By Martyn Russ
After my last enjoyable session at our local venue, Hendre Fishing Lake in St. Mellons Cardiff, I couldn't wait for the next visit so I decided to plan a session with fellow Club FAW Admin Anthony George Ron Potton (Ron) and fish from a Friday Lunch till Sunday Evening. The weather forecast looked promising with only a shower on the first day forecast and a few fish showing when we first arrived We set up on the railway bank towards the centre sluse gate and decided to start off with a couple of high attract baits and a few freebies thrown over the top with a throwing stick and see what the fish were doing. Little did we know at the time we were in for one of the hardest sessions i have had in years. We are now into mid-summer, the lake has been fished hard since it opened on June 1st with angling pressure on the lake every day. The wonder baits have all been used and started to loose their appeal and the fish have been caught a few times now so are starting to wise up. Its the time of year where you start having to think about your rig presentation and quality, Making sure every hook is razor point sharp and your baiting strategy needs to be spot on.
It all started promising with me landing the first fish by accident and actually picking up a trailing rig and not actually hooking into the fish. I am so glad i did as i ended up having to hand line and play the fish in by hand as there was at least half a spool of line tangled up and wrapped around the fish. A Chunky little 10 lb + and very happy to be free of the rig and able to feed freely again i bet. My second fish came shortly after around 30 to 40 mins and was taken on a High Attract Balanced Wafter from mainline called the IB on a Size 6 curve Mossy Hook on a whipped D presentation. For some reason the whipped D seems to fool all the carp down on this venue and i have had a good hook and hold ratio since using it. The start of the session was looking to be promising so we started making up the spod mix ready for the night ahead using a mixture of Rons own made baits and secrete recipe along with the Mainline high attract and other ingredients i use for my own special spod mix,.
After setting our rods for the night and spodding out around 20 spods over each swim ( as we were fishing 2 swims side by side) we settled down for the evening. It wasn't until the early hours my rod decided to go of and reward me with a stunning 12 lb + mirror. I was made up and things were looking good. Another take in the early hours resulted in me loosing the fish right at the net edge due to a poor hook hold and followed by an hour of cursing. It wasn't until the morning that the rods became active again with another one, a common at 21 lb that was immaculate and then it fell silent. The weather was on the change and the lake became completely silent , nothing showing and nothing coming out. No signs of fish feeding and a lull in the activity gave Ron a chance to start trying things to get those fish to feed but no matter how hard he tried it wasn't until the next night that he managed his first, a lovely 17 lb+, a great reward for the hard work.
After catching the fish in the early hours the very next day was exactly the same with the weather switching quickly form high pressure to low pressure and then high again. It didn't matter what we were using or how much bait or how good the rigs were, the fish just didn't want to feed. Every angler around the lake was trying all they could from Zig fishing to surface, bottom baits and balanced rigs, Nothing was working,. I managed a couple of more through the second night into the early hours and also lost another through a hook pull and being half asleep at 3 am. The following day was turning out to be the hardest day we have ever had on a water and no matter what people were trying nothing was happening.
It was towards the end of our session i convinced Ron to throw out a bottom bait and a chod with a pink pop up on and then i went and put 20 spods of a very sloppy and oily mix straight over the top,. We then sat back and waited and waited and whilst packing our kit away Ron was rewarded once again with a nice little hard fighter more spirit than size weighing in at 7 lb 6 oz, but who cares about size when you work that hard and then get a reward for the work on a day when very little was coming out and only a few anglers managing to bank the odd fish here and there. That's what makes fishing so addictive.We had an amazing session even though it was fishing so hard with myself ending on 8 runs landing 6 Fish and loosing 2 and Ron finishing on 2
I have to admit that was one of the hardest fishing sessions i have had for a long time. My mind was working over time trying to work out what the fish were doing. We were rewarded for all our hard work with a few nice specimens and that's what its all about, just enjoying your fishing and holding your trophy. Bring on the next adventure.
Wet Nets & Tight Lines
