After
spending a week or so at home with not visiting the reservoir, it is about time
I got back down there. The first reason is to get out the house, and second
reason, I haven’t fished there for a while. After ordering new tackle, a new
bag and a new neat tackle box, I had a selection of rigs tied up which gave me
the buzz a bit more. I had spoken to a few anglers before making the drive down
there and have a look around.
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| A Good Winter Combination When Coupled With Glugs! |
I got down
to the lake to find a van in the car park, the lake was frozen over but I still
had a walk round to lay out which swims I’m more likely to go to, if the lake is
busy and any other swims I fancied, providing I hadn’t seen any fish in the
meantime. In some ways it may have been a wasted journey? Definitely not as I
wanted to see the state of play in terms of the ice which was over an inch
thick.
After a
friend kindly taking me down to the Brentwood carp show, after reacquainting
with some friend and contacts, I got my hands on some new bobbins to carry on
my tackle tartness ha-ha!
I managed to
compile some advice on which is the best method to use through the winters,
which were zigs. Some people may say “what’s the point they’ll be on the
bottom!” this isn’t entirely true; in the water you have a thermocline layer
which is the changeover of warm to cold water. With all the ice sinking, the
temperature may be all over the place so there may not necessarily be a warmer
layer at the top.
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| Always Tight Lines When Using Zigs. |
The zigs sit
in the warmer water which the carp, albeit cold blooded, they will sit in the
warmer layers hence why the zigs are just as effective in the winter months
that in the summer months, this is the plan of attack which will more often
than not be going out on at least one rod unless the fish are respond well to
zigs up in the layers.
I got down
to the lake later than planned however, I had a whole days fishing on my hands
being able to stay as late as I’d like to. I went for the religious lap round
the lake chatting to the local anglers, although there was only one on, and
looking for signs of fish, I didn’t see anything but going on previous
information I got on the back of the wind which sometimes pays off on some of
my fishing as it did a few months ago on the same bank I have got the rods out
on at the moment.
I got 2 rods
out quickly, both on zigs cast to around 14ft of water fishing between 3 and
6ft up from the lake bed with hook baits glugged in the Velocity Baits NV-R
liquid, this is a good tactic for fishing for bigger fish or on day tickets
that boosts and enhances the attraction of the zig hook bait. After leaving the
zigs out for a little which I recast to a different area and then reset the
bobbins bow string tight. Usually on this specific reservoir I wouldn’t use
bowstring tight lines mainly as slack as I can get but if the fish are up in
the layers, I don’t need to worry too much about line concealment.
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| One of my "Go Anywhere" Bottom Bait Presentations. |
The day
rolled on slowly, I was watching the water like a hawk in between recording a
video to coincide with this blog which will be following very soon. I didn’t
see any tell-tale evidence of fish moving in front of me and very unusually no
line bits from the tight lines? I thought that the fish may be sat dormant in
one of the corners or sat somewhere out of the way of the angling pressure
which in some circumstances wouldn’t surprise me.
I then got a
message telling me the atmospheric pressure which was consistent throughout the
day which was sitting at 1,000Pa, I was recommended to put on a bottom bait to
see if there is anything lingering in the depths, to which I put out a bottom
bait rig consisting of 15lb braid, Size 8 Nash Fang Twister, with a piece of
silicone on the hook pinning in place a NV-R 14mm bottom bait with a 10mm Pink
Shellfish Pop-up and a piece of shrink tube to act as a kicker to finish the
rig off with the addition of a piece of putty to fully pin it to the bottom of
the lake bed. This was cast just to the right of the swim with a small mesh bag
of crushed NV-R boilies dipped in the glug to increase the attraction as with
the zigs.
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| Another Brilliant Zig Rig Presentation Used to Great Affect At Different Venues. |
This rod was
put completely slack with the line lying fully on the bottom and was left for
quite a while before re-casting over an hour later to a different spot. I had
settled on a roving type method to try and search out the water in front of me
at least trying to scrape a bite or two, after the rods were positioned back
out on the lake bed I went and had a look in the swim 2 metres next door to me
and to see a better angle of water, I watched for a few minutes with no signs
of fish in the area. The wind was hacking down the lake in to peg 27 on the
left from the car park so I cast into that general direction before deciding to
move later on in the session.
I decided to
move a few pegs round into the wind and put 2 rods straight out and laid the
rods on the deck. After the rain continuing pouring down on me with no brolly,
I stood in hope for something to come from this drenching. The rain finally
stopped and I stayed put in the swim for a little while longer and set up the
stage stands to stay for another hour in the swim.
Unfortunately
it’s another point to the fish with no fish banked again. However, I’m still
going to keep plugging away as I’ll get a result eventually and it may be back
to my preferred way of tying choddys and putting them out and keep roving
around the lake to search out the water a bit more, but on a better note I have
a night planned to brace the cold weather.
Thanks for Reading!
Ross.
Follow Me on Twitter - @Rosst93
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