Catch Reports
Hat-trick of thirties!
Posted in Catch Reports on 14th April 2011Having only been able to get the rods out twice in 5 months I'm trying to make the most of April before another long break to concentrate on more important issues (is there anything more important than fishing?) so you can imagine how keen I was to get back to the lake.
Well put it this way - I'm glad i did! The session started slowly and I moved twice within 24-hours as the wind switched around. Would you believe it, they then started to spawn!! I've never known that in early April!! It wasn't 'full on' but a few eggs were dropped and I knew it wouldn't be long before they would move back in to mop them up, so out went the B5 and it wasn't long before the first fish slipped into the net - a stunning 31lb 2oz mirror.
The following morning resulted in another cracking fish, one I'd caught many years ago but had now grown to 31lb 4oz. I was now buzzing but then suddenly realised I'd almost run out of bait, yet still had another night or two available! I knew Lee was on his way down after rolling another arctic full of bait, but he then informed me it had all gone out to customers!! (I need to get my priorities in order!)
Anyway, I knew I had 3kg of Black Snail tucked away in my personal freezer as a back up and with the lake heaving with natural food (including snails!) I knew this would be a good choice, even though the B5 has been well established and extremely successful on the lake.
Lee arrived with the bait and for the last night I decided to put all my eggs in one basket and put all 3 kilos of 'The Snail' over the rod where I'd seen most activity, closely followed by my baited rig. During the night I had a few liners so I knew they were in or around the area and it wasn't long before that rod was away. After a good scrap another sizeable fish graced my net, a lovely deep mahogany coloured common of 32lb to complete the hat-trick. I'm going to miss this fishing lark you know!!!
B-lucky
Mike Willmott
Corker Pop-Ups
Cork dust pop-ups have a number of advantages over other pop-ups.
1) Made with identical ingredients/attractors to free offerings and send out the same food signals.
2) More durable and less prone to ‘theft’ from nuisance fish, crayfish and birdlife!
3) They can be pierced with a baiting needle without losing buoyancy.
4) Brilliant for ‘snowman’ presentations where you can trim down the corker pop up with scissor blades to achieve the perfect level of buoyancy required.
5) Ease of use.
Top tip for long term buoyancy
When fishing pop-up rigs in deep water for long periods of time or on waters where bird life can be a problem, drill out a cavity in the corker pop up with an 8mm drill bit then plug it with Gardner Tackle’s cylindrical high density rig foam (yellow). Then pierce the corker pop up on to your hook/rig, making sure the baiting needle goes up through the yellow foam first, then secure with boilie stop. I guarantee you that you can leave your pop up out there for 3-days if needed with no loss of buoyancy! Further to this, in the unlikely event that a diving coot or tufty unknowingly pinches your pop up, you are still fishing a nice visual yellow ‘fake’ bait.
