The Syndicate - January Session 1

Welcome back my blog!

Its now January and not a lot has changed since the last time I was on the bank.

It has been almost a week since my last session: The weather had picked up a few degrees in the last couple of days and another fish had been caught from the car park swim - seems as like a few fish seem to be held up in that area.

The latest one turned the scales round to 20lb 4oz, so that’s now 3 fish within a week! I can see why though. As I’ve mentioned a few times, that swim is where the sun hits the water first in the morning, so in turn that should be the warmest part of the lake throughout the day, and that can be a huge edge this time of year.

That swim was taken when I arrived and, as he had caught that fish last night, he had decided he’d be staying all day and might even do another night - so that was the car park swim out the window.

 After a good few laps round I still didn’t have any idea where to go as his brother was fishing in the royal box swim which controls the back of that island, and he didn’t catch anything last night.

In the end I decided to set up in kens swim. Through some local knowledge I know this swim produces the goods through the warmer months, but it’s not miles away from the car park swim and it is slightly deeper so I just had to pray the fish would push into the deeper water.

After a few casts I clipped up two rods to the far bank; both rods were fairly tight. My left hand rod was in the gap between the island, my middle rod was a little bit further down the bank and my right hand rod was just cast over half way.

All three rods were set up with solid bags: Each one was filled with a mix of 2mm nutcracker pellets and also crushed nutcracker; all the rigs were very basic rigs, fairly short so they could fit into the bags. I will do a post on the website about all my rigs.

All three rods had different pops: left hand rod had a glugged white nutcracker - this has been soaking in nut juice for a few months now so it was perfect to start using - the other rods had a washed out yellow one and a washed out pink one. I love the urban pop ups – the washed out ones through the warmer months and going into autumn, and the bright ones throughout the winter as they stand out more. That said I opted for the washed out as from some local knowledge I know the fish in there love the washed out ones.

It was now approaching evening so I decided to recast the rods before it got to dark - same spots but this time I sprayed 2 pouches of bait over each rod.

All the bites so far this winter had been after dark so all I could do was sit and wait for the night to come round...

11:30 ……

I had been tucked up in the sleeping bag just drifting off to sleep when my left hand rod had a single bleep; I was fishing a fairly tight line so I got out straight away and shone my hand touch at the tip and could see it bouncing; I wasn’t sure if it was a fish or the wind, as by now the storm that was due had well and truly arrived. I lifted the rod up and instantly knew it was a carp. It didn’t really do a lot - I walked back up the swim to try and steer it away from the snags, which was easier that I thought, and within a few minutes the fish was within a few yards out.

The weather was horrendous; There were big waves smashing against the bank making the end of the fight harder than it should have been. It was lashing it down with rain and I could barely open my eyes.

 After another couple of seconds the fish was doing death circles and it was in the net - YES FIRST BLOOD!!!!!!

On looking in the net I saw it was a dark plump mirror. I thought it was a certain 20, not a big one but 20 maybe 21. After sorting the area out I set up the tri pod and came to realize my digital camera had died on me – it had just given up the ghost - not what I needed! The only other thing I could do was try and take a self take on my phone; after a few tries I managed to get a half decent photo (and not damage my phone too much.) The scales spun round to just shy of 20lb - in fact it was 18lb on the dot - not as big as I first thought but I didn’t care. The mirror fell to the glugged pop up result!

The hours which followed can only be described as a nightmare: the rod went back out perfectly but the weather got worse. The wind was now unbearable. My brolly decided to take a flight into the bush behind my swim so I turned it completely around so the back was facing the water but that didn’t stop it!

For the next few hours I was sat up on the bed chair holding the brolly down - I must of drunk 8 cups of tea within that time. It was now around 5am and without any sleep or a break in the rain, I decided to run the majority of my tackle back to the car so nothing got damaged as a few of the trees didn’t sound too healthy, and, after a bad tree experience to one of my friends on the last lake I fished, I knew how bad it could be - having to drag someone out of their brolly as a massive oak tree fell on top of his bed chair wasn’t the one (still to this day ill never know how he survived that!) Around 5:30 I headed for home. I left the gear in the car. I just needed some well earned sleep.

First trip of the month had resulted in my first fish of the year and my first fish out of the syndicate - HAPPY DAYS.

 Can’t wait to get back on the bank and share some more with you.

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