by Martyn Russ
Location: Hendre Fishing Lake, Hendre Lake Park, St. Mellons, Cardiff. CF3 0RG
Duration: 48 Hours ( Friday 14th July 2017 15:00 - Sunday 16th July 2017 15:00)
Bait: Mainline High Leakage Pineapple, Mainline Essential I.B. , Solar Candy Floss
Rig: Naked Chod , Size 8 2 inch Chod Rig (rod 1) .
Size 6 Curved on Whipped D Balance Bait Rig (rod 2)
I had decided to get out and do a session on my own for a change as i have been doing a lot with other people just lately and wanted some me time on the bank. I am so glad i did as it gave me a chance to play around with a few ides i have for rigs and presentations and also try a few new tackle products at the same time. The weather was forecast to be cloudy but warm with some wind but when we got to the lake the sun was out and it was baking hot. There was a few clouds but they didn't come till very late afternoon and by the evening the winds had picked up the rain had arrived and the weather was rapidly on the change. This meant that the fishing was going to be difficult as when the weather becomes unsettled so do the fish. It also didn't help that the pressure had gone up and we were moving out of a low pressure system to a high pressure system which also meant a storm would be days away.
After getting organised and setting up my swim i had decided not to bait up until i knew what the fish were doing and the mood they was in so i would fish single baits with a small stringer on the one rod and a pink candyfloss popup on my running chod. I could cast the chod around to any fish that were showing so was a good option to start with. Within 20 minuets i had my first run and fish on the line and after a short but spirited fight a small 10 lb Carp was to grace my net. The strangest thing was that i didn't even hook the fish. In fact the fish had been trailing rigs including a 3 oz lead that it had trapped around its body in a mass of tangled line., It had 3, yes i did say 3, hooks in its mouth and none of them was mine. i had actually hooked into the top of the lead and the hook embedded into the coating of the lead allowing me to play the fish in and untangle it from the almighty mess it was in. it was obvious these rigs were from anglers just starting out as the tubing that was used was only 1 3rd of the length it should be, the lead was trapped on the lead clip and the tail rubber pushed on so tight it was impossible to come off.
That's fishing i suppose and we all have those days where we snap off or loose a fish due to the line cutting on zebra muscles but sometimes it just makes you mad due to the lack of care that is used when making up their rigs and setting up their rods. I continues to catch a few fish into the evening with the largest only reaching the 15 lb mark and a few of the fish carrying rigs and line but i didn't mind as i knew the fishing was hard and nothing much was coming out else where around the lake. The first night was quite quiet actually with only 1 take during the night and a few liners, it wasn't until the next morning i saw any real action. 3 am the buzzers went off i jumped out of the bed and grabbed my rod only to play the fish all the way in and when i bent down to grab the net due to lack of concentration and the fact i was still half asleep i ended up pulling the hook right at the net edge. Talk about annoying.
It was about 2 minuets after that i had my second rod go off and as soon as i picked it up i knew this fish was a lot better than what i had previously been playing. You could feel the power of the fish right from the start and it fought hard all the way in.It then took around 10 minuets under the rod tip to get it to give up as it just didn't want to come in. Even when i had it in the cradle all tiered out from the fight it still gave me a battering and a slap around the face from the tail. I didn't mind though as it was a stunning 21 lb 2 oz common and when was say immaculate i mean not a mark on it, Not a hook mark in the mouth or a tear. even the curtain at the top of the mouth it uses to sort food and debris out when feeding was completely intact and undamaged. What a start to the day i thought.
After the early success i though i had a chance to get the fishes heads down and maybe it was possible to build a big hit. i made up my special spod mixture and proceeded to put a bed of bait out at around 14 rod lengths and then placed a bait right on top of it,.The chod rod i would continue to use to cast around at any showing fish and if nothing was showing i would fish it just off the baited area as that's where you can sometimes pick up bigger fish. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and although it was overcast for most of the day with the sun coming through strong every now and again, the temperature was sky high the humidity was right up and the pressure was right up. The fish and the rest of the lake just seemed to die off completely. I continued to put out boilies over the top of my baits every 3 hours with a scattering of 10 to 20 baits trying to get a curios fish to investigate the baited area but there didn't seem to be any action and nothing was showing.
Then as the evening came and the temperature started to drop the fish began to become a little more active with one of the anglers on the end peg managing to get a run and landed himself a couple of nice little carp around the 10 - 12 lb mark. My action didn't come until around 10 pm as darkness fell, the carp started to feed on my baited area and once again i started to catch. The trouble was where they had waited all day to feed and now they had found the food spot they didn't stop all night and every 20 minuets the rods were bleeping from feeding fish in the area and i didn't get any sleep until around 5 am where i took the rods out of the water so i could just grab an hour and then got back to fishing at around 6.30 am when i woke again. It turned out to be a great session with myself ending on 11 fish total from 10 lb up to 21 lb being the biggest. I really enjoyed having some time to myself and just fishing for myself but i do miss the social side of angling too. I can't wait until my next adventure so i am going to have to arrange another one within the next week or so.
Wet nets and Tight Lines.
