Linear 2010

I have just arrived back from a great session at Linear fisheries in Oxfordshire with my Brother John. After much debate we decided to go to Linear instead of Twynersh because of all the bad sessions we had previously had there. There are five lakes at Linear fisheries St Johns, Manor Farm, Hardwick/Smiths Pool, Oxlese and Brasenose. Oxlease and Brasenose were immediately filtered from our list as pastie bashing was not on our agenda. We decided to look around the three remaining lakes and make a decision. There were bivys everywhere which to be honest we were expecting but we managed to find a nice double swim on smithspool joined to Hardwick. This lake is relatively large and around 20 acres. The lake holds around 400 carp to 40lb (Jordon) tench to 12lb and massive roach to 3lb 14oz. When planning for this trip I decided to have one rod for the roach and so I equipped myself with feeders, hooks to nylon, casters, hemp, sweetcorn, groundbait, micro boilies and maggots.

On the first morning I received a take on my rod fished at distance. After the fish being attached to my rod for no more than five seconds it fell off. During that day we fished for roach and caught some nice Rudd to around 5oz and loads of perch. I really got the fish going at one point and had a fish a cast. This caught the attention of a pike that managed to take three of my hooked fish and destroying my swim in the process.

During day 2 I decided to go for some good roach. As I fed the swim I began to catch the odd Rudd and some perch. Suddenly my float went under and I hooked into a reasonable fish. It took my drag and when it surfaced I could not believe it was a Roach. John did the honours with the net and once weighed she went 2lb on the money. It has to be the greatest fish I have ever caught and it was caught by design. I can’t explain how big it looked and was so pleased to have caught it. I did not think I would catch a 2lb roach years as they are such a hard fish to catch. After this magnificent fish the rod was out again quickly. Again the float went under I was into a good fish however the rod suddenly bent double and I was re-assured a pike had grabbed my prize before cutting me off. That was the end of the roach fishing. I hooked into another small fish which was again taken by the pike but this time it didn't let go. It wasn't hooked but I managed to net it before it dropped the rudd. This session was turning out to be a strange one.

On the second evening as we sat drinking a beer watching the lake my right had rod pulled tight and a fish was hooked. It put up a strong fight but it didn't feel right. As I reeled it in it became tangled on my other lines and created a mess. We managed to net the fish and a ball of tangled leaders. It was a tench and we weighed it at 6lb. strangely when unhooking the fish now in the dark I realised my rig was not in its mouth but that of another fishermans was.

After scratching my head a few times I came to the conclusion that the leader it was dragging from a snap off had got tangled in my line. It created chaos but I managed to untangle the mess with my trusty head torch and the rods were cast back out. The second night also passed without a bite and although we tried every trick in the book it wasn't to be. It seemed as though the carp were in the Hardwick section of wind changed direction in towards us it didn't have much effect. We could see some fish moving at the far bank and so rods were cast long to where they were showing.
the lake and although the

The third and final night passed without a bite. My brothers middle rod let out a couple of screams at around 7am on the final morning. I was out the bivy before him and struck into a fish. It felt like a carp but I wasn't sure. After a strange battle and the fish being weeded up it through the hook and the last minute. My brother was gutted and so was I. We enjoyed our time at Linear despite the carp not putting in an appearance. We will be back next year.