March 2011 - Final Push On The Car Park
As we entered the last month of the traditional season on The Car Park, I seriously had the bit between my teeth to capitalise on the capture I had had from Waiting Mans. I ended up doing one more session in that swim, but it just looked dead.
Now I had my eye on another area, a swim that I had done a lot of time on in the summer months. The area was The Bars Swim again. I just had a hunch that was where the fish were. My very next session sore me setting up in the Bars. After a bit of a flick around with the marker rod, I soon found a couple of areas that I was more than happy to fish. One of the areas in particular was an area very short in the swim. This area in the summer had been choked with weed and was punishable. But this spot that I had just found absolutely cracked down hard. After tying an Aquatix Anchovy cork ball pop-up on to a nice little short choddie. The rod was soon flicked out bang on the spot first time.
Now the first night went past pretty quite, in fact it looked dead. Not wanting to miss out on anything I was up nice and early on the Saturday morning scanning the water for any signs. I started to notice just a little bit of bubbling straight out in front of me, things were looking up.
As I sat there drinking tea after tea the phone rang. It was my old mate Colin Walford phoning me to see what was going on up at the CP. As I sat there chatting to Colin a stockie jumped clear of the water about 60 yards in front of me, I nearly fell off the bedchair. I told Colin what I had just seen and the confidence was starting to bubble inside me. Colin wished me luck and was expecting a phone call later on to say that I’ve had one. If only things were as easy as that, but this was the CP and the stockies are just as hard to catch as the 3 originals that are left swimming around the place.
Now a bite is a bite from the CP but you are there for one of them originals, and when you break the lake down that is one fish to every 3 acres. Not an easy task but the ultimate challenge and these fish have seen everything over the years.
Anyway the afternoon past away but I was still seeing bits and pieces going on in front of me. I settled down for the night and cooked a bit of food up. It was about 9 o’clock when an absolute chunk crashed out on the left hand rod which was on the short spot. Now in my eyes it could only be one fish Arfur, after all I was fishing in Arfur territory.
The ripples that came back to the swim was mental, I could hardly sleep that night buzzing on what had just happened. I couldn’t believe it when I awoke the next morning and nothing had happened. I wasn’t gutted as I was already planning my return for the following week.
As I started to pack up I fired about 50 Aquatix Anchovy boilies on the short spot where the fish had crashed out on. Now the right hand rod had gone down with a donk but the spot was a little bit choddie, so I decided to boat about half a tin of hemp out to get it a bit cleaner for next weeks session.
All week at work I kept thinking about the bars swim and hoping no one would go in there. When Friday finally came I couldn’t wait to get back at it up on the CP. As I pulled through the gates I was relieved to see no other cars in the Car park. I loaded and pushed my kit back round to the Bars Swim to get set up. I was shaking whilst trying to get setup, that sure I was of something going to happen. The left hand rod was flicked back to the same spot where I had seen the big-un jump.
I decided to flick the marker out on the right hand rod to see if it was any cleaner. When the marker hit the spot and I gave it a little pull I got a lovely rattle on the tip section, it had defiantly been fed on.
As I set up house for the weekend the old phone rang. It was my old mate Mr Nigel Sharp phoning for a chat, he asked me if I had spoken to Martin King, and my reply was no why is that? Apparently the 'Baby O' had shown on my right hand spot a couple of times in the week. I was starting to fall to pieces thinking this could be the chance I was waiting for.
Another fella turned up called Fred and opted to fish the End works, which I thought was a bit strange as it hadn’t been fished all year really due to the weed. The Friday night passed away again with not much happening, but like last week I wanted to be up early to watch the water for any signs. There was a little bit going on but nothing like the week before.
Saturday day soon turned into night and I started to get that feeling that I was running out of time again, bloody lake I started to think. When Sunday morning came I was totally gutted that nothing had happened. As I was sitting there having a brew I looked up and noticed Fred was in to one. I walked down to G and told him that Fred was in. It turned out to be a stockie around about 16lb, a very good bit of angling on Fred’s part I thought. No sooner had he put that one back when his other rod was away, what the bloody hell was going on here I thought? This was The Car Park this wasn’t meant to happen on here two takes in two minutes. It turned out to be another stockie of 23lb, but they all count. Fairplay to Fred that was his first bites in 4 years, and as I said a seriously good bit of angling.
Well my next session was going to be my last of the season. I got there late on the Thursday night as I wanted to spend the night just walking around to see if I could spot anything. The lake was quite busy as it was going to be the last weekend of the season.
The Bars was gone, The Dugout, The Chair and The Snags were all gone. I walked round and had a couple of beers with Sean and I must admit we had quite a laugh. It turned out to be 1 o’clock in the morning before I decided to set up in The Gate Swim.
It was now 3 o’clock in the morning when everything was set up, but I still couldn’t cast out. This is due to the Gate swim being very snaggy and you need daylight to get your rods into position. It was 5 o’clock when the light started to break and I had been up for twenty four hours now. I decided to do the tricky rod first, when that one was done, I casted the left hand rod to a spot in front of Waiting Mans.
Now the left hand rod was fishing up on the shelf under the bush and the swans could get to the hook bait quite easily. I had to come up with a plan and quick? I decided to get a load of branches and tie them together with nylon to form a grid, the next thing was to tie some camo netting to it. The end product looked like a massive weed bed floating over the spot which stopped the birds diving and gave the fish that feeling that they were feeding underneath a bush or something to give them a bit of cover. Even my mate Chris thought it looked the part and I must admit it did.
Now in The Gate you’ve got a set of snags in the corner where the fish love to get when its hot and it was certainly going to get warm. I went round and had a look in the snags and there was four fish sitting in there. One of them looked a real good’un and on closer inspection it turned out to be the 'Baby O'. It was sitting no more than 10 feet away from my hook bait, the old nerves was starting to get the better of me again. As I moved the floating raft to make sure everything was spot on, I could easily see my Tiger Nut with my little piece of ESP fake corn on to balance it all out. I had already made my mind up that I wasn’t going to move that rod for the two days unless I got a bite on it. There was no need to re cast it, as all I had to do was move the raft to make sure everything was as it should be.
All the lads came round to have a bit of a social in the spring sunshine and they drunk me out of house and home. Every now and again I would creep round to have a look in the snags and they looked right up for a capture. Just the way they were acting in the snags zig zagging the spot on the search for food.
I had even trailed some hemp from the snag right up to the hook bait, it all looked bang on. G had turned up and as we sat there chatting about the season that had nearly passed away again, and with the loss of Heather, Pearly, and my favourite The Dustbin.
By the time G left to get setup I had been awake for 37 hours, I was dead on my feet. I decided to crash out and have an early night, I was awoken about 7 o’clock to a take on the left hand rod which turned out to be a Tench. As I was now up I went and had a look in the snags and the Baby O was in there all on her own. I creped up to the raft to check that the rig was still all ok and everything was still as it was the day before.
It was now Saturday and I only had one night left. Nigel Sharp popped down with some fish and chips and I sat there and thought this is probably the closest I’m going to get to holding a fish. I took Nigel round to show him the floating raft and he was quite impressed with it, we both peered into the snags and she was still in there and Nigel reckoned that she could be up for a capture.
It was now Saturday night and yet again time was running out again. I got up nice and early on Sunday morning and I had another bite on the left hand rod, but this one was more fierce and it actually took the right hand rod out. I sore something flash pass me and I couldn’t believe it when a jack pike hit the surface. Two days I had left the snag rod and it had totally been wiped out, I was really p***ed off. The pike had bitten through one of my lines so I had to try and retrieve the rig, the whole swim looked totalled.
As I started to pack up totally gutted I swore on my revenge for next season. The thing with The Car Park is, it keeps kicking you in the teeth to the point that your nearly broken and that’s why you’ve got to love and respect the place.
Next month find out how we all got on up at CEMEX Blue Pool.
Cheers and tight lines...
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