South Lake Substitute
A last-minute decision to visit the South Lake proved to be a good one for myself and my fishing partner, Lee, when we found out the water we had planned to fish was closed for a charity match. I had read a lot about the Yateley South Lake and had fancied giving it a go for a while. Tickets were booked at Yateley Angling and off we went on our maiden trip.
Arriving at the lake, first impressions were good. A pretty, mature little lake with many different parts. There was open water, little bays, islands, and lots of quiet nooks and crannies, so plenty of options depending on what sort of a mood the fish were in! Having seen little evidence of fish in the smaller bays and channels we decided to look for an open water spot to target to give us the best chance of covering fish. Luckily for us there was a chap just packing up in the Boss swim, peg 14, and the swim just down The Margins or peg 13 was also free. Both swims covered excellent pieces of water with islands and bars accessible and plenty of open water in-between.
We flipped a coin for swims and my friend won. He duly chose the Boss so that left me in peg 13, which was fine by me. We had opted for simple tactics as we nearly always do, so PVA bags of pellet with a single hook bait was the order of the day, and these were dispatched to our chosen spots, with me chasing bubblers at close range and my mate casting his baits as tight to the islands as he could get them where fish kept crashing out in the channel between the two.
A few hours passed and late afternoon was looming, when Lee had a take on his left- hand island rod, and from the start it was obvious that it was a reasonable fish as it fought slow and deep. At one point it wedged itself behind a large hump in front of the swim, but steady pressure brought it up over the top, where a few more anxious moments ensued as it made full use of the deep margins out in front. Finally, Lee netted his prize and a lovely scaly common around the 20lb mark sat quietly in the bottom of his net. The weight was 21.02 and the fish glistened in the late afternoon sun as I took the pictures for him. Not a bad start to our inaugural trip to the South Lake!
The night passed quietly with only the noise of the birds breaking the peace and quiet, and I woke early to a mist shrouded lake. The day promised to be warm and sunny again like the previous day, so as soon as I could, I moved my right-hand rod out on top of one of the shallow humps in front, as I had observed odd fish passing over it the day before. The hump was around four feet deep with around six feet off the side of it, a perfect interception point for catching fish cruising in the warm upper layers.
As I waited for so
mething to happen, Lee had another take, this time on his right- hand island spot and once again a slow powerful fight ensued. This fish behaved itself and just fought strong and deep in the margin. We could see that this one was a short dumpy mirror with big wide shoulders. Eventually I slipped the net under the fish for Lee and we looked down on the fish’s wide back, Another 20! This one weighed 23.10, and once again the fish behaved impeccably as it posed for it’s snapshot with Lee.
I was beginning to scratch my head a bit as to why I hadn’t had a fish yet, when suddenly my left-hand rod placed on the hump went tearing off! Gentle pressure had the fish moving out of the weed it had found on the take, and after a short fight I had a low double South Lake common in the net at last!
Shortly after that it was time to leave. We’d had a pleasant and successful last-minute trip to Yateley South Lake, a well kept, well run, no-nonsense venue, with some very nice fish to angle for. Simple tactics had scored and we went home very happy indeed!
Chris Silverthorne
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