Darryn Stolworthy - Late Summer, Early Autumn

This entry was posted on 5th November, 2018

After I had finished with the tench in mid July I didn’t really do much apart from a couple of walks to look at the Wensum! How hot was it?! My first trip of the Autumn was supposed to be a two night trip, but I had to settle for just the Saturday night because of other commitments.

I arrived at the lake about an hour and a half before first light and began walking round. I still hadn’t had a bite from here so I didn’t have any areas to go on; because of its low stocks and size (90+ acres) it would’ve been a bonus to see anything.

I’d probably walked about a quarter of the way round, it was starting to get light and I’d been standing in this swim for about 10 minutes when I was sure I saw a fish roll, it was hard to tell with the light being so low and the amount of birds on the water. After another 10 minutes I’d definitely seen fish, both tench and more importantly bream. I was back in the swim with all my gear about 40 minutes later. By now it was well light and there were fish showing regularly at various distances out in front of me. It took me a while to get the rods out, everything was taken out with the bait boat, including the marker rod, because I wanted to keep the noise down to a minimum. I fished all the rods at about 80 yards and only put a couple of handfuls of bait on each rod.

Nothing happened that first day. I repositioned the rods just on dark, along with a little more bait. Nothing happened through the night but as it got light I could see there were still a good few fish showing around the area. At 6.30 one of the middle rods was away. After a brief fight it was in the net, a nice tench of 8.6. Although it was great to get my first bite it wasn’t really what I was after.



As the morning wore on I wandered into the next swim where Justin was fishing; he’d come over after I’d reported seeing fish over this side of the lake. I could see my spot quite easily from there when a huge fish rolled right on the spot.

Sat back in my swim, I'd just popped the kettle on when the right hand rod beeped once; about 30 seconds later it did it again. After 5th or 6th time the line went slack; somehow the bobbin had stuck and not dropped back, but I picked the rod up and was into something heavy on the other end. It kited to the right, nothing spectacular. As I guided it towards the net this huge bream appeared, no messing about from Justin and in the net it went. We left the fish there while we got the scales and camera ready. On the scales it went exactly 18lbs, new pb and what an immaculate fish it was. Justin took a few photos and I slipped it back. I sat back on the edge of my bed in what had just happened, and Justin said ‘what you doing’? Get the rod back out!' 10 minutes later the rod is back out and the kettle's on when the same one is away again! One toner this time. I thought it was another tench but after a couple of minute another bream was in the net at 12.13.



By midday I’d picked up another 2 bream, both at 17.2 and 16, Justin had stayed in the swim and witnessed everything - and drunk all my tea! At 1pm the same rod was away again, this was clearly a carp! I had to get the waders on as it was kiting to the left around a bush. I got it under control and Justin netted it first time. On the mat it was a lovely looking mirror in immaculate condition and at 34.10 a good size too.





I had another big bream about an hour later, which went 15.3. I didn’t want to go home but I had planned on doing stuff and slowly started packing up. It was about 3pm now and I just had the rods and net left to pack away when another big bream picked up the right had rod. I soon had it in the net, and it weighed in at 14.14.





What an amazing day, I’d never had a bite off the lake before, 8 bites and 8 fish, I don’t think I’ll ever be that lucky again.

I was off on holiday the following week but couldn’t wait to get back. Two weeks later I got back into the swim early and was pleased to see tench rolling in the area, I wondered if the bream were still hanging about there too.

It didn’t take long to get the rods out and I’d soon picked up a couple of tench, at 8.3 and 9.1. All the while I’d noticed small fish being chased about so in the end I flicked a lob worm in amongst them and after 20 minutes or so, after twitching it back, I hooked a decent perch, which put up a hell of a fight, and went to 4lb 4oz, another pb for me this season.



Things slowed down after that session. I returned to the lake whenever I could until the middle of October but although I managed to get on rolling fish I didn’t get another bite! Roll on the Spring.

I’m now getting into the winter fishing, mixing it up with pike, chub and, new to me, some roach fishing. Not done too much of this and looking to get my first 2lb fish. I'll let you know how it goes next time. Good luck all.