Dave Coster's Fishing Diary - August

This entry was posted on 11th September, 2017

I was travelling to the Angling Direct HQ on the A15 towards Norwich when I happened to see the Tydd Gote sign, noting that the North Level Drain is only 50 minutes’ drive from my house. That was enough to wet my appetite. I waited until my fishing pal Andy Griffiths was in town, because I always think you get to know a new venue a lot more quickly if you attack it with a two-pronged approach.

When we eventually arrived at the drain, Andy decided he was going to fish a feeder with fishmeal groundbait and sweetcorn, while I opted for more conventional worm and caster tactics. It was blowing a gale, so quiver tipping seemed to be the best option for both of us.

It was quite a struggle the first couple of hours. I was getting “bitted out” with small perch, roach, bleak and skimmers, while Andy just sat there, looking like a garden gnome, waiting for something big to turn up. It was tricky going as the wind was picking up even more, pushing floating rafts of weed through our pegs.

I decided to change tack and set up a 5-metre whip, thinking that with so many small fish around this might be the way to go. Using a 1g pole float I could just about control the rig if I sank the line between the flick tip and float. I fed small balls of caster laced groundbait every put in, fishing double red maggots on the hook. It was suddenly a bite a chuck, but as I glanced to my right, I could see Andy’s feeder rod bent into something big and powerful. He wasn’t messing around with a 0.16mm hook length, but inexplicably the fish broke him as it dived into the nearside rushes. Not a bream I suspected.



I battled against the wind for the next couple of hours. It was hard work, sometimes getting the float working okay and catching a nice run of fish, while every now and then the drain began towing like a river, which slowed the action. All the same, I was starting to build a weight of roach, rudd, bleak, small skimmers, hybrids and perch, while by this stage Andy was three nil down to whatever kept trying to imbed his tackle in the rush beds either side of his platform. He was also experiencing major pike problems when he hooked any smaller fish.

I kept plugging away. Bleak and small rudd were a bit of a problem at times, but by setting my olivette closer to the hook, I managed to bypass these and caught a slightly better stamp of skimmers and some odd decent roach. I estimated my catch was now into double figures.

Finally, Andy managed to net one of the culprits that had been running rings round him, a proper lump of a tench.

Despite the tricky weather conditions, we both enjoyed the day. The Main Road stretch we fished has 35 comfortable fishing platforms and is very well kept by the Tydd Gote Angling Club. Day tickets are £5, while season membership only costs £18 for adults, or £12 for seniors and concessionary books.



I joined the club straight away when I saw the bailiff, after discovering there is no less than 10 miles of this interesting waterway to explore. I also found out there have been some very big bream catches recently, so I couldn’t wait to get back!

After my moan last month at not being able to fish the Grantham Canal due to weed problems, I did manage to wet a line for a couple of hours due to strong winds clearing a short, heavily overgrown stretch. Things didn’t start well though. I had just baited up and started getting a few bites when two dredgers ploughed through my swim. Double boated on a disused canal – that’s a first!

Anyway, after the canal settled from a dirty dishwater colour back to something approaching normal, I enjoyed a golden hour when the fish switched on. It was bright and sunny, so I fished a long pole tight to far bank cover, well into the shade. I had one decent canal bream, plus skimmers and a tench for around 10lbs.



I decided to try Priory Lakes at Ruskington next, which is a £6-day ticket venue, with two decent sized, well-established lakes. I opted for Lake One as there was a match in progress on Lake Two. One of the locals told me to try the early pegs, as he reckoned this was a consistently good area. Walking around the lake I was immediately impressed. Every swim is different, with many types of features to explore, including islands, lily beds, reeds, overhanging foliage, bays, points, plus lots more. Quite a challenge!

I picked a swim where there was a channel opposite, between two islands. The channel was covered with lilies, obviously a prime fish holding spot. Not knowing what to expect, I set up a standard insert waggler on a 13ft float rod, intending to fish tight to the mouth of the channel. I began feeding 4mm dampened feed pellets with a catapult, backed up with a few casters. On the hook I planned to switch between 4mm or 6mm hooker pellets and casters.

I quickly discovered that the place was heaving with small roach, rudd and skimmers, so I stopped feeding casters and switched to a bigger 6mm jelly pellet on the hook. This improved the fish size dramatically and I started connecting with better sized skimmers, along with carp ranging between 12ozs and 5lbs. Some better sized roach and rudd close to the pound mark also turned up. It was a bite a chuck.



Towards the end of the session I started to feed pellets more heavily to see what the response would be. I got smashed by a big carp in the lilies opposite and then caught a surprise 2lb chub! Yet another new venue I couldn’t wait to get back to!

When I fished Tydd Gote earlier in the month it was blowing a gale, so when I saw the weather forecast predicting light southerly winds I immediately planned a return visit. One thing I have quickly relearnt about fenland is it’s always a lot windier than anywhere else, so pick your day carefully!

Back on the Main Road Stretch, I had a quick look to see if I could catch any bream on the long pole but only managed one three pounder during the first part of the session, along with a few skimmers and sprats.



I might have picked a good weather day, but hadn’t reckoned for the downstream sluices to be in operation. I think they were running off a load of floating weed that had collected against them, which made the fishing tricky. Every 15 minutes the drain started running hard, then it would back up. This unsettled the fish on my long line so I dropped shorter. Groundbait soon activated the small fish, which in turn, when I hooked one, activated a pike! I got bitten off several times until the nuisance predator made a mistake, spitting out a skimmer, leaving my hook in its jaw. I played the pike for several minutes before it got upset and lunged off out of the swim.

After that disturbance, I had to start all over again, so I began feeding hemp to see if I could find a better stamp of fish than maggot or caster was bringing. It was a very bright, sunny day so I couldn’t envisage any more bream turning up.

It only took a few minutes with a lightly strung pole rig before I started getting bites on tares. The fish were a bit unsettled, but by plugging away with regular small helpings of hemp seed, I gradually started to put a reasonable catch of roach together. Most fish were between 4-8ozs, which at least salvaged something out of the trip.



For my last trip of the month, I returned to Priory Lakes to fish Lake Two with my mate Andy. We both fancied the look of this water, which has several interesting looking islands down its middle, plus many other feature pegs to explore. We could see carp cruising everywhere, many of these double figure fish. Andy set up a method feeder to target the carp, while I opted for the long pole because I wanted to find out what else the place holds.

I cupped in a few balls of groundbait, well laced with casters and 4mm pellets and was soon catching skimmers, roach, rudd and small carp. It was very bright and sunny, so I only occasionally loose fed a few pellets over the top to try and keep the swim producing. (I had quickly found if too many pellets were fed, the cruising carp would home in and scupper everything else in the swim).

After an hour, I cupped in another ball of groundbait and better sized bream arrived soon afterwards, fish up to 3lb. I began loose feeding casters short, to my right, and when I had a look over this line, I discovered it was alive with silver fish. For the next couple of hours, I switched between 7m and 13m pole lines catching all sorts of species regularly.

A couple of swims away, Andy was bagging some nice carp by fishing a method feeder tight to a big island. He also tried down the margin to his right, tight against a lily bed, and had a hard scrap with a decent carp, just managing to get the upper hand.



Towards the end of the session I started loose feeding heavily over my long pole line to have a crack at the carp. I already had a nice catch of bream and silver fish in my keepnet, which the owner kindly allowed me to use for a photograph. Using heavier hollow elastic and a stronger rig, I was soon having fun trying to tame some strong fighting carp. Hook these on the pole here and they rocket off on some pretty hair-raising runs!

I had earlier caught two carp on my bream rig, which was rigged up with solid number 6 elastic, which is not ideal for bigger carp as it took ages to land fish of 6 and 8lbs. Switching to a puller bung top kit with black hydro elastic was much better. It only took a few minutes to tame carp up to double figures with this set up, playing the fish into the landing net a lot faster once the top kit and puller system came into play.

August was a fish-packed month for me and I finished it off with three decent bags of fish in just one session at Priory. Double figures of roach, rudd and skimmers, double figures of bream, plus several decent sized carp and a load of new stockies. Top value for a £6-day ticket!