Early Spring Roach & Bream Campaign

 

 15/03/14 - 16/03/14 -  After failing to temp a pike from Weir Wood Reservoir I have decided to concentrate on a new campaign for the next month until May when I will switch to one of my favourite species Tench. In between these long sessions I will still be taking a few days off after those pike but due to them spawning I will now be concentrating on my new challenge. My chosen lake is a 200 acre pit located in the south of England. The lake has a history of producing large roach to over 3lb and bream to over 16lb  so It holds the target fish however like most waters I fish it is extremely large and finding the fish can be difficult. The water also contains a good stocking of tench and many carp of various strains and sizes. I am sure that I will pick up some surprise fish during the month targeting the roach and bream so I am not sure what to expect. I am really excited about getting back on the lake for long sessions and fishing a great pit that has no closed season.

Due to the size of the water I decided to use a boat to gain access to the inaccessible swims dotted around the lake. Another advantage of using the boat was that it was ideal for accurately baiting large areas with a lot of bait . It was simply a case of rowing out until a feature on the echo sounder was identified (or in this instance no feature but a desired depth of 9ft), marking the area with a high visual H marker that stayed insitu for the duration of the session, baiting up the area from the boat with a mixture of particles and the casting to each side of the spot from the bank.

I had to be careful in selecting my rigs and bait due to the crayfish present in the water that apparently grow to the size of lobsters. I decided to use sweetcorn as bait and plastic pop up sweetcorn on the hook in conjunction with a semi stiff hair rig. The weather was that of the summer and peaked at highs of nineteen degrees which was lovely to fish in but not so great for the fishing itself.

Jamie and I (my fishing buddy) jumped on the boat and set off  to explore the water and the swims that lined the banks. Due to the heavy rain the water level is currently high and many swims were inaccessible however, we did mange to find a large swim offering a generous amount of water to fish to. At around 10pm my left hand rod let of a beep typical of a bream bite and I bent into a fish. It turned out to be a bream of around 4-5lb so not the target specimen but the first fish from this water so I was happy. The rest of the night passed uneventful for me but my mate Jamie managed a take on his middle road at 12am. The fished fought hard for ten minutes before the hook pulled when it tried to gain sanctuary in some sunken snags. It was obviously a carp and a big one at that, Jamie was gutted. I will be back to the lake for a long three night session after my weekend trip to the Kennett and Avon canal near bath. Until then tight lines.