Well, where to start? At the beginning, I suppose. The family visited Skegness Water Leisure Park last year - I think I popped a report on here - and I did fairly well with the resident carp whilst the others took in some sun, so a repeat was always on the cards and we loaded up the magic bus for a 5-night stay. Much needed after two months without wetting a line.
The lake is a rough keyhole shape with a long, narrow island towards one end and a larger round island at t'other. I fished opposite the long island in the narrower section, at the end of a reeded section of bank, with one bait in front of the reeds to the left and the other rod a few yards to the right in open water. This "bare bank" swim was to produce most of the fish in the end. It seemed a good time to test out the Youngs Ray Walton barbel rod I've mentioned previously, and boy, is it good!
I managed a few hours each evening and did reasonably well by my own standards. From my last visit, the pronounced step down from a foot to two feet or so in the margins (just a couple of feet from the bank) was a draw for the bigger fish and it was blowing a gale, so a quiet bit of margin fishing was just the thing. Bait was a two inch piece of spicy sausage impaled on a bait screw tied to a size 6 on a simple 6" hair rig made with 12lb Fox Soft Steel. A two ounce square lead semi-fixed by pushing it onto a silicone anti-tangle sleeve and a swan shot two feet behind it completed the rig, which was fished over a small bed of hemp/maize/pigeon conditioner topped-up after each fish. PVA tea bags of maggots provided added attraction around the hook bait.
Day One: We arrived late, as per usual, but I still had time for a couple of hours before dusk. The torrential rain had just stopped and there was a delicious smell in the air. It took an hour or so for the first fish to slip up to the right-hand rod, a mirror that took the scales to 19lb - a good start. Half an hour later and I was in again to the same rod. The fish was obviously heavy, but after plodding up and down for a couple of minutes it came meekly to net, waving its fins in protest. When I went to lift it out it was immediately obvious that after losing more "twenties" than I care to recall, this was the real thing - a short and deep fish with a deformed tail that went 24lb 8oz. The light was going by now so I reluctantly packed away, but there was always tomorrow...
Day Two: ....and I got a slightly earlier start, about 5pm. Fish came at intervals and around 7 o'clock the left hand rod went off, obviously a chunky fish...followed by the right-hand rod, mere seconds later
. The first fish was matted and covered with the net and the second was still there, so it joined it a couple of minutes later - another first. After 6 fish and feeling pleased with myself it was time for the off. Just as I went to pull in the right- hand rod it was away, and I was into another heavy fish. After another unspectacular plodding fight it slipped into the folds and by gum, it were another big 'un...24lb 8oz again and this one wasn't missing any body parts! Sorry about the picture quality, but it was near dark by now and I have no clue how to operate the flash on this phone.
Day Three: ....was a five fish session with the best around 19lb. Here's a couple of them.
Day four: ...another five fish evening, made remarkable by the roach/bream hybrid (rudd/bream, maybe?) - blind in one eye - that got itself outside of two inches of sausage and was fairly hooked in the mouth... greedy, slimy so-and-so!
Day Five:..and a storm of biblical proportions threatened to wash out the last session completely, but I managed a couple of hours at day's end. I'd retired the Fox Specialist net, which was looking worse for wear, replaced by the sturdy and reliable 30" Korum spoon. The fish made me wait until dusk was almost upon us before obliging. A chunky mirror of 19lb 6 oz that had me thinking it might scrape twenty, followed by the best scrap all week from a truly berzerk common that fought like it was twice the weight but was probably only 10 or 11lb, yet took a good ten minutes to bring to net. I lost a couple of fast-moving, muscular fish to hook pulls during the course of the week and I guess they were commons like this one. And that was that, until we go back in the Autumn...can't wait.
