but a bush on my right side of the swim prevents me from getting there with a cast. I managed to get a marker float near (ish) but there's only 2ft of water. With the swans and and other birds in that area it’s too risky even if I could get there.
5.30pm, still no joy on the zig, a small snowman rig is sent out to the right edge of the main baited area in its place. Not seen any signs of fish for a couple of hours now. “Got to hope they return in the night or morning. If I have nothing by 9am and no signs of fish I may pack up early and get a Sunday roast in down the pub” I started saying to myself.
See my "Rigs" page!
Whilst cooking a lovely chilli for my dinner (boy did I wish I had a beer to go with it!) I decided I was going to tweak the rigs a little in an attempt to get a bite. In this frustrating situation I have had success before using two half boilies back to back, I can only describe this bait presentation as a butterfly wing shape.
I think this presentation helps make it difficult for fish to eject the baits because of the unusual shape. In my head I imagine the water flow over (and in-between) the hook bait causes it to flutter unpredictably giving the fish a problem when it is trying to blow it out. Also having 2 halves means the boilies seal is broken allowing more attraction to release from the bait. As I said, this has worked for me in the past so after my chilli I re-rigged the middle and right rods. I also put another good pocket of boilies over the top and 5 spods over each rod. I then started to settle myself down for the evening.
12.30am I am woken by a screaming run, when I get to the rods the line is ripping of the spool of the middle rod!!! Quickly I lifted into the fish, it feels good but it is banging its head hard, I get some line back and then suddenly the rod bend is gone!!!. I few swear words to me later, I remake the same half ‘n’ half rig and cast it back to the same middle spot. A cuppa tea and some more swear words later I'm back to sleep.
I think this presentation helps make it difficult for fish to eject the baits because of the unusual shape. In my head I imagine the water flow over (and in-between) the hook bait causes it to flutter unpredictably giving the fish a problem when it is trying to blow it out. Also having 2 halves means the boilies seal is broken allowing more attraction to release from the bait. As I said, this has worked for me in the past so after my chilli I re-rigged the middle and right rods. I also put another good pocket of boilies over the top and 5 spods over each rod. I then started to settle myself down for the evening.
12.30am I am woken by a screaming run, when I get to the rods the line is ripping of the spool of the middle rod!!! Quickly I lifted into the fish, it feels good but it is banging its head hard, I get some line back and then suddenly the rod bend is gone!!!. I few swear words to me later, I remake the same half ‘n’ half rig and cast it back to the same middle spot. A cuppa tea and some more swear words later I'm back to sleep.
4am I am woken by another run on the right hand rod this time. I lift into it and can't help but think about the last one I lost. The fish kites to my left and towards the bank, not troubling any of my other lines proving my line was well sunk, quickly gaining line I get it under control before the bushy tree to my left cuts me off. It's quickly within a couple of rod lengths of the bank. Now it starts to fight harder. I play it carefully not wanting to lose this one allowing it to take some line by unwinding the clutch a little. Aware of the weed only a rod length out I allowed it to keep taking some line and then bring it back to try and tire it out. Then one last small surge and it gives up and allows me to pull it over the weed and into my waiting net. Bosh!!!! Happy days, all the hard work eventually paid off.
In typical style my scales decided to break! If I was to say it was 20lb would maybe be too generous but no doubt an 18 to 19lb common. I grabbed my camera and took the usual typical photos as we all do. I then got the fish, my first common from Whistley, back to its home.
I remade the same rig, cast it back to the right hand spot and got straight back into my bed chair.
I awoke around 7am with a normal visit to the bushes behind me and studied my area for half an hour. Dead calm water with completely zero signs of activity, a complete change was obvious in the area. The wet stuff then started coming down from the sky so I retreated back to my bivvy and comfortable bed.
10am I awoke, obviously the session had taken it out if me, I felt completely drained. On that note I decided to pack up early and get home in good time and earn some brownie points with the wife. A tough weekends fishing, but that one fish making it all worth it.
In typical style my scales decided to break! If I was to say it was 20lb would maybe be too generous but no doubt an 18 to 19lb common. I grabbed my camera and took the usual typical photos as we all do. I then got the fish, my first common from Whistley, back to its home.
I remade the same rig, cast it back to the right hand spot and got straight back into my bed chair.
I awoke around 7am with a normal visit to the bushes behind me and studied my area for half an hour. Dead calm water with completely zero signs of activity, a complete change was obvious in the area. The wet stuff then started coming down from the sky so I retreated back to my bivvy and comfortable bed.
10am I awoke, obviously the session had taken it out if me, I felt completely drained. On that note I decided to pack up early and get home in good time and earn some brownie points with the wife. A tough weekends fishing, but that one fish making it all worth it.
