Bank Holiday Bonanza... Michael Stewart

This entry was posted on 22nd April, 2014

Bank Holiday Bonanza... Michael Stewart

The last couple of sessions since the 29lb Mirror had been relatively quiet, with only two small doubles gracing my rods. Even though I’d been getting down at 1-2pm on a Friday, this wasn't giving me enough time to scope out the lakes and to choose a swim. I’d fished the last two sessions in the same area and the fish simply hadn’t been there, they weren’t moving around enough and I’d only managed to pick up the odd one.

The Easter bank holiday weekend had me pointing the carp wagon Cambs way, I’d planned a final three night session on the water and was hopeful of a fish or two.

I arrived around 2.30pm on Thursday to find six anglers already on the lake; this didn’t leave me many options as there were only real two swims free, luckily though, one of these was where I’d seen plenty of activity the previous week, so I didn’t hang around, I was straight in with the gear.

I quickly got the Chub Tri-Brid set up and then the rods, with some rather ominous looking clouds overhead and the threat of rain, I was ready and fishing in double quick time.

The first rod was positioned around two rod lengths out, baited with a grain of fake Maize, fished over a small PVA bag of frozen Corn. The middle rod was cast around 30 yards out, baited with a corkball pop-up, fished over half a kilo of Dynamite Baits White Chocolate & Coconut Boilies, the third and final rod was cast slightly to the right of the swim, baited with a 15mm White Chocolate & Coconut bottom bait, tipped with a 12mm Pink special, snowman style.

With the rods fishing and in position I popped the kettle on and enjoyed the first brew of the weekend, before I’d even had a chance to finish it, my left hand rod was away! A 16lb Fully Scaled Mirror was the result, remarkably a fish I’d caught at the same time, from the same swim, on the same bait, back in November!





Half hour later and the second fish of the session was on, this time falling to my right hand rod, after a fantastic scrap a lovely Mirror, a few ounces under 25lb was photographed and returned. What a start!

The night passed without a single bleep and at 10am the next morning I swapped the middle rod over to, what I like to call a Spice Girl Rig (Zig Rig) starting at 15ft, with the plan to slowly shorten it until I found where the fish were feeding. This was baited with a small piece of black foam and a sliver of one of my home made pop-ups.

After a few hours fishing I was down to a depth of 13ft and this is where I had my first zig action of the session, as a nice Mirror of around 18lb graced my landing net, shortly followed by another around 23lb.



I carried on fishing the Zigs for another few hours, before switching back to the deck, but it was to be unproductive as only a nuisance Catfish came my way.

My next action came around 10.30 on Saturday, with the Snowman Rod producing its first bite of the session, a Mirror around 21lb. This was followed an hour or so later by another twenty and a smaller fish around 15lb, before things went quiet. The rest of Saturday passed without incident and at dawn on Sunday I’d already started to think about heading home.



Packing up in between the rain showers, I bid farewell to the waters and reflected on what had been an enjoyable, productive session. By chopping and changing between zig rigs and bottom baits I’d been able to keep the fish guessing and I’d been able to carry on catching!

Now it’s time for me to return to ‘The Valley of the water pigs" for a couple of months before I make my return to Cambs and the ‘other lake’.



The Tackle Box Enterprise Tackle Fake Maize Fox Armapoint Hooks Size 8 ESP Soft Ghost Hooklink 12lb Korda Kurv Shank Hook Size 12 Drennan Double Strength 12lb