Beep beep beep beep, was the noise I awoke to at 4.00am Friday 2nd august, it was time, oh yes, time for our annual trip down south to Sandhurst Lake in Yately. It was an annual trip we did between 8 of us, we booked the lake for the weekend all to ourselves, the reason behind booking it was, it’s a 240 mile trip to the lake, so we didn’t want to get there and it be full or the pegs were the fish were held to be taken.
The van was loaded the night before, so a quick brew and off to pick up my companion for the trip down.
I got to Kit Kats house and we loaded the van like kids at Christmas, full of excitement & hope for the trip ahead.
The journey down was perfect, the only minor problem was Kit Kats choice of music on the way down, very different indeed.
We arrived at the lake for around 9:00am, ready to badger the current anglers on for info, but to our surprise the lake was empty, not a soul in sight. Perfect.
We wandered round each peg in search for signs of fish & we didn’t need to get far, the first peg ( Car Park ) certainly had fish in front of it, just to the left there was a couple of silky shows, mental note made.
We continued round the lake and to be honest most swims showed either odd fish or a number of fish in front, so choice of swim wasn’t going t be majorly difficult, especially with only 8 of us on with 20 odd pegs.
Swim choice was decided on a draw, I had 8 boilies in my pocket numbered 1 – 8, pick number 1 and you get first choice etc
So the draw was made and as I was holding the numbers I usually wait till the end & let the lads get going, well I was quite lucky this time as I drew number 3.
It’s always hard to pick early I think because you’re under a bit of pressure, but I opted for the car park swim.
Reason being the wind was pushing into that bank, I knew from previous trips the fish liked to hold up in the middle of the lake, especially this end of the lake & id seen fish in front.
This trip was also the first time I would be using my new bait, CC Moore’s Equinox, it smelt and tasted ( yes I do taste them ) divine plus with the CC Moore name behind them the trust in the bait would always be there.
I was loaded with 10kg in 18mm (Deter the bream hopefully) and had a plan that they might be up for a bit of bait.
I’d done a bit of homework on the lake & it seemed the fish had taken a bit of punishment on zigs, plus with them having a good spawn before our trip, I thought they’d be ready for some proper food.
Camp was set, rods ready to go, it was just a case of finding some areas to present the rigs and bait in. Sandhurst has become quite a weedy water, so with this in mind I decided to take the marker float off and just chuck a bare lead around in front of me until I found somewhere nice. It didn’t take to long to be honest, I found a large silty gully in front of the peg at around 60 – 70 yards range & once the line had been clipped up, the marker was put back on and I found it to be around 7ft deep. The spot was just big enough for 2 rods, Perfect.
So the plan was coming together, 2 rods in the silty gully over around 4kg of Equinox, rig wise I was using around 10″ Coated braid hook link, fished KD style, Hookbaits were going to be 18mm Equinox cork dust wafters, which had been glugged. I chose wafters because the silt felt fairly thick, I wasn’t getting a donk with a bare lead but I knew it was clear of weed, so the wafters would slowly drift down through the water column and settle nicely on the lake bed.
So that was 2 rods sorted, now for the 3rd, now id seen some fish to the left and a run through with a bare lead provided me with the information that is was weedy but not that weedy I couldn’t present maybe a solid bag into it, so out came the PVA Bags and some f the Natural stick mix from CC Moore, which contains water snails, GLM powder and 4mm Salmon micro pellets, the GLM and pellets when mixed up with the snails, takes the moisture away from the snails and makes the mix PVA friendly
So the bag went out first time and now we were fishing!!! Kettle on time to keep me eye on the lake.
So the watching and waiting continued all day and early evening, the bed was calling after an early start so off to bed it was.
The next thing I know is I am stood at the front of the swim, misty lake, sun rising with a Neville screaming at me.
The battle was on, straight away I knew the lead had gone, the fish was twisting and turning on the surface, to be honest it came in like a dog on a lead, straight into the net. Nice start 21.00 mirror, it had obviously liked the bait it was all over the mat. my arm and net.
Happy!! I waited till around 10.00am before I got another few kg in, things were looking good for another.
Half an hour after getting the bait in I was getting liners on the rods which were on the bait. 10 minutes later it was no liner, Neville in full screaming mode. Fish on.
This battle started in the weed, it stayed in the weed for a good 10mins, steady pressure, just holding the rod under tension, eventually got the fish moving, but on the way in it tried t find every weed bed possible, but steady pressure and steering we landed the fish safely.
24.08 of Sandhurst common, they were getting bigger.
Well straight after slipping the fish back, my thoughts were again in getting some more bait out, I had around 3kg of Equinox left, it’s all going in I thought, its sat late morning, 2 fish to the good, there on the bait, I’ll let them have it.
Well the day went by, the view was belting late evening, a brew and bed was calling!! I crawled into the bag slightly confident of another take, but it was Saturday night, home time tomorrow so if nothing happened at least id christened the new bait.
Now I reckon some of you will know where I am coming from here, why is it, when you just get comfy in your bag, the fish know. Because 5 minutes of near sleep turned into a madman trying to get out of his bag to sort out the rod on the bait which was screaming off again.
This battle was very like the first, came in with no real dramas, the lead had ejected and once again I was in total control.
The fish was netted and the routine of wetting the sling and requiring a photographer was in process.
Well this one weighed in at 25.08, another Sandhurst common.
I was now kicking myself, I really wanted to get some more bait in, but it was all GONE. I was convinced that they were clearing me out pretty quick after the bait had gone in! And my suspicions were correct, because 10.00am sun morning arrived and no more interest had happened (wish I’d taken 20kg now ) But 3 fish first time out with the new Equinox had me full of confidence and happy with my weekend.
Roll on next Session
