Afternoon Storms

Fished Straits today arriving just before midday, the sun was burning hot and I could easy spot the fish down the car park end. After spending the first hour fishing floaters and failing the dark cloud came over and I decided to switch to bottom baits. Within twenty minute producing a cracking 15.6lb Common which was followed by another Common to 15lb. After losing two too the weed and with thunder and heavy rain the tigers produced this old 13lb Mirror! The heavens had opened up and the rain was non stop but the swim kept producing the goods with a further 9lb and 12lb Commons. After losing a fish at the net this was followed by another low double. Although everything was soaked through the day had produced six fish and I had lost about four because of the weed.

It's not over 'til the fat lady feeds!

I planned to go fishing straight after work on thursday and persuaded Graham to give Laundry lake another bash to try and get a twenty out.
Graham got there first and set up in the corner next to the lilies and I arrived and set up two swims down. There were carp everywhere, all on the surface. The fishing started slowly, I eventually hooked one off the top but the hook slipped after about 5 minutes. As the evening drew in some cloud cover came over and with about two hours to go I had a belting run on my margin rod and soon had a long 12lb 6oz common in the net. I then decided to fish both rods close in and also switched to more heavy duty rigs as both fish hooked so far were running towards the margins along the bank. After about an hour I had another run and hooked a much more powerful fish that went on several runs before I could net it. It was my biggest fish of the year so far, a mirror of exactly 17lb.
So far Graham still hadn't had any luck but just as we were packing up he had a run and struck into a fish that fought like mad for about 20 minutes. We could see it was a good fish as it came to the net and we both reckoned a possible twenty. As I gathered the net up the fish rolled on it's side and we could tell it was definately a twenty, it was huge!
She went 25lb 8oz on the scales, a new personal best for Graham. What a fish!

More fun at Laundry lake

On sunday I arranged to revisit Laundry lake with Graham. We got there about 6pm after a day of heavy showers. The lake was fairly busy and we had a quick walk round. The weather had brightened up and there were a lot of fish on the surface near the car park end. We set up on the left hand bank, I fished tigernuts close in and a bait suspended 3' below a large bubble float (like a drifting zig rig). Graham had one rod with tigers and the other with corn. It didn't take long for him to get a run and after a good fight with the fish making several long runs he landed a mirror of 19lb 14oz! It had a black spot on it's side just like one of the twenties in the lake known as 'blackspot' which had us going for a moment!
I then concentrated on my suspended bait rig, spraying small amounts of pellets over it. This worked and I soon hooked a good fish that took a lot of line before kiting into the lefthand bank and breaking the light hooklength. I soon hooked another and landed it, a mirror of 13lb 14oz. Then I had a common of 12lb 14oz on the same method.
The only thing I caught on my other rod was a huge crayfish!
Finally as we were getting packed up Graham had a common 10lb 9oz.

Dirty Laundry

Wednesday I had an evening free and for a change decided to try Laundry lake for a change. I'd only fished here once about 3 or 4 years ago and caught 3 in a morning. The lake is an easy 'doubles' water with a few twenties and when I fished it before it was rammed by about 7.30am!
I got down there at about 6.30pm and had a wander around, there were only 2 other guys fishing. I found some carp close in on the lefthand bank and fished there for a bit with no success. After a while I had another wander and found some feeding fish clouding the water up near the carpark swims so moved round just as the drizzle started. Not long after casting a tigernut into the clouded area I had a whizzer and after a short fight landed a nice common at 13lb 6oz.
As this area was completely snag free I then tried a favourite rig of mine; a small hook tied to a long, 5lb 14oz Reflo Powerline hooklength, a tactic made possible by using 1.75lb t/c rods.
Very soon after recasting it started to drizzle a bit harder and I had another screaming take and hooked a very hard fighting fish that took a good 25 minutes to land which also got me wet in the fine misty rain! It was a mirror of 15lb 2oz that had a huge tail!
By now I only had about 20 mins fishing time left so quickly recast, this was taken a few minutes later by a 12lb common that luckily came in quickly so I could still pack up for closing time!

Another dark Mirror Carp!

Fished Straits last night after blanking the previous session I decided to fish where I'd spotted a couple of decent size fish over the large gravel bar. After a good few liners the rod placed on the edge of the small bar screamed off (9.45pm) and after a good ten minutes of arm aching fight produced this cracking 17.2 lb Mirror!

Fishing thursday

Thursday saw me arriving home in a good time for an evening session. I heated up a microwave curry and packed it with my gear, arriving at straits mill around 6pm. I spent about half an hour looking around before settling for the compass swim (again! Must try some other swims!)
Saw the odd fish moving over the gravel near the cave so tried tiger nuts over there and chod rig with flavoured cork ball in the silt. Quite a nice evening sat there with my curry. After a couple of hours the cork ball was taken and i quickly landed a 9lb common. 
Eventually i moved the tiger nut rod to the silt and used a critically balanced tiger. Around 8.30 i had a belting run from a very powerful fish that took a while to land, turning out to be smaller than i imagined, a 12lb 14oz common.
Then at about 9pm graham turned up, cast out and promptly caught a 14lb 14oz common! Then as we were weighing it his other rod went off! The line from his first rod was tangled round it and the fish came off as we tried to untangle it, so the second time this year one of us had come close to a brace.

Rain, Showers and Another Stunner!

Braved the weather for another over nighter. After a terrible nights sleep mixed in with nine hours of heavy rain I was heading for a unbearable sulking blank. But around half two in the afternoon the rod tight to the main pads produced this stunning 16lb 13oz Mirror Carp! Which I've named "The Torpedo Mirror" because of its slimline shape.

Super short session

Got down to Straits mill last night at 7.30 and went over to the compass swim as the wind was blowing up that way. Put some tigers over the gravel near the entrance to the cave and put a chod type rig with my own recipe in the silt where a few bubbles were coming up.
After an hour Graham came down, soon afterwards the silt rod was away and I hooked what felt like a nice tench but was actually an ancient looking common with a missing pectoral fin of about 8lb. Just after I had recast the gravel rod had a hesitant run and I quickly struck and moved the fish away from the cave and surrounding snags. The fish put up a great scrap and turned out to be a rather tatty, beaten up old common at 12lb 14oz.

Graham bags a stunner!

It's midnight and just got back from photographing this cracking 16lb 12oz mirror for Graham!